Apply Now: MIT Kuo Sharper Center Foundry Fellowship 2025 for Africa-Based Entrepreneurs

The MIT Kuo Sharper Center for Prosperity and Entrepreneurship has opened purposes for its prestigious Foundry Fellowship 2025. Designed for completed Africa-based entrepreneurs, this eight-month program fosters regional and cross-continental collaboration to catalyze innovation, entrepreneurship, and inclusive development all through Africa. The Foundry Fellowship is greater than only a skilled improvement alternative—it’s a group of purpose-driven leaders aiming to rework Africa’s innovation ecosystems.

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About the Foundry Fellowship

The Foundry Fellowship is rooted within the mission of the MIT Kuo Sharper Center, which believes that entrepreneurs and market-based options are vital for creating sustainable prosperity in rising markets. The fellowship brings collectively a small cohort of 10–15 fellows who’ve already scaled an innovation-driven enterprise and at the moment are seeking to create systemic affect past their very own enterprise.

Selected fellows will be a part of a transformative, cohort-based expertise that features management seminars, programs with MIT school, and immersive ecosystem excursions throughout Africa and the United States. Fellows are anticipated to commit absolutely to this system’s period and actions, together with a number of in-person engagements throughout a number of months.

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Who Should Apply

Applicants should meet the next core eligibility standards:

• Be an Africa-based entrepreneur.

• Have based and scaled a for-profit, innovation-driven enterprise.

• Be at an inflection level of their management journey and in search of to:

  • Transition into a brand new ecosystem-building function (e.g. launch a VC fund, begin an accelerator, enter coverage),

  • Establish a brand new enterprise that contributes on to strengthening entrepreneurship ecosystems in Africa, or

  • Expand their present enterprise throughout African markets whereas concurrently supporting innovation infrastructure.

The program is especially suited for people who view entrepreneurship not solely as a private success story however as a automobile for broader societal transformation. MIT alumni and present diploma candidates are welcome to apply.

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Program Structure and Commitment

The Foundry Fellowship is designed for immersive studying and management improvement. Over the course of eight months, fellows will take part in:

• Personal management improvement periods.

• Courses taught by MIT school.

• Four ecosystem excursions, together with:

  • Two separate week-long excursions inside Africa (November and January/February).

  • Two U.S.-based excursions in April/May, together with a go to to Boston/Cambridge and a closing celebration occasion.

Fellows are required to attend all digital and in-person periods. While most program prices corresponding to lodging, group meals, and native transportation are lined, individuals should cowl the price of their very own worldwide flights and a few travel-related bills.

All programming is carried out in English, and candidates have to be comfy articulating complicated concepts each verbally and in writing.

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Application Requirements

To apply for the 2025 Foundry Fellowship, candidates should full a web-based kind and submit the next supplies:

• Basic private and get in touch with info.

• Details of their present and previous entrepreneurial endeavors.

• Short essay responses on subjects corresponding to ecosystem improvement, management, and the applicant’s motivation for becoming a member of the fellowship.

• A present resume or CV.

• A 2-minute video (in English) summarizing the applicant’s objectives and background.

• Two letters of advice from skilled contacts (e.g., mentors, co-founders, senior employees, or board members).

Finalists shall be invited to take part in not less than one panel interview throughout the analysis course of.

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Key Dates

• Applications Open: June 11, 2025

• Applications Close: July 6, 2025 at 11:59 PM EST

• Finalist Interviews and Selection: August 2025

• Orientation (Virtual): October 2025

• Program Launch and Africa Ecosystem Tour: November 2025

• Additional Africa and U.S. Tours: January–May 2026

Please word that dates are topic to alter. Final particulars shall be communicated to profitable candidates throughout the choice course of.

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Why Join the Foundry Fellowship?

Participants within the Foundry Fellowship be a part of a strong community of change-makers throughout Africa. The program equips fellows with the data, peer assist, and publicity wanted to amplify their affect. Graduates depart with a renewed sense of function and a deeper understanding of the best way to lead not simply corporations, however transformative change in communities and innovation ecosystems.

As one 2024 Fellow put it:
“This program has been profoundly different… It’s really opened up our eyes to opportunities elsewhere in the continent.”

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How to Apply or Nominate a Fellow

Applications for the 2025 Foundry Fellowship at the moment are open. To apply, submit your supplies on-line by July 6, 2025, at 11:59 PM EST.

If a professional Africa-based entrepreneur who suits this system’s mission, you might also nominate them utilizing the official nomination kind. Nominated people shall be contacted instantly with application directions.

For questions or further info, go to MIT Kuo Sharper Center or e-mail the fellowship crew at foundry_fellowship@mit.edu.

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For extra world alternatives like this one, go to Opportunities For Youth