Partner: LifeCo Unltd South Africa
Grant: 2.398.970 euro
Duration: October 2016 - October 2019
LifeCo UnLtd South Africa is working hard to support, create and enhance social entrepreneurship. LifeCo itself is also a social enterprise which uses business principles for social impact to realise a more inclusive society. Flanders supports LifeCo to enhance the social enterprise ecosystem and to allow the businesses to grow and become more sustainable. They want to show how efficient the sector can be in creating decent work, while at the same time offering solutions for the challenges facing society. In this project LifeCo will be mainly committed to reducing the financing threshold. They want to build a bridge between social entrepreneurs and potential investors, on the one hand by imparting skills to entrepreneurs, and on the other hand by establishing a social venture capital fund. To support this, LifeCo also focuses on young people, research and the promotion of interests.
South Africa is one of the three partner countries of Flanders in Southern Africa. This project falls within the scope of the 2012-2016 Country Strategy Paper which focuses on entrepreneurship and social innovation to reduce poverty and inequality.