Village Capital and Gearbox have announced the launch of their first hardware accelerator in Africa where 12 startups from across Africa will be selected to participate; Two ventures to secure $100,000 USD total funding.
With support from The Lemelson Foundation, The Doen Foundation, SGII, and VC4Africa, Village Capital and Gearbox will provide unique capacity building to African Entrepreneurs looking to scale their businesses.
The 12 high-potential invention-based ventures will be selected to participate and will receive extensive feedback from their peers, potential customers, investors and industry experts, as well as the opportunity to peer-select two participating ventures to receive $50,000 each in pre-committed investment. The program is structured as three intensive 4-day sessions over 3 months with additional remote collaboration online between sessions.
“When Africa can build a local manufacturing infrastructure, the economy can really take off. We’re excited to be backing the entrepreneurs who are driving this change.” Ross Baird, Executive Director of Village Capital
Criteria for participation
Venture Capital is interested in companies seeking to improve access to energy for all or provide increased agricultural productivity for small-holder farmers.
- Affordability: inventions that radically increase affordability of energy generation or agricultural products.
- Reduced Consumption: innovations that reduce the cost of consumption for small-holder farmers
- Efficiency: technologies that increase the efficiency of energy and/or agricultural distribution systems.
Program Dates:
Session 1: October 21-24; Nairobi, Kenya
Session 2: January 6-9; TBD
Session 3: February 22-25; Nairobi, Kenya
