Deadline: July 14, 2023.

RevUp Women Initiative by AfriLabs is an enterprise development programme for early-stage women-led businesses in Africa. It is designed to accelerate these businesses into profitable & sustainable ventures that can stimulate the creation of jobs on the continent. The initiative aims to foster gender equality and inclusive economic growth through enterprise development training, mentorship, peer-to-peer learning and providing access to finance. This cohort is funded by The Visa Foundation.

AfriLabs is calling on women-led businesses across select locations in Africa to apply for this cohort of the initiative. In this cohort, 500 businesses will go through a rigorous training and mentoring session and ten (10), one(1) in each pilot city will be selected to be funded by the programme. 

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

The applications are open to early-stage women-led businesses across Africa. These businesses must meet the following criteria before applying;

• At least 51 per cent owned by a woman
• Be led by a woman 
• Be located in any of these cities in Africa
  • Nigeria –  Lagos, Abuja
  • South Africa –  Johannesburg, Cape Town
  • Cameroon – Douala, Yaounde
  • Kenya –  Nairobi, Kisumu
  • Democratic Republic of Congo-  Kinshasa, Lubumbashi
• Have an already existing service or product
• Have evidence of sales of existing services or product 
• Have an existing business model
• Registered and incorporated in the country of operation
• Be operational for at least 6 months
• Be able to dedicate 8 weeks to an intense hybrid training and mentoring session

Note: Evidence of sales would be requested during the due diligence phase

BENEFITS

• Access to high-quality female mentors Across Africa
• 10 business owners will be selected to be funded with 10,000 dollars following the Catalytic Africa guidelines 
• Access to additional funding opportunities for participants and a network of funders across Africa
• Access to the AfriLabs network

OFFICIAL LINK