“I wanted to find a way to support a very fragile market.” Lela Winston said, siting the precarious state of many African and Black businesses that do not have the capital to scale.

Scaling a business begins when entrepreneurs determine they wish to grow from a small enterprise to a larger entity through greater productivity, new markets and upgraded hiring. All of which take liquid capital to move.

“I have always been an advocate of entrepreneurship, I noticed in Africa that many businesses fail to scale and remain small mom & pop entities with very small gains.” Winston said. “Africans generally don’t have the liquid capital to scale–the monetary policies in their countries and abroad are often antiquated or simply doesn’t fit the needs of the current economy.”

The crowdfunding initiative is an attempt to galvanize local and international people to African businesses. The fund aims to help African Businesses and businesses started by Diaspora on the continent, like Caribbean, Afro Latino and African Americans.

“I believe that the excitement of starting a business must go beyond, to supporting it. We have to understand that an economy without strong business institutions is doomed to fail often and be dictated by outside interests.”

Winston sees business among many things that help to stabilize socioeconomic factors. Wellness, good health and people-first policies help make a nation enviable; but business has its role.

“I think there are plenty of ways we can support. We have to start seeing the growth of African Businesses as an asset to the world. Our markets provide alternatives to traditional mainstrene sources. When Africans everywhere wins, everyone everywhere wins too!”