Stories

1MillionStartups East Africa Chapter spreading wings

Under the leadership of our curator Margaret Mutheu Kimanthi, 1MillionStartups East Africa Chapter started their activities with ELEVATE - investment ready program

11.05.2018.

We are proud to see 1MillionStartups growing into something bigger each day. The same goes with launching the 1MillionStartups East Africa Chapter, led by our curator Margaret Mutheu Kimanthi. One of the recent activity is ELEVATE program designed especially for startups in the region. Read more about it:

1MillionStartups East Africa Chapter in a joint venture initiative with SME support centre launched the first cohort of a one of its kind 3 modular paced investment readiness program called ELEVATE at Strathmore business school.

This is an intense mind set shifting program that targets entrepreneurs looking to attract the right capital for their businesses by helping them see their businesses through the lens of an investor while helping them build their own solid investment cases. It is also suited for those not looking for capital too by helping them identify key GAPs they may not be addressing with an elaborate action and implementation plan.

This program is coupled with personalized support from content experts and mentors from the same sector the entrepreneurs come from for added value. The lead trainer is Linda Onyango, CEO of SME support center and East Africa Associate partner of MN Capital. She is an experienced financial deal maker who has worked with Startups, SMEs and large established enterprises in her roles at Energy for Impact which was a World Bank program and at KPMG and PWC.

The 7 participants in the first cohort are from Nairobi, Kisumu, NaroMoru, Molo and Nakuru and are in agribusiness, renewable energy, e-commerce, media and construction sectors. The first module was an interactive classroom session with case studies on real businesses courtesy of Strathmore business school and refining of each of the startups's business model after learning how to effectively structure one using our canvas model. It was an intense session whereby 2 startups had to completely change their business models so as to achieve scale and impact. Their feedback was amazing with all startups expressing gratitude for having being part of this eye-opening experience to see their businesses in a way they never thought they would and aiming higher than they were before. All of them had key takeout’s to practically apply in their businesses as part of their implementation plan which is tracked.  

The Next module will be on 25th May which will be a mentor working session. The last module will be on 26th to 28th June whereby investors will be present on the last day as startups pitch their investment cases. There will be another cohort for SMEs in July in a different county. This program is one of its kind in this market that is so practical, paced and guaranteed to change the trajectory of any business.

Report written by Margaret Mutheu Kimanthi, 1MillionStartups East Africa Chapter. Follow the future work on Facebook - 1MillionStartups East Africa Chapter.