A group of Indian entrepreneurs have joined hands to set up a global incubator that will help aid the growth of start ups in developing countries like Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Founder Anu Shah launched the venture earlier this year while she was studying at Harvard University. With her incubator ‘EFI Hub’, she now aims to connect leading investors, successful entrepreneurs, leading professionals and graduates from prestigious institutes such as Harvard, Oxford and INSEAD, leading politicians and government intermediaries with early stage entrepreneurs looking for mentors.
EFI Hub looks to emulate the Silicon Valley model across the world and has already raised funds through South African politician and Harvard Alumni Lavan Gopaul. Advisors on the board include several young Indian entrepreneurs and investors such as LogiNext's Dhruvil Sanghvi, Innov8's Ritesh Mallik, Jetsetgo’s Kanika Tekriwal and Lucideus' Saket Modi. Anu said she came up with the idea in 2016 while working as a Private Equity Professional. During that time, she had travelled to East Africa, for deal sourcing and setting up a regional office for their firm.
It was then that she came across a Kraft Brewery that employed only women. The CEO was a hexagenerian woman committed to empower other women in the community by creating a livelihood for them. Shah was impressed by her determination and grit, for it reminded her of her own professional start. Shah began her career in 2005 when she walked out of her home in Gujarat with $40 in her pocket to fetch a job in a call center in Mumbai. To break through the state of destitute, where she survived on a salary of mere $100 a month and lived in a chawl (infested with rats and water leaking roof), she switched jobs and started working as a sales representative selling consumer products from shop to shop in Mumbai. Anu said, "I would walk in blazing heat of Mumbai for 8 hours and cover 40 shops a day, to achieve sales target of $100 and a commission of mere $10. But I always exceeded my sales target and quickly rose through the ladder to become a manager in the company." She always worked relentlessly to break the stereotypes attached with women in male dominated segments of Sales & Marketing, Investment Banking and Consulting.
Since then Shah's decade long career- spanned across four continents (North America, Europe, Africa and Asia) and seven countries, has overseen her invest and mentor businesses, and promote innovation across sectors such as consumer goods, technology and health care. She has also worked as a M&A professional and strategy consultant with leading companies like EY and AT Kearney, in emerging markets of Asia, Middle East and Africa.
After meeting the CEO, Anu Shah quickly jumped to support the Kraft Brewery and decided to consult for her business on a pro bono basis. She pulled on her connection internationally and found a Canadian Brewery who extended their support to train the employees at Kraft Brewery. Shah was instrumental in arranging a crowd funding initiative for brewery that helped the business raise $110,000.
Through ‘EFI Hub’ Anu Shah wants to empower businesses and communities at large and create a social change on a global scale. Since inception, EFI Hub has incubated start ups in the emerging markets of Asia and Africa, and plans to scale the model and expand into major economic power hubs including India, Singapore, Nigeria, South Africa, and Rwanda, in the next 2-3 years. It is currently exploring partnerships with the International Finance Corporation, World Bank, and the Rwanda Development Board. Operational in Kenya, Kigali, and India, Shah and partners are working to raise funds from African-Indians in the UK in a bid to expand their idea.
