Introduction

All over the world, entrepreneurship is increasingly being recognised as a key driver of job creation and economic growth. Successful entrepreneurs are celebrated as luminaries, and the entrepreneurial mantra of accepting and learning from failure is being adopted by organisations of all sizes. In other words, it is a great time to be an entrepreneur.

This Entrepreneur’s Guide is designed as a comprehensive, accessible and informative tool that can be useful to entrepreneurs in all stages of their business. Its aim is to help Namibia’s rising entrepreneurs to navigate the nebulous and suboptimal financing landscape.

We do this in several ways:

Chapter I provides an overview of funding instruments, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Chapter II breaks down the different types of investors that are covered in our guide. We examine ten types of funders and present other information about them, including typical funding sizes and the services that each offers, in addition to funding.

Chapter III continues by discussing, more specifically, what happens when entrepreneurs approach various types of investors. This includes an overview of the documents different types of funders will expect, the typical phase at which to approach each type of investor and what to expect in entrepreneurs’ interactions with investors.

Chapter IV shares Namibia-specific insights based on our conversations, research and data analysis. This chapter will give entrepreneurs a better under-standing of the entrepreneurial ecosystem of their country. It will highlight potential perils to look out for and opportunities to be taken.

Chapter V is the Investor Directory – a look at 15 of Namibia’s financiers that are actively funding the country’s emerging start-ups. In addition to providing basic information about who they are, how long they have been around and the types of companies they invest in, we also show unique and insightful information, including average investment size, the types of funding offered and what benefits they provide, post-funding (if any).

Chapter VI concludes by providing an overview of the guide providing further sources of information.

In other words, the first part of the guide is meant to answer the how of fundraising, while the directory is meant to answer the who.