Another inspiring Westerwelle Young Founders Conference has just been held from 10 to 14 April 2018 in Berlin, marking the beginning of a year-long programme for young entrepreneurs from emerging and developing countries. Among the 23 participants from 19 countries were 8 African entrepreneurs. They were selected from over 1500 applicants worldwide.
These talented young entrepreneurs show how diverse the African start-up scene is und how much potential exists. Among them is Nayrouz Talaat, the founder of Direxiona (http://direxiona.com), which is a driving school for women with only female driving instructors from Egypt, Brenda Katwesigye, the founder of Wazi Vision (http://wazivision.com), a startup providing people with affordable eye care using recycled plastic from Uganda and Olumide Ogunlana, the founder of Prepclass (https://prepclass.com.ng), an education consulting company from Nigeria that offers software and tutoring to prepare for tests.
As part of this year’s Westerwelle Young Founders Conference they met with Erick Yong, CEO of GreenTech Capital Partners, Mark Penkala, Investment Director Latin America of Mountain Partners and Robert Lacher, Founding Partner of La Famiglia VC, for an investor’s workshop to discuss fundraising opportunities and talk about how to attract investors.
Moreover, each participant was matched with a mentor – all experienced founders themselves such as Emanuel Pallua, CEO of Foodora – who will support the participant throughout the year as sparring partner and base of knowledge.
Visits to startups in Berlin and meetings with other German entrepreneurs provided the chance to get in contact with the German startup scene. Workshops held by local experts on topics such as pitching, growth and sales topped off the conferences’ programme.
Interested young entrepreneurs are encouraged to apply for the Westerwelle Young Founders Programme Autumn 2018 – starting with the Young Founders Conference in Berlin from 16 to 20 October. Applications are open until June 25, 10am CET. For more information see http://yfp.westerwelle-foundation.com/
Further information:
The African participants were:
Brenda Katwesigye, Uganda, CEO of Wazi Vision
Emma Dicks, South Africa, Co-Founder of CodeSpace
Kenneth Nelson, Ghana, CEO of QualiTrace
Nayrouz Talaat, Egypt, CEO of Direxiona
Ogunlana Olumide, Nigeria, Co-Founder of Prepclass
Samuel Bediako Waterberg, Ghana, CEO of People’s Pension Trust
Samia Haimoura, Germany/MoroccoCo-Founder and MD of Securella GmbH
Timothy Kotin, Ghana, CEO of SuperFluid Labs
For more information regarding the participants, please follow this link: https://goo.gl/nbyWKp
