Savannah Fund Offers Support to African Entrepreneurs

Image Source: Savannah Fund

Savannah Fund is a seed capital fund specializing in US$25,000-US$500,000 investments in early stage high growth technology (web and mobile) startups in sub-Saharan Africa. Initially focused on East Africa, the fund aims to bridge the early stage/angel and venture capital investment gap that currently exists in Africa. The Fund expects to achieve this objective by combining capital with mentor networks both in the region and from  Silicon Valley via an accelerator program  and a follow-on independent seed fund.

A key piece of the Fund’s overall strategy is to address skills and experience gap of entrepreneurs in the region through the Accelerator Program. The accelerator program is designed to help emerging entrepreneurs build a company and launch a product. Early-stage companies participate in “cohorts” and be exposed to a program to learn from experienced local and high value and reputable mentors that have built global technology brands that are also very hands on as would be expected by angel investors.

The Fund’s Accelerator Program will deploy between $25,000 to $30,000 to each company in exchange for 12% equity stake to a cohort of up to 5 startups at a time for 3 months.

As part of the investment there will be a $2,500 Program fee that comes out of the investment to cover expenses including legal and office space; making net funding $22,500 – 27,500 after expenses.

To learn more about Savannah Fund, go here