Deadline: March 31, 2026
Applications are open for the African Diaspora Network Builders of Africa’s Future (BAF) 2026. Builders of Africa’s Future (BAF) celebrates innovation and impact in early-stage African enterprises. The program identifies African entrepreneurs running early-stage nonprofits or for-profit businesses that address key community needs through technology or differentiated business models. The goal is to help scale their ventures and impact in the areas of health, education, energy, agriculture, financial inclusion, gender inclusion, nutrition, commerce, infrastructure development etc..
The BAF program annually awards some of Africa’s most promising entrepreneurs with enterprise development training, mentorship, and networking opportunities, and a platform to boost brand visibility and investment potential in Silicon Valley. Since 2018, Builders of Africa’s Future has recognized and catalyzed 93 African startups.
Benefits
- Training from the African Management Institute (AMI) of Kenya
- Invitation to attend the 12th African Diaspora Investment Symposium. Attendees are responsible for covering all costs
Eligibility
Open to founders and executives of companies who are catalysts of developmental progress on the continent of Africa.
Primary selection criteria for builder enterprises:
- Must be an established legal entity already in operation for 6 months or more with demonstrable early traction evidenced in growing usage, revenue, or other metrics (not a pitch or prototype). The business should have a website, tangible digital or physical product, or picture of more than one successful event over more than 6 months.
- Must be an innovative approach to serve unmet needs on the continent or address its challenges. The innovation must fit within the African cultural and socioeconomic context and cannot be a clone of a Western technology or business solution without differentiation.
- The entrepreneur must be able to attend the monthly enterprise training sessions, agree to complete 2 core modules before graduating. The training sessions are all virtual.
- The entrepreneur must be available to attend onboarding sessions facilitated by ADN and a virtual Pitch Day at the conclusion of the program.
Secondary considerations in selecting builders:
- Balanced gender representation among entrepreneurs in recognition of the sizable portion of African women entrepreneurs.
- Reasonable geographic distribution. Africa consists of 54 countries North, West, East, Central, and Southern regions. Builders should represent a reasonable distribution across these regions.
- They seek impact and innovation across sectors so they should avoid over-indexing on any one of them – e.g. multiple agro or energy companies.
- Africa’s development is two-pronged, leveraging both for-profit and nonprofit organizations alike. Builders should represent both genres of enterprises.
Application
For more information, visit BAF.
