Grace Ashiru
Norrsken is a startup established in 2016 to assist entrepreneurs in resolving the most pressing problems facing the world. Norrsken House, the Norrsken Founders Fund, a co-working space in Stockholm home to more than 350 entrepreneurs focused on social impact, and Norrsken Venture Capital are the three components that make up their ecosystem.
The Norrsken House, an entrepreneurial centre run by the foundation and located in Kigali, Rwanda, was officially opened for business in 2019 to accelerate investment plans in Central and East Africa.
In December of the previous year, the foundation welcomed its first group of 250 business owners, and it has plans to receive an additional 750. That same year the first Impact Accelerator welcomed 11 African startup companies as participants.
Impact Accelerator, located in Stockholm, Sweden, is a gathering place for business people and innovators from all over the world. This year’s accelerator has selected 20 startups from around the world, 9 of which are based in Africa: Motito, Sunfi, Emata, HealthDart, Umoja Labs, Power Financial Wellness, and Clafiya, Appload and Fixa while the other startups come from different parts of the world.
They chose them from a larger pool of applicants following a stringent evaluation process that looked at the startup’s potential to impact the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals significantly. Entry into the program is restricted to those businesses which can successfully demonstrate that impact is an essential aspect of their business design.
All startups accepted into the program will receive an upfront pre-seed or seed investment from the Norrsken Foundation to the tune of $125,000.The upfront comes with the acceptance into the program itself, which includes participation in an 8-week growth sprint in Stockholm also mentorship from a roster of more than 110 entrepreneurs, investors, and founders of unicorn companies.
The last group of startups chosen for the 2021 Impact Accelerator raised over $24 million in seed or pre-seed funding from investors such as Par Norberg of Nordic Capital, co-founder of Brilliant Minds AshPournori, Globivest, Norrsken Foundation, Kry co-founder Fredrik Jung-Abbou, Par Norberg of Nordic and Capital T.
The foundation announced a new tech growth fund with a total capitalization of US$200 million. This fund will invest in exceptional businesspeople establishing new tech giants in Africa.
