The Africa Impact Challenge

Helping Africa’s brightest minds go from idea to MVP to market

The goal of the African Impact Challenge is to build the Africa we want to see, by investing in our continent’s early innovators. We’ enable them to build market-creating innovations, which tackle their country’s biggest challenges with technology

Inspired by The Prosperity Paradox, it will be run in different African countries every year. Our 2020 pilot was in Ghana, followed by the 2021 challenge in Kenya and recently the 2022 Challenge in Rwanda. This year we are expanding to South Africa, and introducing a pan-African health-focused stream. Top performing teams will receive up to $25,000 in either grant funding or equity investment and travel to Toronto, Canada for up to 4-months with all costs covered, to learn and expand their entrepreneurship network. Registration for the 2023 challenge closes on April 15th.

Our target is to successfully kick-start innovations aligned with our selection criteria across the continent. We do this by providing the capital, resources and guidance necessary for early founders to begin from scratch and build viable solutions.

Overview

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April 15, 2023
Organizer African Impact Initiative
Website Visit website
Targets Africa
Sectors Sector agnostic

What you can expect

Eligability

  • 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.
  • Stream 1: Ventures based in South Africa from any sector
  • Stream 2: Ventures based across Africa that enable positive health outcomes

Selection Criteria

  • our idea should address an identified problem/challenge in your country, by providing a comprehensive solution through a clearly defined job 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 or affordability.
  • Preference will be given to innovative business models that are scalable.

Portfolio

Name Country Sector(s)
Emergency Response Africa
Treating every emergency with urgency
Nigeria Healthcare providers and services
Vectorgram Health
Scaling up ai-powered Breast Cancer Diagnosis for Kenyan Hospitals.
Kenya HealthTech
MedPack
Your medication Made easy #pharmacykiganjani
Tanzania, United Republic of Healthcare, Healthcare providers and services, Hea…
Rocket Health
Healthcare at your fingertips
Uganda Healthcare, Healthcare providers and services, Sex…
Food Bundles
Optimize fresh food supply chain by linking farmers to consumers.
Rwanda Agritech, E-commerce, Food and beverage

Activity