The fourth edition of the annual Sankalp Africa Summit ended at the Kenya School of Monetary studies, in Nairobi. The two-day summit hosted over 1,000 participants from 40+ countries, bringing together entrepreneurs to help solve problems facing them through cutting edge innovation. One of the key themes of this year’s summit waas how entrepreneurs can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The key note speaker, Mr Mark Malloch, Former Deputy Secretary General of the United Nation and Chair of the Business Commission for Sustainable Development, launched a report on the market opportunities and that would result from achieving the SDGs. This year, Sankalp Forum bought forward questions on the Sustainable Development Agenda. It discussed the potential for technology to help leapfrog Africa and the need to get basic infrastructure in place for ensure equal access to basic services for all.
The Sankalp Forum, an initiative by Intellecap Advisory, creates an environment where entrepreneurs and investors network. Some of the key highlights of the summit are enterprise development support for entrepreneurs to raise investment, exclusive networking opportunities with over 1000 global leaders, partnership and collaboration with players across the value chain from investors to corporations and governments and deep sector insights through research and publications. Sankalp has demonstrated the ability to drive action and influence outcomes.
One of the corner stones of the Sankalp Forum is the bringing of investors and entrepreneurs together. The Aavishkaar – Intellecap Group earlier announced an equity raising round of USD $25 million, led by Triodos Investment Management, the investment arm of European lender Triodos Bank, and Shell Foundation. Triodos invested USD 15 million while Shell Foundation contributed USD 10 million of the total capital raised. The investment will enable the group to consolidate and expand its bouquet of ecosystem building initiatives/businesses across the globe.
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On the capital raising, Vineet Rai, Founder, Aavishkaar – Intellecap Group said: “Aavishkaar-Intellecap Group believes that key goals of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) can be met by building entrepreneurial ecosystem that unleash entrepreneurial action toward core challenges around Employment, Health, Energy & Financial Inclusion.”
This year summit was held in partnership with leading organizations like World Bank, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, Merck and USAID among many others, the Summit is one of the largest platforms for entrepreneurship, innovation and impact investing with participants from around the world.
