About Mara Foundation Rona Kotecha

About Mara Foundation
Mara Foundation was established in 2009 as the
social enterprise of Mara Group - a young and
dynamic pan-African investment group with
operations in banking, real estate, infrastructure, and
technology. Mara Group was founded by Ashish J
Thakkar who began his entrepreneurial journey at the
age of 15 and, together with his family, has built up Mara
Group into a company with investments and operations
spanning 25 African countries and 3 continents.
Mara Foundation is the Group’s social enterprise that focuses
on emerging entrepreneurs. The Foundation’s flagship initiative -
Mara Mentor – is a free online mentoring platform, through which
entrepreneurs gain encouragement, support, guidance and most
significantly, vital feedback required for the progression of business
ideas and plans. Mara Mentor enables sustainable economic and
business development opportunities for entrepreneurs.
The online platform is available on mobile applications, on iOS and
Android, with a strong focus on empowering youth and women
entrepreneurs. Start-ups through to businesses at expansion stage
are supported through the platform.
Directly and indirectly, many of the Sustainable Development Goals
impacted though the Foundations work.
www.mentor.mara.com
Rona Kotecha
Executive Director
Mara Foundation
“The Ashish J. Thakkar Global
Entrepreneurship Index offers a powerful
insight into various areas which impact
entrepreneurship globally. Whilst
Mara Mentor enables and empowers
entrepreneurs, the Index will compliment
this by identifying changes that will need
to be implemented in order to create a more
enabling entrepreneurial environment.”
2 Ashish J. Thakkar Global Entrepreneurship Index 2016