Rural Enterprise Ecosystem Africa

About the Program

This research initiative, in partnership with the Small Foundation, will deepen our understanding of the support ecosystem for rural-impacting enterprises (RIEs), specifically, entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs) that work or seek to work with RIEs in sub-Saharan Africa.

This research initiative will inform stakeholders' interventions to achieve a thriving, commercially viable rural business ecosystem.

We are seeking to partner with locally-led ESOs from across sub-Saharan Africa.

Impacting the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem in Africa

Since 2009, we have supported 1,200+ early-stage entrepreneurs through our accelerators and invested in 100+ accelerator graduates, including rural impacting startups in sub-Saharan Africa.

Ecosystem building is core to our work in Africa. Our ESO Accelerators - accelerators for locally-led startup support organizations-  focus specifically on improving access to financial, social and human capital to improve opportunities for locally-led ESOs and the entrepreneurs they serve. To date, we’ve worked with over 60 locally-led African ESOs from over 25 African countries. Globally, we’ve worked with over 160 ESOs who have gone on to raise over $10M in funding for their organizations. 

Eligibility

We are seeking Entrepreneur Support Organisations (ESOs) that meet the following criteria:

• Legally registered ESO with operations in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)

• Applicants can have operations across other countries, however, preference will be given to those operating predominantly in SSA

• Entrant must fall into one of these supporter categories: accelerator or incubator, association or network of entrepreneurs, makerspace or fablab, SME business advisory firm, or other SME / entrepreneur training organization

• Organizations must currently be supporting entrepreneurs in the sub-Saharan Africa ecosystem through services or programs