Proparco ramps up support for African early-stage ventures
To meet the needs of entrepreneurs, particularly at the start of their ventures, the Choose Africa initiative will now offer African startups financing and assistance tailored to early-stage development. A total of €130 million will be deployed between now and 2025 in support of African digital startups through collaboration between Digital Africa and Proparco.
Inadequate access to financing is one of the largest obstacles to entrepreneurial success in Africa. Through the Choose Africa initiative, France’s AFD Group has been increasing its financing and support for Africa’s newly founded micro- and small businesses since 2018. Though the initiative has already been highly successful, Proparco wants to go further to meet entrepreneurs’ needs more effectively, particularly early-on as they move from the idea stage to the growth stage. With this new step forward, Choose Africa will be providing fledgling African small businesses a continuum of financing offers spanning all stages in their development:
– In the seed stage, Proparco will develop synergies with Digital Africa by providing the latter with enhanced capabilities, particularly for funding small-ticket ventures.
– In the subsequent stages, Proparco will continue to invest in startups to assist them as they scale up and grow their business.
A total of €130 million will be committed between 2022 and 2025 to support Africa’s digital startups – twice as much as the €65 million announced by President Macron in 2018 and already committed by the AFD Group.
“Proparco is expanding and enhancing its capacity to assist early-stage African startups. In doing so, we are continuing with our drive to support Africa’s small businesses, as President Emmanuel Macron called for in Ouagadougou. The synergies that will emerge from the tie-up between Proparco and Digital Africa will enable us to offer financing and assistance tailored to the various early stages for startups. Our collaboration will amplify the success of Choose Africa and its impact on job creation and economic development,” stated Grégory Clemente, the chief executive officer of Proparco.
“2020 saw the launch of Bridge by Digital Africa, a fund developed by Digital Africa and run by Proparco to help organisations in the digital economy to sustain their growth through the post-Covid economic downturn,” added Stéphan-Eloïse Gras, Digital Africa’s executive director. “The success of the programme led us to consider a closer partnership to assist innovative companies through their different development stages. By combining Proparco’s financial expertise with Digital Africa’s ability to source high-potential market solutions and nurture talent, we are creating a powerful tool for furthering digital innovation ‘made in Africa’.”
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