Opportunities
Innovate Ventures Invites Applications to 2021 Women Business Accelerator-Somaliland
Innovate Ventures, the leading startup accelerator and tech fund in Somalia and Somaliland has open application for the 2021 Women Business Accelerator for women techpreneurs.
The 2021 Women Accelerator is a 4-week program that will select, offer essential business skills training and fund female-owned startups in Somaliland.
The tech startup accelerator was established in 2012 and it is the early-stage startup fund supporting ambitious startups who use technology to change the world in the country. Innovate Ventures has also run accelerators, coding camps and incubators in the Somali regions since its started operating.
The top 4 startups will receive funding of up to US $20,000 from Innovate Ventures. They primarily offer mentorship, investment, office space, training, networking and exposure for startups.
The Women Business Accelerator program reportedly has an alumni network of over 50 startups and having invested over US $150,000 in 18 most promising businesses, so far.
Who is eligible for 2021 Women Business Accelerator?
- Any female business owner or a woman with a business idea
- She must be between the ages of 18 and 35
- The female founded business should be based in Somaliland
- And by dictate, owners must be committed to attending the accelerator program in Hargesa
Innovate Ventures has invested over US$ 100,000 in the over 50 startup companies it has helped. They continue to ensure that they spot and back world class entrepreneurs in Somaliland and Somalia before they are known as the next big thing.
Their three month intensive flagship programme dubbed Innovate Accelerator Programme (IAP), has helped support great teams with scalable ideas to build world-class businesses.
Nasiye Services is one of such startups which is the largest company of it’s kind throughout the Somali regions. It was founded by young Somali entrepreneurs in 2018. The tech startup provides services from Booking Hotels, Renting Houses and Offices and more, online. In spite of the challenges, they have picked themselves up and found their way back once after a torrid period.
On the green ventures front, Plastic Venture, another startup with Innovate Ventures, recycles plastic bags and empty bottles and turn them into affordable bricks, and stone pavement for construction.
For more of the benefits and application process for the 2021 Women Business Accelerator program, continue here and apply. Deadline for submitting applications is the 31st of January, 2021.
Check out another women focused program for Africa entrepreneurs.
Opportunities
Apply to the Africa Young Innovators for Health Award & Win US$40,000
Africa Young Innovators for Health Award have launched their maiden challenge designed to highlight and support the work of trailblazing young entrepreneurs developing health innovations on the continent. The deadline for submitting applications is the 31st of March, 2021.
Organizers of the Africa Young Innovators for Health Award want to, with this initiative, encourage business entrepreneurship and help advance promising health care solutions that support and empower healthcare workers – those on the frontline of delivering healthcare to communities.
They therefore look out for innovative healthcare solutions directed at supporting, protecting, and empowering healthcare workers through solutions such as training programmes, providing protective equipment or improving the quality of healthcare.
Who qualifies to apply?
- Interested persons wanting to apply must be between the ages of 18 and 35 at the time of submitting applications for the Award and must also be a citizen or resident of an African country.
- Successful applicants will have to demonstrate how their inventive healthcare solution is scalable, measurable and makes a lasting impact on healthcare workers.
How applications are evaluated
Applicants need to show their innovation is scalable, measurable, have a sustainable and positive impact on healthcare workers and that their innovation is commercially viable and at least at the proof of concept stage.
Submissions will be evaluated based on the following:
- Innovation: The solution must have an innovative character, meaning it must break new ground and meet a challenge in its city, region or country.
- Scalability: The applicant must show the innovation can be scaled up and used in a wider region of the country, neighboring countries or across the continent.
- Impact: Your solution must show a measurable and sustainable impact on health. Importantly, the health solution needs to show not only that it supports, equips, protects and trains healthcare workers but that this is measurable and can be maintained and is therefore sustainable.
- Commercial viability: The innovative solution must be commercially viable, so they have to see that it is a business proposition, that it can compete effectively with its competitors and make a profit.
Benefits of the African Young Innovators for Health Award
Grand prize – $40,000
Second prize – $20,000
Third prize – $15,000
Participants will enter a 3-month Business Mentorship program from successful entrepreneurs.
If relevant, successful applicants will get technical support with Intellectual Property protection.
You will gain exposure and recognition from global healthcare leaders and the public.
The Africa Young Innovators for Health award is ably supported by IFPMA, a research-based pharmaceutical companies and associations across the globe and SpeakUp Africa, a policy and advocacy action tank dedicated to catalysing leadership, enabling policy change, and increasing awareness for sustainable development in Africa. APPLY HERE
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