Digital Lab Africa opens applications for its fourth acceleration programme

Digital Lab Africa (DLA) is calling on creatives and cultural entrepreneurs from Sub-Saharan African countries to apply for the fourth edition of its acceleration programme.

DLA is an initiative of the French embassy and French Institute in South Africa (IFAS) and has been managed by the Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct since 2018.

The programme is also supported by the French development agency (AFD), Sacem, Trace and TV5 Monde Afrique among several French and Sub-Saharan African partners.

Applications for Digital Lab Africa’s fourth acceleration programme will close on 1 March

Applications for the programme, which close on 1 March, are open to startups, producers, designers and students with innovative projects across digital art, immersive realities, video games, animation and music.

DLA is ideally looking for projects that are at the initial stage of development and are innovative in terms of narration, content or technologies.

Selected applicants will be given a DLA Incubation Pass to fast track the development of their projects.

Alongside mentorship and training sessions, the DLA 4 participants will be hosted in residency in France and also attend industry events such as Annecy Animation festival, Newimages, Paris Games Week or Les Nuits Sonores in France and the Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation festival in South Africa.

Commenting in a statement last Thursday (16 January), Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct chief executive Lesley Donna Williams said that DLA remains a key component of the precinct’s African digital innovation initiative.

“While the need for quality content remains paramount, DLA 4 will focus on finding the most innovative creatives Africa has to offer.

“We are hoping that this edition’s projects will be innovative in terms of form, storytelling, content and technologies used,” added Williams.

Featured image: Members of Digital Lab Africa’s third cohort at last year’s edition of the Fakugesi festival (Digital Lab Africa via Twitter)