High-Growth Startups Can Now Apply for the VC4A Venture Showcase

Are you a disruptive scaleup operating in Africa, generating revenue and looking to raise between $250k and $5m in your Series A round? If yes, then the VC4A Venture Showcase – Series A is here for you!

The VC4A Venture Showcase is an opportunity for scaleups to introduce their company to everyone who is involved Africa’s early-stage investment space at VC4A’s annual Africa Early Stage Investor Summit on Nov 11-12 in Cape Town, South Africa.

@VC4Africa is looking for 8 innovative, high-growth scale-ups to put in the spotlight at its annual #Africa Early Stage Investor Summit on Nov 11-12 in Cape Town https://t.co/OQykePZhMu. #Startup #entrepreneur #seriesA #Funding

— EtriLabs Cotonou (@EtriLabsCotonou) June 19, 2018

The 8 innovative, high-growth scale-ups that would be selected after an investor review process and would have an all-expense paid trip to Cape Town on Nov 9-16, where they would have a 2-day networking session with investors (including a 20-min deep dive session with investors) and attend an Industry Leaders dinner.

They would undergo mentorship and pitch training from assigned mentors (VC investors) after which they would have the opportunity to pitch on the main stage of the Africa Early Stage Investor Summit for 3 mins.

Selected participants also have the opportunity to attend and pitch at VC partner events AfricaCom and AHUB as well as AfricArena.

African scale-up looking to raise between $250K and $5M? Apply for VC4A Venture Showcase – Series A, part of Africa Early Stage Investor Summit to catch all Africa’s early-stage investors in one room! https://t.co/d8nQTHKiwV #AESIS2018 #scaleup #SeriesA #Africa pic.twitter.com/05hdhNe99O

— VC4Africa (@VC4Africa) June 14, 2018

Participating scaleups (management team of at least 3 people) must ensure that their company based in the African continent and is for profit with registration as an independent legal entity. They must also have a clear/disruptive product/service that is available on the market and is generating revenue or business model that designed for scale as well as seeking for Series A investment in the range of $250K – $5M.

While there will be exceptions, most likely participating startups must have already received external investment, structured as either debt or equity, or received grants from donor organizations.

Selection Criteria

Innovativeness and Scalability (25%): Startups should ensure that they are addressing a real problem in the market in a clearly innovative way with a distinct product or service. Their business model is new, disruptive and designed for scale.

Strategy for Growth (25%): Startups must have a potential to expand into new markets or in the business region with a clear plan to go about it and demonstrated success – in terms of customer acquisition plans, new contracts, and key partnerships.

Management team (25%): The team must have the qualifications needed to make the business successful.

Market Traction & Financials (25%): Startups would also be evaluated based on their market traction and their potential market size – their business model, revenue streams, and unit economics, and if any outside funding has been raised before.

Applications are open until August 20, 2018. Interested startups can click here to get started.