Building a World-class African Fintech Accelerator
By Bunmi Akinyemiju
The accelerator arm of Greenhouse Capital (GHC), GreenHouse Lab, launched its flagship pan-African fintech accelerator program this week. With applications now open for ambitious founders driving solutions across Africa, this program represents one of the first-ever fintech-focused startup accelerator programs on the continent. It will be an 8-week mentorship and startup development program complete with interactive workshops, renowned speakers, deal days with global investors, and so much more. This program will be a major catalyst for fintech investing and venture capital in Africa, and is a further testament to GreenHouse’s vision of “founders backing founders.”
I founded Greenhouse alongside Kunmi Demuren with the shared vision of building an ecosystem optimized to scale and elevate African startups. We started with building our own ventures through our operational vehicle, Venture Garden Group, and then gradually vertically integrated across incubation and multi-stage investing. Having learned from our experience backing some of the most transformative companies on the continent, we believe we have formulated a successful model for supporting businesses to scale and it is now the best time to expand our impact through a world-class accelerator program that Africa is ready for.
Silicon Valley did not become the venture capital of the world by just clustering startups and investors in one location: a deliberate ecosystem of incubation and acceleration was necessary for it to thrive. Renowned names like Ycombinator, 500 Startups, and Techstars pioneered a model of supporting startups beyond just cutting checks. This model worked because, in addition to funding, a sustainable support network is critical to the development of early-stage tech businesses. These companies sometimes need to sacrifice profit at the formation stage and innovate in pursuit of breakneck future growth, and that model requires dedicated support from expert talent pools, corporates, and even policy and regulatory experts, in addition to patient research and development.
Looking at the African market, it is clear that there are unique challenges to startups when it comes to the regulatory environment, spending power, market sizes, operations, public perceptions, and more. Nonetheless, African is not without its own startup success stories: YCombinator itself has invested in over 56 African startups, and billions of dollars in funding flow into the ecosystem every year. African startups are competitively standing toe-to-toe with international counterparts. For example, Paystack was built in Lagos and became a major acquisition by Stripe in a $200 million deal; Nigeria’s Flutterwave and Uganda’s Chipper Cash recently joined a growing list of African unicorns.
We are proud to be a key part of this growing ecosystem ourselves: GreenHouse Capital has helped build and scale over 35 startups solving problems across diverse African markets like fintech, healthtech, logistics, and edtech. Our guiding principle has always been to transfer the knowledge and skills obtained from successfully building these startups to the next generation of founders at an early stage and in a structured and consistent manner. These efforts are complemented by our strong alumni base; that is why we say we are “founders backing founders.” Our goal is to harness the power of our community of local founders who have the capital, network, and clarity of hindsight to ease the path for future cohorts of builders. We want Greenhouse Labs to further this mission by helping to reverse the negative odds faced by African entrepreneurs and provide them with the safety nets needed to navigate our uniquely challenging environment.
Our vision has grown GHC into Africa’s largest fintech investment fund by portfolio size with a track record of excellence and some of the continent’s biggest VC success stories including Flutterwave and Max.ng. Today, GHC is the partner of choice for startups, investors, and corporations looking to tap into the booming African tech startup ecosystem. GreenHouseLab is also now becoming a force to reckon with in the startup accelerator space, having already worked with 10 companies since its first woman-focused program in 2018.
But we are just getting started: Africa’s growing demand for high-quality accelerators to serve its vibrant tech ecosystem presents both a challenge and an opportunity. From Lagos to Nairobi, and Cape Town to Egypt, each region has its emerging champions, unique market demands, and unique structural challenges. This accelerator is a crucial step forward in our journey to bring the best African and MENA startups to the world through venture building, incubation, acceleration, mergers, and exits. We seek to build on our existing track record of supporting groundbreaking startups that have crossed borders including Helium Health, Max, Wallets, Schoolable, and Dapi, to name a few.
Our role at GreenHouse Lab will be to mentor, advisor, guide, fund, and facilitate growth. This will be done in partnership with top tech leaders and companies that will be part of our Accelerator cohort. This spirit of inclusivity, inspiration, mutual respect, and innovation will define the program’s ethos. We invite you to spread the word about GreenHouse Lab’s Fintech Accelerator with your network and associates, apply, and contact us for more information and partnerships.
https://vc4a.com/greenhouse-capital/greenhouse-lab-fintech-accelerator-2021/
