AWEP Sponsors Female Fellowships to the Founder Institute’s Pre-seed Accelerator Program
The Founder Institute, the world’s largest pre-seed startup accelerator and African Women Entrepreneurship Programme, an outreach, education, and engagement initiative that targets African women entrepreneurs, to promote business growth, are announcing two female-founder fellowships, for the upcoming Founder Institute 2020 programs, starting with Abuja program.
The Founder Institute, having chapters in both Lagos and Abuja, aims to inspire and support early-stage female founders, in the Founder Institute, by providing:
- Feedback and Mentorship from 95+ top startup leaders, including Nkiru Balonwu, Nkemdilim Begho, Emilia Asim-Ita and Jane Egerton-Idehen
- Two Female Founder Fellowships awarded, to the top female applicants, allowing them to participate in the program for free: https://fi.co/join/awep/
- A Local and Global Support Network of Entrepreneurs, Investors and Advisors
- More than $2M in Partner Deals and Resources
Founder Institute is on a mission to help build more sustainable entrepreneurs around the world. Therefore, creating local synergies with forward-looking organisations such as AWEP is critical to fulfilling this mission, explains, Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata Jnr. ‘CFA’, Regional Director, Founder Institute.
The on-going session at Lagos chapter has three AWEP members, as part of the Cohort and with Abuja currently accepting applications, more AWEP members can apply, to benefit from the time-tested curriculum that FI has to offer.
In the words of Adeola Balogun, a member of AWEP SW, “Founder Institute is on another level, all together. Where do I start from? The exposure is huge, the curriculum is, so detailed if you follow through, you can’t go wrong. If you are not ready to embrace change and do not have the desire for business growth, then, this programme is not for you. The mentors blow your mind each week, with their experiences, which are priceless and mind boggling. I am happy I joined the program and I’m savoring each moment”.
This partnership is part of Founder Institute’s goal of improving the gender gap in technology worldwide, through the Female Founder Initiative, (https://www.femalefounderinitiative.com). Launched in 2016, the Female Founder Initiative provides support for women founders, all over the globe, through their funding-focused webinar series, pitch deck feedback opportunities, mentor-led group office hours, monthly newsletter and global slack channel.
To improve the gender balance in technology worldwide, we must support female founders at the early stage to launch, grow and fund their companies. With the generous support of AWEP, we are able to provide two female-founded companies, the opportunity to leverage the Founder Institute Lagos & Abuja programs and networks to advance their company further and faster.
- Rachel Sheppard, Global Marketing Director, at the Founder Institute & Co-Creator of the Female Founder Initiative
Any female founder who is interested, can apply to the Founder Institute Abuja.
Learn more about the Founder Institute’s Female Founder Initiative: https://www.femalefounderinitiative.com
About the Founder Institute
The Founder Institute, (http://fi.co), is the world's largest pre-seed accelerator. We help pre-funding entrepreneurs and teams build an enduring company, by establishing a critical support network of local startup experts that, are invested in their success and providing a structured and challenging business-building process that has helped our alumni raise over $800M. Leaders of the world’s fastest-growing startups have used the Founder Institute, to raise funding, get into seed-accelerators, generate traction, recruit a team, build a product, transition from employee to entrepreneur and more. The Founder Institute was founded in 2009, by Adeo Ressi and Jonathan Greechan. Today, the program operates across 180 + cities and is localized into 9 languages.
About AWEP
African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program, (AWEP), is an outreach, education and engagement initiative that targets African women entrepreneurs, to develop and promote business growth, create economic opportunities for women entrepreneurs in Africa and increase trade, both regionally and to U.S. markets, through the African Growth and Opportunity Act, (AGOA), create better business environments and empower African women entrepreneurs.
Through AWEP, the U.S. Department of State, seeks to dismantle the obstacles to business opportunities and economic participation that, African women face. Launched in July 2010 and registered in Nigeria, as a network/business association for women in 2012, the initiative identifies and builds networks of women entrepreneurs, in Nigeria and across sub-Saharan Africa.
With membership strength of over 800 Nigerian women, spread over the six Nigerian geopolitical zones and headed by Vice Presidents; AWEP has instilled entrepreneurial values in thousands of women and completed several projects, including AWEP Nigeria Green Gold Project (ANGGP), Rice production, Aquaculture and women empowerment projects, just to mention a few. In Nigeria, AWEP has 5 sector clusters, in each zone, namely, Agriculture/Food Processing, Light Manufacturing, Fashion, Services and Skin Care clusters.
For more information please visit www.awepnigeria.org
Graduates of the Founder Institute are creating some of the world's fastest growing startups, having raised over $1.75BN in funding, and building products people love across over 200 cities worldwide.
See the most recent news from our Grads at FI.co/news, or learn more about their stories at FI.co/journey.
