Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – soleRebels, Africa’s fastest growing footwear brand, has been selected as one of the top 30 companies to proceed to the next round of judging in the 2011 Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship.

This year's Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship received more than 3,300 applications from top companies in 48 African countries, making selection to the top 30 an already elite category of achievement for the companies selected. The top 30 will be judged again and the Africa Awards will then announce their top 15!!!

The Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship is owned and founded by Legatum a private investment group, based in Dubai, with a twenty-five year heritage of global investing. they manage a multi-billion dollar fund of proprietary capital which is allocated to businesses and programmes that promote sustainable development.

“I am absolutely elated that we have reached the top 30. In itself speaks to the amazing work we have accomplished as a team and the immense potential this company and our brand has,” stated soleRebels founder and managing director Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu.

Legatum is joined by Omidyar Network as a major sponsor of the 2011 Africa Awards. Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing the power of markets to create opportunity for people to improve their lives. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, the organization invests in and helps scale innovative organizations to catalyze economic and social change. To date, Omidyar Network has committed more than $400 million to for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations that foster economic advancement and encourage individual participation across multiple investment areas, including microfinance, property rights, government transparency, and social media. To learn more, visit www.omidyar.com.

Google is also a partner of the 2011 Africa Awards. Their mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Google's strategy in Africa is to get more users online by developing an accessible, relevant, and sustainable internet ecosystem.

• Reducing access as a barrier to all potential users
• Making the Internet relevant and useful to Africans
• Helping strengthen an Internet ecosystem in Africa that is vibrant, sustainable, and self-sufficient in the long-term
• The Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship is collaborating with Google in exploring a number of initiatives to promote African entrepreneurship within the scope of the Africa Awards programme.

Ten Finalists will be honored at this year's invitation-only Gala Awards attended by Africa's business leaders, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and international media. One Grand Prize winner will receive US $100,000 to invest back into the business and employees, and five others will receive awards of US$50,000.