Scholarship for Developing Countries in Engineering Africa's Top 21 Startup Accelerators 1. A small number of other organizations and foundations are also stepping up to help African startups grow. Your email address will not be published. Although large Africa-focused funds such as TLcom, CAIF and Norrsken are well positioned to help startups in seed and growth stages, smaller funds such as Zedcrest Capital are necessary to act as a supporting cast by providing similar amounts of capital. The tech ecosystem in Africa is growing rapidly, and many startup founders will expect to make a decent exit. Egypt remained the destination for venture capital in North Africa, as a $50 million round led by PayPal Ventures in fintech startup Paymob showed. Catalyst is a multi-stakeholder initiative that aims to increase the capital reserve available for promising African entrepreneurs in the growth phase, and to support the start-up ecosystem, including hubs and the business angel networks. Dean Hiine, the startups co-founder and managing director for Africa, told TechCrunch that existing digital payment methods in Africa are scattered and some involve lengthy and complex processes, affecting its conversion rate. Startups in this region have made significant progress in developing their product and business models. Seed funding for African startups can support a wide range of companies. Startups raised $4.6 billion in 2021 itself a record year. A large portion of this seed funding was invested in fintech startups. "Standard Bank has been a pioneer in leveraging blockchain to bring speed and transparency to our customer base across Africa. Advance Africa Scholarships 2024 2024 Business Grants If you are a hub, incubator or an entrepreneur seeking support and financing, you can directly contact our local partners. Google want to bridge the existing fundraising gap for Black startup founders in Africa's fast-growing technology landscape. However, African startups maintained their upward trend despite this slowdown. The African tech ecosystem has shown impressive growth in the last decade, and many investors want to have a seed in this thriving ecosystem. Grants for Entrepreneurs 2025 The CV VC African Blockchain Report successfully depicts a unique holistic overview of blockchain in Africa, which will facilitate funders to make a better judgment of Africa's investment potential. Currently focusing on cricket, Podeum is building an online community . Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Share this: Mareme Dieng, 500 Startups Lead, Global Innovation Strategy, Africa shares 500's vision for Africa. For local funds such as Zedcrest Capital, it also makes sense to create such a fund because theres a much higher probability of getting into good deals that were otherwise overpriced last year. This money can also be used to register their business in the appropriate jurisdiction. How Libyas petroleum sector is taking a tough route to democracy. Masters Scholarships for African Students 2025 World Bank Scholarships for Developing Countries The GSA is Africas largest independent start-up ecosystem competition and an exclusive mechanism for the GIIG Africa Develop to locate, fund, and scale Africas most innovative entrepreneurs with SDG-aligned clean energy solutions. And even though the industry is still in its early days, it has made indelible progress. Along these lines, we identified at least seven companies that collectively raised over $25 million in seed funding in the past four months. It looks at the underlying revolutionary blockchain movement, set to enable Africa to transact and interact for the wellbeing of its people and economies. Grants for Startups in Kenya 2024 AFD supports incubators, hubs and accelerators that promote innovation and entrepreneurship. If successful, seed funding for African startups can yield a decent return. Business Grants in Kenya 2025 It is for this reason that AFD and PROPARCO combine financing, resources and their expertise to support African entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurial ecosystems. African Union Scholarships 2023 They enjoy large market opportunities and boast high growth rates . - The regulatory quagmire is clearing as six nations have regulated, and others are making headway; and - Blockchain in Africa is unique as it is driving from the bottom up, where essential industries are propelling forward with blockchain tech, agriculture, mining, remittances, inclusion, identity, and property, to name a few. Capacity building and direct technical assistance to digital start-ups with high impact potential, Searching for and accessing funding in Africa and around the world to ensure the scaling up of African tech innovations, Supporting public policies favorable to innovative digital entrepreneurs in Africa. The funded start-ups benefit from capacity building via external technical assistance. Opportunities for Youth in Africa 2023 Ventures Africa. ABAN was set up in early 2015 to support the development of networks of investors across the continent. All rights reserved. Besides, the UN Challenge, which will support a changemaker, is also an important source of capital for African startups. Seed funding for African startups is important for a number of reasons. After several years over year and quarter over quarter, the African Fintech sector continues to represent the majority of funding raised on the continent in 2022. The app has active users in more than 170 countries, including South Africa, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. Early-stage venture capital firm Microtraction, which invests in African tech startups at the pre-seed stage, has announced a US$15 million first close of its second fund, counting a number of established African tech startup founders among its LPs. Advance Africa Scholarships 2023 Were still investing in seed from our first fund but we are also going to slow down because the biggest opportunity right now will be in this pre-Series A, said Adedayo Amzat, founder and CEO of Zedcrest Capital. And last year, Y Combinator intensified its participation in Africa. A chart showing the percentage of companies with over $1m . As a result, global startup funding was slow. Some examples of successful exits include Stripe, which acquired Lagos-based startup Paystack for $200 million. By providing seed funding for these startups, these institutions are able to help entrepreneurs develop their products and expand their markets. Opportunities for Entrepreneurs 2023 The strong need to structure and build the expertise of these companies in a hyper-growth phase (governance, HR structuring, retaining and attracting talent, implementation of management systems). Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africas burgeoning tech startup industry. Among the 25 Business Grants for African Entrepreneurs and Startups listed below you will find good funding opportunities for Africans. Okra This Nigerian fintech startup needs no introduction. Eden Care, a licensed Rwanda-based digital insurer which offers affordable, accessible and personalized health coverage to businesses and their employees, has completed a pre-seed funding round from DOB Equity , Seedstars International , Norrsken Foundation, and Bathurst Capital. Click Any for complete overview information and application process. 8. Advertisement. Over $150,000,000 Opportunities for African Entrepreneurs You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh, Your email address will not be published. However, this year has been different. Phd Scholarships for African Students 2024 Plug and Play rounds up the top ten investors ranking, tied with Founders Factory at 18 deals. A pre-seed startup investment round precedes Seed and Series A rounds, and may follow funding from an angel round or a period of bootstrapping with your . African startups have great business ideas, but they need seed funding to get going. AFD works with 4 partners that are experts in supporting and financing digital innovation in Africa: the consortium made up of the African Business Angels Network (ABAN) and AfriLabs, the Greentec Capital Africa Foundation, the association Entrepreneurs & Dveloppement, which draws on the capacities of the Investisseurs & Partenaires group, and the Mercy Corps Europe Suguba consortium. Start-ups to access financial support of up to EUR 300,000. They are often riddled with inefficiencies and red tape in the cases where they exist. ScarabTech, a cleantech start-up, is planning many commercial projects in Africa, Asia, and Australia as a result of a seed funding round from GIIG Africa Fund, a profit and purpose fund. Seed funding is meant to help the startup with its initial growth via product development and marketing research, the funds of which come from incubators, family members . Youth Entrepreneurship Grants in Africa Read it now. Support, co-working spaces, networking, etc. Its portfolio contains many popular startups, such as Flutterwave, Wave, Union54 and Releaf. Your email address will not be published. Africa Startup Initiative Program (ASIP) 2023 for African tech startups. We are also excited to work with Plastics Pirate in Australia, who are already using our technology to clean up plastic pollution threatening the Great Barrier Reef.. Take survey here. To date, CV VC has invested in 12 startups where blockchain-use cases go far beyond cryptocurrencies to drive Africa's future. Last January, FinDev Canada - Canadas development finance institution - invested $13 million in the Energy Entrepreneurs Growth Fund (EEGF), which invests in early and growth-stage energy startups in Sub-Saharan Africa. Global Founders Capital is a great source of seed funding for African startups. 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Following a preselection process, entrepreneurs will have access to operational experts who will help them prepare a 6 to 12-month action plan for their development. Dakar-based Mobile money provider Wave became the first Francophone African startup to be valued at over a billion dollars in 2021 on the back of a $200 million raise but cut its staff by 15% in a challenging 2022. But Algeria and Tunisia also feature in the top 10, the former boosted by a $150 million round by Yassir, one of a few African startups aiming to build a WeChat-like super app. African Union Scholarships 2025 Fully Funded Youth Opportunities 2023 It was founded by Jesse Ghansah and Barima Effah and is expected to launch in June 2021. AFD Group is an active long-term partner, combining financing and technical and strategic assistance. In this article we have listed our top 21 startup accelerators in Africa. Startups raised $4.6 billion in 2021 itself a record year. Undergraduate Scholarships for African Students Image Credits: Zedcrest. Opportunities for Africans 2024 It was also the year the accelerator set up shop in Lagos, Nigeria. "African economies are in danger of even further marginalisation due to macro trends towards economic deglobalisation. The Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme has a mission of empowering young Africans to create jobs and create businesses. "Legitimate Opportunities for Entrepreneurs Available Now" Last year, top investors such as Tiger Global, SoftBank and Sequoia Capital put several million dollars into African startups, especially unicorns, in what was a boost to the continents local ecosystem. Many will also remember 2022 as the year of, Ventures Platform has made over 60 investments since its launch in 2016. This way, we can be sure of the relevance of facts from which we can benchmark forward. Masters Scholarships for African Students 2023 The program supports 10 to 15 African digital start-ups and gives them access to appropriate financing and expertise. Insights from two Black tech founders in Philly on raising capital from VC's, even when the percentage of money going to Black founders is so low. Opportunity Desk 2024 Aside from closing 43 deals, it also increased its standard deal size to $500,000 from $125,000. Short Course Scholarship for Developing Countries 2023 Weekly Economic Index: A bullish summit, a loan bailout, and the worlds longest subsea cable, Ethiopia has lost $410 million to a war-induced internet shutdown, Weekly Economic Index: Starlink in Nigeria, Seychelles tourism rebound and bigger layoffs at Amazon, My Pivot Journal: Stephanie Durugbors journey to becoming a product designer, My Pivot Journal: How Florence got her groove back learning to code. Funding Opportunities for Entrepreneurs 2024 Nigerian trade-tech startup Norebase secures $1m pre-seed funding 0 By Tom Jackson on May 6, 2022 Nigerian trade technology startup Norebase, which is building a single platform for businesses to start, scale and operate in any African country, has secured a US$1 million pre-seed funding round to accelerate its growth. Seed Funding for African Startups 2025 Months after the initial close of its seed round, Talk360, a South African Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) startup, has raised an additional $3 million, bringing the total investment raised in the round to $7 million. Notably, Nigerian startups accounted for one-third of Googles beneficiaries in 2022. The GreenTec Capital Africa Foundation offers an ad hoc financing facility for start-ups that join its program to prepare support for Venture Building, in the form of a repayable loan with a 0% rate of up to EUR 25,000. One of the more significant reasons for the rampant growth of the blockchain sector - is pure necessity. The Tony Elumelu Foundation has also partnered with the Global Founders Capital to offer grant money for African startups. Innovative start-ups/SMEs (health, biotechnology, environment, etc. Scholarship-positions.com Australia Talk360s payment platform will integrate all payment options in the continent creating a diverse pool of localized payment options, making it easy for international and local businesses to sell to buyers residing in Africa. A home swapping network called kindred recently raised $ 7.75 million in seed funding. Opportunities for Nigerians Opportunity Desk Scholarship 2023 Microtraction, an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in African startups at the pre-seed stage, is announcing that it has reached the first close of its second fund,. Crypto Valley Venture Capital (CV VC) has announced the launch of its African Blockchain Early-Stage Fund and published the inaugural African Blockchain Report which provides a compelling structural overview of the emerging blockchain sector and rousing insights regarding its funding. South Africas Talk360 raises $4M to build single payment platform for Africa. In the same month, it made history as the first Rwandan startup to get into the Techstars Toronto Accelerator Program. Download our brochure on the Digital Africa fund Digital Africa fund: Supporting digital startups in Africa Local partners Tied at the top spot with Launch Africa, Google is also making giant strides in African technology. Most investors are not writing checks right now. Start-Ups to access financial support of up to EUR 300,000 want to bridge the existing fundraising gap for Black Founders! Email, and many startup Founders in Africa is growing rapidly, and many Founders! 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