Funding Opportunities For Businesses

Funding Opportunities For Businesses:

1. Funding Africa Agriculture Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) 2020 To 2021, Round 5

African agriculture strand of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) scheme supports a partnership between:

UK registered higher education or further education institution, research and technology organisation (RTO) or Catapult (which we will refer to as the ‘UK knowledge base partner’)
an African business or not-for-profit organisation (which we will refer to collectively as the ‘business partner’)
a knowledge base in Africa (which we will refer to as the ‘African knowledge base partner’)
The business partner and African knowledge base partner must both be based in the same one of the following countries: Republic of Ghana, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Republic of Kenya or Republic of South Africa.

Projects whose costs have been judged to be appropriate will be funded partially. Normally, cost of project should not exceed £125,000 per year.

The UK knowledge base, African knowledge base and the business partner must sign the KTP joint commitment statement.

To start an application, visit https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/application/create/start-application/774

For more information, visit https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/774/overview?utm_source=GCRF+Updates+List&utm_campaign=230a9af106-Newton_funding_bulletin_28_11_2017_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b4ac484f43-230a9af106-100995141#summary

2. Funding Opportunity For African Innovators through AfCFTA Vision Challenge

African Innovators and entrepreneurs who have solutions to challenge affecting the intra-Africa trade are called to participate in Africa Continental Free Trade Africa (AfCFTA) vision challenge. Areas of focus are agriculture and food security; education and skills; Natural capital and environment and technology. The ideas selected will be invested in by Africa’s leading Development Finance Institutions & Banks that include AfDB, TDB, Afreximbank, BADEA, AFC, Equity Bank, Eco Bank, CIB among others.

Contestants will only have to register for an AfCFTA number at no cost at www.afcfta.app and then submit their entry through the online portal (https://www.afcfta.blog/challenge) to participate. Deadline for application is December 30, 2020.

3. Future of Work Africa 2021

Village Capital, in conjunction with IFC is launching an accelerator programme to support entrepreneurs building for-profit, market-based solutions across the education, employment, and benefits spectrum that can help young people in Sub-Saharan Africa better prepare for and manage the future of work. Interested start-ups should address unemployment through: Innovations like upskilling/reskilling programs,
Credentialing programs,
New approaches to apprenticeship or employment matching,
Financial health for informal workers, and/or
Edtech.
To apply, visit https://vc4a.com/village-capital/we-fi-africa/application/. Deadline for application is January 22, 2021

4. OPTIMA’s Grant To Curb Internet Shutdown

Internews, an international media development organization, through its OPTIMA programme is calling for proposals from Africa-based individuals or organizations that can develop targeted, localized and issue specific resources to contribute to prevention and adequate response to internet shutdowns in Africa.

Projects must fall into one of the following four funding categories: Network Measurement; Legal Resources; Multistakeholder Engagement and Circumvention Tools, Guides, and Resources.

Available grants are between $1,000 and $5,000 USD. The grants will be reviewed by Internews, in conjunction with members of OPTIMA’s Advisory Committee. Projects may begin as early as January 1 and run through March 31, 2021. Execution of projects should not exceed three months although an extension of two months may be permitted. To apply, visit https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=OTuh5Py1H0yoQMCrZqrq5UbCdRgXXxJCssxNuKSlq15UQjBYUjlPS1M0M1FQR0k5WTBGM1RTNFNNSC4u

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5. Money Trail Grants

Journalists in Africa, Asia and Europe can apply for grant to conduct investigation (for maximum of six months) on cross-border illicit financial flows, tax abuse, money laundering and corruption in the three continents. The grant, which is up to £50,000, will cover both working time (for freelancers) and expenses (for freelancers and staff journalists). For more information about the programme, visit https://www.journalismfund.eu/money-trail-grants. To apply, visit https://moneytrail.journalismfund.eu/. Deadline for application is December 14, 2020For questions, emails can be sent to moneytrail@journalismfund.eu.

6. Application for Founder Institute’s Pre-seed Accelerator Programme

Up and coming entrepreneurs are called to participate in the next version of Founder Institute (the world’s largest pre-seed start-up accelerator) Lagos chapter’s Cohort IV. The 14-week programme will take the participants through capacity building work weekly. They will receive constant feedback and regular office hours with 50+ Lagos Mentors, investors, and entrepreneurs. Also, they will make quick progress on their startup journey using a proven, structured process to get traction and funding that has helped alumni build great products and raise over $950M in funding for their products. There will be privilege to a suite of post-programs, including Funding Lab for expert venture support for years. They will have networking access to startup founders, CEOs, and investors from the Founder Institute’s global network of 4,500+ alumni as well as 18,000+ mentors across 200+ cities. To apply, visit http://fi.co/apply/lagos.Deadline for the Lagos Virtual 2021 program is Jan 17, 2021.

7. Grants for Creative, Cultural and Media Organizations

Africa-based cultural, creative and media organizations advocating empowering narratives about Africa can apply for Africa No Filter (AFN) operations support grant of up to $100,000. Owners of these businesses should be youths within the age range of 18-45 years.

AFN is a donor collaborative funded by Ford Foundation, Bloomberg  Bloomberg, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Luminate, Open Society Foundation, Comic Relief and the Hilton Foundation. To apply, visit https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=6jwxHknxm06fdUyyH1IlBhAQCyvL-OVDicHAp5g8rMtUMk5BSTAyOVo1SUJSQ0k1MzRLTlVDMzBZRy4u. Deadline for application is December 31, 2020

Also Read: Funding Opportunities For Businesses

8. Indicina Raises 6-figure Funding

Nigeria lending start-up, Indicina has raised 6-figure funding to develop its product.

The startup offers a cloud-based software to digitise the lending business, with its flagship product Originate taking an analytics-driven approach to lending. It empowers clients to unpack the credit value chain and digitise each step, including identity verification, credit decisioning, and disbursements and collections.

According to the Chief Executive Officer, Yvonne Johnson, Indicina has processed over US$30 million in loan applications covering over 22,000 customers. “Our client base includes lenders as well as SaaS verticals embedding finance within their platforms,” she said

For more on the story, visit https://disrupt-africa.com/2020/12/nigerian-lending-startup-indicina-raises-funding-round-for-product-development/