Gen F Entrepreneur In Residence 2024

Are you an aspiring entrepreneur or founder with an early idea/concept in need of a support partner to ignite it? Do you have an innovative idea that just needs that next-step support to move from 0 to 1?

Bootstrapping a new idea is hard. It requires certain skills and most founders can’t take the financial risk.

How can Gen F help you build? We give you an experimentation budget and access to experts to test and launch your idea. You’ll then qualify to pitch for up to $250k further funding to launch it.

Who is Gen F for?

• Exceptional founders/aspiring entrepreneurs looking to build out and test their ideas, achieve commercial success and create outsized, systemic impact.
• Outstanding professionals and domain experts looking to make the transition from the corporate environment to entrepreneurship.
• Founders looking to build tech solutions that solve Africa’s largest problems and catalyse change.
• Entrepreneurs who have a keen eye for local market gaps and a sharp sense for local problems that they are passionate about solving.

Who qualifies for the Gen F Initiative?

Aspiring founders with the relevant background building a VC-backable startup. These could be:

• Former startup founders who understand what it takes to build startup ideas
• Domain experts who have a unique insight into the problem they are trying to solve
• Corporate professionals looking to move into entrepreneurship due to a gap in the market that they have identified
• Senior operators who have worked in an African startup previously
• Founders with a well-researched concept solving a deep African problem in a large market
• Founders who are able to commit full-time to refine and validate their concept for 10-12 weeks, and then move full-time into their startup
• Ideas with high potential for commercial returns, with embedded impact
• Founders who are at the earliest stages of building their startup idea (pre-revenue)

During GenF, we provide:

• A competitive once-off budget to run market validation experiments
• Working closing with our venture builders to refine your concept and help you prep for IC
• If Investment Committe approved: Free access to our studio services to launch your startup and up to $250 000 in funding available

Note: We don’t take payment from founders (in the form of a programme fee or otherwise) to participate in GenF.

If this sounds like you, apply here. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.