Dream VC, a Remote Venture Capital Upskilling Institute, has opened applications for its 2022 fellowship program for VCs in Africa. Founded in 2021 by a small team of Young Investors, Ecosystem Builders and Tech Founders alike, Dream VC is dedicated to providing more access and opportunities to traditionally underrepresented individuals in the African venture capital space.
Dream VC has grown into a thriving community, spread across 12+ countries and growing with each cohort, striving to democratise access and understanding about the Venture Capital Space for professionals on the continent and among the diaspora. The institute is entirely remote and celebrates its return to the public arena by launching 2 new programs, aiming to train more than 50+ Future Investors for the continent.
The programs are equipped with an impressive 500h+ of content, and more than triple the contact hours fellows get with the Dream VC staff.
“At the end of the day, working in countries like Nigeria or Kenya, founders across the continent often are faced with major obstacles – and there is still a lot that must change about perceptions of investing or building startups in Africa. Investors need to be much more hands-on and add a lot more value than just money to build sustainable scalable businesses. And this can’t be done without including and enabling local leaders to be more active in the VC space,” says Cindy, Co-Founder and Programme Director of Dream VC.
‘’While international interest is now putting African startups in the spotlight, there are still very few support systems for aspiring local investors and opportunities for working professionals to break into VC on the continent. Dream VC exists to change this and has ambitious plans to enable the next wave of aspiring investors by building the communities, educational infrastructure, and environment to thrive and add maximum value to startups in multiple African startup ecosystems.’’ Cindy adds.
The first programme, Launch into Venture Capital, will run for 14 weeks from June 2022 to September 2022 and is a foundational crash course into VC for young working professionals with less than five years of full-time work experience. Fellows who participate in Dream VC’s Launch into VC will get access to live and recorded weekly training sessions and project assignments emulating real work done by VC analysts and associates. Fellows will also partake in engaging workshops, interact with actual African-focused VC analysts and associates in relaxed networking mixers, and benefit from comprehensive career development modules specifically on how to break into the VC industry. Finally, Launch into VC fellows will get access to a dedicated mentorship network through a matching system that pairs inbound LIVC fellows with former Dream VC Graduates, allowing the new cohorts to foster ties, build connections and overcome existing challenges in the space.
The second programme, Investor Accelerator, aims to help launch or accelerate the seasoned careers of experienced operators, founders, working professionals and African enthusiasts interested in catapulting into the Venture Capital Investment World as investors, startup advisors or ecosystem builders. This programme will launch in June 2022 simultaneously alongside the Launch into VC program but will run for 20 weeks until late October 2022. Fellows who participate in the Investor Accelerator will be taught actively, with multiple live sessions every week, occurring on evenings and weekends to engage the fellows. As a much more extensive and intensive programme- this one promises over 800h of content, spread across strategic block-based learning and complemented by a range of panels with top industry leaders like GPs and Executives in many VC firms actively investing in or based out of African markets. Investor Accelerator Fellows will also get to hone their investing chops by reviewing active deals, drafting investment memos, and presenting them monthly at a mock Investment Committee meeting.
Applications for both programs go live on March 8th and will be processed on a rolling basis until the final deadline on May 1st 2022, at 11:59 pm GMT. The Launch into Venture Capital Fellowship specifically also has an Early Bird Deadline on April 1st, 2022, at 11:59 pm GMT in addition to the final deadline on May 1st. Interested applicants can find more about both programme applications here.
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