GEN, Entrepreneurs' Organization, Elumelu Foundation Join Forces to Spark Global Entrepreneurship

 

President Barack Obama with co-founders of the Global SPARK coalition, Jonathan Ortmans, CEO of the Global Entrepreneurship Network; Tony O. Elumelu, CON, Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation; and Sriram Bharatam, Chairman, Africa Growth Initiative, (EO); during the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, over the weekend

Representatives of the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN), Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) and Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) participated in a formal signing ceremony at the Summit, committing to lead the Spark Global Entrepreneurship initiative. Spark is a coalition that is seeking to mobilize like-minded organizations, companies and investors that collectively generate more than $1 billion dollars in private investment for emerging entrepreneurs by the end of 2017.

"The world is full of nascent entrepreneurs with brilliant ideas—but

they need stronger ecosystems to help them unleash those ideas and grow them into game-changing startups," said Jonathan Ortmans, president of Global Entrepreneurship Network and one of three Spark coalition co-chairs. "Spark increases coordination and collaboration among startup support programs and amplifies their efforts."

The first wave of companies that have stepped forward include Citi, EY, GE, Google and IBM. Two African companies, Rendeavour, the continent's largest urban land developer, and SkyPower, the largest provider of utility-scale solar power projects in the world, have joined as well.

Spark taps into the growing involvement of government programs in helping entrepreneurs start and scale new firms.