{"id":7915,"date":"2026-06-15T19:57:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T17:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opportunityforworld.org\/?p=7915"},"modified":"2026-06-18T14:12:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:12:00","slug":"wharton-africa-business-forum-new-venture-competition-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opportunityforworld.org\/?p=7915","title":{"rendered":"Wharton Africa Business Forum New Venture Competition 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><div id=\"tdi_1\" class=\"tdc-row\"><div class=\"vc_row tdi_2  wpb_row td-pb-row\" >\n<style scoped>\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n.tdi_2,\r\n                .tdi_2 .tdc-columns{\r\n                    min-height: 0;\r\n                }\n<\/style><div class=\"vc_column tdi_4  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<style scoped>\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n.tdi_4{\r\n                    vertical-align: baseline;\r\n                }\n<\/style><div class=\"wpb_wrapper\" >[vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article id=\"post-175642\">\n<div>\n<p><strong>Deadline: August 1, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Applications are open for the Wharton Africa Business Forum New Venture Competition 2026. The New Venture Competition (NVC) is the flagship pitch competition targeted towards early-stage ventures at the Annual Wharton Africa Business Forum (WABF) to showcase and celebrate the next-generation of founders building category-defining businesses on the continent and beyond.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s theme (WABF33), \u201cBuilt by Billions: Africa\u2019s Future on Africa\u2019s Terms\u201d is a statement on the contribution and agency of every African, across the continent and its diaspora, and NVC sits at the heart of this mission. Startups have the chance to win funding (non-dilutive financing) and network with top founders and investors from the African continent. The Top 5 Finalists will pitch their startups to a panel of esteemed judges at the conference.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prizes<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>At WABF32, $30,000 in non-dilutive funding was awarded to the Top 3 Finalists.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Eligibility<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ventures that meet the following criteria are welcome to apply:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fewer than 50 full-time employees<\/li>\n<li>Less than $250,000 raised to date<\/li>\n<li>Business must have a direct link to Africa (but can be headquartered outside of Africa)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Application<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Applications for the WABF33 New Venture Competition are open until August 1, 2026 at 11:59pm ET. Late applications will not be considered. There are no exceptions.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/e\/1FAIpQLSfYvGfMlOkEohV48j2NqFtPhI58moR8pBUq1vUsBOGsZ6B7jg\/viewform\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Click here to apply<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For more information, visit <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/e\/1FAIpQLSfYvGfMlOkEohV48j2NqFtPhI58moR8pBUq1vUsBOGsZ6B7jg\/viewform\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Wharton Africa Business Forum New Venture Competition<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text]<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[vc_column_text css=\"\"] Deadline: August 1, 2026 Applications are open for the Wharton Africa Business Forum New Venture Competition 2026. The New Venture Competition (NVC) is the flagship pitch competition targeted towards early-stage ventures at the Annual Wharton Africa Business Forum (WABF) to showcase and celebrate the next-generation of founders building category-defining businesses on the continent [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow1K2_DA:productID":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-call-for-applications"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opportunityforworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opportunityforworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opportunityforworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opportunityforworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opportunityforworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/opportunityforworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7981,"href":"https:\/\/opportunityforworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7915\/revisions\/7981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opportunityforworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opportunityforworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opportunityforworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opportunityforworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}