Jobberman’s Opeyemi Awoyemi and Olufunbi Falayi have set up a Student Innovation Fund to to support innovation and the innovators in schools.
The fund, known as, FastForward Student Innovation Fund will be be investing between N250,000 and N2,000,000 for up to 25% in innovations started by current students and recently graduated students (up to 3 years).
Opeyemi, in his blog post, stipulated the fund was for innovation, not just startups nor business ideas.
The money being invested is raised from alumni of specific universities, high networth individuals, private equity companies and supported by the Federal Government of Nigeria. The fund administrator is Investment One.
Opeyemi outlined what Fast Forward is interested in:
- Innovation of all kinds. We are investing in tech-enabled innovations, not just software, apps or internet startups. Agriculture, healthcare, environmental innovations can create even more impact than software innovations.
- Nigeria’s own Elon Musk. We are looking for visionaries and risktakers who value the global impact their project creates than the money. We are looking out for disruptive groundbreaking tech ideas that improves dramatically on current technologies / processes. They don’t necessarily have to make business sense in 2016.
- Job Creation. Sustainable ideas that empower others to make money. Uber of things. Tech-enabled solutions that enables self-reliance. Opportunities that will create hundreds of jobs.
- Innovations tackling big problems. As a Nigerian, living in Nigeria these issues are very obvious. Power for homes, offices and small business, clean water, improved agriculture systems, quality education, financial inclusion, affordable housing, open governance are some of those needs.
- Foreign Exchange Earners. One of the biggest problems of Nigeria’s economy is that we are more consumers than producers. Another equally big problem is that we have lots of local businesses and a handful of global businesses that bring money back into the country. Interested in supporting global ideas where a company can make millions of dollars outside Nigeria for a Nigerian company.
- Sector Revivals and New Sector Creations. There are too many untapped sectors and industries in Nigeria today — dead or non-existent. We are looking for ideas that addresses these issues. See how many makeup artists, personal shoppers and bakers we have in Nigeria now compared to 6 years ago.
- Smart and Visionary Founders. Being a student, your world view may be somewhat limited. However if that did not discourage us from wanting to invest in students, that should not discourage you from following your dream and adapting/improving along the way. Real Smart people might look arrogant, but they learn fast and improve on advice of experienced people.
So if you are a student building something really innovative and tech-enabled in consumer tech , health, power, clean water, education et al, apply now at http://fastforward.com.ng.
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