Africa's Leading Open Innovation Firm
Connecting the continent's largest institutions to the startup
and talent ecosystems solving their hardest problems.
Who We Are
Heave Ventures builds the infrastructure that connects the continent's largest institutions to the startup and talent ecosystems solving their hardest problems.
Our HQ is Yaba, Lagos — with active programmes across Nigeria, Francophone West Africa and East Africa.
Why We Exist
Banks, telcos, insurers and energy companies face startup disruption from every direction — yet most have no structured way to engage, co-build, or invest in the solutions threatening them.
Most 'innovation' in Africa stops at the hackathon. Without programme continuity, hub management, and commercial pathways, good ideas never become real businesses.
Western frameworks don't map onto African market realities — informal networks, infrastructure gaps, policy constraints, and trust dynamics require a native approach.
What We Do
End-to-end design and delivery of corporate innovation sprints, venture builds, and open innovation engagements.
→Full management of hackathons, incubation programmes, and acceleration cohorts — from design to demo day.
→Design and operation of physical and virtual innovation sandboxes — turning space into productive infrastructure.
→Demo days, ecosystem meetups, and marquee innovation events that build community and attract deal flow.
→Websites, web apps, and proprietary platforms that power our programmes and those of our clients — including VentureOS and Zimara.org.
→Designing and deploying the AI tools, workflows, and open innovation technology stack for institutions and communities.
→How We Implement Innovation Projects
Map the institution's innovation maturity, strategic gaps, and ecosystem connectivity. Define what Corporate-Startup Fit looks like for this client.
Architect the programme — open innovation model, pipeline structure, governance framework, and metrics. We don't template; we design.
Stand up the infrastructure — digital platforms and sandboxes, physical hubs, programme workflows, and AI tooling. Execution with zero outsourcing opacity.
Run the programme end-to-end: cohort intake, mentor networks, corporate matchmaking, investor connections, and continuous reporting.
Transfer capability. Train client teams. Leave behind a self-sustaining innovation operation, not a dependency on Heave.
Our Clients
Banks, telcos, FMCG, energy, insurance — institutions that need structured engagement with startups and digital innovation.
IFC, AfDB, SMEDAN, CBN and bilateral DFIs seeking deployment infrastructure for MSME and innovation mandates.
Ministries, state agencies, and export/trade bodies with formal innovation, digitisation, or SME mandate goals.
Multinationals who need local ecosystem intelligence, trusted partnerships, and supplier/distributor development.
Institutions building tech transfer offices, student venture pipelines, and industry-academia collaboration.
Case Studies
End-to-end design and execution of a national youth fintech challenge for a leading Nigerian bank.
Design, launch and ongoing management of a premium co-working and innovation hub in the heart of Lagos' tech district.
SME Financing Engine
6 structured pillars — financial literacy, revenue design, marketing, operations, governance, and access to finance.
A proprietary SME readiness score — forward-looking, lender-trusted, and richer than any credit bureau output.
Top graduates pitch at Bootcamp and access grants, loans, and equity from our DFI, bank, and investor network.
Corporates, DFIs, and governments can co-brand, fund the facility, or run a 90-day pilot cohort with their SME base.
Why Heave Ventures
The "Open-Innovation is African" framework gives every Heave engagement a proven intellectual backbone — not gut feel or borrowed Western templates. We wrote the book.
Zimara.org is a live platform with its own scoring model and financing pipeline. Most African OI firms have no IP of their own.
Deep Nigeria roots with active cross-border programming in Francophone West Africa and beyond. We don't map African markets onto foreign models.
Every Heave engagement includes AI-native tooling — programme automation to ecosystem intelligence dashboards. This isn't a feature we're adding; it's how we work.
Ready to design, build, or operate your innovation infrastructure? We'd love to hear from you.
www.heaveventures.com