THE GAP
- With the rate of unemployment rising as high as 28% in some parts of Africa, entrepreneurship remains a potential solution promising direct and indirect employment opportunities among youth and has proven to have a ripple effect to national economies
- The current education system does not prepare student for the fourth industrial revolution with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3-D printing, nanotechnology and quantum computing quickly taking hold disrupting various sectors and transforming entire systems of production, management, and governance.
- Despite considerable growth in the African tech startup ecosystem with foreign investments reaching $3.3 billion in 2022, conception of new companies from ideation upstream is hindered by lack of resources and few players/stakeholders thereby resulting into unattractive and un- investable business cases downstream.
OUR APPROACH
- Idea scouting. With 113 university partnerships across Africa (and growing), we scout for ideas, early innovations as well as initial products from students, young professionals and other individuals in learning institutions, that have potential to solve dire challenges in communities and that have commercial value to form outstanding businesses in the market place.
- Beginners hackathon hub. Our hubs run special hackathon programs that bring students and young professionals with technical backgrounds together for problem-solving and developing new ideas. These help participants hone their skills, meet people and work with others in their field.
- Acceleration programs. After initial processes of scouting and finding potential individuals, we then shortlist candidates to go through our 3, 6 and 1 year acceleration programs to launch impact driven social enterprises by making essential resources available as well as providing seed funding. We work in the framework of the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs), where we select and guide innovative ideas from proof of concept to product market fit, in fostering technological innovation with great emphasis on impact/social change.
90% of startups that went through our programs have raised a total of $138 million dollars of funding from VCs and other commercial investors showing a tremendous success rate of our methodology.
OUR RESULTS
With our comprehensive approach, we not only equip African youth with knowledge and skills for the future but also foster an environment where young people utilize their academic knowledge to create innovative enterprises that create job opportunities for themselves and their communities.
250
Startups supported
$138M
Startups raised
2000+
Applicants each year
24,500+
Jobs created
600+
Projects started
Our Partners
Have a question about the program? Email us on contact@yted.org
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