The Tech African Women (TAW) programme has officially launched in the hopes of providing support and acceleration to women-owned African tech startups, taking their businesses from the idea stage into real-world operations.
TAW is spearheaded by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in partnership with Betacube and invites female-led idea stage startups from Ethiopia, Senegal, Tanzania, and Tunisia to submit their applications to join.
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The programme’s objective is to “empower” female founders to leverage their skills in order to build strong tech startups from scratch, accelerate the transformation of project ideas into validated business models and to develop alliances between different African ecosystems.
Throughout the duration of the incubation program, the entrants will have access to a pool of tech developers and designers who will work to support and mentor their respective teams free of charge.
Entrants will also have the opportunity to work closely with top experts in Marketing and Finance in addition to the participation in tailored webinars provided by international trainers.
The program will run from August to December 2022 and is composed of 3 main phases:
First, a series of intensive 3-day training bootcamps & pitching competitions to be held in Tunisia, Senegal, Ethiopia & Tanzania in partnership with local ecosystem players. The winning team of each bootcamp will win a cash prize of $2000.
Then, a 2-months online incubation program for the best 2 startups from each country supporting them to reach market & investment readiness.
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A final ceremony is to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at the ECA Conference Center where 8 finalist startups will be invited to pitch to win the final prize of the program (a cash grant of $7000 for the best startup).
“TAW targets female-led & idea-stage tech startups and offers these startup teams an exclusive opportunity to acquire new entrepreneurial skills, establish partnerships with their African peers, increase regional business visibility, and access funds,” reads the announcement of the initiative’s launch.
“It supports ideas addressing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by developing the capacity of female entrepreneurs who desire to understand how to play a role in the continent’s development and want to deep dive into building impact-driven startups.”
This programme however, is open to only nationals of four African countries namely; Tunisia, Tanzania, Senegal, or Ethiopia and the applicants must have an idea of a tech startup that is addressing at least one of the SDGs. Entrants must be female and aged between 18 and 35 years old and be able to communicate fluently in French or English.
Applications are now open for candidates from the four countries on the official website of the program until the 10th of August 2022 for Tunisia, and until the 17th of August 2022 in Ethiopia, Senegal and Tanzania.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry