Founders Factory, a UK corporate-backed accelerator, expands to Africa

Founders Factory, a UK-based corporate-backed accelerator announced that it has expanded to Africa. The accelerator's continental office is in Johannesburg, South Africa.

"We are proud to announce the launch of our first international location for Founders Factory," wrote Henry Lane Fox Co-Founder and CEO.

The accelerator has already secured the first corporate partner. The goal is to help them "build and scale a further 100 technology start-ups".

Henry wrote; "We have brought on board Standard Bank, sub-Saharan Africa’s largest bank, as our cornerstone investor."

They will also be looking for more pan-African corporates. The goal will be to address the "huge logistical and infrastructure issues which make Africa a tricky place to scale in".

Roo Rogers, Co-Founder & CEO, Founders Factory Africa, told TechCrunch; "You need existing incumbents here to partner with. But this is not going to be a top-down approach, we will build locally with local teams and local partners in every case.”

Started by Brent Hoberman and Henry Lane Fox, Founders Factory has received investment from several corporate partners. These include; Marks & Spencer, L’Oreal, easyJet, Guardian Media Group, Aviva, Holtzbrinck and CSC.

Founders Factory runs both an incubator and accelerator. The incubator is aimed at helping founders start businesses. Founders Factory receives a minority stake in each startup. That is in exchange for IP, £150,000 seed round and 12 months of operational support.

"Our incubator is a fast-track for talented people to become Founders," writes Founders Factory. "We validate new ideas, leverage data, distribution and IP from our partners, then build founding teams to develop 13 startups each year."

Founders Factory takes 4-8% equity in startups that take part in their accelerator. In exchange, they offer the startup £30,000 of cash, VC and Angel network, 6 months of support and more.

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