Founder bootcamp SpeedUPAfrica has announced it is pivoting and rebranding to become the African Startup Institute, set to bring Africa’s top entrepreneurs together with global mentors in a one-month training programme.
Disrupt Africa reported in April last year Silicon Valley VC firm DraperDarkFlow partnered accelerator 500 Startups to launch SpeedUPAfrica, a four-day bootcamp for 100 of the continent’s most exciting startups, offering them the chance to win a share of US$1 million in funding. Eight startups went on to secure funding at the event.
In February this year, applications opened for the second cohort of SpeedUPAfrica. However, DraperDarkFlow has now cancelled the second edition of the bootcamp, in order to rebrand to their new initiative: the African Startup Institute (ASI).
The ASI will bring together 50 of Africa’s most promising entrepreneurs with the world’s top entrepreneurs for a personalized entrepreneurial training programme lasting one month.
The Institute will be based at a specially designed premises in Lagos, Nigeria.
The programme will feature workshops led by the top global entrepreneurs; one-to-one sessions; “fix this” group sessions focusing on selected individual entrepreneurs’ work; investor meetings; and additional extra-curricular skills such as new languages and stand-up comedy.
The fee to join the programme is US$1,000 per participant.
Those already accepted onto this year’s SpeedUPAfrica cohort will be given scholarships to ASI’s first programme.
ASI is set to run four programmes each year, with the first scheduled to start in March 2018. Applications are available here.
