Call for Entrepreneurs: Création Africa – South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi 2025 (up to €30,000) – YOA

Deadline: December 7, 2025

Applications are open for the Création Africa – South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi 2025. Création Africa goals to increase and assist cultural entrepreneurship in South Africa, Lesotho, and Malawi by a holistic strategy that mixes mentorship, incubation, coaching, funding and networking to assist cultural entrepreneurs in any respect phases of their journey, with a deal with entrepreneurs inside a development stage.

Création Africa goals to assist a vibrant and sustainable ecosystem for cultural entrepreneurship in Africa by collaborating with native and worldwide incubators, companies, establishments and companions. Création Africa will function below the oversight of Team France, guaranteeing efficient governance and strategic steerage.

For this challenge, a partnership with the South African incubator UVU Africa has been established to implement and oversee each the mentoring part and the incubation program. With their substantial expertise in scaling up startups, they create priceless experience to the initiative.

The Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) comprise a variety of sectors that drive each cultural and financial development, together with however not restricted to the next:  

• Visual and Performing Arts: Painting, sculpture, images, and different visible arts; theatre, dance, circus, and reside performances.  
• Music: Composition, manufacturing, efficiency, and distribution of music.  
• Film and Television: Production, route, distribution, and associated audiovisual companies.  
• Design and Craft: Graphic design, industrial design, and artisanal crafts.  
• Fashion: Apparel, equipment, and associated industries.  
• Animation, Gaming, and Interactive Media: Animation, video video games, software program, and immersive or interactive experiences.  
• Digital Media: Digital content material creation, on-line platforms, and social media manufacturing.  
• Creative and Cultural Promotion Spaces: Festivals, occasions, artistic hubs, and group areas that assist, current, or promote artists and artistic industries.  
• Publishing: Books, magazines, newspapers, and different print or digital publications.  
• Architecture: Architectural design, city planning, and associated companies.  
• Cultural Heritage: Museums, archives, preservation, restoration, and heritage administration.

grant

• The 15 tasks chosen will obtain monetary assist from the French Institute of South Africa as a leverage impact to scale up their companies.
• The quantity of the assist, from €15,000 to €30,000 disbursed shall be decided by the incubator and the jury based mostly on the precise wants and potential outlined by the entrepreneurs to scale up.

Eligibility

The application is open to all entrepreneurs throughout the Cultural and Creative Industries from South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi.

Applicants should:

• Be over 18 years previous.
• Be a resident of South Africa, Lesotho or Malawi.
• Business have to be managed and/or run by the proprietor (entrepreneur).
• Business have to be an present enterprise which is registered inside South Africa, Lesotho or Malawi.
• Participants are required to be accessible and dedicated for the complete length of the mentorship and incubation programmes, together with taking any essential break day from their enterprise obligations.

Selection Criteria

To enhance your probabilities of being shortlisted for the Création Africa challenge, your challenge ought to align with the next standards:

• Creative and Innovative firm.
• Have been in existence for no less than 2 years.
• Have a possible to generate income and be scalable.
• Have attainable and life like aims with a transparent lengthy-time period imaginative and prescient and enterprise mannequin.

Application

You have to be accessible for these dates:  

• Presentation by the brief-listed candidates to the Jury: 19 to 23 January 2026  
• Announcement of chosen 50 entrepreneurs: 26 to 29 January 2026  
• Intensive mentorship program: 2 February to 20 March 2026  
• Pitch classes: End March 2026  
• Incubation program: 6 April to 9 October 2026  
• Immersion program: Between October and November 2026.  

Click here to apply

For extra data, go to Creation Africa.