Norrsken, a global entrepreneurship center, has provided USD 12 million through its Kigali campus to invest in the local and regional entrepreneurship scene.
The campus, which is expected to start operations in September 2021.
Norrsken bought the grounds of the former Belgian school in the city center to build the largest business center in East Africa.
The hub will host a mix of startups, incubators, accelerators, investors, lawyers, accountants and other businesses, creating an ecosystem that enables entrepreneurs to build strong companies that solve local and global challenges.
Norrsken announced its debut in Rwanda in 2019, which is the second global hub after central Stockholm, Sweden and aims to strengthen Rwanda’s vision of becoming a regional hub for entrepreneurship and innovation.
Pascal Murasira, Managing Director of Norrsken in East Africa, said that her involvement in the local and regional scene was shaped, among other things, by challenges in the entrepreneurial scene.
“Local entrepreneurs have worked on great ideas that have the potential to solve some of the world’s toughest challenges. However, they face scalability challenges due to limited resources and a lack of high-performance networks. Norrsken offers such entrepreneurs an opportunity not only to develop useful products, but also to reach as many people as possible in East Africa and beyond, ”he said.
According to the company, the opportunities in the local ecosystem that facilitate market entry and operations include the legal ecosystem, which makes it easier for the company to accelerate the growth of startups.
“The legal ecosystem is developing rapidly and is becoming one of the most conducive to entrepreneurs in all of Africa. This will make it even easier for Norrsken to accelerate the growth of local startups towards unicorn status, ”he said
“The evolving legal environment, the establishment of the Kigali International Finance Center, and top universities like ALU and Carnegie Mellon are starting to release highly skilled graduates – to name a few,” he added.
Murasira said they are trying to work with like-minded partners, from corporations to nonprofits, to empower the local and regional entrepreneurship scene.
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