GetFundedAfrica Partners with Microsoft to Provide Access to Funds to Support African Start-ups

GetFundedAfrica, a platform leveraging media and technology to support African start-ups and SMEs find funding, announced its recent partnership with Microsoft to advance its mission of enabling African start-ups.

For more details, please visit: https://getfundedafrica.com

This latest collaboration will see GetFundedAfrica participating in Microsoft’s African Accelerator Program, specifically designed to support African start-ups through initiatives such as access to skill development, mentorship, technical product assistance and fundraising operations.

Microsoft plans to support 10,000 African start- ups in the next five years through partnerships with accelerators and incubators across the continent, and increase funding access for startups in Africa through partnerships with VC investors. Its recently established Africa Transformation Office (ATO), responsible for driving Microsoft’s strategic initiatives in the continent through partnership with public and private organizations, will implement these actions.

“Our goal in establishing these partnerships is to extend the network of potential partnerships between Microsoft, venture capital investors and start-ups, thereby increasing access to the funding made available to eligible startups,” said Gerald Maithya, ATO start-ups and SMEs lead.

Microsoft’s Start-ups Founders Hub is a self-service hub that provides start-ups with different resources as well as access to mentors, all of which will now become available to African start-ups. In addition, the Founders Hub provides opportunities to co-sell to Microsoft’s corporate and enterprise customers.

In the last three years, African start-ups have enjoyed significant funding investments to boost their operations and expansion plans. Microsoft’s schemes to support them will, no doubt, positively impact on the start-up ecosystem in Africa.

This latest announcement aligns with GetFundedAfrica’s commitment to enabling African start-up founders to access funding through venture capitals, angel investors or syndicates. It recently held a successful, inaugural, virtual investor’s forum where founders and investors alike engaged in lively discussions on a range of topics affecting the continent’s start-up ecosystem. In addition, GFA offers various products to start-ups to boost their ventures. They include advertising, events and fundraising products priced for as little as $30 to $300 monthly.

RELATED POST: GetFundedAfrica Launches Founder Fundraising Program

Debo Omololu, CEO & Co-founder, said: “Our partnership is very important to our role as enablers of the African start-up ecosystem. We are humbled that Microsoft has selected GetFundedAfrica to help grow it and we look forward to many more productive partnerships.”

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. For more information, news and insights from Microsoft, please visit Microsoft’s News Centre Middle East & Africa.

The opportunity in Africa is immense, but there is a pressing need to adopt digital platforms to accelerate Africa’s economic growth and better enable Africans to participate in the global digital economy. Through the Africa Transformation Office, Microsoft focuses on four essential development areas – digital infrastructure, skilling, SMEs and startups, supported by strategic partnerships with industry alliances and coalitions, to fuel investment in Africa and further establish the continent’s export of digital services.