Are you an early-stage startup seeking to build a successful impact-driven business? Apply for the 2023 Savvy Global Fellowship!
Savvy Global Fellowship, a virtual fellowship program, seeks to support early-stage startup entrepreneurs to build impact-driven business solutions. Savvy Global Fellowship is a 12-week program that has trained over 8,350 early-stage startups from 159 countries across the globe. Through the program, fellows benefit from business training on topics like fundraising, team building to execute business strategies, creating publicity for products or services, scaling into a new market, and ensuring customer retention and loyalty.
Applications are open to early-stage entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 40 years. Interested applicants should demonstrate a willingness to learn and create sustainable change in society and the world. Selected applicants will go through the following during the program:
- E-learning: Fellows will learn all aspects of business, ranging from ideation to scale
- Assessment: Fellows will take a combination of multiple-choice quizzes to identify their strengths and weaknesses
- Peer mentorship: Fellows will be paired with experienced peers to facilitate guidance and knowledge transfer
- Expert mentorship: Fellows will benefit from expert mentorship from over 100 renowned experts across different industries
- Certificate of completion: After 12 weeks, fellows will receive a certificate of completion and have access to the Savvy platform for information on impact entrepreneurship, personal branding, capacity building, and professional opportunities
To apply for the Savvy Fellowship Program, visit: Application
Are you a FoodTech or AgTech company in need of funding? Apply for the Cohort 4 of the Growth Impact Accelerator program before 24 February 2023
GROW, a global agriculture and food technology accelerator, invite applicants for the 4th cohort of the Growth Impact Accelerator Program, backed by AgFunder. The program seeks to support foodtech and agtech startups tackling the global challenge of sustainability. Through the program, successful applicants will receive USD 100,000 in investment funding from AgFunder. Participants will receive additional benefits including:
- Access to growth partners for product testing, development, and scaling
- Matching with global agrifood multinational corporations to support customer validation and feedback, deploying pilot projects, and securing new sales contracts
- Access to AgFunder’s private and institutional investment global networks to support fundraising
- Access to an experienced team of coaches and mentors
- Access to physical workspace in Singapore (or virtual office address, if overseas) throughout the program duration
- Access to media exposure and publicity through AgFunder’s news platform, events, and a demo day at the conclusion of the program
- Support with Singapore EntrePass visa application through GROW’s partnership with Enterprise Singapore
Interested applicants should have solutions in the following areas:
- Advancing smallholder farmers
- Supply chain rationalization
- Alt-proteins and novel foods and ingredients
- Climate-smart agriculture and aquaculture
- Personalized nutrition & health
- Food waste valorization
- Circular economy
To apply for the program, visit: Application form
Are you a social entrepreneur that addresses the most pressing needs in your community? Apply for funding from the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation
The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation (DRK), a global venture philanthropy supporting early-stage, high-impact social enterprises, invites social entrepreneurs to apply for funding. The foundation seeks to support outsized impact through entrepreneurs and enterprises that address pressing societal problems affecting people.
The foundation seeks to find social enterprises that fulfil the following:
- Address a critical social or environmental issue as the focus of their work.
- Have founders who intend to expand their impact significantly over time.
- Be operating in Africa, Europe, India, Latin America, and the United States
- Be an independent non-profit or impact-first, mission-driven for-profit entity.
- Have one or more founders who are full-time or intend to be.
- Demonstrate diversity of people proximate to the problem at hand and a commitment to foster justice, equity, inclusion, and belonging practices.
- Have a program, product or service already in the market with an early indication for impact.
Applicants admitted for interviews will be taken through three phases of interviews, including the explanatory phase, initial due diligence phase and final diligence phase, to assess their eligibility for funding. Successful applicants will be accepted through a final due diligence phase to work towards clear goals for the new venture, including metrics and milestones to help the social enterprise achieve its mission.
Applicants that have successfully passed through all the interviews will receive funding twice a year over a three-year term, totalling USD 300,000.
To apply for the opportunity, visit: Application form
Do you want to expand your tech business into global markets? Apply for the Eastern Africa Startup Awards before 31 January 2023
The Global Startup Awards, an independent startup ecosystem competition, invites applicants for the Eastern Africa Startup Awards. The Eastern Africa Startup Awards connect East African tech startups across the region to a global network of leading innovators and investors. The competition will award and support entrepreneurs and innovation ecosystem leaders making an impact in the following areas:
- Environmental sustainability
- Inclusive economic growth
- Emerging technologies and innovation
- Cross-border collaboration
Successful applicants in the competition will benefit from the following:
- Access to new markets
- Access to funding opportunities
- Access to a global network of leaders
- Exposure on a global stage
The competition process also brings together local ambassadors, country partners, national and international jury members, and key advisors to identify innovative startups in all aspects of the ecosystem.
To apply for the competition, visit: Applications
Call for applications for the Qualcomm Make in Africa Startup Mentorship program! Apply before 28 February 2023
Quality Communications (Qualcomm) invites applicants for the Qualcomm Make in Africa Startup Mentorship program. Through the program, Qualcomm seeks to identify and support promising early-stage startups interested in applying advanced connectivity and processing tech to innovate end-to-end systems solutions. Successful applicants will receive the following benefits:
- One-on-one mentorship with Qualcomm leaders regularly until product realization
- Masterclass on product management, pitch clinic, hardware architecture and intellectual property rights
- Demo day with the startup ecosystem
- Networking with industry leaders, venture capitalists, investors and other accelerators
To apply for the program, visit: Applications
Are you a tech startup looking to partner with tech companies in Europe? Apply for the Virtual Partnership Programme before 29 January 2023
On behalf of the AEDIB|NET consortium, the European Business and Innovation Centre Network (EBN) invites applicants to participate in one of the AEDIB|NET Virtual Partnership Programme managed by two innovation centres (1 in Africa and 1 in Europe).
The program seeks 100 participants (50 from Africa and 50 from Europe) to engage in learning and knowledge exchange exercises. The program is designed with core shared elements for the startups and tailor-made components meeting the specific needs of participating companies.
Through the program, participants will gain skills and knowledge in several areas including business development, strategic planning, startup management fundraising, networking, and sustainability. The program is designed around the following pillars:
- Capacity-building
- Peer-learning
- Problem-solving
- Learning-by-doing
Thirty successful participants will have the opportunity to participate in a physical boot camp (15 for Africa and 15 for Europe). Each boot camp will be organized in conjunction with a major event during which participants will receive investment readiness training and an opportunity to pitch in front of a jury and investors.
Interested participants should have a company legally registered within their country’s current legislation. They must also be related to one of the groups of specialisation of the project or in the process of developing a product or service applicable to any of the following sectors:
- Climate Smart Agriculture
- Smart Cities
- Digital Trade
- Clean Tech
To apply, visit: Applications
Are you an aspiring entrepreneur? Apply for the 2024 cohort of the year-long MEST Africa entrepreneurial training program to build your skills!
The Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology offers 12-month graduate-level training to aspiring African entrepreneurs. The 2024 class, also known as Entrepreneurs-in-Training (EITs), will complete a graduate-level course in software development, business, and communication with a specific focus on practical implementation. MEST is an African-wide tech entrepreneur training program, seed fund, and network of hubs offering incubation for tech startups in Africa. The MEST program is a fully sponsored opportunity.
Through the program, EITs will receive intensive entrepreneurial training and extensive hands-on project work to master industry-proven methodologies for developing world-class tech businesses from industry experts and business executives.
Interested applicants must fulfil the following to be eligible to enroll:
- Have a degree from a university or technical college or equivalent experience with at least two years of corporate and startup experience
- Have excellent skills in either communications, business, or software development, enthusiasm for tech entrepreneurship, and knowledge of how to use tech to achieve business results
- Demonstrate a willingness to commit to a complete residential program for a whole year
- Be a disciplined self-starter that can work and deliver assignments and projects
- Have the ability to work well in teams with proven academic or professional excellence
- Demonstrate leadership abilities
Interested applicants should apply before 26 February 2023.
To apply, visit MEST Application
Happy Holidays and a Prosperous New Year from the Business Info Hub
As we come closer to the end of the year 2021, the Business Info Hub would like to reflect on the activities that helped us achieve our objective of bringing your business closer to financial services, business development initiatives, and industry insights to help you grow your business. We are so grateful for the support you afforded us throughout the year.
Here are some of the key activities we engaged in for the year 2022
Survive to Thrive Programme – partnership with African Management Institute
Stanbic Bank Uganda, in partnership with ConsumerCentriX and the African Management Institute (AMI), conducted training for SMEs in Uganda. Survive to Thrive is an AMI 6-month training program that consists of online courses and in-person training sessions. The programme enrolled 30 SMEs from the Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA) Stanbic Bank’s clients.
Stanbic Bank Business Incubator Limited Enterprise Development Programs
Stanbic Bank Business Incubator Limited introduced a series of development programs for SMEs in Uganda. The programs included:
- The Micro Enterprise Development program, a 2-weekS training program aimed at supporting micro-enterprises and offering them early-stage entrepreneurial and business management skills.
- Stanbic Bank Accelerator Program, a 2-month accelerator program aimed at modelling and creating investment-ready SMEs in Uganda.
- Supplier Development Program, a 3-month program aimed at supporting SMEs in the oil and gas sector to scale and improve their capacity to be compliant, as well as handle tenders and contracts.
Business Compliance – Business Registration Process
The Business Info Hub interviewed Provia Nangobi, Head of Public Relations and Corporate Affairs at Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB), to understand the first step in keeping your business compliant – business registration. Provia walked us through the process for different types of businesses operating in the country and shed some light on where business owners can go for support. Learn more
Most Popular Opportunities
For this year, the most sought opportunities were for funding by entrepreneurs in the agribusiness sector, tourism, innovation, and tech, as well startups. Most applications for business development opportunities were made for opportunities that provided involved mentorship, investment-readiness training, business skills, and networking. Click here for the latest opportunities.
Business Tips
The holiday season is a great time to increase sales, maximize profits and tap into new customer segments. As we you enjoy the celebrations with your friends and family, don’t forget to take advantage of the holiday season to grow your business. Here are the latest tips to help you maximize sales and profits this holiday season.
- The holidays can be a great time to boost sales – here’s how!
- Common Mistakes You May Be Making as a Businessowner & How to Avoid Them
Starting next year, we have a huge announcement to share with you, so keep in touch. We hope you approach the new year with much optimism, and with that in mind, we would like to wish you Happy Holidays and a Prosperous New Year!
Are you a startup with a solution that drives safe, secure, and simple digital experiences for small and medium enterprises? Apply for the Mastercard Start Path Small Business program
Mastercard, a global payment processing corporation, invites applicants for the Mastercard Start Path Small Business Program. The 4-month program offers startups an opportunity to collaborate with Mastercard to scale solutions that drive simple and secure digital experiences for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Through the program, successful participants can leverage Mastercard’s network and expertise to gain access to product partnerships, grow their businesses, and develop solutions. Upon successful completion of the program, participants will be expected to demonstrate strong synergies with Mastercard’s approach to supporting entrepreneurs globally and thriving by empowering them with digital payment solutions.
Interested participants should fulfill the following to apply:
- Have an innovative solution(s) and be able to demonstrate how the solution(s) relate(s) to the program theme
- Have an experienced, diverse, and passionate founding team
- Be committed to democratizing financial services
- Have existing funding from investment raised with a six to the twelve-month runway.
To apply for the program, visit: Applications
Are you a women entrepreneur interested in funding and mentorship? Apply for the Hi-Innovator Women Accelerator Program before 31 January 2022
The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) invites applicants for the Hi-Innovator Women Accelerator program. The program is part of the Hi-Innovator initiative that was established to identify and support Uganda’s small and growing businesses with solid potential for impact, sustainability, and scale over five years. Participants in the accelerator program will have an opportunity to improve their business skills, grow their businesses to be more resilient, and make them better placed to receive funding.
Interested applicants must fulfill the following criteria to qualify:
- Be fully registered with Uganda Registry Services Bureau (URSB), Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), and National Social Security Fund (NSSF). First-time registration before the application is acceptable
- Be legally and actively operational in Uganda for at least two years
- Have at least 2 full-time staff with at least 50% of the staff below 35 years of age
- Be 50% female owned and/or have 70% women in top management/leadership positions
- Have made a minimum annual revenue of UGX 10 million in the past year and has not raised more than UGX 1 Billion in grants, convertible grants, debt, or private equity
- Have evidence of 100% completion of the Hi-Innovator business academy course
- Businesses in all sectors are eligible to participate
- Be willing to provide a 6% equity stake ownership to NSSF
- Have team members that proficient in written and spoken English
During the program, participating businesses will receive the following:
- Grant funding of USD 20,000 and, in turn, provides a 6% equity stake ownership to NSSF
- Tailored technical support
- Mentorship and peer-peer learning opportunities
- Investor networking sessions, as well as market linkages
- Unlimited access to learning content in the business academy
To apply for this initiative, visit: Applications