VC4A Venture Showcase – Series A for high-growth African Startups (All expenses paid trip to Cape Town, South Africa)

VC4A Venture Showcase – Series A
(Calling for disruptive scale-ups looking to raise between $250K and $5M)

Program(s) Offered: Entrepreneurs
Program Level: Training, mentorship, networking
Provider: VC4A
Country to Work in: South Africa

Scholarship Description
Venture Capital for Africa (VC4A) announces Series A Venture Showcase as part of 2018 Africa Early Stage Investor Summit.

We’re looking for 8 innovative, high-growth scale-ups to showcase at Africa Early Stage Investor Summit on Nov 11-12 in Cape Town. Are you operating in Africa, generating revenue and looking to raise your Series A round in the range of $250K and $5M? This is the opportunity you’ve been looking for!

VC4A is calling for disruptive African scale-ups looking to raise between $250K and $5M. An exclusive Series A Venture Showcase will take place in Cape Town on November 12, 2018, as part of the annual Africa Early Stage Investor Summit.

Eligibility
Eligibility criteria include:

• Your company is for-profit and registered as an independent legal entity;
• You have a product or service available on the market and generate revenue;
• Your product or service is clearly innovative and/or your business model is new, disruptive and designed for scale;
• You have a very strong management team of at least 3 people;
• Your team is based in one or more countries on the African continent;
• You are seeking Series A investment in the range of $250K – $5M;
• While there will be exceptions, most likely your startup has already received external investment, structured as either debt or equity, or received grants from donor organizations.

Selection criteria:

1. Innovativeness and Scalability (25%): Your company addresses a real problem in the market in a clearly innovative way. Your product or service is different to others in the industry. Your business model is new, disruptive and designed for scale.
2. Strategy for Growth (25%): There is potential to expand into new markets or expand at home. You have a clear strategy how to grow your company and we can see demonstrable progress in terms of customer acquisition plans, new contracts, and key partnerships.
3. Management team (25%): The team has the qualifications needed to make the business successful.
4. Market Traction & Financials (25%): We will evaluate your market traction and look at the potential market size. We’ll also look at your business model, revenue streams and unit economics, and if any outside funding has been raised before.

Eligible groups
Citizens of the following countries:
Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Rep, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Dem. Rep. Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Reunion, Rwanda, São Tomé and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Participating Institutions
Venture Capital for Africa (VC4A), Cape Town, South Africa

Fields of study
Sectors that have been involved include: Agribusiness, Business services, Clean technology and energy, Construction and manufacturing, Creative, media and entertainment, Education, Financial services, Healthcare, ICT, Leisure and travel, Retail and wholesale, Transport and logistics, Water, sanitation and hygiene

Number of awards
8 African start-ups will receive awards

Sponsorship duration
Program dates is between November 9 - November 16, 2018

Scholarship benefits
What we offer

• All expenses paid trip to Cape Town on Nov 9-16, 2018
• 3 min pitch in front of 300+ investors at the Africa Early Stage Investor Summit
• 20 min deep-dive session with investors in a private room
• Two days of networking with investors, including Speaker Cocktail and Industry Leaders dinner
• Mentorship and pitch training by partner VC investors
• Opportunity to attend and pitch at partner events AfricaCom and AfricArena

Method of Application
Applications are done online on the official website. You must log in to your Venture Capital for Africa account to submit your application to 2018 VC4A Venture Showcase – Series A. If you do not yet have an Venture Capital for Africa account, you will need to register and then log in. Click on 'APPLY' on the official website (link to it is below) to begin your application.

DEADLINES:
Application starts July 11th, 2018. Closing date is August 20th, 2018

PLEASE NOTE:
The Africa platform for startup funding, VC4A (Venture Capital for Africa) is a fast growing community of business professionals (entrepreneurs, mentors, investors and organizations) in 159 countries dedicated to building game changing companies on the continent.

In 2017, we showcased 20 scale-ups from the XL Africa program as part of the Africa Early Stage Investor Summit, resulting in a number of Series A deals totalling over $12M. Building on this success, the ‘VC4A Venture Showcase – Series A’ is now integrated as a central component of our annual Summit. This is an exclusive opportunity to introduce your company at once to everyone who’s anyone in Africa’s early-stage investment space.

Application Deadline: 20 August 2018
Open to International Applicants: No (ONLY Africans)

More Scholarship Information and Application

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