In August, we told you about the recently launched ALN Ventures, which is the startup and investment arm of the Africa Leadership Network. ALN Ventures is currently accepting applications into its nine-month accelerator programme. They have however made a few tweaks.
In addition to the accelerator programme, ALN Ventures has begun to carry out what they describe as highly interactive “Build-a-thon” workshops across the continent. The first one took place in September in Johannesburg and had 23 entrepreneurs in attendance.
According to ALN Ventures, the core outcomes of the half-day event were refining business definitions for the entrepreneurs, enhancing their market research approach, and improving their investor relations skills.
The ALN Ventures team are bringing the same experience to Lagos in an event scheduled for the 25th of October, and have partnered with the Andela Institute to make it happen. To participate, interested entrepreneurs will need to register and wait for a phone interview after which attendance will be confirmed.
A particularly instructive development is that ALN Ventures have also updated their accelerator offering. Previously, there was no provision for cash in ALNV’s programme. That has changed. ALNV will now guarantee $20,000 to each startup that progress to the second stage of its accelerator programme. As detailed in the FAQ –
“In exchange for an expenses-paid 9-month accelerator program and seed capital of $20k, ALNV takes a 5% equity stake in your business. For those businesses that do not progress beyond Stage 1, ALNV retains only 2.5%. For all ventures that make it through to Stage 2, we work actively to get you additional financing in exchange for a small equity stake. Extra funding is performance based and equity sharing is contingent upon the entrepreneur’s success.”
Other benefits of the accelerator programme include mentorship and potential investment from African Leadership Network members, the strategy, finance and business-building skills of the ALNV team as well as supplier, customer and cohort support, media exposure and back-office support services.
To be eligible, intending ventures should have been operational less than two years, have received fewer than $250k in funding, and have at least one full-time founder.
Companies need not be technology ventures, the programme accepts canditates from all industries. Applications remain open through November 2014.
