YASR Digest

A student and alumni-lead initiative at Yale University with a mission to share stories of innovation from the African Startup Ecosystem NEW HAVEN, March 16, 2021 — Today the Yale Africa Startup Review (‘YASR’) published the inaugural #YASR30 list honoring 30 startups, 30 stories, 15 countries and 60 founders ushering in a new wave of innovation on the Continent. These African entrepreneurs are building the future of Africa! The Yale Africa Startup Review is a Yale alumni and

Access to capital is one of the core tenets of the YASR mission and so we made sure the companies we selected were attractive investments to fund managers “Cash is king, but it has got to be more than just a rat race to raise the most funds.” At the Yale Africa Startup Review ('YASR'), we heard this phrase repeatedly in our conversations with Africa-based startup founders and executives as we discussed coverage of the local startup ecosystem. There’s nothing wrong with raisin

YASR measured scalability using five factors: the vertical, new customer acquisition, customer retention, recurring revenue and market share The Yale Africa Startup Review ('YASR') due diligence process evaluated scalability by looking at five areas: the vertical, new customer acquisition, customer retention, recurring revenue and market share. We received hundreds of nominations from companies that span all stages, pre-seed to series C, and cover 30 countries and 16 vertic

First things first, innovation does not equal high tech engineering Innovation is the second of five criteria which the Yale Africa Startup Review uses to evaluate startups for #YASR30. Even for the most seasoned panel of judges or investors, evaluating innovation is not an exact calculation. It's more an art than science; a seemingly more innovative pitch doesn’t necessarily translate into a successful venture. An innovative idea may be wrong for a specific market; inappropr

In the next few blog posts, we take you behind the scenes to share our five criteria, the first: Africa-centricity The Yale Africa Startup Review ('YASR') aims to showcase the dynamism, breadth and diversity of innovation across Africa, from Zambia to Senegal and Morocco to Mozambique. It was important to us to go beyond the staple nations of Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt. It was also important to us to find startups in verticals and value chains other than fintech.