Venture Studio
We are west Africa’s first gender lens Venture studio programme. We equip, nurture and fund entrepreneurs who are building climate adaptation and mitigation solutions across West Africa for a true just transition.
Our Approach
Through hands on mentorship and equity investment, our programmatic and technical support enables African founders to design, build and scale their impactful ventures.
INVESTMENT CAPITAL TO THE UNDERSERVED
Enabling the missing middle to gain investment support to fuel growth
HANDS ON AND TAILORED BUSINESS SUPPORT
Providing tailored programmatic support to up-skill, connect and enable entrepreneurs
DRIVING JUST TRANSITION THROUGH INNOVATION
We explicitly work with entrepreneurs driving outweighed social and environmental impact
The Venture Studio Programme
A 9 month programme of hands-on support powered by Startup Discovery School bringing you access to leading software tools and tailored mentorship across technical, commercial and impact to execute your strategic roadmap. The programme will amplify ventures and support with access to customers, partners and a global investor network.
The programme works across four key areas to help you grow and scale:
Access leading design and engineering tools and expert support
Plan, navigate and execute across your commercial milestones
Pathways to access capital to unlock the next step of your scaling journey.
Manage, measure and communicate the impact your businesses is driving
Our Partners and Ecosystem
TECH & INNOVATION PARTNER
AutoDesk Foundation provides nonprofits and startups with catalytic capital to scale solutions that transform industries to be more sustainable, equitable, and resilient.
Their support allows us to bring world class software and tools to entrepreneurs at the earliest stages to build excellent products.
Throughout the programme, ventures will have access to Autodesk tools and technical experts to support them to build and scale.
INVESTMENT & IMPACT PARTNER
Sahara Impact Ventures is a gender lens venture capital fund that invests in pre-series A businesses in Africa tackling the climate change emergency and wider inequality.
Their support allows the studio to deploy capital into our cohorts and drive impact into rural communities and MSMEs.
Sahara Impact Ventures will play a critical role in providing the catalytic funding support required for ventures to grow and scale.
Timeline
September 2024
Venture Studio announced at the Climate Champion Competition
October 2024
Applications open, reviewed on a rolling basis
November 2024
Shortlisted candidates invited for interviews
December 2024
Venture Studio onboarding begins
January 2025
Venture Studio Programme Official Launch