African start-ups get US$1 million boost from Jack Ma’s Netpreneur Prize
- First grants awarded from Alibaba founder’s US$10 million decade-long fund to identify Africa’s most promising young entrepreneurs
- ‘Africa today is like China 20 years ago. Because we had nothing. That is the opportunity’
Ten young African entrepreneurs have shared US$1 million worth of grants, in the first payout from Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma’s decade-long investment in the region’s start-ups.
Top honour, worth US$250,000, in the Africa Netpreneur Prize went to Temie Giwa-Tubosun, founder and CEO of LifeBank Nigeria, a health care technology and logistics company based in Lagos. Second and third prizewinners took home US$150,000 and US$100,000 respectively, while the remaining seven entrepreneurs each received US$65,000 in grants.
Ma set up a US$10 million prize fund in 2018 with a pledge to build a community of 100 young African entrepreneurs over a decade, with 10 “business heroes” chosen each year, as part of his effort to identify start-ups in the region with the potential to become the next Alibaba or Google.
On Saturday, he was in Ghana to present the awards in a packed hall at the Accra International Conference Centre. Also present were Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo and former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.
It was Ma’s fourth visit to Africa and each time, he said, the most impressive people he met were young entrepreneurs, whom he called the future hope for their economies.
“I love their smiles, from their faces you see energy and confidence for the future. Young people are the hope of Africa. That’s why we decided to start this Netpreneur Prize award,” he said. “Entrepreneurs always challenge things that other people don’t believe will work.”