If you’re a startup founder in Africa looking for funding opportunities to scale your business, you’ll want to check out these programs. From equity investments and cash prizes to mentorship and technical support, each program offers unique benefits that could help take your business to the next level.
Impacc Venture Program for East African Entrepreneurs
Are you an entrepreneur in Tanzania, Rwanda, or Uganda? With an innovative, local, green product or service? Creating sustainable jobs? In the bottom of pyramid communities? In need of funding to scale your social business? Looking for a true partner at eye level? Then, become an Impacc venture candidate!
Selected entrepreneurs will not only receive funding within 6-12 months but also customized technical support to complement their efforts in building scalable businesses that create local, green jobs.
Benefits: Up to $150,000 in equity investment, mentorship, branding strategy, and business growth support.
Application deadline: Mar 31, 2023
NSIA Prize for Innovation (for Startups, Entrepreneurs & Innovators)
NSIA Prize for Innovation (NPI) is sponsored by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) to bolster innovation in Nigeria’s digital ecosystem, and support homegrown solutions that can drive socio-economic development.
NPI is designed to encourage and support ingenuity within the digital ecosystem and fund early-stage, growth driven solutions, with the aim of driving transformative economic growth, enhancing the nation’s productive capacity, and creating jobs.
Benefits: $255,000 in equity funding and cash prizes for top ten winners
Application deadline: Apr 8, 2023
Learn more about the programme here.
ShEquity Business Accelerator Program for African Female Entrepreneurs
Launched in March 2021, ShEquity Business Accelerator (SHEBA), was created to address the existing gender funding gap by de-risking African female-led businesses, getting them fit for investment and equipping the founders with skills set needed to grow and scale their businesses.
The Accelerator provides venture building and technical support to African female entrepreneurs with impactful and scalable businesses in agribusiness (agritech, production, processing, wholesale & retailing, any other agribusiness value chain aspects), healthcare, tech enabled solutions(fintech, clean-tech, etc.), renewable energies, mobility and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs).
Benefits: Receive up to $250k in funding, hands-on market testing, executive coaching, mentorship sessions, and opportunities to leverage ShEquity and MBC Africa’s networks
Application deadline: Apr 21, 2023
Learn more about the programme here.
WASH Innovation Challenge and Incubation Programme
The 2023 Wash Innovation Fair is the second in the series focused on identifying SMEs with innovative ideas in the WASH Sector and supporting them with technical, commercial and business advice to enable them take their innovative ideas from initiation to market entry.
WASH is making a call for entries for a Hackathon that will culminate in the selection of the top five winners with the smartest and practical ideas fit for implementation.
Benefit: Five top winners receive ₦3.5 million grant to get their WASH Innovation from ideation to market entry
Application deadline: Apr 27, 2023
The Africa Online Safety Fund
The Africa Online Safety Fund will be awarding grants to organizations that address one or more of the safety issues the internet facilitates.
The Africa Online Safety Fund has three categories of funding: Transformative, Maturing and Catalytic. The Transformative projects are intended to be larger in scale, reach multiple geographies and or potentially large numbers of beneficiaries, and be scalable as a solution. The Maturing projects are intended to test ideas at a larger scale, try new ideas within existing projects, and reach new audiences. The Catalytic projects are intended to be smaller, targeted, and potentially only locally or culturally specific.
Benefits: Up to $10,000 for the Catalytic grants, $25,000 for the Maturing grants, and $50,000 for the Transformative grants.
Application deadline: Apr 30, 2023
2023 Orange Social Venture Prize in Africa and the Middle East
Since 2011, the POESAM prize has been awarded to innovative projects by start-ups, based on information and communication technologies that have a positive social impact in Africa and the Middle East in the fields of education, healthcare, e-commerce, and agriculture, or that contribute to achieving sustainable development goals.
Through this prize, Orange, as a committed operator, aims to contribute to socio-economic development, support social and environmental innovation, and encourage entrepreneurship in Africa and the Middle East.
Benefit: €70,000 in total prize to 4 winners
Application deadline: May 21, 2023
