Dear BfE family,

Happy December! I hope this email finds you doing well. November was a whirlwind and, if you're a student like me, I'm sure you understand where I'm coming from. However, behind the chaos of exams, projects, papers, and the like, BfE continues to provide a source of excitement. As our recent figures showed, we set a new record for the number of startups who applied to our Incubation Programme (193!) for the Spring 2022 Cohort, which will commence in January. This is a tremendous feat, yet we still have more work to do to diversify our sourcing pipeline, as a disproportionate number of startups who applied to BfE were from Africa, are male-founded, and operate within the Food and Agriculture sector. While indicative of the types of startups we've supported in the past, I still believe that we can do more to strengthen our efforts to attract more female founders and serve impact startups in other regions and sectors. Alongside other initiatives (I will share more in next month's newsletter), broadening the diversity of startups we serve will be a big priority for us in 2022. 

For now, however, I wish you all a happy and healthy December. Let's keep up the momentum as we head into the holiday season and New Year.

With lots of gratitude,

Jordan

Missed something within BfE this month? Here's what you need to know:

• ICYMI: Our next Startup Review Committee event will take place on December 18! Tune in to hear startup pitches from the top companies in this cohort before we select the next batch of ~10 startups entering our Spring 2022 Cohort
• ICYMI: BfE is now a registered UK Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)! In the works since March, this new legal status helps bring more credibility to our global mission to accelerate social enterprises building a more sustainable world
• Check out the YouTube recording for the BfE Tech Autumn Project Showcase on YouTube to learn about the wide variety of projects and milestones we have achieved as a division over the past half a year! 
• The Global Communications team is recruiting a Global Content Manager to join us and help lead our research and insights function. Please share this JD within your networks to help us find the best candidate 🙏🏼
• The Global Partnerships team is in the process of forging a partnership with CliMatr, an ESG and sustainability advisory firm for African startups. Through this partnership, BfE startups could gain access to a 1-month pro-bono course on ESG delivered during the Incubation Programme

We've continued to make steady progress on various initiatives at the global level. This month was a busy one. Here's what each division was up to:

📊 Incubation

• Engagement Support:
  • We hosted a Global Incubation Meeting with Chapter Presidents/VPs. During the meeting, we went through some of our new proposals, shared the new Investor Selector Database, and invited Fareeha (Global Head of Impact Research) to present research findings and insights from the past engagement round
  • Our Global Managers performed mid-engagement check-ins with project teams. Most engagements have been running smoothly this term, aside from some hiccups with the Vancouver and New York Chapters (via their outsourced partnership)
• Diagnostics Phase: Led by Richa (Global Consulting Manager), we iterated a Diagnostics Phase proposal with the Impact Research and Partnerships divisions. We are currently in the process of finalising timelines and preparing for a trial launch of this initiative in the Spring
• Demo Day: We iterated the proposal to conduct a startup-investor showcase ('Demo Day') with Jordan (Global President). We are exploring opportunities to partner with other organisations to share deal flow and co-host these pitch events
• Academy: Led by Arnas (Global Academy Manager), we reached out to other global teams to understand educational training needs and available resources from different divisions

🤝 Outreach

• Communications: We onboarded Clara as our new Global Communications Manager! Clara helped build our current website and will now be updating it, launching our public-facing newsletter, and starting a BfE podcast. Aside from that, we are recruiting a Global Content Manager to join us – please share this JD within your networks 🙏🏼
• Partnerships: We are in the process of forging a partnership with CliMatr, an ESG and sustainability advisory firm for African startups. Through this partnership, BfE startups could gain access to a 1-month pro-bono course on ESG delivered during the Incubation Programme

🔋 Strategy & Operations

• Strategy:
  • BfE New Delhi Chapter Onboarding: We finished conducting onboarding modules for the new chapter leadership. They are now busy recruiting for their Consulting Team and their first-years for an education/shadowing programme
  • New Chapter Handbook: This initiative is currently a work-in-progress with an anticipated release in December/January. It will include the following content:
    • Application & Evaluation Phase
    • Onboarding Process & Content (Phase I: Recruiting, Phase II: Onboarding, Phase III: Engagement, and Phase IV: Post-Engagement
  • Monthly Meeting w/ Chapter Leadership: We held a meeting with Chapter Presidents/VPs with the Global Incubation Division. We provided additional support for chapters dealing with engagement pain points
  • Student Testimonial Video Project: This is almost complete. Stay tuned! 👀
  • Divisional Recruitment: We will be looking to recruit a Talent Manager (near-term), Chapter Manager (short-term), and Strategic Planning Manager (long-term) in the future!
• Operations: 
  • Startup Review Committee: We're hosting this BfE-wide event on 18 Dec at 2pm UK time. Register here
  • Startup Applications for Spring 2022: We received 193 applications from 32 countries, of which 83% from Sub-Saharan Africa, 44% are within the Food and Agriculture sector, and 20% are women founders. More details here 👉 Link
  • In Progress: Further strategies to strengthen the BfE startup pipeline (e.g. partnership with Satgana) and expand the breadth of our mentor expertise (regional and industry)

👩‍💻 Impact Research

• AMNIe's results from its Impact Communication and Outreach Program (ICOP) Project will guide us in creating tailored impact measurement tools for startups and develop our internal impact themes and metrics 
• We are also currently focused on aligning pre-and post-engagement feedback surveys for various stakeholders to ensure they're capturing necessary data for BfE's own impact framework 
• In the coming few weeks, we plan to collaborate with the Global Incubation Division to establish an impact portion of their Diagnostic Phase that will equip startups with the correct tools to track relevant impact metrics on an annual basis and become more investor-ready

⚙️ Technology

• The DataOps team (Edwin, Xue Hui, Charlene and Kanchan) has been wrapping up the database migration project. There is still some leftover engagement and startup data we are aiming to organise before Christmas break, so if you have 1-2 hours to spare and are interested in learning more about databases / how past data are like in BfE, do reach out to Kanchan or Edwin
• Check out the YouTube recording for the BfE Tech Autumn Project Showcase on YouTube to learn about the wide variety of projects and milestones we have achieved as a division over the past half a year!
• Our Global Tech Education Programme has successfully wrapped up, and we are doing a final screening of the many strong candidates who will be joining us at Cambridge, Singapore and Global Tech as new Associates and even Directors!
• At Cambridge , we are starting the SEO 2.0 project to improve BfE's Google Ad strategies, and are steadily progressing with our Github Page template project to lay the foundation for future public-facing websites in BfE. At Singapore , our Startup-Mentor-Matching Algo Dev team has completed UI review with target users and has started their development phase
• At Global , we are wrapping up a series of projects underlying the infrastructure of BfE Intranet and preparing for Intranet development, which will be the first large-scale, cross-chapter project in BfE Tech. We are still actively looking for React / Django developers, and feel free to reach out to Kathi (Global Tech Programme Manager) for internal referrals
• Check out the recording for our November Division Meeting to learn about the timeline of our Intranet and OpenBfE, BfE Tech's first open-source initiative, spearheaded by Zhong Jun (Global Tech Initiatives Manager)!
• The Product Management and UI/UX teams, headed by Brenda and Ian, will be hosting a Product Townhall in early January 2022 to showcase the UI prototypes for the upcoming BfE Intranet and collect feedback from all of us Stay tuned for more updates!

Our chapters have been busy this month, with the academic year kicking off recently.

🇬🇧 Cambridge

• Recruitment: We’ve had 50+ members join our BfE Chapter this term across Consulting, Finance Advisory, Legal Advisory, Tech Advisory, Internal Tech, Startup Recruitment, Growth & Partnerships and Communications
• Mid-Project Reviews: Our teams are working with 5 startups this term – NjordFrey (Rwanda), The Baby Bank (Nigeria) , Sellox (The Gambia), Cool & Clean (Thailand) and Rohobot (Ethiopia). We will be wrapping up our engagements shortly
• Capacity Building with Startups: Starting this term, our Growth & Partnerships teams will meet with startup founders to advise them about issues outside the traditional project scope. We aim to build up the 'incubator' benefits of BfE through the Incubation Programme and understand how it can be delivered on a chapter/global level

🇺🇸 New York

• Programme Development: We hosted an event with Citymeals on Wheels, a nonprofit organization, to make holiday cards and bracelets for the elderly. Also, consultants for Deloitte Advisory hosted a training session for BfE associates. Additionally, our Growth and Partnerships team has set up a speaker panel on the topic of consulting for the first week of December.
• Incubation: We wrapped up our mid-engagement calls with She Wins Mexico, Toolkit iSkills (Kenya) and Path to Growth Centre (Nigeria). The teams are incorporating feedback form the clients and are on track to complete deliverables for the final engagement
• Chapter-wide: We have hosted new associate recruiting events with She Wins Mexico and Toolkit iSkills. Currently, we are actively interviewing for our new cohort of associates!

🇸🇬 Singapore

• Incubation
  • Our Consulting and Finance Advisory teams are wrapping up their projects with the end-point calls after a fantastic semester-long effort
  • Our Technical Advisory team has also been working hard on their project, with mentorship from Cassandra Poon from Zazazu
• Final Townhall of the Semester
  • We have wrapped up the semester with our third and final Townhall, with guest speaker Ella Lim from Mizuho to provide interesting career insights into the corporate finance space. As always, kudos to the SG G&P team for sourcing speakers and facilitating the sessions!
• Leadership Team Transition
  • As the current Leadership Team’s term is coming to a close, we are also in the midst of interviewing potential candidates for the next Singapore Chapter team! Keep a lookout for our exciting reveal next month

🇨🇦 Vancouver

• We are working on finishing our current engagement with Afyaboost (Kenya), where we're providing support with revenue forecasting and other deliverables

We are so grateful for the outstanding contributions made by the following BfE members this month. Thank you and well done! 👏

• ⚙️ From BfE Technology: 

• Shoutout to Zhong Jun (Global Tech Initiatives Manager) for his months of research and work to form the first draft of our OpenBfE initiative, which will make BfE Tech much more integrated with the Tech for Good global community and may open up potential sources of revenue for BfE

• Shoutout to Chandan (Global Cyber Security Manager) for going above and beyond to assist the entire organisation with Azure migration, which is expected to be completed soon in December

•  From BfE Cambridge: Thanks to both Bruno (Finance Advisory Director) and Kieron (Growth & Partnerships Director) for their commitment and consistent efforts in ensuring good deliverables
  • Bruno – for a successful recruitment season and project management of Rohobot (Ethiopia) and Cool & Clean (Thailand)
  • Kieron – for introducing new workstreams and strategic developments for the BfE Cambridge Chapter
• 🇺🇸 From BfE New York: Shoutout to Derek (Growth & Partnerships Associate) for hosting the social event and Devangi (Talent Director) for working tirelessly this month on managing our recruitment events. They have been a huge asset to the BfE NY Chapter and we are so grateful for their exceptional work!
• 🇨🇦 From BfE Vancouver: Annie (Global Strategy Head) has gone above and beyond in helping our chapter get back on track. Extra meetings, extra engaged, you name it, she’s done it.

Our December Startup Review Committee event (open to all BfE members!) will be on 18 December. Tune in for 2 hours of startup pitches and your chance to hear from those under consideration for our Spring 2022 Cohort 👀

👉 Register here: https://tinyurl.com/bfesrc2021dec

Reads

• Technology, Funding, Learning Models: What is the next frontier for edtech startups in Africa? (Techpoint Africa)
• Global investment money is flooding into Africa's fintechs (Al Jazeera)
• COP26: Key outcomes agreed at the UN climate talks in Glasgow (Carbon Brief)
• Africa's Rising Cities: How Africa will become the center of the world's urban future (Washington Post)

Roles

• Growth Associate @ Net Impact
• VC Platform Intern @ Antler
• Investment Analyst @ Calvert Impact Capital
• Postgraduate Consultant Program @ Dalberg Advisors

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