Call For Applications: HiiL Justice Entrepreneurship School 2024 For Early-Stage Entrepreneurs in Africa

The Justice Entrepreneurship School is HiiL’s flagship incubation program that supports early-stage entrepreneurs who are preventing or resolving pressing justice needs in their communities.

The program is catered to startups in the incubation stage, where there is a Minimal Viable Product or Service, with little traction, and runs for a period of 7 weeks. Focused on delivering high-quality action learning, the program focuses on business modeling, storytelling, pitching, and justice design thinking. This year the program is focused on supporting innovative early-stage startups in Kenya, Rwanda, and Burundi.

During the incubation program, the startups will work on getting their product into the hands of users as fast as possible, aggressively and consistently obtain their feedback, and refine the MVP accordingly. This includes getting enough users and running tests on them.

Benefits:

The Justice Entrepreneurship School offers a six-week-long program that provides justice startups with:

• A three-day residential boot camp delivered by industry specialists: business growth, team & leadership, design thinking, and much more.
• Coaching sessions and mentorship on topics of your choice.
• Access to HiiL’s regional network of justice leaders, legal tech organizations, and top-level researchers.
• Certification and a learning platform for self-service.
• A chance to win non-equity grant funding at the end of the program during the Justice Innovation Circle demo day.

Eligibility Criteria:

The program is suitable for Startups that:

• Have a solution that meets the needs of those with unmet justice needs who struggle to access effective, easy-to-understand, affordable, and accessible means to prevent or resolve their justice problems.  Specifically, they are looking at solutions that address the following themes:
  • Kenya: Crime, Sexual & Gender-Based Violence and  Support for MSMEs.
  • Burundi: Crime, Land, Employment and Support for MSMEs.
  • Rwanda: Crime and Sexual & Gender-Based Violence.
• Have a basic product or service, that is, an existing prototype or minimal viable problem.
• Have some traction, that is, the product is in hands of a small number of early adopter users, where they see enough evidence that this product or business can work.
• Be led by a team of 2 or 3 committed and passionate co-founders who shares a drive for justice and impact.

Deadline: May 31, 2024

Click HERE to Apply