The Next Chapter: Founders Factory Africa

Today we are proud to announce the launch of our first international location for Founders Factory — Johannesburg, South Africa.

After six months of planning, we are delighted to be bringing the Founders Factory model to a new territory, to build and scale a further 100 technology start-ups. To help us on this journey we have brought on board Standard Bank, sub-Saharan Africa’s largest bank, as our cornerstone investor. With hundreds of physical branches, thousands of ATM’s and a full swathe of business and consumer banking services offered throughout the region, Standard Bank are committed to help us champion local entrepreneurs and to create new jobs & opportunities at scale.

Of course Africa is not an easy place to operate — there are key infrastructure, logistics and talent challenges — and without detailed local knowledge and experienced operators we would likely fail, as many have before us. To help ensure our success, we are teaming up with Roo Rogers who will become CEO of Founders Factory Africa. Roo, former partner at renowned design agency fuseproject and leader of the US & UK government backed Spring accelerator, brings extensive experience working with entrepreneurs across Africa over the course of the past decade. Together we will be building out a 40 strong-team over the next year as we scale our operations and announce additional corporate investors.

We believe in the power of entrepreneurship to stimulate economies, reinvent industries and improve societies. By bringing together an amazingly ambitious management team, forward thinking investors, and the knowledge that we have gained from operating in Europe over the past three years, we hope to become the best partner for founders in Africa.