Every Nigeria startup business faces one of the challenging aspects of setting up a startup business in Nigeria which is raising fundings. There are several amazing business opportunities in Nigeria but much of these opportunities cannot even get off the ground without capital this is why many businesses do not attain their goals early enough in their life cycle.
In order to make many Nigeria startup businesses run successfully, many companies have invested much of their revenue into several Nigerian startup businesses, granting seed-funding and startup capital to entrepreneurs looking to kick off their business.
Moreover, majority of these companies are indigenous, while several others are run by foreigners who are looking to make the world a better place by investing in startup ideas that make life better and easier for Nigerians and Africa in general.
Here are five companies that help Nigerian startup businesses get capital to fund their businesses and operate their startups.
Contents
Tony Elumelu Foundation
The Tony Elumelu Foundation, founded by Chief Executive Officer and Founder of United Bank for Africa (UBA) is one of the indigenous companies funding startup ideas in Nigeria. Every year, TEF grants seed-funding worth $5000 to entrepreneurs within Nigeria and Africa to enable them to launch their innovative ideas and startup their businesses.
Application for the TEF Fund usually commences by the first week of every year and spans across a number of days, after which the foundation’s specially picked team reviews all applications and picks the most promising ventures to fund.
The fund expects that over a ten-year period, the 10,000 startups that would be selected for the funding will create one million new jobs and about $10 billion in revenues across Africa.
Related Post: 6 Reasons Why Nigeria is good for Business
Innovation Prize for Africa
Provided by the Africa Innovation Foundation to inventors and innovators seeking to unleash breakthrough ideas and solutions into the African communities, the Innovation Prize for Africa is a highly coveted seed-funding opportunity for Africans – including Nigerians.
Every year, 10 nominees are selected through an airtight process which is supervised and managed by an expert panel of judges. From this 10, the top three innovations in any of agriculture or agribusiness, health, and wellbeing, ICTs, manufacturing, and services are selected to share the prize of $150,000, receiving $5000 each.
Seedstars
This Swiss-based venture builder organizes the annual Seedstars World competition that invites winners from each country to participate in the finals at the Seedstars Global Summit in Switzerland to compete for up to $500,000 in equity investment.
In 2014, Seedstars invested about $330,000 in SimplePay, a Nigerian startup operating a third-party payment processing company.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Founded by Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Chan Zuckerberg, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has invested millions of dollars in several African startups, including Andela which trains African engineers and programmer and which has its office in Lagos, Nigeria.
Investment AB Kinnevik
Founded in 1936 and based in Sweden, Investment AB Kinnevik is one of the largest listed investment companies in Europe with total assets of about $7 billion. Over the years, the firm has invested in several African and Nigerian businesses including Jumia and Konga which are inherently virtual marketplaces based in Nigeria.
