{"id":663544,"date":"2025-12-31T00:12:51","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T00:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/663544\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T00:12:51","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T00:12:51","slug":"qualcomm-make-in-africa-startup-mentorship-program-2026-for-early-stage-startups-call-for-equity-free-support-plus-5000-stipend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/663544\/","title":{"rendered":"Qualcomm\u00ae Make in Africa Startup Mentorship Program 2026 for early-stage startups (Call For (Equity-Free Support plus $5,000 Stipend)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t5K<\/p>\n<p>Application Deadline: <strong>February 15th 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Applications are now open for the<\/strong> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opportunitiesforafricans.com\/qualcomm-make-in-africa-startup-mentorship-program-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2026 Qualcomm\u00ae Make in Africa Startup Mentorship Program.<\/a><\/strong><br \/>As the first initiative of its kind in Africa, this equity-free mentorship program will identify promising early-stage startups keen on applying advanced connectivity and processing technologies to innovative end-to-end systems solutions, including hardware, and provide these companies with business coaching, access to engineering consultation for product development, and guidance on protecting intellectual property.<\/p>\n<p>Requirements<\/p>\n<p>To participate, your startup must:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Be a\u00a0<strong>registered company operating in Africa<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Be in the\u00a0<strong>early stage<\/strong>\u00a0(pre-seed to seed, ideally with a minimum viable product).<\/li>\n<li>Build solutions that leverage\u00a0<strong>advanced technologies or hardware-enabled systems<\/strong>, such as connectivity, AI, IoT, embedded compute, or similar fields.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There is\u00a0<strong>no purchase or payment required<\/strong>\u00a0to enter. Participation is\u00a0<strong>equity-free<\/strong>\u00a0Qualcomm does not take ownership in return for support.<\/p>\n<p>Program Benefits<\/p>\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Startup cohort:\u00a0<\/strong>Up to 10 startups will be selected for the 2026 incubation program.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.qualcomm.com\/content\/dam\/qcomm-martech\/dm-assets\/documents\/QMIA-2026-Official-Rules.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">QMIA 2026 Rules<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Mentorship:\u00a0<\/strong>1:1 mentorship with Qualcomm subject matter experts\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>Platforms:\u00a0<\/strong>Arduino Uno Q based usecase proposals welcome<\/li>\n<li><strong>Masterclasses:\u00a0<\/strong>Expert-led technology training in areas such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) including AI-Hub, Internet of Things (IoT), Extended Reality (XR), Compute (AI-PC), 5G, Intellectual Property Law, and more. Additional access to technology, business, and IP training is available at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/academy.qualcomm.com\/course-catalog\/Global-Startups-and-Ecosystem-Training\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Qualcomm Academy<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Stipends:\u00a0<\/strong>One startup will be awarded a Social Impact Fund grant from Qualcomm\u00ae Wireless ReachTM. All other participating startups will be eligible for a USD $5,000 stipend upon successful completion of program requirements<\/li>\n<li><strong>Patent filing incentives:\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Reimbursement of up to USD $5,000 for one full utility patent application filed in the startup\u2019s country, at the USPTO, or via the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)<\/li>\n<li>Eligibility for a patent filing consultation hours from Adams &amp; Adams, Africa\u2019s leading IP law firm.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.adams.africa\/collaboration-sponsorships\/qualcomm-make-in-africa-initiative\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Learn more<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Free access to online IP education, including filing procedures for several African countries, at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/l2proafrica.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">L2Pro Africa<\/a>\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Visibility and Industry connections:<\/strong>Participation in a virtual finale event in December 2026, including the announcement of the Social Impact Fund award winner. This event will showcase the startups and help accelerate their business success<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Program Timeline<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Application Phase:\u00a0<strong>: December 17th 2025 to February 15th 2026<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Shortlisting of the Startups:\u00a0<strong>March 2026<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Mentorship Program:\u00a0<strong>April 2026 to November 2026<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Program Finale &amp; Demo Day:\u00a0<strong>December 2026<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For More Information:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.qualcomm.com\/company\/locations\/africa\/qualcomm-make-in-africa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Visit the Official Webpage of the Qualcomm\u00ae Make in Africa Startup Mentorship Program <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"5K Application Deadline: February 15th 2026 Applications are now open for the 2026 Qualcomm\u00ae Make in Africa Startup&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3094],"tags":[51,3134,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-663544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-entrepreneurship","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115811293742104099","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}