Founders of pre-seed African startups are invited to apply for the DFS Lab accelerator. We offer funding of up to US$50,000 and additional support to companies building the future of digital commerce in Africa.

Applications are currently open for its next cohort, participants in which will receive an initial US$25,000 in pre-seed funding, with the option for additional investment at a later date. In addition, DFS Lab also provides post-investment support that includes a tailored growth plan for each team, office hours, mentor matching, and cohort-wide meetings.

The program culminates in a virtual demo day, with DFS Lab introducing teams to its own network of investors. The program is entirely remote and is aimed at startups with at least a minimal viable product and considerable user feedback.

What geographies do we invest in?

We invest in Africa broadly, but we are focused on geographies where the addressable markets are large enough for high-growth companies to succeed.

What do we invest in?

We invest in digital commerce companies serving African markets. Our portfolio includes mostly fintech, ecommerce, and logistics startups, but if you’re creating businesses that will define the future of commerce on the continent, we’re interested.

What stage do we invest in?

We are oftentimes the first check into a company aside from “family and friends.” Our focus is then helping our portfolio companies raise their pre-seed rounds at which point we may top-up our investment in the most promising companies.

How to apply?

We have an open application process. We also work with an exceptional team of venture scouts who can refer you to our team for consideration.

How far along does your product have to be?

We like to see companies with at least a compelling minimal viable product and considerable user feedback.

What does the process look like after selection?

We select our cohort and invest $25K in each team with an option to up our investment later on. We then help you build a solid foundation for your startup, including a set of shareable materials designed to help validate your team’s vision. We also introduce teams to our own network of investors who are excited to meet and help our cohort companies.

After your pre-seed round, we work with your team for 4-6 months on a growth plan that leads to your next round of financing. Eventually, we serve as frank friends while you continue to participate in our community.

Is your support program in-person or remote?

Our support program is entirely remote and designed with virtual communities, toolkits, and processes in mind. Luckily, we’ve been fully remote since our inception so we’ve had plenty of time to zero-in on what works.

Sector: E-commerce, Fintech & Logistics

Application deadline: September 26, 2020

Submit Application via https://dfslab.net/apply/

Startup ecosystems play a critical role in providing an environment in which African startups can thrive and grow. In many countries, these systems are still young and thus often vulnerable to unforeseen events such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Unexpected shocks can interrupt the operations of startups, incubators, universities, and even large firms for a significant amount of time. It is therefore important to strengthen the ecosystems’ ability to rapidly recover from negative events. Such resilience is also the key enabling factor to ecosystems’ development and growth.

The Southern Africa Innovation Support Programme (SAIS 2) RE: innovation challenge is now calling for proposals of solutions to make Southern African startup ecosystems more resilient and better able to face an uncertain future.

The RE: innovation challenge call is open from Wednesday, 26 August, to Sunday, 27 September 2020 at 23:59 CAT.

Criteria:

• You have identified a challenge to and a solution that strengthens the resilience of a startup ecosystem in one of the following countries: Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, or Zambia.
• The solution is technology-enabled and easily adapted for quick implementation.
• You have a project consortium comprising innovation support organizations such as incubators, hubs, labs, and accelerators as well as research/academia, private sector and public entities, and/or NGOs hosting and supporting youth entrepreneurship and startups.
• Your project consortium must have at least one innovation support organization as a member, which will also act as the project coordinator.
• Your project coordinator is a registered legal entity in one of the five SAIS 2 partner countries (Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia).

How Benefits

• A maximum of six (6) projects will be selected pilot testing or validating the proposed solution.
• Each selected project will receive a SAIS 2 grant of between EUR 30,000 and EUR 50,000 per project, depending of the project budget proposed. The applicant has to provide at least 20% matching funding to counter the SAIS 2 grant (10% cash and 10% in-kind).
• Selected projects will have a maximum of five (5) months start and finish their project, including the project launch, piloting/validation, and final reporting.
• Selected projects will have an opportunity to present the solutions and the results to a network of entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem stakeholders, which could lead to new opportunities for the proposed solution.

The innovation challenge call is open from Wednesday, 26 August, to Sunday, 27 September 2020 at 23:59 CAT.

Once you have read the documents above, click here to be taken to the SmartMe Application form or visit http://www.saisprogramme.org/fund/reinnovation

Instructions for signing up and activating your SmartME profile is available in the RE: innovation Guide for Applicants.

Access over $1.5 million in funding is available for MIT Solve's 2019 Challenges.

About the challenge

• Anyone, anywhere around the world can submit a solution to Solve's Challenges. You can be an individual, a team, or an organization. You can be an applicant from previous years or already part of our community. If you have a relevant solution, we hope you'll apply. For full participation details, please see our Terms of Service.

Areas of focus

• Circular Economy
• Community-Driven Innovation
• Early Childhood Development and
• Healthy Cities. 

Solutions focus

Solve seeks innovative, human-centered, tech-based solutions to our Global Challenges. Solution applications must be written in English. We will consider solutions at all stages of development:

• Idea: We welcome you to submit your solution idea, but please note that concept-stage solutions are unlikely to be selected. You have until the submission deadline to prototype and experiment with your idea!
• Prototype: A venture building and testing its product, service, or business model. Typically described as "pre-seed" if for profit.
• Pilot: An enterprise deploying a tested product, service, or business model in at least one community. Hybrids and for-profits would typically be in a "seed" round and generating revenue (whether or not they are cash flow positive).
• Growth: An enterprise with an established product, service, or business model rolled out, which is poised for further growth in multiple communities or countries. Organizations at this stage should have a clear path to sustainability. For-profits at this stage would be "seed" or "Series A."
• Scale: A sustainable enterprise working in several communities or countries that is looking to scale significantly, focusing on increased efficiency. For-profits in this stage would be "Series A" or "Series B."
• Partnership Potential: The applicant clearly explains how the solution would benefit from the broad range of resources that the Solve community is positioned to provide.

Through open innovation, Solve is looking for a diverse portfolio of solutions across geography, development stage, and team members’ gender and background. We encourage people of all backgrounds to submit applications.

APPLY NOW 

Deadline

1 July 2019 

The International Fund for Cultural Diversity (IFCD) is a multi-donor fund, established by the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005) to support its implementation in developing countries.

Eligible projects

The IFCD invests in projects that lead to structural change through:

• the introduction and/or elaboration of policies and strategies that have a direct effect on the creation, production, distribution of and access to a diversity of cultural expressions, including cultural goods, services, and activities;
• the reinforcement of human and institutional capacities of the public sector and civil society organizations, deemed necessary to support viable local and regional cultural industries and markets in developing countries.

Who can apply

• Public authorities and institutions from eligible countries (developing countries, Parties to the 2005 Convention).
• Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from eligible countries (developing countries, Parties to the 2005 Convention)
• International non-governmental organizations (INGOs) registered in countries Parties to the 2005 Convention

Funding amount

Maximum 100,000 USD

African Union seeking for the ICT innovative project to enhance education delivery in Africa. There is a high need to innovate education development, provision, and delivery, taking advantage of the digital revolution. As the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA) states, ICT is a major tool for ensuring universal access, quality of provision and delivery, and empowerment of school graduates for meaningful personal lives, and contribution to social economic development. ICT opens up possibilities for innovation, entrepreneurship, and employability; flexibility in pedagogies; beating the limitation of time and space for varied learner needs, and simply enhancing confidence and dignity of graduates at all levels.

Types of projects to be submissions

• Practical Innovations:

Provide a summary description of the innovation, stating the problem it addresses, the unique outcomes that have been achieved, and the possibility of enlarging the scale of operation. Explain briefly how the innovation can be up-scaled, replicated and sustained. Use a maximum of 500 words. The Innovation must not have been submitted for the African Union’s Innovating Education in Africa Expo before.

• Academic Papers

Papers should present original quality research with the potential for practical application. Submit a succinct Abstract of no more than 150 words; and a paper with a maximum of 1,000 words including references.

Eligibility Criteria

• Innovation should be in the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Education;
• You should not have been previously awarded the AU Education Innovation Prize;
• The individual submitting on his/her own behalf or on behalf of an organization must be a citizen of an AU Member State;  The submission must be made by the original author or developer of the innovation or staff of the organization that developed the innovation;
• The innovation must have demonstrated impact, with potential for wide dissemination in Africa;
• The individual or organization submitting must consent to have their innovation publicized across the continent for purposes of replication;
• Each individual or organization must submit only one innovation.

Benefits for successful applicants

• Presentation of their innovations at the Innovating Education in Africa Expo 2019.
• Funding support to participate in the event.
• A chance to receive the AU Education Innovation Prize.
• Publication of the innovations in the Africa Education Innovations Handbook 2019.
• Membership of the Africa Education Innovators Network (AEIN)
• Certificate of recognition for Innovation

Deadline for Submissions in 30th April 2019

Read more or visit the African Union website.

Do you have a great idea but you don't know where to start? Contact us or  Schedule a call or meeting and let's discuss.  We will assist you.

The Global Innovation Fund is open for social innovations that aim to improve the lives and opportunities of millions of people.

Funding structure:

• Pilot: Early state innovation project. Looking for testing core assumptions and financial viability (Maximum amount per project is US$230,000).
• Test and Transition: The innovation project has completed initial testing and is now transitioning to a larger scale(The maximum amount per project is $2.3 million)
• Scale: The innovation project has solid operational, social and financial viability. The project has improved the lives of those living on less than $5 PPP per day. You want to replicate the project in new countries( Maximum amount per project is $15 million)

Who is Eligibility: Private companies, NGOs, Institutions and government agencies.

Location: Developing countries 

Read more

THE CHALLENGE: How can digital identification systems in developing countries be better designed or adapted to protect people’s privacy and empower them with greater control over their personal data?

The World Bank is looking for creative ideas, components, the innovative use of existing technologies or complete solutions from academics, entrepreneurs, scientists, technologists, and engaged citizens

1. Provide greater oversight and control of personal data. 

The initiative that enables users to inspect, update and correct personal data; provide transparency regarding who has accessed their data and for what purpose; and the ability to seek redress for unauthorized use.

2. Prevent the misuse of personal data.  

The initiative that can protect misuse or unintended disclosure, such as through minimizing, hiding, compartmentalizing personal data, tamper-proof logs, or other means

Read more and apply 

The Imagining Africa's Futures project is launching a call for expressions of interest for local champions in Africa. Local champions are expected to be key constituents of UNESCO and its partners' effort to conduct research in Futures Literacy by co-designing and co-running Futures Literacy Laboratories in their local communities. Local champions can be a team of driven individuals or organizations. Futures Literacy Laboratories (FLL) are currently in the prototyping phase of the innovation cycle.

Objectives

• Revealing people’s anticipatory assumptions,
• Enhancing their capacity to use the future for different reasons and in different ways in different contexts,
• Enabling them to ask new questions, and
• Allowing for a better understanding of what is FL and how to design/conduct FLL
• Reveal Novelty rather than Predictions: The shift Futures Literacy suggests is from Anticipation-for-Future to Anticipation-for-Emergence.

Role of a Local Champion

The local champion will take the lead in the determining the specific topic, participants, tools and follow-up related to the FLL-NP. They will take responsibility for a significant share of the costs of implementing the FLL-NP. Any candidate who expresses interest in conducting an FLL-NP is committed to becoming a key constituent and actor of the research process for the refinement and assessment of the IAF prototype.

Submission Deadline: open call. Deadline for the first wave of selections: 24 March 2019.

Read more 

Are you an ambitious scale-up that is creating a more sustainable travel industry? Do you want to learn from one of the industry’s biggest players to grow both your business and impact? Would you like the opportunity to pitch for up to €500,000?

SAIS 2 is inviting organisations that support innovation and entrepreneurship in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to submit Concept Notes and subsequently Full Proposals for grant funding  through the SAIS 2 Innovation Fund  Second Call for Proposals (CfP 2018/2). The call  will open  for  the submission of Concept Notes  via the SmartME portal  on the SAIS 2 website from 29 November 2018 and close 24 January 2019.

The overall objective of the SAIS 2 Call for Proposals 2018/2 is to support enhanced regional innovation cooperation and national innovation systems contributing to inclusive business and development. With this Second Call for Proposals, SAIS 2 seeks to identify concrete projects with well-defined goals that are to be achieved by a partnership of organisations from different SADC countries.

Innovation support organisations from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia such as research/academia, civil society and in particular from the private sector – such as innovation hubs, labs, networks, incubators and accelerators hosting and providing services for entrepreneurs – are encouraged to apply.

SAIS 2 FUNDING WINDOWS

Concept Notes for grant funding across these three funding windows are invited:

• Window 1: Developing Institutional Capacity for Regional Innovation Cooperation.
• Window 2 : Scaling Enterprises Through Stronger Innovation Support Organisations.
• Window 3: Improved Enabling Environment for Inclusive Innovation Activities in the Region.

Successful grantees, specifically the Project Coordinators of projects from the first Call for Proposals are not eligible to apply

Read more www.saisprogramme.org