President Paul Kagame last week attended the official opening of Kigali’s Norrsken House.
The President joined over 1000 investors, founders, and leaders from various parts of the world convened to facilitate the convergence of global capital and African innovation.
Norrsken House Kigali valued at more than Rwf6Billion boasts of world-class space is built on the former historic Ecole Belge. It consists of repurposed classrooms, as well as a main building, which together form the largest hub for entrepreneurship on the continent.
“This whole process of putting yourself in a dignified position should not be something we should be asking somebody else to do for us. Nobody owes you a thing, really. You owe it to yourselves. Africans, we owe it to ourselves to lift ourselves up and work with others as equal partners,” said President Kagame.
Norrsken Kigali is part of Norrsken Foundation a non-profit, non-partisan and non-religious, built on the belief that entrepreneurs building rapidly scalable businesses can help solve some of the greatest challenges facing our world today.
“With Norrsken House in Kigali, our vision is to create the largest hub for entrepreneurs in Africa,” according to the foundation.
Norrsken’s five funds have raised U$500million to back exceptional entrepreneurs who combine profit with positive global impact: Norrsken VC, Norrsken22, Norrsken Accelerator, Norrsken Launcher and Norrsken Africa Seed Fund.
Meanwhile, Norrsken has closed U$205 million from more than 30 unicorn founders and institutions to back growth-stage tech companies in Africa.
The Foundation runs award-winning Norrsken House hubs in Stockholm, Sweden, Kigali, Rwanda and (soon) Barcelona, Spain.
Pascal Murasira, the Country Manager for Norrsken Kigali House Kigali said the facility houses more than 1,200 members from over 20 countries.
The design and construction were done by Rwandan firms; Atelier; and HYGEBAT.
According to Amin Gafaranga, the founder of Atelier the house design is in line with Rwanda’s green infrastructure ambitions and will also bring a new feel to the city.