By Alex C
Nigeria’s leading social innovation centre Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB) is set to boost its incubation program with the launch of a $500,000 seed investment fund to support early stage start-ups over the next two years. CcHUB, which leverages software developers, organizations, etc., believes that start-ups will receive sums ranging from $10,000 to $25,000 to support business model experimentation and operations.
It gave the name of initial beneficiaries of the seed program as Vacantboards, Truppr, Traclist, 500shops and GeniiGames. The announcement comes on the occasion of first anniversary of its incubation office which amongst other things provides entrepreneurs with mentorship, user testing, access to markets, office space and administration.
In a statement, CcHUB said the initial beneficiaries of the seed investment went through it’s Pre-Incubation program which identifies and supports aspiring technology entrepreneurs looking to address local market problems with relevant solutions.
The company disclosed that beneficiaries were given a grant award of $5,000 each, through the $90,000 Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), to support their ideas, build working prototypes, carry out initial market testing & proof their concepts. It added that the start-ups qualified for further support when their ideas grew, earned revenues, increased their user bases and built partnerships.
Bosun Tijani, CEO & Co-founder of CcHUB explained the launch of the incubation office was in response to the need to provide business development, mentoring and funding support to start-ups that showed traction from the Hub’s impactful Pre-incubation program.
“Our seed investment ensures start-ups have a sure footing post-Preincubation to concentrate on rapidly executing their plans and learning from the market” he added.