More women are pursuing entrepreneurship in Africa per capita than anywhere else in the world. For this reason, Spark is conducting a continent-wide search to bring together an unrivalled group of 15 African Female Founders for its YHER Accelerator.
The Y-HER Accelerator Program is a powerful opportunity for passionate female impact entrepreneurs in Africa who are at the early stages of building businesses and organisations that exist to change the lives of women and girls in Africa.
The week-long intensive entrepreneurship program is designed to fast track female-led early stage ventures.
Who should apply
Female-Led Ventures: You must have at least one female co-founder who will participate in the program.
Local: You intimately understand the problem that you are trying to solve.
Support Women and Girls: Your venture must exist to improve the lives of women and girls who are held back by poverty.
In the Early Stages: You will have already launched a venture or at least run a pilot and have some early traction or proof of concept. You will typically have less than 100 customers and have been in operation less than two years.
Benefits
The program provides:
- Training and mentorship, while also connecting participants to an inspiring group of fellow female entrepreneurs working hard to create a better world for women and girls.
- Connection to a network of mentors from across the world throughout the Accelerator week, providing you with a wealth of entrepreneurship experience to help you build a bulletproof strategy for impact and growth.
- An opportunity for you to network with investors, funders, mentors and supporters and to pitch your venture as the week comes to a close at an exclusive, invite-only high-tea event.
- A total of $50,000 in prize funding is available for the winners of our peer review and audience votes.
- Potential to qualify for Growth support, including ongoing tailored support and grant or investment funding of $10,000 to $50,000 AUD to help scale your venture.
- Ongoing connection with the YHER’s virtual community, to help you along your entrepreneurial journey.
Application closes on September 22nd, 2017 while the program will take place between Saturday, 11 November and Friday, 17 November 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa.