GrowthLab, formerly known as Starta, a membership platform for educating entrepreneurs in Africa on how to build high growth business, has partnered with Seedstars to launch Seedspace GrowthLab. The launch is expected to take place on September 20, 2019.
Seedspace GrowthLab is the second Seedspace location in Lagos and it is an exclusive platform for entrepreneurs and executives in Africa who are committed to building high growth businesses in Africa.
Globally, there are currently 14,411 coworking spaces today. The number of coworking members will rise to 3.8 million by 2020 and 5.1 million by 2022.
In Africa, over 250 coworking spaces have sprung up in the last 3 years and Nigeria has not been left out. However, this evolution is not a perfect reflection of the fast-growing startup ecosystem in the region, as African entrepreneurs structurally need more than co-working space to grow. That’s why Seedspace Growthlab was conceived; to help birth more inclusive and interconnected spaces where corporate and startups can learn, collaborate and grow.
Alessia Balducci, General Manager for Seedspace Lagos, states “As Seedstars started looking at emerging markets, Nigeria has always been a country of primary interest. I joined the Lagos team in 2017 and since then I have been amazed at the great opportunities and interactions with the local startups and innovation ecosystem. It’s great to see the drive to grow and have an impact through innovation and entrepreneurship. I think this partnership embodies just that drive for us to come together and do something that matters.”
Dotun Olowoporoku, Co-Founder and Non-executive Director at GrowthLab, states: “We founded Starta on a simple idea of supporting entrepreneurs who are building high growth businesses in Africa with the relevant content, community and connection to capital that will help them succeed. GrowthLab is the next logical step to achieve what we set out to do since 2016. This partnership with Seedspace takes us several steps closer to that goal.”
Being part of the largest network of campuses for entrepreneurs in emerging markets, Seedspace GrowthLab is the 13th hub by Seedstars in more than 10 cities around the world including: Abidjan, Bogota, Cairo, Cape Town, Casablanca, Dar es Salaam, Geneva, Lima, Medellin, Mexico City, Nur-Sultan, and Yangon.
Besides the upcoming opening of the hub, Seedstars is also ecstatic to host the Amazon AWS Startup Day in the new Seedspace GrowthLab on August 20th. The event is open to the public and registrations can be done through this link.
Moreover, Lagos will proudly host the seventh edition of the Seedstars World local competition on October 18th, inviting all the local early-stage startups to run up for the prize of USD 500,000 awarded at the Seedstars Global Summit in Switzerland on April 2020.
Applications are already open through this link.
