Unicorn in partnership with Merge launched a $1m African Startup Program to find and fund the continent’s best [Sponsored]

Shortly after announcing partnerships with over 100 African-focused VCs, Merge has partnered with Unicorn Group (Unicorn) to find and fund Africa’s best startups.

Unicorn has chosen to partner with Merge to utilize their platform as it streamlines and amplifies the current investment process for Startups, Angels, and Venture Capital from discovery to disbursement.

It is a tech-enabled ecosystem that incorporates all players to access greater networks, and infrastructure that drives investment to innovative Startups.

Startups are encouraged to join through Merge as the application is made available on the platform. Startups that apply to the Unicorn Incubation Programme have the ability to secure co-investment from their global network of Investors.

Unicorn Incubation Program

Unicorn Group is pleased to announce the launch of its call to applications for the 2021 Incubation Program in three major African cities: Lagos, Accra, and Johannesburg.

Unicorn Group (Unicorn) is a pan-African, investment company targeting innovative ideas, start-ups and early stage companies in the technology and technology-enabled sectors across Africa; that have the potential to emerge as unicorns.

Unicorn provides education, training, mentorship, infrastructure, and long-term capital to entrepreneurs, startups, and early stage in the technology and technology-enabled sector through its ecosystem strategy.

The Unicorn Incubation Program aims to nurture, mentor, and educate pre-selected entrepreneurs with the required skills, knowledge, mindset to grow their business into innovative and winning enterprises in their segments.

The program, launched in 2020, with the first and second editions held in Lagos, Nigeria, and Nairobi, Kenya respectively.

It aims to offer entrepreneurs accelerated time to market, rapid development of product and services, specialist training, peer-to-peer networking, business advisory support, and infrastructure that will rightly position them for investment.

The Unicorn Incubation Program will run for six weeks across Lagos, Accra, and Johannesburg and selected entrepreneurs will get trained by global experts, as well as mentorship from successful entrepreneurs, CEOs, and other executives from Silicon Valley, Europe, and Africa.

The program provides entrepreneurs with an opportunity to scale their ideas and solutions into market-ready products. The program also culminates in an investor pitch for seed funding for exceptional entrepreneurs that demonstrate potential to scale, through direct funding from Platform Capital and Unicorn Group.

“We believe that the Unicorn Incubation Program reiterates our commitment to fostering innovation and equipping African entrepreneurs with the skills to build sustainable and competitive businesses that will contribute to Africa’s economic progress and put the continent on the global stage,” says Dr Akintoye Akindele, Chairman of Unicorn Group.

The application is powered by Merge.co.za, an online platform that connects entrepreneurs to investors.

The program is open to founders and entrepreneurs domiciled in Nigeria, South Africa, and Ghana. Interested applicants can learn more about the program and apply here.

This article is sponsored and supplied by Merge.