Six social business enterprises in East Africa will benefit from a capital injection of between $30,000 (Sh3.9 million) to $150,000 (Sh19.3 million) to scale their operations.
The investment will be directed to support ventures who are too early to qualify for venture capital or commercial funding, therefore, catalysing and de-risking them for future follow-on rounds of funding.
The funding is from Impacc gGmbH, a non-profit entity focusing to support social and sustainable enterprises in fragile markets in building local businesses with local resources.
According to the firm, selected enterprises will undergo rigorous due diligence for 6-12 months, to ensure they at least have the bare minimum for investment consideration.
Impacc CEO, Till Wahnbaeck, says Africa needs to create 25 million jobs per year to keep up with the growing population, and it is the continent’s great entrepreneurs and startup founders who can achieve that.
“ They have what it takes: ideas, courage, energy, and optimism. What they don’t have is access to patient capital and support to help them make their ideas big. That’s where Impacc comes in, we invest early in order to empower the next generation of stellar African entrepreneurs," said Wahnbaeck
Among the considerations before capital injection is a business model that can scale with a trickle-down effect, impacting the bottom of the pyramid.
Currently, Impacc is supporting five startups in Africa with a focus on green companies.
Aside from the investment, successful applicants will also receive technical support as their needs demand, from key industry experts and coaches to provide tailored support, access to the Impacc network to grow and scale their businesses, technical strategy options and business modeling to accelerate their growth and impact.
Since setting up operations at the onset of Covid-19, Impacc has supported startups in Africa by utilising its resources to build innovative entrepreneurs and ensuring jobs are created to improve the livelihoods of people living on less than $2 (Sh258) a day.
This phase will target entrepreneurs in Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.
