Startups and entrepreneurs are starved of funding. Kinetic Consulting Founder Edward Esene is helping early stage companies to get backers and grants.
Founder, Kinetic Consulting, Mr Edward Esene trained and practised geology. He delved into management consulting after some years in a leading venture capital firm in Lagos and School for Startups(S4S), the United Kingdom (UK). He observed a pattern among young entrepreneurs who were trying to launch a business and discovered that many were struggling to raise funding to start. Even if they demonstrated strong business plans or great potential for growth, funding remained a major challenge. His goal is to raise seed fund for start-ups.
A co-founder, www.Crowd fund Africa.com, said finding seed money to get ideas off the ground remained a sore spot for many entrepreneurs.
He said any shortfall in early stage funding was worrisome because of the knock-on effects it will have for startups in years to come.
Esene said he was determined to cultivate budding entrepreneurs, capable of generating income that could change the economic landscape.
He is running an incubation centre to help entrepreneurs develop and commercialise their business ideas.
He offers an entrepreneur-in-residence programme and local office space, and provides early-stage investment to selected start-ups.
Esene also provides a range of services including coaching on business management, introduction to new market opportunities, access to finance support, staff coaching among others.
Following a process, he evaluates the viability and bankability of the business, provides tailored coaching to accelerate and scale up their businesses.
Since its inception, his business has spawned numerous successful ventures, many in Lagos. He trained 1000 youths on different businesses.
In the last five years, he has successfully raised over N2.1billion for business owners and startup entrepreneurs from institutional lenders and business angels.
In addition to increased earning power, the youth have found fulfilment and renewed purpose.
As a Zonal Coordinator in the Federal Government You Win Programme (2010-2014), he incubated and mentored 483 start-up businesses across the nation.
Despite his success story, Esene started the business with N100, 000.
Out of this, he used N60, 000 to buy a laptop and other things.
He believes it is part of his goal to help ignite the entrepreneurial ecosystem by providing an environment with the potential for starting and developing high-impact and high-growth ventures.
After working with a venture capital firm and seeing startups fail with loans repayment, Esene said life is easy if they got grants rather than loans.
To address this, he started capacity building training to help entrepreneurs succeed in their application to receive grants.
The programme provides funding information for SMEs and access management advice.
The training, according to him, is aimed at driving local economic growth through support for entrepreneurs and small businesses.
The workshop, expert mentoring and networking opportunities, he added, gives them the platform to really kick-start the growth of their business.