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Meet the portfolio for the first-ever 2020 VC4A Venture Showcase – Seed Startup entrepreneurs are working to harness Africa’s potential. Together they represent a critical pipeline of innovation that is driving high growth high impact solutions… read more
WHAT WE OFFER Being recognized as 2020 VC4A Venture Showcase entrepreneur Participation in the VC4A Venture Showcase deal room, including 150+ early-stage investor organizations Professional edited 3 minute virtual pitch 30 min deep-dive session with investors in a private room Mentorship and pitch training by partner early-stage investors AWS Activate offers selected cohort AWS credits worth $10,000, tools, resources, and more to quickly get started on AWS. Joining the alumni network and having exclusive access to fundraising opportunities
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA Your company is for-profit, registered as an independent legal entity with less than 3 years of customer service operations; Your company has a product or service already available on the market and serving its first customers; Your highly scalable business model is visible through a growing number of customers or transactions, your pipeline shows future contracts and potential sales; You have a good estimate of your addressable market and potential social impact reach > 1M+ people/year with potential plans to expand across borders; Your product or service is clearly innovative and/or the business model is new and disruptive; Your founding team has 2+ years of time invested and at least one of the co-founders is based on the African continent with an African nationality; You are seeking Seed/pre-Series A investment in the range of $150K to $1M*; While there will be exceptions, your company has received investment above 25K USD from “Founder, Family, Friends & Fans” but not exceeding 1M+ USD; Founder(s) who previously started a successful company is a plus. *Are you raising your Series A Round in between $500K – $10M? Consider applying to the 2020 VC4A Venture Showcase – Series A. Deadline August 14th.
OUR SELECTION CRITERIA Commercial Value of your Product/Service (25%) Your company addresses a real problem in the market. Your product or service is different from others in the industry. Your business model is new and designed for scale. Strategy for Growth (25%) The market size is significant and there is potential to expand locally and into new markets. Your startup is scalable and has a clear strategy for growth. You can show demonstrable progress. Management Team (25%) Your team has the qualifications needed to make the business successful. Market Traction & Financials (25%) We will evaluate your market traction, revenue streams, and unit economics. If any outside funding has been raised before, it’s a plus.
WHAT WE EXPECT FROM YOU Engage with assigned mentors (partner early-stage investors) and VC4A team to prepare your 3-minute and 20-minute presentations, as well as 2-pagers with investor data as part of the deal book; Be prepared to pitch and engage with early-stage investors in the period of November – December 2020 and be part of the VC4A Venture Showcase.
SEED SELECTION COMMITTEE Aaron Fu Catalyst Fund - BFA Alexandra Fraser Dazzle Angels Anna Ekeledo AfriLabs Ashley Daswa Impact Amplifier Ashwin Ravichandran MEST Africa Audrey Mate Village Capital Brett Commaille David van Dijk ABAN Dayo Koleowo Microtraction Jean-Noel Odier Bamboo Capital Partner Khaled Ismail HIMangel Maxime Bayen Catalyst Fund - BFA Max Pichulik Impact Amplifier Mohamed HORRANE Outlierz Ventures Philip Kiracofe Startupbootcamp AfriTech Robert Karanja Villgro Africa Steve Tchoumba ActivSpaces Tamim El Zein Vincent Li Future Hub Yemi Keri Rising Tide Africa
TIMELINE 2020 July 24 – Sept 11 Application period Sept 15 – Oct 13 Selection process / investor review / interviews Oct 14 Seed Venture Showcase participants selection Oct 20 – Nov 6 Mentorship program with VC investors Oct 28 – Nov 6 Technical sessions with VC investors Mid Nov Launch of VC4A Venture Showcase – Seed deal room to 300+ VC investors Nov – Dec Ongoing showcase to VC4A investor network
Access the shortlisted ventures In addition to the list of selected ventures we make the top 70 shortlisted ventures curated by investors available to all VC4A Pro account users below.