by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department
It has taken us almost two weeks to come down from the high and to make sense in our minds of what happened on June 11th 2024, but what we do know for sure is that before, during, and after our Start-Up Night Africa event where we showcased and celebrated ten truly inspirational Lionesses of (and into) Africa in our own particular way (more of that later!), lives were changed and people were impacted, links made and partnerships cemented on this memorable day.
Just over a year ago, Lionesses of Africa opened our first European office in The Netherlands, to create access to markets and access to investment in a country that is one of the global centres of entrepreneurship. Around that time we had our first Start-Up Night Africa event hosted in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Netherlands, where we showed that these events are central to the heartbeat of our ‘Why’ (here).
Last year the program was very much behind announcing to Europe through our NL office that we were there, and we and our membership were: “Ready to Collaborate. Ready for Investment. Ready to do Business.”
This year, again with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with the African Guarantee Fund, AFAWA, and Absa, our second Start Up Night! Africa hit the ground running. Building on that incredible start, Lionesses of Africa took this event to the next level, honouring the power of the ten inspirational women entrepreneurs pitching who were “…creating, building and leading the way”, proving that we were all there to make things happen - through the power of partnerships.
Leaning on the pledges from the audience last year, Lionesses of Africa founder and ceo, Melanie Hawken, showed the power that this action brought, amongst other results soon to be published, the signing and celebrating of a collaboration between AFAWA, Lionesses of Africa and the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship that will close the data and research gap for women entrepreneurs across Africa (here). You know the gap we are talking about - look at any data map of the World, and Africa is the part coloured in Grey representing that well known data-set, ‘No Idea, We Don’t Know’. At Lionesses of Africa we take in huge amounts of insights from our over 1.8 million members, and there is so much more to discover, and through that open up investment and funding to our membership. After all, at the core of all such investment/funding decisions is the notion of Risk, and that can only be calculated through data and serious research. As Melissa Basque-Roux, Ag.Coordinator AFAWA, AfDB stated clearly:
“In the absence of this gender specific data it’s very difficult for us to be able to develop sound strategies to accompany even the financial institution partners with whom we are working, for them to be able to move away from the one-size-fits-all approach but really come with these more tailored products and services that we really need for the women entrepreneurs to be able to grow at scale and have the impact that they have the potential to have by benefiting from these products…”
Thank you to our partners, this is such an essential step we have taken together.
But how to create these events and why are ours so different?
Central to bringing these incredible women to the fore is all the hard work that happens behind the scenes between the Lionesses of Africa team, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Team, and our partners, working out the best mix of Lionesses, of industries, countries and impact. This year we tried something different, 5 from Africa, 5 from the Netherlands, and the mix worked perfectly. The power of partnership.
The Lionesses themselves?
As usual truly brilliant solutions to some of the world’s greatest problems were brought and linked together. As luck would have it, we were able to sit with these inspirational Lionesses of (and into) Africa prior to the event and two issues immediately sprang out at us.
The usual. Three of our Lionesses had won the Cartier Women’s Initiative (one, Salma was actually hot off the plane from the 2024 award ceremony), the other two being Siny and Dupe (both winners in 2023). Had they mentioned this obviously well deserved and globally recognised win in their pitch deck? Hmmmm, not a chance! On the day we noticed Dupe has slipped it into her Pitch, but that was only after much begging from us. Lionesses to a fault are so modest about all their well deserved awards. Still the squeals of delight as they all realised they were CWI Fellows and raced off to find a corner to chat made up for it and we forgave! These business women over and above the strong link and partnership being a Lioness brings, will also be CWI linked for life.
Lionesses of Africa’s Start-Up Night Africa events are not a competition. There is no line of judges with a 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize. This is a Lioness event, we are all there to support one another. Ok, so just to be clear, Lionesses do support one another automatically. The pitches had to be built to attract the investor and procurement gurus in the audience, not for a one hour grilling by an interview panel as many had been used to! Four minutes - just enough time for The Why, Problem, Solution, Team and Ask.
However serious the need for funding, trading and support, we are from Africa, and that means passion, that means belief, and as all our inspirational businesswomen showed in their pitches, the ability to have such deep empathy with our communities that we solve their problems, which we then recognise is a global problem that we then go onto solve. They have an emotional link and partnership with their communities, and this is a strength we celebrate.
In their stories, we have seen the depths of despair, we have (as two of our Lionesses revealed) felt the pain of hunger and the realisation years later of what our Mothers went through to feed us. These are real stories, we have no time for talk when something has to be done.
What do Lionesses do? We get things done, but most importantly - we get things done together, and so it was also fabulous (but not unusual at our events) to see Lionesses swapping notes, of agreeing to work together, the realisation that there are collaboration opportunities for the greater good. The Power of Links, the Power of Partnership.
How do we in the Lionesses of Africa team bring it together?
Sitting quietly in the hotel just discussing a few things with some of the Lionesses and there was a crackle of electricity that hit the room (probably the entire hotel!). Our South Africa Team had arrived! And in raced Nomalanga Sitole, our Lioness Ambassador and Host once again for this year’s event; and by her side Ntsoaki Sibiya, another of our valued Lioness Ambassadors, who is also an alumni from our 2019 Mentorship Program, an entrepreneur, business owner and now a serious business Mentor in her own right. This energy is absolutely central to how we bring people together. Those who were at the event could feel it for themselves as Nomalanga in full MC role, took control, with a smile, an encouragement, a ‘whoop’ of delight, and a steely determination to keep everything on track. Behind all of this buzz and crackle of energy is the constant calm of our very own Natalie Irwin, how she stays so calm in amongst the panics of visas, of flights, of rooms, is just incredible, but she is the link that keeps us together behind the scenes of these events. That is why when Melanie stands up and talks about Partnerships making things happen, she knows it, she has built it in her own Team (as here).
So to our impact partners at The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Peter Derrek Hof, and Wampie Libon-van der Wal; to the African Guarantee Fund, Nishdeep Sethi and Patrick Lumumba; AFAWA’s Melissa Basque-Roux, and the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship’s Farshida Zafar; ABSA Bank’s Vignesh Subramani; and Orange Corners’ Erik Parigger - thank you for your recognition that we go further together.
And to our incredible Lionesses of (and into) Africa (click to see their fabulous pitches): Sasha Knott; Dr. Salma Bougarrani; Joyce Kamande; Dupe Killa-Kafidipe; Siny Samba; Barbara Gwanmesia; Thekla Teunis; Marieke de Ruyter de Wildt; Solange Domaye; Merel van der Lei, and one of our long time Lionesses who gave up her time to speak about solutions needed and results seen on the ground from finance, Chiinga Musonda. We loved our time with all of you and our partnership will simply grow and grow! Your stories have been so inspirational to us all.
It is the stories behind all of this that makes the difference. That is the glue that binds the partnerships that we all make.
As Farshida Zafar (Director, Erasmus Centre of Entrepreneurship) stated: “We need to capture the stories, the insights, the voices of women entrepreneurs across the continent , because without these insights and voices, and without the stories, it is just a numbers game…and numbers don’t mean anything.”
As Melissa Basque-Roux had said: “…if we are serious about going further but also going faster we really need to join forces to work together.”
It is only through such partnerships that we can deliver sustainable results at scale.
That is the Power of Partnerships, this link we make together.
As Charles Dickens put it so beautifully in Great Expectations:
"That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers,
that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link
on one memorable day.”
What links made, what partnerships formed, all on one memorable day! Thank you.
Stay safe.