Builders of Africa’s Future 2024 – Cohort Seven

Builders of Africa’s Future (BAF) celebrates innovation and impact in early-stage African enterprises. The program identifies African entrepreneurs running early-stage nonprofits or for-profit businesses that address key community needs through technology or differentiated business models. The goal is to help scale their ventures and impact in the areas of health, education, energy, agriculture, financial inclusion, gender inclusion, nutrition, commerce, industrial development, and other socioeconomic goods.

The BAF program annually awards 15 to 20 of Africa’s most promising entrepreneurs with enterprise development training, mentorship, and networking opportunities, and a platform to boost brand visibility and investment potential in Silicon Valley. Since 2018, Builders of Africa’s Future has recognized and catalyzed 62 African startups.

Areas of Focus

• Agriculture
• Commerce
• Education
• Energy
• Health
• Housing
• Industrial Development
• Financial Inclusion
• Gender Inclusion
• Nutrition
• Other Socioeconomic Goods
• Technology

Program Benefits

• The 2024 Builders of Africa’s Future awardees will receive training from the African Management Institute of Kenya and be eligible to apply for funding from the U.S. African Development Foundation. In 2024, the Builders of Africa’s Future cohort will be invited to the ninth annual African Diaspora Investment Symposium (ADIS24) at the Hayes Mansion in San Jose, CA.

Eligibility Criteria

• Founders and executives of companies contributing to the well-being of communities across the continent are the Builders of Africa’s Future. These leaders are catalysts of developmental progress on the continent and have stories and enterprises that they seek to amplify.
• Primary selection criteria for builder enterprises:
  • Must be an established legal entity already in operation for 6 months or more with demonstrable early traction evidenced in growing usage, revenue, or other metrics (not a pitch or prototype). The business should have a website, tangible digital or physical product, or picture of more than one successful event over more than 6 months.
  • Must be an innovative approach to serve unmet needs on the continent or address its challenges. The innovation must fit within the African cultural and socioeconomic context and cannot be a clone of a Western technology or business solution without differentiation.
  • The entrepreneur must be able to attend the virtual enterprise development sessions and agree to complete 2 core modules 2 weeks before graduation. The training sessions will be provided by the African Management Institute (AMI).
  • The entrepreneur must be able and available to attend 2 onboarding sessions facilitated by ADN.
  • The entrepreneur must be able to attend ADIS virtually or provide a video recording of their pitch presentation. The purpose of this criterion is to allow the community and the sponsors to meet the recipients.
• Secondary considerations in selecting builders:
  • Balanced gender representation among entrepreneurs in recognition of the sizable portion of African women entrepreneurs.
  • Reasonable geographic distribution. Africa consists of 54 countries North, West, East, Central, and Southern regions. Builders should represent a reasonable distribution across these regions.
  • Africa has several non-English speaking countries that they endeavor to represent, i.e there is a significant Francophone and Arabic bloc.
  • They seek impact and innovation across sectors so they should avoid over-indexing on any one of them – e.g. multiple agro or energy companies.
  • Africa’s development is two-pronged, leveraging both for-profit and nonprofit organizations alike. The builders should represent both genres of enterprises.

For more information, visit African Diaspora Network.