From Ventures Africa

After four years as a financial analyst for McKinsey&Co, Tendai Mashingaidze decided it was time to follow his calling – to take steps against poverty alleviation in his native Zimbabwe. With unemployment in Zimbabwe nearing 90 percent, Mashingaidze was convinced entrepreneurs and small businesses were the answer to the country’s troubles. He left McKinsey to set up a small business advisory and financing firm, Ubuntu Equity. Before long, he was asked to head up Zimbabwe’s Muzinda hub, and so he stepped into the world of start-up incubators.

Business incubators are popping up across Africa, particularly in the technology space as word spreads of the “Silicon Savannah”. Set to mirror — if not rival — Silicon Valley, Africa’s technology start-up ecosystem has become the new frontier for entrepreneurs and investors worldwide, with many flocking to the continent and setting up incubator hubs offering funding, business development assistance, or both.

Recent World Bank research places the number of these business and technology hubs across Africa at just over 90, but considering that many of these are privately owned and run, and not necessarily widely marketed, there are likely many more. Some counts have listed over 200.

With the incubator space relatively new in Africa and very little direction or consensus in the space, the hubs active on the continent vary in their approaches and in their aims. There are those pursuing a classical Silicon Valley-esque incubator model offering seed funding in return for an equity stake alongside a multiple month full-time accelerator programme. The investors behind these hubs are looking for “big ideas” and hoping to stage a land grab of the African market.

However, not everyone, including Mashingaidze, agrees with this approach, with some hubs focusing on skills training or job creation, such as Muzinda, while still others prefer simply to act as an open co-working space providing facilities, promoting collaboration, and creating an entrepreneurial “headquarters”.

Read more at Ventures Africa