Mozilla’s Fix-The-Internet Incubator Program 2020 for early-stage African startups

Application Deadline: June 5th 2020

Mozilla’s Fix-The-Internet Incubator Program 2020

Mozilla are looking to invest in people, projects, and technologies that shape the internet and have a positive impact without having to only worry about the bottom line. Firefox, Wikipedia, WordPress, DuckDuckGo, Kickstarter, GitHub, Node.js, and Ethereum are some of our favorite examples of the internet at its best. We’ve done it before. We’re going to build 1000 more.

People like you built Firefox. People like you will write the next amazing chapter of the internet.

• The Startup Studio$75,000 investment in early stage startups. SAFE ($2m cap). Read more…Apply by June 5Rolling acceptance. Program runs July-September Apply
• The MVP Lab$16,000 funding to pre-startup teams. For-profit, non-profit or open source. Read more…Apply by June 5Rolling acceptance. Program runs July-August Apply

Remote

• All of Mozilla Builders Incubabor programs are 100% remote/online, as are any interviews that are part of the application process.

Mozilla’s Fix-The-Internet hope to see a wide range of proposals around big categories including, but not limited to:

1. Collaboration & Society, particularly in view of the current global crisis: (i) Foster better collaboration online, (ii) Grassroots collaboration around issues & emergencies, (iii) Local & neighborhood support networks, (iv) Supporting small businesses, (v) Social money-pooling for issues, people & businesses.
2. Decentralized Web: build a new, decentralized architecture for the internet from infrastructure, communications, media & money, to using the blockchain and peer-to-peer technologies. This summer we are particularly interested in seeing proposals around how to make decentralized storage services a viable + reliable system for building applications upon.
3. Messaging & Social Networking: can we build a new way to communicate online that favors privacy, people, and users’ interests? What needs to evolve?
4. Surveillance Capitalism: whether it’s big tech or governments, everyone’s collecting your data. How do we put the user back in control of their data? Can we build new business models for messaging, social networking, news & information that don’t rely on excessive data minute and hijacking our attention?
5. Misinformation & Content: ideas for services that help us get beyond polarization, filter bubbles and fake news.
6. Artificial Intelligence that works to benefit communities and citizens.
7. Web Assembly: 25 years of evolution and improvement, and the web’s “execution environment” – the Javascript engine in every browser – has now broken free as a remarkably fast, safe way to run ANY code. We’re interested in tools and platforms that leverage and build on Wasm as THE way to run applications connected to the internet. What’s the ecosystem missing today? What new things can be built with it that couldn’t be built before? Where can Wasm have the biggest impact?
8. Search: For most people in the world, search is the gateway to news, shopping, information, and answers that shape the way they live their lives. These searches happen for billions of people from the search boxes in their browsers but also in new and exciting ways like getting a quick answer with your voice from a little screen in your kitchen. For the last 10 years the thought of building a new search experience was left to only the largest companies in the world but with the rise of privacy focused search engines such as DuckDuckGo, the panoply of vertical search engines, cloud platforms, and developer tools, there’s clear evidence that better search is possible. What will be the next major step in making the world’s information open, accessible, and credible for the next generation of users and devices?

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Mozilla’s Fix-The-Internet Incubator Program 2020