Call For Applications: African Impact Challenge 2024 for early-stage African entrepreneurs ($ 25,000 CAD in funding and Fully Funded to Toronto, Canada)
Inspired by The Prosperity Paradox, AIC is run in different African countries every year. In 2022 AIC launched the Pan-African Health Entrepreneurship Stream, which now runs annually with the support of Mastercard Foundation.
The goal of the Health Entrepreneurship (HENT) Challenge is to enable the creation of ventures with positive health outcomes in Africa.
Teams that meet the eligibility criteria will be selected for participation in a comprehensive training and mentorship program, with up to $25,000 CAD in funding for each top performing venture selected. Top teams will also travel to Toronto, Canada for 3-months with all costs covered, to learn and expand their entrepreneurship network. The HENT Challenge is run by the African Impact Initiative and the University of Toronto Entrepreneurship Accelerators (Health Innovation Hub (H2i), The Bridge, and I-Cube). It is supported by the Mastercard Foundation and the African Higher Education Health Collaborative:
ELIGIBILITY
- Young Africans (under 39) who live in the countries of the given year’s challenge.
- A desire to pursue impact-focused entrepreneurship as a means of livelihood.
- A desire to solve critical problems with technology.
- Full time commitment from the team building the venture.
- 2024 Health Entrepreneurship Stream: Pan-African ventures enabling health outcomes.
- 2024 Country Innovation Stream: Scalable ventures based in Botswana from any sector.
- 2024 Community Impact Stream: Social enterprises or nonprofits based in Botswana.
SELECTION CRITERIA
- You should be solving a pressing problem/challenge in your country, by providing a comprehensive solution with clearly defined job(s) to be done.
- Your solution should be technology enabled in its creation and/or use.
- Preference will be given to solutions that target non-consumption, by increasing adoption, accessibility and affordability.
- Preference will be given to innovative business models that are scalable.
Benefits
- The top performing teams from pre-incubation will be interviewed and selected to proceed into incubation. Incubation begins in July, and the selected teams will receive funding and resources up to $ 25,000 CAD each to build their ventures. This is intended to cover pre-seed funding and technology resources.
- A team member from each venture will also visit University of Toronto with travel and living costs covered for 3 months, to learn from Canada’s leading entrepreneurial and investment ecosystem as they build their venture.
Deadline: April 15, 2024
Click HERE to Apply