Nigeria's Co-creation Hub (CcHub) , one of the continent's leading innovation centers, has joined forces with Google for Entrepreneurs to launch a tour with 15 African startups aimed at collectively raising funding to a tune of $22 Million.
This comes shortly after CcHub in partnership with Facebook launching its Diaspora challenge which aims at mobilizing the Diaspora community to build scalable business solutions to social challenges in Africa.
The tour, dubbed Pitch Drive, shall be in 5 European cities kicking off from London (AUGUST 14TH - 17TH), Amsterdam (AUGUST 18TH - 21ST), Berlin (AUGUST 22ND - 25TH), Zurich (AUGUST 26TH - 29TH) and finally Paris (AUGUST 30TH - SEPTEMBER 2ND).
While on the tour, startup founders are expected to interact with up-to 300 investors, meet and share experience with other pioneering start-up founders from across Africa as well as build a strong business network across Europe which will also give them an opportunity to learn from Europe’s frontier tech markets.
A couple of mentors have been put in place to guide them. The list includes iROKO's Founder, Jason Njoku, Sarah Drinkwater who's the Head of Campus at Google, Aniedi Udo-Obong (Developer Ecosystem Program Manager: Sub-Saharan Africa, Google), Saidah Nash Carter (SVP Innovation - Africa, Thomson Reuters) and Steven Newton the President of Illuminate Africa Group).
For one to qualify, they should be running a tech-startup based in Africa that has been legally registered with the ability to demonstrate a minimum of 12 months revenue-generating operations. They should also be able to demonstrate income generation of minimum $100,000 in those 12 months.
Lastly, the startup founders should be willing to contribute $3,000 towards the overall cost of the trip and the Founder/ CEO should be available for the tour from August 14th till September 2nd.
Google for Entrepreneurs has been pivotal in the establishment and survival of some of the most pronounced hubs in Africa. One of them is Uganda's Outbox Hub with the rest being ccHub in Lagos, Jozihub in Johannesburg, iHub in Nairobi and iSpaces in Accra.
Is this an opportunity your start is willing to take up? Then Apply here.