Rabat – Digital Africa is allocating €50,000 for Francophone startups in their early stages of development through its Fuze program.
The €6.5 million program seeks to invest in startups in their early stages of ideation development of a prototype in 25 countries including Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal, Tunisia, and Cote d’Ivoire.
The Fuze program expects to provide African entrepreneurs with €20,000 in the first step in addition to €30,000 as a follow-up fund.
Only African businesses co-founded or founded by at least one citizen from French-speaking African countries are eligible to apply to the program.
The startup must also be recently created, less than 18 months ago, and operate in the Francophone Africa region with a business model that uses technological solutions.
The Fuze program is funded by the Digital Africa initiative, launched in 2018 by French President Emmanuel Macron.
The initiative seeks to connect digital entrepreneurs across Francophone Africa with international partners to develop local capacities and boost entrepreneurship funding in the region.
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Digital Africa is one of numerous regional and international initiatives launched across the continent to build and sustain a transnational startup ecosystem that could play a key role in promoting innovation to address pressing challenges such as water scarcity and food insecurity.
In the first half of 2022, African startups raised $3.5 billion, more than double the amount recorded in the same period last year. Experts predict the continental ecosystem to conclude $7 billion worth of venture capital deals by the end of the year.
Despite the lingering effects of the pandemic and the coming global recession, in addition to structural issues related to lack of training and local funding, African startups continue to raise money for their innovative solutions by participating in internationally-funded programs to learn from other experiences.
Feature image by Richard Clyborne of Music Strive
