Assessing the challenges faced by Zambian start-ups in accessing external capital funding from Business Angels and Venture Capitalists

Start-ups globally have become an important conduit of economic development. They are often delineated as efficient and prolific job creators the seeds of big businesses and the fuel to an economic engine. Despite their ultra-contribution they still face daunting hurdles in accessing external capital necessary to scale up. This paper investigates key challenges Zambian start-ups face in accessing external capital funding from business angels and venture capitalists. On the basis of extensive reviewed literature coupled with qualitatively semi-structured interviews detailed data upon which inference is drawn was collected from both start-up owners and financiers in question. Using clusteri...