Over $10m raised through StartupSouth ecosystem for new businesses

StartupSouth says it has raised over $10m in the ecosystem for new businesses since its takeoff 10 years ago.

Ways of boosting funding for startups would feature in the 10th year conference which begins early October, next month.

This was disclosed by Uche Aniche, convener of the conference series, who is the CEO of StartupSouth Enterprise Development Ltd/GTE. The firm is said to be a leading ecosystem development and advocacy organization committed to growing the digital and creative economy across Nigeria’s emerging commercial cities.

Briefing the press Monday evening, Aniche said undergraduates seemed to be some of the aggressive tech enthusiasts who have formed some of most thriving firms that have attracted funding.
He said a particular team has raised over $3m as funds to support their product and that Google is even an investor in one of them. “Shell, now Renaissance Africa, is investing in one other, through All On. That group has raised over $650,000 so far.”

He said another team created a product called ‘Sitemap’ which he said is making waves too, now participating in the Silicon Valley. “Their product is powering some housing schemes in Nigeria including partnering with the Lagos State government as well as a federal housing scheme. They too have raised over $400,000 as funds.

“Over $10m has been raised through our ecosystem. We have invested over $500,000 in startups.”

Admitting that 90% of the early Startups in the StartupSouth group left Port Harcourt, he said new strategies have been created to make new ones that intentionally want to stay and grow.

He also said StartupSouth had a strong voice that led to the 2022 Nigerian Startup Act signed by the former president. The Nigeria Startup Act 2022 is indicated as providing “incentives, structures and programmes for Nigerian startups to catalyse growth, create value and build a foundation to export tech-enabled services.
“The Act also creates the National Council for Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship whose primary mandate is to align national policies for the development of startups and establish programmes to support tech-enabled startups in Nigeria.”

The convener said the group was working to get states to domesticate the law including Rivers State.

On Rivers economic climate on StartupSouth, he said Startups are rather meant to be a solution to adverse economic climates. Startups see it as stepping stone because it is about creating solutions to the problems of the people. “That is why m-pesa founded in 2007 in Kenya is now global. It came to solve the problem of transferring and receiving money via mobile phones and to make such services available to those who do not have banking services and bank accounts. It came to promote financial and banking inclusivity and to help move money about and pay bills and have access to loans even by the unbanked.

“Some Nigerian fintech solutions are going global, too”, he said.

On the rating of Port Harcourt in the scheme of startups, he said Port Harcourt is in the top five in the ecosystem rating. “A lot is happening now other than politics. Port Harcourt is 4 and Enugu is 5.

“There is need for professionals in the region to see what can be done and how the press can help change the narrative from the bad things from politics to the positive things being done in the startup and entrepreneurship ecosystem.”
Aniche said: “Over the past decade, we have partnered with global brands including Google, Meta, The Ford Foundation, MainOne, Sterling Bank, Zoho, and the Bank of Industry, supporting thousands of startup founders to raise over $10 million in funding, including $500,000 directly invested through our South-South-East Angel.”

In an overview, the CEO said he has covered 11 states so far, saying 100 speakers have been lined up for the 60 sessions, and that over 100 state officials were expected, whereas over 5000 attendees would be seated and about 20m people were to be reached.

Chioma Ezenwafor, the media coordinator, explained that the upcoming 10th annual conference is very important to the organization. “That is why we call it StartupSouth-X. It brings the ecosystem together: the founders, creatives, funders, etc. It will be a homecoming for some of the owners who are scattered around the globe.”

The famous Abuja drone makers are said to be some of the early owners that sprang up from StartupSouth.