2018 EDF Pulse Africa Awards for African start-ups (40,000 euros prize)

Application Deadline: July 09, 2018.

You are an African start-up. You develop innovative projects around energy and you want to accelerate the development of your project.

EDF is exporting its Innovations Awards in Africa with the ambition to support and assist African innovators, those really playing a role in energy development.

In an often difficult and challenging context, the innovation culture has emerged and is bringing out some useful energy solutions to Africans. EDF wants to rely on this powerful local resource to improve electricity access and build with, the future of energy in Africa. This is the reason why the company launches the first edition of « EDF Pulse Africa ».

For this edition, there will be awarded 3 prizes for the best innovative projects submitted by participants (African strat-up, micro companies and small businesses), and applicables to the following areas:

• Off-grid eletricity production: any innovation that produces and/or stores electricity off grid
• Electricity services and usages: any service that enables to expand electrification and any innovative product with low power consumption; recoverable by users of electricity services
• Water access: any innovative solution that improves access to water through electricity ( agriculture, drinking water)

Eligibility Requirements:

Application Procedure:

• All participants must complete and submit an electronic file on the competition website https://africa-pulse.edf.com by July 09, 2018. The complete brief includes:

• The structure, its team and its motivations;
• The developed solution or product, as well as its market and economic model;
• The stage of advancement: tests, prototypes, fund raising, commercial contacts, support and partners, awards…
• One (1) project photo in high definition, JPEG or PNG format, 800 x 600 pixels minimum
• One (1) team photo in high definition, JPEG or PNG format, 800 x 600 pixels minimum
• The application form for the EDF Pulse Africa Prizes, duly completed, must be submitted by a legal representative or founder of the company on behalf of the latter.

Award Ceremony

• The EDF Pulse Africa Awards ceremony will be held in France on November 22, 2018, in Paris. The finalists agree to make themselves available for the event. Each must: be represented by a member of its team; and present a model or prototype of its innovation.
• The Organizer will organize the travel and accommodation of the representatives of each team, as well as models and prototypes.
• The awards ceremony will be filmed and distributed or redisplayed on the Internet, especially on social networks
• Each winner will receive a trophy “EDF PULSE AFRICA 2018 PRIZE”

The Allowance Package

• Each of the ten (10) finalists will have a presentation card on the site http://africa-pulse.edf.com: name of the structure and project, logo (if provided in the brief), country of domiciliation, proposal summary, link to website or social network…
• The ten (10) finalists will be invited to the Grand Jury day on November 22, 2018 and will participate to a three (3) day coaching session from November 19, 2018 to November 21, 2018. More proactively, they will receive mentoring and advice on their project development from October to November. Each of the ten (10) finalists will also be invited to the awards ceremony.
• The three (3) laureates will receive from EDF an allocation for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes: 15K €, 10K € and 5K € respectively. This allocation will contribute to the development of their projects. The endowment will be paid by bank transfer or check to the winning team structure. The three (3) winners will benefit from easy access to financing and possible development of partnerships with EDF Group companies in Africa

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the 2018 EDF Pulse Africa Awards for African start-ups