The Standard Chartered Women in Tech incubation program is Africa’s leading incubator program for female-led and founded businesses. It aligns with calls for more diversity in technology, entrepreneurship and for more opportunities for women to develop entrepreneurial and leadership excellence. This speaks to the bank’s Sustainability and Community Engagement strategy and focuses on supporting innovation, infrastructure, and technology.
The Standard Chartered Women in Tech incubation program is an initiative of Standard Chartered Bank Zambia in partnership with BongoHive, following the successful implementation of the Women in Tech program in Kenya, Nigeria, and Bahrain to mention a few.
The key objective of the Standard Chartered Women in Tech incubation program is to help Zambian women entrepreneurs or business owners who want to or are using digital technology to grow their business but lack the necessary support. The program is designed to provide targeted support in areas of business operations, digitization and digital transformation, accounting, and financial management. The outcome of the program is to support female-led entrepreneurial teams with training, mentorship, and seed funding.
Successful applicants will begin their journey with a 3-month incubation program followed by a 6-month acceleration program for selected participants from the incubation program.
Who Can Apply?
We are seeking to recruit the best entrepreneurial minds of women-led startup teams using digital technology as a key driver of innovation in business.
- The business owner must be of Zambian nationality.
- The business must be based and operating in Zambia.
- The business must already be using digital technology, or have a clear need to incorporate digital technology to enable their business to grow.
- The business must have been registered with PACRA for at least 3 months.
- The business owner may be seeking support for customer, product, and/or business model development.
- Key persons of the business (preferably 2 founders) must be available to undertake the 3-month incubation program from March to May 2022.
- The top 5 winners of the incubation program must be able to attend a 6-month acceleration program from July to December 2022.
- The prize fund is primarily for building digital technology and any balance to be used in the business.
Benefits
- Business incubation: Three (3) months of learning experience in business management and operations.
- Personalized mentorship: Personalized mentorship for all participants and their business needs.
- Planning and support: Access to legal, accounting, financial planning & tech support.
- Networking and expert help: Access to networking opportunities with fellow successful applicants and industry experts.
- Funding opportunities: $10,000 equity-free grant seed funding for the top five (5) finalists from the incubation program to assist with the implementation of technology in their businesses.
- Alumni opportunity: An opportunity to join BongoHive’s supportive Alumni Network.
- Continued support: Six (6) months ongoing support from Standard Chartered, BongoHive & a network of coaches and mentors to assist with go-to-market strategies and scaling-up for the top five (5) finalists.
Program Timeline
Call for applications: 22 Nov 2021 – 16 Jan 2022.
Application shortlisting: 17 Jan – 28 Jan 2022.
Shortlisting announcement: 31 Jan 2022.
Bootcamp (top 40): 7 Feb – 11 Feb 2022.
Bootcamp pitches: 14 Feb – 18 Feb 2022.
Top 10 notifications: 21 Feb 2022.
Incubation phase: 7 March – 23 May 2022.
Demo day and award ceremony: 9 June and 16 June 2022.
Acceleration phase (post-incubation support): 20 June – 20 Dec 2022.
How to Apply?
