The 2020 VC4A Venture Showcase – Seed is receiving applications from early-stage startups. This is Africa’s showcase of startups looking to raise a seed round between $150K – $1M.
The initiative is looking for 10 innovative early-stage startups to showcase their business to the world. Are you based in Africa and your tech-enabled solution is already on the market? Is it showing some traction and you have expansion plans in mind? Don’t miss out on this opportunity to raise between $150K and $1M.
VC4A Venture Showcase Seed is the sister program of the annual VC4A Venture Showcase Serie A. Did you know that between 2017-2019, the organisation selected 60 scale-ups from across the continent as part of 4 showcase programs, resulting in a number of Series A deals totaling over $100M?
Building on this success, the ‘VC4A Venture Showcase – Seed’ – in collaboration with AWS Activate, AfriLabs, and ABAN – is a central component of its efforts to support investors connecting with early-stage ventures. This is an exclusive opportunity to introduce your company at once to everyone who’s anyone in Africa’s early-stage investment space.
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Benefits Of The 2020 VC4A Venture Showcase – Seed
The 2020 VC4A Venture Showcase – Seed offers the following;
- Being recognized as 2020 VC4A Venture Showcase entrepreneur
- Participation in the VC4A Venture Showcase deal room, including 150+ early-stage investor organizations
- Professional edited 3-minute virtual pitch
- 30 min deep-dive session with investors in a private room
- Mentorship and pitch training by partner early-stage investors
- AWS Activate offers selected cohort AWS credits worth $10,000, tools, resources, and more to quickly get started on AWS.
- Joining the alumni network and having exclusive access to fundraising opportunities
Eligibility Criteria
You are eligible to apply if;
- Your company is for-profit, registered as an independent legal entity with less than 3 years of customer service operations;
- Your company has a product or service already available on the market and serving its first customers;
- Highly scalable business model is visible through a growing number of customers or transactions, your pipeline shows future contracts and potential sales;
- You have a good estimate of your addressable market and potential social impact reach > 1M+ people/year with potential plans to expand across borders;
- Your product or service is clearly innovative and/or the business model is new and disruptive;
- Your founding team has 2+ years of time invested and at least one of the co-founders is based on the African continent with an African nationality;
- You are seeking Seed/pre-Series A investment in the range of $150K to $1M;
- While there will be exceptions, your company has received investment above 25K USD from “Founder, Family, Friends & Fans” but not exceeding 1M+ USD;
- Founder(s) who previously started a successful company is a plus.
Are you trying to raise Series A Round between $500K – $10M? Consider applying to the 2020 VC4A Venture Showcase – Series A. Deadline August 14th.
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Selection Criteria
Commercial Value of your Product/Service (25%)
Your company addresses a real problem in the market. Your product or service is different from others in the industry. And, your business model is new and designed for scale.
Strategy for Growth (25%)
The market size is significant and there is potential to expand locally and into new markets. Your startup is scalable and has a clear strategy for growth. You can show demonstrable progress.
Management Team (25%)
Your team has the qualifications needed to make the business successful.
Market Traction & Financials (25%)
VC4A will evaluate your market traction, revenue streams, and unit economics. If any outside funding has been raised before, it’s a plus.
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What To Do
Engage with assigned mentors (partner early-stage investors) and VC4A team to prepare your 3-minute and 20-minute presentations, as well as 2-pagers with investor data as part of the deal book.
Be prepared to pitch and engage with early-stage investors in the period of November – December 2020 and be part of the VC4A Venture Showcase.
Timeline For 2020 VC4A Venture Showcase – Seed
- July 24 – Sept 11 – Application period
- Sept 15 – Oct 13 – Selection process / investor review / interviews
- Oct 14 – Seed Venture Showcase participants selection.
- Oct 20 – Nov 6 – Mentorship program with VC investors.
- Nov 28 – Nov 6 – Technical sessions with VC investors
- MID Nov – Launch of VC4A Venture Showcase – Seed deal room to 300+ VC investors
- Nov – Dec – Ongoing showcase to VC4A investor network
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The deadline for application for the 2020 VC4A Venture Showcase – Seed is September 11, 2020. So, if you are an innovative early-stage startup ready to showcase your business to the world, apply here. https://vc4a.com/vc4a/2020-vc4a-venture-showcase-seed/
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