Locations
Benefits & Eligibility
Benefits
High potential investment from the 3 “Tôshikas”!
The Meet the Tôshikas programme has been designed to maximize chances of investment from carefully selected Japanese investors - “Tôshikas” - who are readily eager, willing, and able to invest immediately on the African continent. From the onset, your startup will be on the Tôshikas radars with multiple touch points to assess the suitability of your business.
Be ready - We will literally come to you!
A 3-month programme focused on Investor Readiness!
We understand the challenge of simultaneously running a business and fundraising, which is why we want to help address the early-stage funding gap. Unlike general accelerators, this programme will focus solely on investment readiness, which includes early-stage to advanced fundraising strategies, valuation and funding terms, negotiation, and more.
Make your next funding round your best funding round!
Grant funding!
Upon completion of the Investment Readiness Support Programme, each participating startup will receive a $20,000 catalytic grant from the UNDP Startup Challenge Fund to help take their business to the next level!
Welcome to Tokyo!
By the end of the programme, you will be given the opportunity to travel to Tokyo for an entire week and meet a tailored selection Japanese stakeholders most likely to support, invest in or partner with your business.
Grow your Japanese network in the most strategic way!
Eligibility
In order to apply to the programme, all startups must meet these basic criteria:
- Must be a startup operating in Lusaka (Zambia), Johannesburg (South Africa), or Luanda (Angola)
- Must possess at least business-level proficiency in English.
- Must be active in at least one of the following industries: Mobility, Renewable Energy, Agriculture, Logistics, eCommerce, Healthcare, Finance.
- Must utilize an innovation, digital technology or digitized process to generate value to customers.
- Must be seeking to raise a pre-seed to pre-series A funding round.
- Must have at least one co-founder from the target country (i.e. If your startup operates in Zambia, at least one of your co-founders must be a Zambian national).
- Must be a post-prototype, post-product startup, meaning that your product or service must be already available on the market with active customers as a minimum viable product (MVP).
- Must be a post-revenue startup for the last 2 years, meaning that your startup may not be profitable yet, but has been continuously generating revenue from customers over the past 2 years.
- Must be addressing at least 1 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- Founders must be available during the total duration of the programme and participate in ALL programme activities. Failure to comply may result in not receiving the grant by the end of the programme. If you have prior engagements or commitments, you must notify the programme at the time of application via the application form. Please refer to the Programme Overview page to see key programme dates.
- Being a university-backed startup is an asset.