#GOAPLagos : Geeks On A Boat on the Lagos Lagoon during #GOAPAfrica #GOAPLagos @500startups

The geek enjoying Lagos. we are excited about the interest that @500Startups is showing in Startups in Nigeria. we hope to see more and are especially happy about 500 Startups’ being a founding partner of Nigerian HR platform TalentBase. 

“We’ve done about 10 investments in sub-Saharan Africa,” said 500 Startups’ founding partner Dave McClure ― such as Nigerian HR platform TalentBase and South Africa’s SweepSouth ― originated as applicants through 500’s seed program. “We’re not announcing a new fund at the current time, but are planning on doing more investment in Africa. Whether that’s 5, 10, or 20 startups a year, we’ll have to see.”

The current Geeks Africa tour agenda appears tailored to those aims. The trip’s partners and participants number many, such as regional host USAID, Microsoft and the MEST incubator. The Lagos portion kicked off with a panel briefing on Nigeria’s startup ecosystem at IBM Labs led by TechCabal’s Bankole Oluwafemi. 500 Startups joined Seedstars Lagos for a startup pitch battle with local ventures judged by McClure, Seedstars country manager Tunde Akinnuwa and Omidyar Networks investment head, Scott Wu.