VC4A Calls For Applications to the VC4A Venture Showcase Africa

VC4A announces the call for applications to the VC4A Venture Showcase Africa — 2023, the annual accelerator program that spotlights high-growth, high-impact ventures driving economic growth throughout Africa. The showcase is an opportunity for African founders leading innovative and disruptive startups and scaleups, generating revenue, and looking to raise their Seed or Series A round, to showcase their businesses to the most active investors across Africa.

The aim of the Venture Showcase is to put the spotlight on the best ventures coming up across the African continent and to give African founders the visibility they deserve amongst VC4A’s network of investors. Since its launch in 2017, the VC4A Venture Showcase Africa alumni have raised over USD$630 million (approx. UGX2.3 trillion).

This year’s Venture Showcase is made possible with the partnership of the African European Digital Innovation Bridge (AEDIB) and Work in Progress.

Through VC4A’s partnership with AEDIB, they [VC4A] aim to provide four themed tracks, (1) Climate Smart Agriculture, (2) Smart Cities, (3) Digital Trade, and (4) Clean Tech, in addition to the two primary tracks of Series A and Seed fundraising.

In detail;

Climate Smart Agriculture: innovations that can deliver triple wins for agricultural production: increase productivity, strengthen climate resilience, and reduce agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Smart Cities: innovations that are improving the operational efficiency of a city (transportation, utilities, waste, education, healthcare, and security), promote economic growth, or improve the quality of government services, by improving connectivity and leveraging mobility and commerce applications.

Digital Trade: innovations that can help reduce the environmental footprint for buying, paying for, and receiving deliveries of goods and services. Solutions that connect purchasers and sellers, facilitate electronic payments, and improve access to transportation and logistics within a country but also cross-borders.

Clean Tech: innovations that can address global warming challenges and the preservation of the natural environment. So any solutions that have significant energy efficiency improvements and/or make sustainable use of natural resources.

AEDIB program an EU/Horizon 2020 funded initiative, is dedicated to supporting African startups with disruptive solutions in one of the themed tracks [above] in 11 select African countries; Cameroon, Cote D’Ivoire, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, and Uganda.

Abu Cassim, Acceleration Team Lead at VC4A in a press statement said, “The real value of the VC4A Venture Showcase Africa program is the level of investor engagement.”

Cassim also noted that Investors are involved in referring startups, selecting the most appropriate companies, in the delivery of masterclasses, and in the final pitch process. As a result, participating companies receive visibility from investors throughout the process.

Similarly, the finalists receive mentorship and technical advice directly from the angel investors and VC fund managers that participate in the program. The Venture Showcase and AEDIB are an effective way to get visibility for your fundraising campaign and to connect with prospective investors and partners.

Applications are open (APPLY NOW) until May 17th, 2023.