If you are an entrepreneur, being able to connect and collaborate with strategic partners – whether through investment or mentorship- makes it to the top 5 list of your overall business growth strategy. Today, business accelerators stand as a bridge between these entrepreneurs, investors and strategic partners. Having considered our position as “the bridge”, we recently organised a one-day stakeholder event dubbed The GAzelle Forum, that ran with theme, “creating a business runway to success”.Our primary objective was to facilitate conversations between our ventures on one side, and the investors, capital providers and strategic partners on the other side.

Burton and Bamber Founders, Ofelia Burton and Jonathan Bamber in a conversation with GrowthAfrica’s Investor Relations Lead, Andrew Gwadiva and our CEO and Founder Johnni Kjelsgaard

On this day, we adopted a flight theme with our team steering the day’s activities as captains and flight attendants with airline lingual and in-flight entertainment. Some of the industries and sectors represented by our “passengers” were banking, telecommunications, food & nutrition, micro-insurance, renewable energy and fashion among others. Characterised by curated pitches, feedback sessions and round table discussions dubbed conversation starter, the forum was a unique ecosystem event. The entrepreneur round-table discussions proved to be the highlight of the day with overall feedback that we not only maintain this but also ensure there is additional time for the sessions in the future.

The curated sessions also included a story board gallery exhibition of the entrepreneurs’ ventures providing an excellent platform for discussion about our ventures across the four countries among guests. To this end, the GAzelle Forum kicked off conversations that have continued post forum igniting the community building task of forming a diverse network of GrowthAfrica’s fraternity. We are actively following up and monitoring how many of the conversations started, will continue, and ultimately materialise into real-life benefits.

Round-table discussion sessions

In future, the GAzelle forum will be held in conjunction with the last GrowthLab during our Acceleration Programme and Grow-How Masterclass of the year. We extend much appreciation once again to everyone who participated and ensured the GAzelle was a success; your feedback on how we can take the GAzelle to greater heights is always welcome.

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