Niamey, NIGER – DATABASE4NEW, a startup focused on women entrepreneurs' data collection with the aim to help women-owned business grow and scale, captured first prize at the national finals of the Entrepreneurship World Cup competition held recently in Niamey, Niger. Hassana Laouali, the co-founder of Database for Nigerien Entrepreneur Women, DATABASE4NEW in short, advances to the next round of the global competition against national winners from 200 countries.
“You made my day,” said Laouali.
DATABASE4NEW is key to developing female entrepreneurship. The startup will give accurate information on entrepreneurs and this information will be updated at least monthly. In preparation for the EWC Global Finals, Laouali will participate in a Bootcamp which features virtual training and mentoring sessions targeted to their company’s current stage and growth trajectory.
DATABASE4NEW emerged victorious from a pool of 18 national contestants who applied – each receiving access to free virtual training services and up to $25,000 in perks to help them take their venture to the next level.
As a Global Finalist, DATABASE4NEW will compete for a share of USD 1 million in cash prizes. The top 100 Global Finalists will receive $100,000 worth of in-kind services and support from service providers such as AWS, Freshworks, Oracle, Hubspot, Stripe and Segment. Global finalists also gain automatic entry into the GEN Starters Club, an invitation-only community of talented founders from around the world.
Other finalists in the EWC Niger National Finals included:
- L'univers de l'audio visuel du Sahel from Niamey, a startup in the communications industry.
- Entreprise sotransproma de l'Aïr from Agadez, a startup in the bio agribusiness industry.
- Foussam enterprise from Niamey, a startup in the agroforestry industry.
- Kanem Industrial Investment from Doutchi, a startup in the cleantech industry.
Judges for the competition were:
- Amadou Salifou, Coordonnateur National, ONG APED « Actions pour l’Entrepreneuriat et le Développement »,
- Mallam Abba Abdoul- Madjidi, Représentant de CASPAH Niger, un accélérateur panafricain.
The EWC NIGER National Finals were organized by Global Entrepreneurship Network Niger (GEN-NIGER) in partnership with Niger Business Angels Network and sponsored by Accentrepreneur.
Since launching in 2019, the competition has attracted 400,000 registrations from 200 countries and connected founders with over US$3M in cash prizes and another US$256M worth of perks and free support and services. Global Finalists will face off against one another in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in March 2023. EWC is an initiative led by the Global Entrepreneurship Network and Monsha’at, with support from a collection of national and global partners including One Valley, The Global Education and Leadership Foundation (tGELF), Entrepreneurs’ Organization, KAUST and Startup Genome.