Ecosystem Programs
Romel is the commercial layer for founder programmes across the whole of Africa. We bring go-to-market, revenue, mentorship and investment readiness into cohorts, so funders get outcomes they can report, programmes get stronger founders, and founders leave with traction.
Our team has delivered inside
Afreximbank Flagship Accelerator
Faculty on the pan-African accelerator: 10 startups backed with up to $250K each, from 1,600+ applications.
Standard Chartered Foundation Women in Tech (iBizAfrica, Strathmore)
Structured mentorship across the cohort. A founder we mentored finished in the Top 7.
VC4A mentorship programme
Mentoring founders through VC4A since 2024.
KCA University Venture Sprint
Three student ventures taken from idea to pitch-ready for KCA Innovation Week.
100+
founders supported
20+
programmes engaged
5+
countries
5
years operating
The problem
Funders invest in cohorts. Programmes pick strong founders. Then the hardest part, turning an idea into something that sells and can raise, is left to general advice and volunteer goodwill.
Founders get theory, not the GTM and fundraising work that moves the numbers.
Mentor support is uneven and hard to account for.
Demo day arrives before founders are ready.
When the funder asks what changed, the evidence is thin.
The fix isn't more sessions. It's a commercial layer, measured.
Find your entry point
I fund founder programmes
DFIs, donors, foundations, corporate sponsors and government agencies
You need outcomes you can attribute, and a delivery partner you can trust with your budget.
What we do for you
I run a programme, hub or lab
Accelerators, incubators, university hubs, corporate innovation labs, networks and events
You need founders who finish with real progress, without building a full commercial team in-house.
What we do for you
I'm a founder or investor
Founders in or after a programme, sales teams, and investors looking for ready deals
Founders: we usually reach you through a programme or sponsor. If your programme works with us, our mentorship is free to you. When you have revenue, our GTM & Sales and Capital Advisory teams take you further.
Sales teams and individuals: our Sales Mentorship builds the selling skills founders and early teams need. See Sales Mentorship →
Investors and lenders: we work with founders measured on the same framework from start to finish, so you meet businesses with evidence behind them. Talk to our Capital Advisory team →
Founder Mentorship Track
Our Founder Mentorship Track runs inside programmes and is paid for by the programme or a sponsor, never by early-stage founders.
1
Cohort sprint.
2 to 4 weeks taking a group of ventures from idea to pitch-ready: customer discovery, who pays, a working demo and a rehearsed pitch.
2
Selected founders, 1:1.
The strongest founders get 90 days of deeper mentorship, with clear milestones agreed upfront.
3
Readiness check.
Each founder is measured on the RBMF at the start and at the end.
4
Next step.
Founders with revenue move to a GTM Diagnostic. Investment-ready founders move to Capital Advisory.
Every founder in the track has written goals, a fixed schedule, and a one-page outcome report at the end.
In practice: Weza AI
Weza, a WhatsApp-first business assistant for small businesses built by SIONA Technologies, came through the KCA Venture Sprint. Its founder has moved into 1:1 mentorship, with milestones set around active users, paying customers and a focused first market.
How it works
1
Funders back a programme and want measurable results.
2
Programmes bring Romel in to deliver the commercial layer and mentorship.
3
Founders build traction, measured from start to finish.
4
Results go back to the funder as evidence, and the strongest founders move on to investors or deeper support.
Three ways in, you choose the depth.
Deliver
We bring the commercial layer into your existing programme.
Design & evaluate
We build or pressure-test the programme and measure what it achieves.
Co-deliver (funded)
We build the bid with you and deliver it together once it's funded.
The method: RBMF
Our work runs on the RBMF: eight areas of a business, five maturity levels, benchmarked against CMMI, Village Capital's VIRAL framework and Scaling Up.
For programmes
A consistent read on every founder.
For funders
The evidence tool, with documented outcomes kept separate from self-reported ones.
For founders
A clear picture of what to fix next.
Readiness gate: we only prepare a founder for investors once they reach Level 3 or above on market validation, financial discipline and GTM/sales. That protects founders from raising too early, and protects your programme's credibility with investors.
Why Romel
The team that works with your cohort also runs live commercial work with companies like TsogaShop, PrimeTek and HauzPay. We teach what we do every week.
We work as a firm, not one face.
Melvin Malanga, Jesse Karuga, Tiffany Karanja.
We work alongside hubs, not against them.
Our job is to make your cohort stronger.
We're open about money.
No pricing games, and we disclose any commission we earn.
Is this you?
Built for you if
You fund, run or sponsor a founder programme anywhere in Africa, and you need founders to finish with real traction and evidence to show for it.
Probably not your fit if
You're running a one-off networking event with no cohort, or you already have a full in-house commercial team. We'll tell you if that's the case.
FAQ
The programme, its funder or a sponsor. Early-stage founders never pay for programme mentorship. Founders who later hire Romel directly do so as separate engagements.
Volunteers give what they can, which makes support uneven and hard to account for. We deliver to a standard, on a schedule, and hand you the evidence.
Yes. Most of our work fills the commercial gap in programmes that already exist.
An RBMF baseline at the start and a re-measure at the end, plus a one-page outcome report for each founder, with documented results separated from self-reported ones.
Yes. We co-develop the bid with you and deliver together once it's funded.
Yes. We support programmes and founders across the whole of Africa.
Whether you fund programmes, run them or go through them, there's a way in.