Westerwelle Entrepreneurship Program is a 6-month programme for innovative tech startups in Rwanda and Tanzania. 30 selected startups will be provided with the right infrastructure, skills and networks to advance their tech solutions.
This program is supported by Make-IT in Africa, a project by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for the Westerwelle Entrepreneurship Program, applicants must meet the following conditions:
- You are passionate about building an innovative high-growth venture addressing a need in a market
- Your product is built on technology: IOT/ Sensoring, Data Analytics/ Intelligence/ AI/ Machine Learning, Virtual Reality, Robotics, Drones/Aerial Imagery, Digital Platforms, Blockchain, etc.
- You and your team members are domain experts with complimentary skills and have a track record working as a team
- Your startup solution has a clear business model and is able to scale its operations in East Africa
- Your startup’s product/service contributes to the achievement of the SDGs (i.e. safe and fair job creation, potential to help underserved or low-income communities, climate mitigation and adaptation)
- You have women in your management team (executive or non-executive)
- Your operations are based in Rwanda or Tanzania.
Program Benefits
- 6-month free access to workspace at the Westerwelle Startup Haus Kigali/Westerwelle Startup Haus Arusha.
- Access to Makerspace / digital fabrication lab and product development support
- Business and leadership skills training with specialized experts
- Technical advisory support: legal, financial and digital marketing
- Individual mentoring with investors, business leaders and industry experts
- Online/offline meetups with peers and entrepreuneurial communities around the world
- Linkage with East African corporates, investors and other key players.
Application Procedures
How-to-Apply: Interested applicants for the Westerwelle Entrepreneurship Program 2023 are to complete an online application on or before the application deadline. Applicants will be required to answer the questions asked correctly.
Application Deadline: December 15th, 2022 at 11:59 pm EAT