Baobab Network Africa’s #1 Accelerator Program ($100,000 USD funding)

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The Baobab Network is pleased to announce its Africa’s #1 Accelerator Program to help build and fund Africa’s high potential start-ups. The accelerator programme starts with 2 weeks of intensive consulting from The Baobab Network, followed by 3 months of hands-on support from their venture partners and their network of partners/experts, all conducted remotely to ensure founders are not taken away from their businesses for extended periods of time.

Funding Information

They inject the $100,000 USD funding into each startup in one lump sum at the beginning of the accelerator programme.

Eligibility Criteria for Africa’s #1 Accelerator Program

You have to be incorporated in Africa. They understand that incorporating in other jurisdictions, such as the US, may be more favourable for investors, you just need to have a presence in Africa.
They only back African startups. They are a tech accelerator for Africa. They don’t mind if your target market is outside the continent, as long as you are based in Africa and are led and run by an African team.
They prefer to see tech-oriented startups that have built a minimum viable product (MVP) and have some early traction. If you are at the idea stage, you should at least have validated market demand for the product or service. The validation can be in the form of sign-ups from users, a client waiting list that can be verified, offline purchases and other types of evidence confirming that customers are willing to pay for your product.
It is not necessary to already be incorporated as a company. They can assist with the incorporation process.
They understand that it may take time to figure out your product and/or market, what they’d want to see is a business model that has the potential to scale rapidly and achieve strong returns. They also typically prefer being the first investor after family and friends.
They will consider any startup that uses technology to solve crucial problems around them. They are open to other tech-enabled solutions such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) as well as using other existing technology tools to create efficiencies.
They are mostly sector agnostic with a preference for sectors that have the potential to create impact i.e. they would unlikely invest in sectors such as gambling, alcohol etc.
Non-profit organizations are not eligible for the accelerator programme.They only work with for-profit organisations.
They generally prefer teams to solo founders but are still open to applications from those who don’t have co-founders.
It’s important to have the ability to build your product in-house and they would want to see this. Having a technical founder is not mandatory but they like to work with a founding team that has the relevant experience and knowledge in their respective field/sector.
At the moment, they can only back tech-creating or tech-enabled businesses with the potential to scale. This would usually not include agencies that provide custom website/app development or digital marketing services.