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Young African Catalysts has launched in a bid to democratise access to the African venture ecosystem, leveraging data and community to enable young Africans to upskill, find jobs, and unlock investment.
Co-founded by Luke Morsert, head of investments at Future Africa, and Karl Nchite, a former investor and impact lead at Goodwell Investments, Young African Catalysts (YAC) started as a way to ignite collaboration amongst leading young Africans in the venture ecosystem.
In just over a year, its invite-only VC community grew to include the lead investor, under the age of 35, from the 50 premier venture capital funds across Africa, as well as internally share over 250 startup funding deals.
After 15 months in pilot, YAC next seeks to disrupt the limited and exclusionary hiring landscape in the venture ecosystem with its Aspiring YAC Fellowships, targeted at young professionals looking to break into venture capital or operator roles respectively. Its first cohort will be in the VC space, with the curated program spread across eight weeks and uniquely taught by existing Young African Catalysts.
Meanwhile, the Young African Catalysts Fund I is set to launch in H2, and will leverage the YAC Ecosystem’s community and data to invest tickets of between US$25,000 and US$100,000 in startups that facilitate the development of jobs and infrastructure for the next generation of Africans, including talent development, the digital economy, and green solutions.
“Given the nascent nature of the venture ecosystem in Africa, established, older stakeholders tend to hold a competitive advantage – at Young African Catalysts we are looking to empower first time operators, first time founders, and first time venture capitalists with the infrastructure to ignite their journeys,” Mostert said.
Nchite said YAC provided a first-of-its-kind experience that it believed could benefit emerging talent interested in the African ecosystem.
“Through our vocational fellowships, aspiring fellows have the opportunity to learn from leading African VCs and work collaboratively with African startup founders currently raising capital. This is unique in the fellowship landscape as it allows aspiring talent to learn directly from the professionals that they aspire to emulate,” he said.
“This aligns with our philosophy – “for Young African Catalysts by Young African Catalysts”. Moreover, our curriculum is specifically designed to incorporate these two critical elements and culminates in the chance to showcase your talents and ideas to VCs in a capstone “Aspiring YAC Demo Day” to secure an internship with them.”
Young African Catalysts has been entirely self-funded to date, while the YAC Fund I is actively accepting investments.
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