Orange Social Venture Prize 2020 for Innovative Startups in Africa & Middle East ( 50,000 Euros Prize)

Application Deadline: June 05th 2020 (9:00pm GMT).

Awarded by Orange, this prize recognises technological projects with a positive impact that improve living conditions for populations in Africa and the Middle East, in essential fields such as education, healthcare, agriculture, mobile payment or sustainable development.

The competition starts with a national phase during which each of the 17 Orange subsidiaries taking part will examine the projects submitted in its country and nominate three winners maximum. Then there will be a second international phase in which the winners from each country, up to 54 winners in total, will compete before an international panel which will award the OSVP grand prize at AfricaCom, the largest technological fair in Africa, which takes place in November in Cape Town, South Africa.

Furthermore, the 10 international finalists will have the opportunity to receive personalised support from experts in founding and financing new companies.

OSVP is aimed at students, employees or entrepreneurs aged over 21 years and start-ups that are less than three years old, in the following countries: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Jordan, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Tunisia.

National competition:
Each project submitted will participate in the national competition of its country of origin (the country is identified by the participant when the project is submitted on the Site). Each country organizes a national jury that nominates up to three (3) national winners.

International competition:
These three (3) national winners will participate automatically, without the need to redeposit their respective project, at the Grand Prix (Orange MEA Competition) and the grand jury designates the 3 grand prize winners of the Grand Prix Orange Social Venture Prize Africa / Middle East.

Participants

Participation in the Competition is open to natural persons aged over 21 years at the date of the initiation of the Competition mentioned in article 3 of the Rules and to legal persons able to prove that they have exercised their activity for less than three (3) years on the day the Competition is initiated with access to the Internet and having an e-mail address (hereinafter the “Participant”/the “Participants”).

Excluded from the Competition participation are:
 Natural persons of less than 21 years at the date of the launch of the Competition;
 Legal persons who have exercised their activity for over three years on the day on which the Competition is initiated;
 Persons having conceded rights to their Project
 Persons having collaborated directly in the organisation of the Competition (such as personnel of the Orange group belonging to the CSR MEA and Partnerships departments, the members of the subsidiaries in Africa and the Middle-East participating in the organisation of the Prize and Innovacom personnel);
 The professionals of the national juries as well as the jury members of the international Grand Prix and their families;
 Natural or legal person without personal bank account.

Awards

For the international Grand-Prix awards are the following:
 1st prize: the payment of an amount of € 25,000 (twenty-five thousand euros);
 2nd prize: the payment of an amount of € 15,000 (fifteen thousand euros);
 3rd prize: the payment of an amount of € 10,000 (ten thousand euros);
 One women award: the payment of an amount of € 20,000 (twenty thousand euros)
 One 10th year special award: the payment of an amount of 10,000 (ten thousand euros)

Composition of the entry file

during the pre-selection phase – as such in Article 5.3 of these Rules. The application file
(hereinafter ‘Dossier’ or ‘Candidature File’) contains:

1. Entry form
    It is available on line and should be filled in directly on the Site
    Asterisked fields must be filled in to validate the entry.
2. Entry file relative to the Project
    The format authorised is that of a file in PDF format of 10 Mb maximum.
    Important: The name of the said file must be strictly identical to the name of the project mentioned in the first field of the entry form.
    The elements for constituting the Project File are the following:
3. Summary presentation of the Project: between 1000 and 2000
   characters
4. Analysis of the market
5. Identification of the market opportunity
6. Presentation of the product/service proposed
7. Information about the management team
8. Financial forecasts
9. Evaluation of the societal impact

Stages of participation in the Competition:

1. From March 09th 2020 at 09:00am GMT to June 05th 2020 at 9:00pm GMT:
    The Participants will submit the File on the https://startup.orange.com/ website
    The Participants must also fill in the entry form presented on line as part of the File submission procedure.
    The participants will have to validate the International Rules and the national rules to validate his submission. International and national rules are accessible and can be downloaded on the web Site.
2. From June 10th 2020 00:00am GMT to September 2020:
    Each participating Orange affiliate listed above, or its designated partner, will examine the different projects submitted and will pre-select Projects. The
   preselected projects will eventually be interviewed, as applicable (face-to-face, by telephone or videoconference) by Orange partner, members of the jury or Orange affiliate members or will be asked to pitch their project physically in front of the national jury to foster different aspects of their Project.
    Selection from the national juries should be made in September and the 3 national winners of each country communicated to the Organising Company corporate entity before end of September 2020.
3. From September 2020 to November 2020

The Organising Company will examine all the national winners Projects submitted by
Orange affiliates and following national juries’ decisions, and will pre-select Projects.
The shortlisted projects will eventually be interviewed, as applicable (face-to-face, by
telephone or videoconference) by Orange partner, or Orange corporate members.
 The International Grand Jury decision will be made during October 2020 to choose
the three (3) international prize-winners.

4.November 2020
 November, 2020 the Organising Company will publicly announce the international
winners of the Grand-Prix and organise an award ceremony.

Downloads

Application Guidelines
Rules

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Orange Social Venture Prize 2020