August 11th, Lagos – The Founder Institute, the world’s largest pre-seed startup accelerator, and ǼLEX, an innovative full-service law firm established to meet the dynamics of modern-day businesses and to deliver prompt, efficient and quality services, have agreed to collaborate in helping early-stage startups currently enrolled at the Founder Institute Lagos.
ǼLEX believes that startups play a very vital role in the economic growth of any society, by spurring innovation and injecting competition, thereby making a positive investment.
In the words of one of ǼLEX’s Partners, Perenami Momodu,
A lot of startups have challenges selecting the right legal partner to assist them with protecting their intellectual property, registering their businesses, protecting their business interests and navigating through the tortuous regulatory landscape. Our collaboration with the Founder Institute Lagos, therefore, comes out of the need to provide the necessary legal tools that the innovators at the Institute require to make them investment ready to scale.
Founder Institute Lagos and ǼLEX will collaborate to support and provide resources for the 40+ startups joining each cohort of the navy-seal programme. In addition to supporting startup founders throughout Lagos, a goal of this initiative will be to limit risk exposure at the critical early stage, facilitate regulatory compliance and ensure good corporate governance, thereby increasing the success potentials of investors and founders alike, and generally enhancing the growth of the local startup ecosystem.
According to the Director, Founder Institute, Ifedy Eze,
Access to legal advisory and support is one key factor critical to the success of a startup, especially at the pre-seed stage when founders are bootstrapping and not able to afford the high-cost professional services. This partnership offers founders in the programme access to quality legal advisory and a robust bouquet of legal services ring-fenced within a deferred payment plan that ensures that they are not asphyxiated by the usually capital intensive legal demands of building a technology enterprise. ǼLEX has a demonstrated history of providing cutting-edge legal services that empowers their clients to win many times over, and that is the magic we are excited to bring to the table via this partnership.
For early-stage founders and teams up to the challenge, the Founder Institute’s comprehensive step-by-step program provides the structure, mentor support, and global network of entrepreneurs needed to start an enduring company. The Founder Institute is the only program of its kind that focuses on people versus ideas, accepts founders with day jobs, and shares equity with all participants.
Speaking further about the partnership is Founder Institute’s Regional Director for Africa, Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata Jnr, "This collaboration with a reputable law firm such as ǼLEX is indeed one of the ways FI is contributing to building a more sustainable ecosystem."
Founder Institute Lagos Cohort III commences on the 19th of August, 2020, with 40 enrolled founders.
About ǼLEX
ǼLEX is a leading Commercial & Dispute Resolution law firm in Nigeria. They are one of the largest full-service law firms in West Africa with offices in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja in Nigeria and Accra, Ghana.
The firm provides legal services involving commercial practice areas that cover a broad spectrum of matters relating to Technology, Telecommunications, Project Finance, Tax, International Trade, Securities Law, Energy & Infrastructure, Banking & Finance, Arbitration & Litigation and Intellectual Property Law.
Lawyers in the Firm are admitted to practice in several jurisdictions including Nigeria, New York, Texas, Ghana, England and Wales. In addition to qualifying in law, the firm’s lawyers have qualifications in disciplines such as political science, economics, data protection, cybersecurity and engineering.
About the Founder Institute
The Founder Institute is the world's largest pre-seed accelerator. We help pre-funding entrepreneurs and teams build an enduring company by establishing a critical support network of local startup experts that are invested in their success, and providing a structured and challenging business-building process that has helped our alumni raise over $800M. Leaders of the world’s fastest-growing startups have used the Founder Institute to raise funding, get into seed-accelerators, generate traction, recruit a team, build a product, transition from employee to entrepreneur, and more. The Founder Institute was founded in 2009 by Adeo Ressi and Jonathan Greechan, today the program operates across 200+ cities and is localized into 9 languages.
Graduates of the Founder Institute are creating some of the world's fastest growing startups, having raised over $1.85BN in funding, and building products people love across over 200 cities worldwide.
See the most recent news from our Grads at FI.co/news, or learn more about their stories at FI.co/journey.
