AAL Cup 2021

About The Initiative

The President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, announced the African App Launchpad initiative within the closing ceremony of the World Youth Forum (WYF) 2018 on Nov 6, 2018 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
The African App Launchpad (AAL) initiative is an Africa-wide platform aiming to build the capacity of Youth from Egypt and other African States and foster the establishment of sustainable startups in the area of the advanced ever-changing app and game technologies.

AAL targets to build a capacity of 10,000 young calibers and support the establishment of 100 startups in gaming and app development across all Africa. AAL works by availing a high-quality, technology-learning online platform through crowd-sourcing top online content developed by prestigious universities and leading companies, and delivered through three leading MOOCs; Coursera, edX, and Udacity.

Establish your Career in App & Game Development

Enhance your career by learning new technical skills in app and game development. Whether you target to create your own startup or advance to another career, you can rely on the African Launchpad Initiative (AAL) to support your career aspirations.

Competition tracks

• Game Development: Join this track if your startup team is working on game development, VR, or AR applications.
• App Development: Join this track if your startup team is working on specific App development using any technology. (Mobile, Cloud, Web, IOT, AI, .. etc)

Eligibility criteria

• Eligible Africa Countries: Egypt, Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, The Gambia, Nigeria, Togo and Uganda.
• Apply as Teams or Startups up to 2 Years Old
• Team Size not Less than 2 Members
• A Working Prototype at least is a Must

Judging Criteria

The submitted applications as well as pitching will be judged on the 3 following areas:

• Business Model
• ICT Technology Role
• Team Experience and Integration

Prizes and Perks

• Three winners for each of the two tracks: USD 12K, 8K, 4K.
• The other top finalists will receive USD 1K each.
• A real-time online business planning training will be offered to finalists by IBM.
• Top Startups will be invited to join the “Startup with IBM” program through which they can get cloud credits to build and scale their solutions.
• Mentorship and coaching sessions from IBM experts to top winning startups

 To receive the financial prizes:

• The startup is legally established.
• The team successfully completed the business planning course
• At least one team member is AAL graduate or learner, who completed a one-month minimum before receiving the award.

Timeline