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Round Two Results Announced

After a keenly contested competition involving twenty seven high quality submissions from around the world, we are glad to announce the Top 3 finalists (alphabetic order) of the 2004 Wharton Africa Business Plan Competition as:

All 3 finalists will present and defend their plans before Venture Capitalists (VCs) and a 350 large business community on November 20th 2004, at the Wharton Global Business Forum. The winners will be decided by a panel of distinguished VCs and business executives.

The alternate finalists, in decreasing order of ranking, are:

Alternate finalists will be required to step-up, in the event that any of the 3-shortlisted finalists is unable to defend her/his plan at the final stage of the competition.

We would like to thank all 8-semfinalists for the very impressive submissions, and as is our tradition, we will provide personalized feedback to all the entrepreneurs to aid the realization of their ventures.

The organizers of the Wharton Africa Business Plan Competition will like to thank all entrepreneurs who participated in the competition, and hope that the entrepreneurs derived a lot of value from the competition. We will also like to especially thank the VCs, business executives and consultants who worked tirelessly with the Wharton community over the past 8 months to get the competition to this point.

At Wharton, we continue to commit to spurring and sustaining entrepreneurship in Africa!

See you all at the grand finale on November 20, 2004 at the Wharton Global Business Forum!!

1. Overview of the Wharton Africa Business Plan Competition
With most business plan competitions focused on U.S.-based enterprises, Wharton Africa Students initiated a business plan competition focused on an often over looked market, Africa. Since its debut in 2001, the Africa Business Plan Competition has come to be known as a leading university based, Africa focused business plan competition in the world. The 3rd Africa Business Plan Competition will be hosted at the Wharton School on Saturday, November 20 2004. The 2004 edition of the conference will be a premier opportunity for entrepreneurs with business ideas that target the Africa market to obtain exposure to their plans.

The top-3 finalists will be invited to present and defend their plans before venture capitalists and investment consultants at the Wharton Africa Business Forum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We encourage you to attend the 2004 Wharton Africa Business Forum and use the unique opportunity to network with investors, business professionals and some of the leading minds in Africa.

2. Eligibility
The Africa Business Plan Competition is open to individuals or groups with entrepreneurial ideas to be based in Africa, or targeting the African market. Participants are neither required to have any affiliation with The Wharton School and/or the University of Pennsylvania.

3. Prizes
Below are the prizes for winners of the 2004 Africa Business Plan Competition:

First Place: $5,000
Second Place: $3,000
Third Place: $2,000

NOTE: The Competition is open to only new businesses and business plans that have not been previously entered in the competition.