Digital Energy Challenge 2025 for Startups in Africa (Up to €150,000 Grant funding)

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Are you a start-up looking to scale up your digital innovation project in Africa’s energy sector? The 2025 Digital Energy Challenge for Start-ups will reward 3 to 4 Start-ups that are developing digital innovative projects aimed at accelerating access to energy, boosting the energy transition and improving the operational efficiency of players in the energy access and grid services in Africa.

The three themes for the 2025 call for projects are:

Universal electricity access and mini-grids: Digital innovations in the field of mini-grids to maximize their efficiency and impact: energy management systems for the optimal use of clean and renewable energy; software and hardware technologies for an efficient integration of productive use assets; storage systems and algorithms minimizing the use of fossil fuel generators; tools to facilitate interconnections with the main grid and with other mini-grids; systems and algorithms for building-up nanogrids; geospatial data analytics for power demand evaluation and/or credit risk assessment.
Efficient grid management: Digital services and products ensuring a proper operation of the power grid, with a focus on: information availability and communication systems; streamlining Business-As-Usual grid operational management practices of the power system; increased power availability and service quality.
Resilience and decarbonation of power systems: Digital-based solutions enabling the development of a greener and more resilient power infrastructure (encompassing generation systems as well as the grid): additional renewable capacity; grid stability and flexibility; energy savings at the end-user level (Commercial & Industrial as well as households).

Digital Energy Challenge Benefits

Each winning Start-up will benefit from:

Financial support of up to €150K including: Grant funding to contribute to costs for equipment, software, training and recruitment ; Technical assistance (awarded on a case-by-case basis), which could include project management support, strategic and technical expertise, and accounting/reporting assistance,
A joint boot camp run by cross-sectorial experts, to support project implementation, provide sectorial insights, foster synergies between project winners and encourage best-practice sharing,
Widespread communication campaigns piloted by AFD during the selection phase, award ceremony, bootcamp and for a period of time after these events.

Eligibility Criteria

The Start-up must meet the following criteria:

Created less than 10 years ago
Be in the pre-seed/early-stage financing phase i.e. less than €1M funding raised
Annual turnover of less than €1M
Employ between 1 and 99 people full-time

NGOs can apply under the Start-up category if the project meets one of the additional following criteria:

The project is set up as a company as a branch of the NGO
The project has a dedicated team and business plan and clearly targets business sustainability/profitability (e.g. plans to spin off as an independent entity)

Finally, the Start-up’s project must adhere to one of the three above-mentioned themes and be:

Digital i.e. based on a telecom, computer or cloud-based technology
Innovative, either intrinsically or compared to the local market
Local i.e. headquartered or with project management activities in the country of the project

Eligible Countries

Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo Democratic Republic, Congo Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.