It’s good news for African game and app developer Startups. Amazing award prices of up to $72,000 is up for the taking. It’s the African App Launchpad Cup 2020.
About the 2020 African App Launchpad Cup
This annual competition aims to help youths and start-up teams in the world of game or application development. Winners of the competition stand a chance to win big reward prizes, and runner ups up to the 23rd runner up have awards to claim too.
The African App Launchpad Cup started back in 2018 on Nov 6, with the announcement of the President of Egypt, within the closing ceremony of the World Youth Forum in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
The African App Launchpad initiative is an African based platform aiming to build the capacity of youth from Egypt and other African countries and support the establishment of 100 startups in gaming and app development across Africa.
Depending on whether you are a game or app developer, you get to choose which of the two tracks to take in the competition, more on that later. It’s an exciting competition with the partnership of Microsoft, Coursera, edX and Udacity. And with every competition comes rules and criteria to be met for eligibility in participation. We’ll show you all you need to know for a successful application in the following sections.
Competition Tracks
For the African App Launchpad Cup 2020 competition, there are two tracks.
- Game Development – VR or AR applications.
- Development – using any technology. (Mobile, Cloud, Web, IOT, AI, .. etc).
Startups are to select either one of both tracks. An app developer would compete in the App development track with other app developers, and likewise for the game developer, who is to choose the game development track.
Award Prizes
There are lots of benefits and cash prizes awards in this competition, they include
- $72k Total Cash Prizes for Winners
- Three winners for each of the two tracks will receive USD $12K, $8K, $4K.
- The other 24 finalists will receive USD $1K each.
- GTM program delivered by Thinkroom Consultancy for the first place winners and funded by Microsoft.
- VC introduction from Microsoft Network across Africa.
- Business planning training offered to a finalist by GrindStone
- Acceleration Program by Microsoft through THINKROOM
- Access to VCs for top winning startups
Eligibility Requirements
The competition requires that you are a start-up team and not participating as an individual.
- You are to apply as Teams or Startups up to 2 Years Old
- Your Team Size should be at least a size of 2 Members
It is required that you must have A Working Prototype. This will be demanded in the application form and necessary for its completion.
Participating Countries
Important criteria to be met first of all is that you need to be a citizen of one the eligible African countries (20). They include
Egypt, Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, The Gambia, Nigeria, Togo and Uganda.
Judging Criteria
The submitted applications as well as pitching will be judged on the following areas:
- Innovation Originality/Creativity
- Business Model
- Art and/or Design of the Game/App
- Team Competencies.
How to Apply
To Apply here’s what you should do
- Visit the African App Launchpad Cup 2020 website at http://techleaders.eg/aal/competition2020/
- Next click on the Register link found on the landing page.
- After clicking, you’ll be redirected to the Application form. Follow the prompts and fill out the form. Provide all information as required.
- Once done, click submit to complete.
Note that you are required to submit a link to your working prototype or product in the registration form. In filling the application form, you have an option to save your progress and return to the form anytime before the deadline, to continue its completion, however, you must fill the first contact email in order to receive the link to your saved / unsubmitted form.
Application Deadline
The Registration ends on Sunday the 22nd of November 2020. Your application will be reviewed and you will receive a reply after the registration closes concerning selection, if your team made it into the next phase or not.
Applicants can visit the African App Launchpad Cup 2020 website via this link for more enquiries and answers to frequently asked questions.