Time to Build: Applications Now Open to Founder Institute South Africa Winter 2023

Founder First, Founder Always. Join us in 2022: Founder Institute is the #1 place in the world to turn ideas into fundable startups, and startups into global businesses.

Today’s economic 'New Normal' is full of reshuffling industries, and new problems in need of solutions - now is a time for entrepreneurs to act.

Whether you need to test and validate early hypotheses before making a large financial commitment to your startup idea, or you are ready to push your startup to the next level through aggressive weekly growth sprints to refine your vision, improve key metrics, and prepare for investor diligence, Founder Institute has the proven processes and network to help you do it.

If you could use a structured process that tells you what to focus on when, and a lifetime of support from South Africa's top investors and entrepreneurs, then apply to the South Africa Winter 2023 Founder Institute today.

We will be hosting several free startup events in South Africa over the coming weeks, where you can learn from top entrepreneurs all from the comfort of home:

The AI-Native Founder Revolution: Build Your Company Faster Than Ever : 6:00pm, Jul 08, 2026 (Africa/Johannesburg): https://FI.co/e/401586
Venture Trailblazers featuring Tim Draper: 5:00pm, Jul 09, 2026 (Africa/Johannesburg): https://FI.co/e/401976
Go From Idea to Working App with AI, Featuring Adeo Ressi: 7:00pm, Jul 09, 2026 (Africa/Johannesburg): https://FI.co/e/402105
How to Build Without a Team Using AI with Jonathan Greechan: 6:00pm, Jul 14, 2026 (Africa/Johannesburg): https://FI.co/e/401817
[Restricted] VIP Pitch Lounge: Pitch Live and Get Feedback from Investors & Advisors: 6:00pm, Jul 28, 2026 (Africa/Johannesburg): https://FI.co/e/401104

See all upcoming events

Make better, faster business decisions in 2022 by sharing your latest progress, challenges, and strategies for constant feedback and evaluation from our expert mentors and advisors, every step of the way–scale your team, develop new business opportunities, and recruit an amazing advisory board with the world's largest network of international startup founders, CEOs, advisors, and investors.

The South Africa accelerator is led by some of the region's top startup leaders, including Daan Weddepohl (CEO, Peerby), John Zabula (Founder, Revisall), Keshni Morar (Managing Director, FI South Africa + Investable), Lily Makaleng (Director, The Founder Institute South Africa), Victoria Odimba (Founder/Lead Strategist, Cellente). In addition, some of Cape Town's top entrepreneurs will be participating as mentors in the program, including:

And many more to be announced.

Since 2009, Founder Institute’s highly-structured accelerator programs have helped over 9,000 entrepreneurs to grow quickly, know what to do next, and make key connections through the largest community of startup advisors in the world.

It all starts with our renowned ‘FI Core’ accelerator, which pushes founders at the idea and pre-seed stages to reach the milestones needed for investment and sustained growth. Alumni of FI Core then receive free access to our advanced ‘Founder Lab’ accelerators for years to come, and can get matched with prospective investors in the FI Venture Network - a collection of global funds actively investing in the earliest rounds of funding.

The results speak for themselves: FI Alumni have raised over 2BN in funding, and are building impactful businesses across 200+ cities and 100+ countries all across the globe. (see the FI 50 Report here).