Lessons From the 2021 Virtual Land Accelerator That Can Benefit Your Business

When social entrepreneurs and social investors come together, there’s always lessons to be shared and tips for business growth.

On May 21, 2021, the Land Accelerator hosted its first ever virtual live pitch. The event features four alumni from the 2019 Land Accelerator Africa who pitched to a panel of three social investors. You can catch the whole video below. The pitching begins at minute 25:20, and each pitch is followed by real-time feedback.

The three panelists shared what makes certain businesses stand out to them. Sapna Shaw of Novastar Ventures mentioned the story of iProcure and the founder’s ability to pivot over time until discovering what works. Marije Schasfoort of DOEN Foundation shares her top seven rules to have your company stand out. Luni Libes, founder of Fledge, shared an inspirational story of an entrepreneur from Uganda who built two businesses in his community that now total in $500,000 in revenue each year.

Each of the four presenting companies are continuing to serve their communities safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Francescah Munyi of KOFAR continues to produce and supply land amendments to farmers, Ezra Masolaki of Tree Resources Enterprise’s trees are still growing in the nursery and Adamou Ali Zoubeirou is leading the gum arabic producers’ group in Niger, while continuing to procure and plant additional acacia trees that provide gum arabic and mitigate desertification. Lorna Omuodo of E-Moto — which produces replaces deforestation-causing charcoal with clean biofuel for household cooking— even created a new hand sanitizer product line using her existing supplies of bio-ethanol created from sugar cane waste.