Nigerian Billionaire Commits $100M for African Entrepreneurs

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2014/12/01/nigerian-billionaire-tony-elumelu-commits-100-million-to-create-10000-african-entrepreneurs-in-10-years/

by nreece • 12 years ago

189 24 12 years ago

forbes.com

dmix• 12 years ago

When Chile did this with tech entrepreneurs instead of just giving it to local companies they paid for foreigner entrepreneurs to come there to stimulate the local startup scene.

I'm curious how effective that was? Anyone here part of that program? Was there ever a follow up by Startup chile on whether it was successful?

sushi• 12 years ago

The main purpose of Startup Chile was to put Chile on map as one of the tech hubs and it has been certainly successful in that.

The program in itself is not as involved in the success of the startup as other accelerators because it doesn't take any equity in your startup.

It certainly has managed to attract entrepreneurs but the success will be short-lived unless it can also attract investors which it hasn't been able to do so far.

frankdenbow• 12 years ago

I'm in the program now (demo day next week!). The goal of the program from StartupChile's perspective is to make Chile the technology hub for Latin America, which it seems to be succeeding in. The goal is not specifically to produce great startups (although it has been a good feeder for other accelerators, and a few have raised some VC).

The entrepreneurs that travel to Chile get equity free funding and have to help build the ecosystem (either through teaching, sharing their network, running events, etc). There are 3 classes of startups a year, 100 startups in each batch, so the network of smart people grows and more of that knowledge is shared with local Chilean entrepreneurs (and entrepreneurs from other parts of Latin America who will likely stay because of the economy/opportunities here).

If anyone has questions about the program, happy to talk more about it. I have had a great experience.

turnip19792• 12 years ago

If only Ontario/Canada did something like Startup Chile instead of burning money in the Mars building/project.

msvan• 12 years ago

There is a paper coming out soon from a Stanford researcher who has evaluated the success of Startup Chile. I don't know the details, but from what I heard the results have been very positive.

toddrew• 12 years ago

I went through Startup Chile last year. Each year the number of Chilean startups applying and being accepted is growing. I would say that's some level of success based on the goal of the accelerator.

kbar13• 12 years ago

odd that the contributor's "similar stories" are all about the same billionaire with the same headshots.

____a• 12 years ago

The title as it currently stands is oddly worded. I believe the "10,000" in "10,000 African Entrepreneurs in 10 Years" is both relevant and necessary for it to make sense.

jibolso2• 12 years ago

And as always, the main discussion has to digress to overstate how everybody in Nigeria is a Scammer, akin to say everybody in the United State is either a black thug or a white killing cop.

ZoF• 12 years ago

It was a single comment thread that was already highly downvoted/flagged by the time you commented.

stephenhuey• 12 years ago

2 of my friends--one is Nigerian and the other is not but grew up there--left great positions in other countries to go work for Tony Elumelu's foundation (they left the Rockefeller Foundation and a foundation in Boston). Both of them have always been passionate about seeing Nigeria progress and I was so happy for them a few years ago when they each got the opportunity to return there to work for such a promising foundation. I've seen the jokes in this page, and yes, even within Nigeria people laugh about all sorts of other hardships of daily life there as a way of coping with them, but Tony is one of many people I know of who are defying pessimism and truly making a difference. So many average citizens there already manage to pull off industrious plans despite roadblocks we don't have to deal with in countries like the USA, so with opportunities like this I'm hoping to see even more successes. With half the number of people of the USA and more than double the population of the next largest African country, Nigeria's next generation is well poised to take the world by surprise.

jibolso2• 12 years ago

This comment gladdens my heart. Tony Elumelu currently supports a local incubator in Lagos also @http://cchubnigeria.com. He knows his stuff and I hope this goes a long way to driving all the truly distinct ideas which are scalable and profitable.

sah2ed• 12 years ago

Just a wild guess, one of those friends is Dr Wiebe Boer who is now the CEO of Tony Elumelu's Foundation.

marknutter• 12 years ago

"Nigerian Billionaire Commits US100,000.000.00 to Create African Entrepreneurs"

downandout• 12 years ago

The article implies that this is a philanthropic venture, but one can only assume that he will be taking equity in the companies. This is a good thing either way (unless the terms are particularly predatory), but painting a knockoff of YC's model as philanthropy seems somewhat misleading to me.

"The African startups....will be awarded a non-returnable investment for further development of their business idea....TEEP startups will be continuously monitored on both a portfolio and individual basis as we evaluate the startups for follow-on funding and beyond. The qualifying startups that have progressed their business plans sufficiently will each qualify for a second stage seed capital investment of $5,000 that will be provided as returnable capital."

Looks like a micro-YC to me. As I said, making any capital available to startups on reasonable terms is generally a good thing, but it's not exactly philanthropic. I'm sure the thinking is that if he gets 1 hit out of the 10,000 companies he wants in the program, he gets a significant ROI.

knappador• 12 years ago

It's about putting money into hands of people actually doing things instead of owning or controlling things. This process itself makes money. It's taking advantage of a market imbalance. This is how you disrupt. You can be a VC and incidentally a philanthropist at the same time, solving actual, real hard problems etc.

Is it philanthropy or not? Compared to consolidating your capital, businesses, power etc, a process which completely sells the rest of your society and humanity short and is ultimately mere rent-seeking, investing in entrepreneurs is at the least incidentally philanthropic and without question in a productive spirit.

Should we be giving this guy a platform for making a baller move? I would bet a lot of investors if asked, "Why not Africa?" are 1) not comfortable investing in Africa for legitimate reasons such as complete unfamiliarity 2) believing that the differences in the markets and governance situation creates solely challenges instead of opportunities that other scalable products in the world are not addressing. Every billionaire should have a role model for being a baller and investing in tons of entrepreneurs and letting the forces of extreme risk-taking take over, make a few unicorns, and ultimately make money so that they won't be too scared to do anything except monopolize the phone company or some useless crap.

I hope it works. This guy is the right person at the right time to try something big, and ten years is enough time to get the formula right.

Indian2345• 12 years ago

Those who make jokes, think.

Americans hate immigrants since they take their jobs.

At the same time, if the poor countries becomes independent its a problem for power struggle.

What can be the ideal solution for this ?.

I am an engineer and really want to do whatever possible from my side to resolve this conflict. Any suggestions?

mortdeus• 12 years ago

This is the best way to help Africa's people. Moreso than providing charitable donations of free food and clean water; helping to empower this continent's people so they can provide for themselves is the best possible way to improve the lives of the African people. No self respecting human adult wants to be "taken care of". They want to earn their keep. They just need the opportunity to pursue something worth earning. This is the kind of philanthropy they deserve.

asmicom• 12 years ago

I just read pretty much all the comments. I don't understand why some people think so negative about Nigeria even when some Nigerian philanthropists wanted to contribute to the nation, needless to say the African continent.

There are other philanthropists around the globe, who have made similar contributions. Yet, the antagonists won't make negative comments about them or their nations. Any example is Mark Shuttleworth (who owns the Shuttleworth Foundation). I am not sure such people know how many brains in Africa (& the other continents) he has supported.

We must also be proud of The Tony Elumelu Foundation. More power to your elbow Tony!!

bernardlunn• 12 years ago

I am so happy to see the negative comments down voted and the positive ones float to the top. I see HN as a positive but realistic and analytical community that eschews the knee jerk reaction comments so common across the web.

gregpilling• 12 years ago

I ran into some Nigerians in China last year at the Canton Fair. We were in a little portable building on display, having a laugh. I mentioned that a Nigerian Prince had some money for me, and asked if I should give them the fee to pass along? A huge laugh followed, those guys were fun to chat with. Despite the (false) image of Nigeria as scammers only, talking with them and others it was apparent to me that the rest of the world is busy getting themselves to middle class - a flat screen tv in every house, a smartphone in every pocket. Those Nigerians I met were there to spend some real money, and they told me that they had been coming to the Canton Fair for years.

An interesting aside is that the Canton Fair was filled with people from every country and continent (but with noticeably very few Americans, or native English speakers). It looked like the whole world was shopping there, and the Canton fair seemed to have a sample of everything that ever came out a factory.

bob917• 12 years ago

Some of my best friends are Nigerian.

Nigerian Billionaire Commits $100M for African Entrepreneurs

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