The Builders Academy

Founded by CEEDCAP, The Builders Academy is a 9-week venture studio program for founders who want to build the next big things for Africa.

A majority of failed startups associate poor execution, limited funding, and market access as the primary drivers of most innovative ideas.
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The Builders Academy offers founders access to technical resources, funding, domain experts, and industry-specific business support which will help them find product-market-fit for their company.
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The Builders Academy combines CEEDCAP’s Startup Assembly Systems to help founders develop their customer-facing capabilities at high speed while validating market-fit to speed up the venture building process and ease the cognitive load of launching new companies.

What you will benefit as a founder

Practical knowledge
From founders on idea-market-fit, business design, and execution strategy

Venture builders
Dedicated venture builders and $1m worth of resources to build.

Governance structure
Gain insights into IP protection, business and investment readiness.

Early funding
The Builders Academy offers faster access to CEEDCAP’s pre-seed funding.

What is The Builders Academy?

– 12 Exemplary founders will be admitted into the first Cohort

– 9 Weeks of intensive building & execution strategy

– 24 Mentors & founders with experience in building internet companies

– USD 1M worth of venture building perks, developers credits, MVP funding

Who can apply?

The Builders Academy is open to technical/non- technical entrepreneurs who want to become startup founders and have a strong desire to build technology solutions for human needs.

We are looking for audacious founders who share the following:

• The desire and competency to launch their ideas
• Startups that are in the ideation phase
• Has attempted to build something awesome that failed
• Soft skills, a Vision, Focus, Resilience, and Leadership qualities
• Can commit full-time to the 9 weeks program

FAQs

How long does the program run for?
The program runs for nine weeks. The first six weeks consist of venture design, venture operations and venture management sessions. The last three weeks is for mentoring and coaching teams, product development and mock pitches.

What benefits do I get from joining the program?
Industry experts mentoring, market access partnerships, and investor connections at early-stage. The intention is to give founders more time to experiment and validate their ideas and expose them to large networks of partners and early adopters.

Will the program be in person or online?
The program will be virtual

Is my idea safe with you?
Our team consists of highly professional individuals. We respect confidentiality and we won’t disclose your idea without your permission. Your ideas will be used only for the purpose of assessing your application to The Builders Academy.
You should also remember that ideas are a dime a dozen, so there is a good chance there are many people thinking about the same idea. We have found that although ideas might be similar, execution always differentiates the successful startups from the unsuccessful.

What sectors are you interested in?
We want to see audacious Healthcare, Financial, eCommerce/Marketplace, Media/Communication, and Data/Artificial Intelligence solutions

What are your selection criteria?
Completed applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis by a carefully put-together selection committee.