PUBLICATIONS
Harambean Meditations II on African Innovation: Serving the Underserved, Expansion Across Borders, Founder Synergy & Self-Care
Author: Okendo Lewis-Gayle
Published: August 2, 2023
In this second edition of Harambean Meditations on African Innovation, the Harambean Establishment, represented by 38 Harambeans, spanning 11 classes across 13 years and hailing from 7 African countries, share the lessons of our 15 year-long journey to create a prosperous future in three chapters: Serving the Underserved, Expansion Across Borders, Founder Synergy and Self-Care.
May the hindsight of Harambeans be the foresight of the next generation of African innovators.
Pacing Entrepreneurs to Success - Stanford Social Innovation Review Case Study (Summer 2022)
Author: Sonali V. Rammohan, Tim Weiss, Darius Teter & Jesper B. Sørensen
Published: May 2022
Entrepreneurial support organizations called pacers are helping businesses in emerging markets achieve their goals by providing services for them in the long run. A blueprint for shifting to a pacer model shows how organizations can support entrepreneurs as they grow.
Harambean Meditations on Africa Innovation: Talent, Product, Capital
Author: Okendo Lewis-Gayle
Published: October 1, 2021
Harambean Meditations on African Innovation: Talent, Product, Capital is a snapshot of the new venture formation process across Africa, as seen through the experiences of innovators and investors in the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance. Laconic reflections on nascent lessons relating to talent, product and capital by 12 Harambeans, representing 5 countries in North, East, West and Southern Africa, 3 Harambean-founded unicorns and 9 classes of Harambeans spanning 11 years.
May the venture hacks synthesized by these meditations shorten the learning curve of a new generation of African innovators and may its insights accelerate the growth of high-performing teams across Africa.
Harambean Way Magazine: End of Our Beginning (2021)
Editors: Okendo Lewis-Gayle, Sue Beaumont, et. al
Published: October 1, 2021
Harambean Way is the magazine of the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance, celebrating the people, capturing the data and telling the stories of our collaborative approach to building Africa’s future. Harambe is an ecosystem of over 300 young African leaders (Harambeans) who are scaling social and business ventures across sectors. To date, the network has spawned a series of tech-enabled ventures such as Andela, Yoco and Fibre. Collectively, Harambeans have generated over 3,000 jobs, raised over $1bn+ from Google Ventures, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Soft Bank.
Harambe: Mobilizing Capital in Africa - HBS Case Study
Authors: Anywhere (Siko) Sikochi, Dilyana Karadzhova Botha and Francesco Tronci
Published: September 2021
Harambe was a non-profit organization whose mission was to build an ecosystem to identify promising young African entrepreneurs and provide them access to training, markets, capital, and support networks. From 2007 to 2021, Harambe had grown to a network of 367 entrepreneurs, known as “Harambeans”. They had collectively raised over $800 million in capital, created more than 3,500 jobs, and claimed three of the six African startup unicorns in 2021. There was mounting pressure for Harambe to evolve to take advantage of its momentum, the changing entrepreneurship landscape in Africa, and increasing investor interest. Given this, Okendo Lewis-Gayle, founder and chairman, pondered the next steps for Harambe to maximize its impact in Africa. He considered three options: scale the current non-profit model, pivot to a for-profit venture capital model, or develop a hybrid model with a non-profit and a for-profit investment arm. Another important question was, “How should Harambe define impact?”
African Innovation Report 2020 - Understanding Market-Creating Innovation Across Africa
Authors: Africa Foresight Group in partnership with Harambeans
The African Innovation Report launched at the inaugural Harambeans Global Summit in Franschhoek, South Africa unpacks the current African entrepreneurship ecosystem and explores how entrepreneurs and innovations can contribute to unlocking the continent’s potential identifies six African, and two South African, companies as market-creating innovators. The report is designed to stimulate conversations about entrepreneurial innovation in Africa and understand the challenges startup ecosystems face.
Can Harambe Transform Africa? - Stanford Social Innovation Review Case Study (Winter 2020)
Author: Abigail Higgins
Published: November 2019
The Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance, a network of 304 entrepreneurs from 34 African countries, believes that business, rather than aid, is the key to eradicating poverty on the continent. But are good intentions based on a shared identity enough to unlock Africa’s potential?
Harambean Way Magazine: Decade of Impact (2019)
Editors: Okendo Lewis-Gayle, Jasmine Cabanaw, et. al
Published: April 5, 2019
Harambean Way is the magazine of the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance, celebrating the people, capturing the data and telling the stories of our collaborative approach to building Africa’s future.Harambe is an ecosystem of over 300 young African leaders (Harambeans) who are scaling social and business ventures across sectors. To date, the network has spawned a series of tech-enabled ventures such as Andela, Yoco and Fibre. Collectively, Harambeans have generated over 3,000 jobs, raised over $1bn+ from Google Ventures, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Soft Bank.
The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty
Authors: Clayton M. Christensen, Efosa Ojomo H’17, and Karen Dillon
Published: January 15, 2019
In a recent Wall Street Journal review of the book, The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty, Rupert Darwall writes that the authors “return the entrepreneur and innovation to the center stage of economic development and prosperity.” This thinking is in line with the vision of the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance. At Harambe, we believe that African innovators are the key to building Africa’s future. With his recent book The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty, Harambean Efosa Ojomo H’17 echoes this sentiment and provides the relevant case studies and academic rigor to substantiate that point. Published in January 2019 by HarperBusiness and written with co-authors Clayton Christensen and Karen Dillon, the book explores the paradox of eliminating poverty through economic development.
Harambeans: Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things
Author: Okendo Lewis-Gayle
Published: August 27, 2015
Harambeans is a collection of stories – stories of sacrifice, leadership and vision. Stories of young African entrepreneurial leaders in the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance (Harambeans), who have chosen to leverage their skills, networks and education to address the needs of their communities.
Their inspiring tales reveal the values propelling the emerging generation of young African leaders and suggest that while their ventures may bend to the inescapable whims of the entrepreneurial process, their values endure and will continue to find expression in the lifework of these young leaders.
Three stories, three traits: Servant Leadership told through the journey of Kwami Williams of Ghana; Enduring Optimism as seen through the eyes of Ms. Sabina Ndakorerwa of Rwanda; and Deliberate Audacity as experienced by Mr. Obinna Ukwuani of Nigeria.
In her Foreword, Obiageli Ezekwesili, former World Bank Africa Vice President, captured the essence of Harambeans: “Okendo’s brief and timely reflection affords us insights into the character and innovative potential of Africa’s youth. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed watching the steady progress of Harambe. May it inspire other young Africans and strengthen our confidence in the unlimited potential of Africa’s youth.”