After the memorandum of understanding we signed with A-Venture at the BRICS summit last week, we embarked on our first project together, which was collaborating to host the GEC+Africa lead-up activity, where hundreds of start-ups applied to pitch to stand a chance to be featured at the grand finale in Cape Town, 2024.
The pitch took place at the private/public sector-owned accelerator in Algeria, seeing a dozen start-ups pitch to a panel of judges.
My colleague, Mahlatse Tolamo, 22 On Sloane’s head of stakeholder relations and Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) managing director, was in Algeria to participate in the pitch, while rubbing shoulders with various stakeholders in the ecosystem.
This was the third lead-up activity we have hosted, as we near the GEC+2024, scheduled to be held in Cape Town on March 13 and 14 , where they will compete with fellow rising African entrepreneurs as they pitch to showcase their innovations to global investors in a bid to win their share of a $100 000 (nearly R2 million) cash prize.
The GEC+Africa partnered with Google to facilitate the online boot camp for the selected start-ups, before their pitching. The boot camp session, which was led by the head of Startup Ecosystems in Africa at Google, Folarin Aiyegbusi, prepared and engaged the start-ups with motivating tips and pointers around maximising their business potential, perfecting personal branding, ensuring effective value proposition communication and pitching time management. The results were evident on pitch day, as all presentations captured the attention of the judges.
