With the large unemployed youth population in Nigeria, analysts have suggested on several occasions that one of the ways to combat this plaguing issue is to develop enabling environments and empower youths for the growth of startups and breakthrough businesses.
Seizing on this opportunity and an existing passion for transforming lives through technology, Emerging Platform Group -a technology solutions company created Ventures Platform (VP) – a world-class innovation hub for the tech community in Abuja. An incubation ground for young entrepreneurs, whichprovides them an enabling environment and mentorship from business experts and venture capitalists.
For young entrepreneurs, business incubation is a launch pad, which provides an enabling environment and mentorship from business experts and venture capitalists. The idea is to ensure that startups are driven through the challenges of business sustainability in the first few years.
At the core of VP’s value proposition is an intensive 16-week hybrid incubation program, a residence for need-basedcohorts and a paid co-working space for free-lance entrepreneurs and professionals on the go.Through the incubation and accelerator programs, events and training, Ventures Platform says it will identify, support and fund innovative ideas and enterprises in the e-agriculture, e-health care, Fintech, e-government, ICT and other technology inclined areas, bringing innovative ideas from concept to reality.
The company revealed that the incubation program offers accepted startups a unique mix of workspace, business strategy and capacity building, short term residency for accepted fellows and seed funding for innovative ideas.
“We believe this mix of complete support provides early stage startups the tools needed to survive, grow and thrive ultimately. In addition to programs and a rigorous curriculum, we provide seed funding for companies that show promise” says Kola Aina, Founder of Ventures Platform.
Aina explained that the platform is designed with a one-of-a-kind application process that provides value to all applicants whether or not they are accepted into the incubation program.
According to him, successful applicants at each stage are shortlisted and contacted to move on to the next stage, while unsuccessful applicants still gain valuable business knowledge. The selection committee has the final say on which cohorts go into the 16-week in“The first incubation cycle will take place from August to November 2016and will take place in Abuja, Nigeria. The selection committee will be madeup of experienced mentors that will be assigned to mentor the cohorts during their incubation period,” he said.
By 2020 ventures platform says it hopes to have incubated 160 start-ups, become one of the Top 5 technology companies’ generating combined annual revenues of $200 million, improve the Tech ecosystem inAbuja and Nigeria at large and leverage more partnerships and collaboration to build the ecosystem.
JUMOKE AKIYODE
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