How did this partnership and the GoPMF program come about?
Penelope Terranova, Head of Programs, Digital Africa : As a venture builder and investor, we conducted several internal analyses. We realized that failure to achieve PMF (Product Market Fit, PMF) was one of the main reasons for startup failure in Africa.
So, we did an internet benchmark, consulted several players in the ecosystem and launched a call for projects to develop an innovative solution, a tool that would help these tech entrepreneurs to test and achieve their PMF. This was a huge success in the ecosystem. 13 consortia from different backgrounds were submitted with different, high quality approaches. After a period of qualitative analysis to identify the best project in this context, we finally selected the GoPMF project led by Edtech connection.
David Pontalier, co-founder of EdTech Connections: We've developed several programs to support companies in Africa, particularly with accelerators, incubators and funding agencies like AFD and Digital Africa. We've also conducted a number of studies on African companies, in terms of their needs in terms of skills, funding and technical support, which can take different forms. These experiences have led us to conclude that there is a lot of work being done on certain issues and less on others. For example, there's a lot going on in terms of funding, but there's a lack of support for the step that takes a product from prototype to PMF. That's where GoPMF comes in. For the past year we've been working on a suite of tools to help companies, and GoPMF is one of them.
What is the mission of GoPMF? Who is it for? What is the intended impact and how does it work?
“A tool for the benefit of the ecosystem, co-designed by the ecosystem players”
David: It's an educational, technological and innovative solution that aims to support entrepreneurs in French-speaking Africa to go from prototype to PMF. We started with a study to understand the needs. This autumn we'll develop a prototype to launch the tool between December and January. It will be a beta version that will meet the needs expressed.
We're targeting French-speaking entrepreneurs. We've narrowed it down to early-stage tech startups in French-speaking Africa. To identify them, we're relying on the support structures for entrepreneurs (SAE), as well as our own network and that of Digital Africa. The SAEs will also benefit from this tool. They are involved in its creation and will be its future beneficiaries.
In August, a workshop will be organized in Abidjan with SAEs and start-ups to jointly define this tool. A tool made available to the ecosystem for free, thanks to the support of Digital Africa. A tool for the benefit of the ecosystem, co-designed by the ecosystem players.
What is everyone's role in the program?
Penelope: One of the main goals of this tool is to make it available to the community. It's a challenge we're going to take on together, so the number of users will be very high. For the DA role, which is not a top-down tool, we identified a gap in support. We decided to support an innovative solution that fills this gap, using our network to support the emergence of this product made by and for African entrepreneurs.
“This program illustrates the interoperability potential of Digital Africa's various programs”
David:Digital Africa is funding and running this tool. Ed Tech is designing and developing it in collaboration with all the ecosystems. Finally, the third actor in this program is the ecosystem itself.
Penelope: This program illustrates the interoperability potential of Digital Africa's various programs, including the FUZE program. Startups that benefit from FUZE will be able to use GoPMF. The data collected will also be used for other Digital Africa programs.
