Chinese eCommerce billionaire Jack Ma selected Nailab to run its $10 million Netpreneur Prize for African startups mid last year. The Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative (ANPI) will officially call for applications starting from the 27th of March 2019.
For the next decade the ANPI will host pitch competitions in Africa. Each round, 10 finalists will be selected to compete for the grand prize of US$1 million.
Nairobi-based incubator, Nailab, is ANPI’s continental partner.
Sam Gichuru, Nailab Founder and CEO said, “The Netpreneur Prize Initiative has brought together a strong ecosystem of players to support both technology-driven and traditional businesses. We look forward to unveiling the full slate of regional partners and to receiving applications from promising African entrepreneurs in the coming weeks.”
All ten finalists will receive grant funding from the Jack Ma Foundation, as well as access to the Netpreneur community of African business leaders to leverage the community’s shared expertise, best practices, and resources.
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Jack Ma Foundation Executive Secretary-General, Beth Yu said “By 2030, we hope to identify and shine a spotlight on 100 African entrepreneur heroes who will inspire the continent. From day one, our approach has been community-based and focused on inclusiveness; to be truly for Africans and by Africans,” she continues, “To realize these goals, we are excited to work with Nailab as our implementing partner in Africa and multiple African partners across to continent.”
The competition will be open to nationals from any of the 54 African countries from any industry. Young people and female entrepreneurs are highly encouraged to apply.
The dates to note with regards to the competition are as follows:
- Applications Launch: 27th March 2019
- Deadline for applications: 30th June 2019
- Announcement of the top 50 regional finalists: August 2019
- Announcement of the final 10 finalists: October 2019
- Grand Finale pitch event: November 2019
