Deadline: March 27, 2026
Applications are open for the AFRISE Challenge 2026. The AFRISE Challenge provides an opportunity for high potential African youth and student entrepreneurs to rise up in their entrepreneurial journey and contribute to local and regional economic development by becoming job creators.
Concordia University and Hindsight Ventures have partnered for this program, with a central theme focusing on how youth entrepreneurs can help “African” economies to “Rise”.
They are looking for enterprising youth (as individuals or teams) who are solving for, but not limited to below:
- Financial Services
- Healthcare
- Agriculture
- Energy / Utility
- Education
- Environment
- Telecommunications
- Arts & Creativity
Benefits
- Accelerator Program: 30 high-potential founders will be selected for a mentorship and leadership development accelerator, that will be delivered by successful founders, industry leaders, domain experts and investors; alongside leaders from Concordia University and Hindsight Ventures network.
- International Demo Day: The Accelerator Program will culminate with an International Demo Day, wherein the Top-15 Entrepreneurs present at a Virtual Demo Day to a group of early stage venture investors and Entrepreneurship Support Organizations for accessing funding support (grant + equity based funding)
- Technology Credits and other Support: Each startup gets in excess of $600,000 in technology credits from partners such as AWS, Zoho, IBM, Microsoft, Canva, DigitalOcean, FreshWorks and more.
Eligibility
- Open to 18 – 35 year old African youth.
- They are looking for applications from Nigeria, Uganda, Morocco, Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire & Senegal.
- AFRISE seeks to identify young innovators and entrepreneurs who have a scalable idea to solve a mass challenge.
Application
For more information, visit AFRISE Challenge.
