Written by Tom Jackson | From Disrupt Africa

The government-funded Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH) is in the process of implementing an Innovation Fund to provide seed funding to startups in the country, and has raised BWP12 million (US$1.25 million) so far.

The Botswanan government is the primary shareholder in BIH, though a number of its innovation programmes are donor-funded through strategic partnerships with international organisations.

BIH runs a number of programmes, including an incubator – the First Steps Venture Centre (FSVC) – and a co-working space – the Cyber City Kgotla Developer Community – but is set to begin funding startups in the third quarter of 2015, according to FSVC programme manager Tshepo Tsheko.

The Innovation Fund will provide seed and early-stage growth funding to qualifying businesses, ideas and concepts that come through the innovation support programmes, Tsheko told Disrupt Africa, adding it would initially be grant-based.

Read more at Disrupt Africa