On September 14, 2019, Harambeans Founder, Okendo Lewis-Gayle, revealed at the Vatican that MAX and Releaf Group were the two inaugural co-investments of the Harambeans Prosperity Fund. Alongside YCombinator, Yamaha and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Harambeans Prosperity Fund invested $100,000 into each Harambean-led startup. Seeded by Cisco, with a multimillion dollar gift, the Harambeans Prosperity Fund is a rules-based co-investment vehicle, which aims to accelerate the growth of Harambean-led ventures, build a coalition of like-minded investors and secure the long-term financial viability of the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance. 

The African continent and its people are typically portrayed through the conflict, poverty and disease that millions of its people experience. In September, thanks to JCDecaux, residents and tourists in the Eternal City of Rome had the opportunity to experience an alternative narrative – that of highly competitive African entrepreneurs on a mission to change Africa’s fortunes through their innovative business ventures.

The Harambean community gathered at the Vatican in September for its fifth biennial forum to reaffirm its pledge to work together as one to build Africa’s future. Vatican Radio released a special on the event featuring an interview of Harambeans Founder, Okendo Lewis-Gayle, and a greeting to the Harambeans by Pope Francis.

Market-creating innovations develop new growth engines for companies and create entirely new industries upon which economies can build and thrive. They transform complex and expensive products into simple and more affordable products, making them accessible to a whole new segment of people in a society who have not been able to buy a product or service simply because it was not affordable or accessible to them. Market-creating innovators find a way to change that and in the process, create new markets. They represent the best version of capitalism: both consumers and companies win.

“Serious people laughed at me when I told them I wanted to build a telecommunications network in Africa twenty years ago. They told me all the reasons the project would never succeed,” Mo Ibrahim recalls of the reaction he got when he shared his plans to build a pan-African mobile phone company 20 years ago. “Somehow I just kept thinking, I know there are challenges but why can’t they see the opportunity?”

Jonathan Oppenheimer, Executive Chairman of Oppenheimer Generations, announced a partnership with the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance during the fifth biennial Harambeans Rome Forum held at the Vatican in September. Oppenheimer Generations represents the global interests of Nicky and Jonathan Oppenheimer.