Jasiri: Pre-idea, Pre-revenue Talent Investor Program Comes to Ethiopia

In a step to boost its East African expansion, the Jasiri Talent Investor program has included Ethiopia in its third cohort. Aspiring entrepreneurs from Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Kenya will be selected for the fully-funded program and supported to bring their business ideas to life.

The Jasiri Talent Investor is 1-year program that will guide program participants from idea generation, validation, prototyping, and market entry to venture creation. The program will introduce Jasiri Fellows to equally ambitious co-founders and will support them on an individual, team, and business level.

Jasiri is looking for highly driven individuals with a history of achievement and/or entrepreneurial action who aspire to launch a high-growth venture.

High-potential individuals who demonstrate exceptional entrepreneurial drive will be selected and provided with the tools, resources, and guidance they need to launch high-growth ventures, including funding, intensive coaching, mentoring, and linkages with industry experts.

Ethiopian applicants must be citizens of Ethiopia, live in the country or abroad, and be preferably aged between 25 and 35 years. Female entrepreneurs are highly encouraged to apply. Additionally, candidates living in the diaspora can also apply.

The entrepreneurs will first undergo an online program to introduce them to business and entrepreneurship essentials as well as industry research. Fellows will then attend an intensive residential program where they will form teams, put together ideas, and test and validate them.

The JASIRI Talent Investor program includes a mandatory 3-month residential intensive in Bugesera, Rwanda. To date, JASIRI has enrolled two cohorts of aspiring entrepreneurs from Rwanda and Kenya in its Talent Investor program.

The individual first program Jasiri is supported by the Allan & Gill Gray Philanthropy (Gray Philanthropy), which takes a long-term approach to develop exceptional, responsible entrepreneurs on the African continent.

“We are very delighted to come to Ethiopia. The startup ecosystem is vibrant here, and we are looking forward to what the innovative youth will bring us,” Amandine Kayizali, Lead Recruiter at Allan & Gill Gray Philanthropy, told Shega.

Jasiri, who is looking to select 20 entrepreneurs from Ethiopia, has a deadline of October 7, 2022.

Existing philanthropic activities initiated by the Gray family over the last decade have reached thousands of high school students through a leading Entrepreneurship Challenge and provided support to a community of over 1000 potential and actual entrepreneurs who, collectively, have started businesses worth an estimated $150 000 USD.

For more information about the program and its offer visit https://jasiri.org/application/   or join Jasiri’s Telegram channel @jasiri4ethiopia.