Five Nigerian Startups will benefit from a fund provided by Netherlands Enterprise Agency following their breakthrough at the Orange Corners Innovation Pitch Competition.
The startups will go back to their businesses with €120,000 cumulative capital comprising a 75% grant and 25% loan.
The startup founders emerging winners from this competition include Oyewale Akintonde (founder of Agristi), Anita Dafeta (founder of Origho Lagos) and Israel Alabi, who founded Farmspeak Technology), Victoria Udoh (founder of Vudoh) and Tunder Adeyemi (Founder of D’Olivette Global Enterprise).
The pitch competition is an initiative of the Netherlands that was launched in Nigeria in 2019 and executed by FATE Foundation. The Orange Corners Incubation Programme claims to supports 20 entrepreneurs with enterprise development knowledge, mentoring, access to market, networking and funding every six months.
Investors King gathered that the programme has cumulatively supported over 100 entrepreneurs with funding valued over ₦250,000,000 for prototype development and testing.
The competition which was held in December saw participants assessed by an expert jury consisting of Investment Manager, Orange Corners Innovation Fund, Tolulope Owolabi; Head Commercial Controlling and Financial Planning, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc, Omitogun Olalekan and Business Development Manager, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ekundayo Adedoyin.
The event was also attended by Oge Nnaife who heads the StartUp and Youth Enterprise FATE Foundation.
Congratulating the emerged winners, Nnaife said: “You are pitching today to access funding to scale up your business, but you must remember that the knowledge received during the six-month Orange Corners Nigeria Incubation programme is invaluable. You must, therefore, ensure that you practicalise your learning as you journey on this road called entrepreneurship. Though the Nigerian business environment is harsh, porous and unfriendly, it is still evolving and we will continue to contribute to ongoing policy conversations to create an enabling environment so that your businesses can thrive and not be stifled. We have designed the Orange Corners Incubation Curriculum in such a practical and experiential way.”
Nigeria continues to be one of the top hubs for technology products targeted at solving everyday issues in Africa. The country alone is responsible for a large position of investment funds in the continent year-in-year-out. Founders are emerging all over the country with brilliant ideas that are tested to solve many issues in the country.
However, one thing that many of these founders lack is funding and investments opportunities and most importantly, little or no involvement by the Nigerian government to show interest or support to scale their ideas. Thankfully, a number of incubator and accelerator programmes have sprung up both locally and internationally to aid these founders not only bootstrap their products but also scale in the startup ecosystem.
