AFRISE Challenge for African Youth & Student Entrepreneurs

Concordia University has launched the 2023 AFRISE Challenge that provides an opportunity for high potential African youth and student entrepreneurs to rise up in their entrepreneurial journey, and contribute to local and regional economic development by becoming job creators.

Concordia University, Montreal, QC has partnered with Hindsight Ventures and AfriLabs for this program, with a central theme focusing on how youth entrepreneurs can help “African” economies to “Rise”.

Challenge Areas

AFRISE seeks to identify young innovators and entrepreneurs who have an idea to solve a scalable mass challenge in areas related to:

• Financial Services
• Healthcare
• Agriculture
• Energy / Utility
• Education
• Environment
• Telecommunications
• Arts & Creativity

Program Takeaways

• Accelerator Program
  • 30 high-potential founders will be selected for a mentorship and leadership development accelerator, that will be delivered by successful founders, industry leaders, domain experts and investors; alongside leaders from Concordia University, District 3 Innovation Centre, Hindsight Ventures and AfriLabs global network.
• International Demo Day
  • The Accelerator Program will culminate with an International Demo Day, wherein the Top-15 Entrepreneurs present at a Virtual Demo Day to a group of early stage venture investors and Entrepreneurship Support Organizations for accessing funding support (grant + equity based funding)
• Technology Credits and other Support
  • Each startup gets in excess of $600,000 in technology credits from partners such as AWS, Zoho, IBM, Microsoft, Canva, DigitalOcean, FreshWorks and more.
• Market Exposure Tour to Concordia University, Montreal, QC
  • 5 Youth Entrepreneurs get selected for a 1-Week International Exposure in Montreal with Concordia University.

Duration

• Virtual bootcamp- 3 weeks
• In market program – 1 week

Eligibility Criteria

• The program is aimed at 18 – 30 year old African youth.
• They are looking for applications from Nigeria, Uganda, Morocco and Senegal. AFRISE seeks to identify young innovators and entrepreneurs who have a scalable idea to solve a mass challenge.
• Having a prototype or some early traction is always preferable. They are open to receiving napkin-stage ideas.
• While the bootcamp will be delivered in English, their team will support in translating certain material in French to accommodate Francophone candidates.

For more information, visit Concordia University.

Source: fundsforngo.org