One thing African startup founders will tell you is, launching a startup here is a lot more difficult compared to other better-developed ecosystems across the world. When you’re in a space where established startups are struggling to scale, you can imagine what it’ll be like for early-stage startups, not to talk of the considerably marginalised female-led ones.
Early-stage startups have a lot to juggle, from operations to funding, and sometimes the public relationships aspect of the business just ends up suffering. In a bid to deal with this challenge, New York-based Public Relations company C. Moore Media launched the Future is Female Programme geared at providing mentorship in PR and other business development skills for African tech female founders.
In its second phase, the Future is Female Programme aims to bring up to speed, the underserved market of female-led African early-stage startups with PR skill and communications insights that will help increase visibility and ultimately scale their businesses.
“African female tech founders often go unsupported in the male-dominated tech space, and we want to support these founders by providing expertise in PR and communications to help them gain visibility for their startups, grow their business and attract the right investors”, said Claudine Moore, managing director and founder of C. Moore Media.
The initiative, which is aimed at African women on the continent or in the diaspora who are starting or expanding a tech business for African markets or servicing Africans in the diaspora, picked 12 startups for its first round last year and is currently accepting submissions for round two.
“We had such an incredible response to the first edition with a fantastic cohort of mentees that went through the programme, we decided to make The Future is Female Mentorship Programme an ongoing annual initiative”.
Female founders will learn the essentials of PR and communications for early-stage digital firms, as well as how to establish a communications plan and incorporate narrative into business interactions with numerous stakeholders, during the mentorship programme. The programme will also provide mentees with insights tailored to their business and industry’s specific needs. This edition will be selecting 25 female startup founders.
Applications are open until 11:59 pm (WAT) on Monday, the 5th of July. Click here to apply.
