CNN International Commercial (CNNIC) and African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) are collaborating on a new long-term initiative to showcase, empower and tell the stories of emerging and expanding businesses – known as scale-up companies – across Africa.
In the first partnership of its kind, CNNIC has combined a rich suite of branded content and sponsorship solutions across multiple platforms with Evolve, a brand-new commercial offering to engage CNN’s audiences around the world in a new way about African business and innovation.
In this inaugural Evolve initiative, CNNIC will work together with experts in finance, innovation and investment from Afreximbank, the pan-African multilateral export-import bank, to offer an industry- first scheme that connects Africa’s best scale-ups with investors and customers as well as encouraging intra-African trade.
Starting with a shortlist of 100 high-growth African scale-ups, a final 10 will be selected to take part in the Evolve scheme, with Afreximbank advising and supporting the finalists by offering its expertise acrossarangeofsectorsincludingFinTechandAgriTech.
The10 successful companies will participate in a project designed to establish impactful partnerships and pilots between the companies and a top- tier corporate and investor network taking place across a series of events and meetings over 12 months.
The stories of these companies will be told by CNNIC’s in-house studio Create, which will produce branded content that captures highlights of the growth programme and illustrates Afreximbank’s history and support of innovation and cross-continent commerce.
Through film, native content and pre-roll video across CNN platforms and social media, the initiative will be promoted to a global audience, raising the profile of the companies involved as well as Afreximbank’s role in the initiative.
Rob Bradley, Senior Vice President, CNN International Commercial, said: “This is a first for CNN, and we’re excited to be teaming up with Afreximbank to launch the Evolve initiative. Evolve has been designed to create a legacy of success and impact for the continent, with Afreximbank as the ideal collaborator which is passionate about boosting economic relationships and intra-African trade.
