- Dream VC is an investment accelerator and community-driven platform providing rigorous remote programmes for aspiring African investors
- Dream VC is currently spread across more than 12 countries
- The platform strives to democratize access and understanding of the Venture Capital Space for professionals in Africa and the diaspora
The Dream VC Co-Founders, Mark Kleyner and Cindy Ai, are actively building the ecosystem through advising young African investors in African startups.
Dream VC is an investment accelerator and community-driven platform providing rigorous remote programmes for aspiring Young African investors centring around venture capital. It was founded in 2021 by a team of young investors, ecosystem builders and tech founders alike and has grown into a thriving community.
Dream VC is currently spread across more than 12 countries. The platform strives to democratize access and understanding of the Venture Capital Space for professionals in Africa and the diaspora.
Read: Africa’s tech startups ecosystem fastest growing with rising investments
The platform has been entirely remote and celebrates its return to the public arena by launching two new programmes, aiming to train more than 50 Future Investors in and for the continent.
Investors are directing more funds in the continent, as investing in startups is slowly becoming mainstream. Dream VC is among these investors, plugging in to teach fellows an immersive 0 to 100 knowledge acceleration about the Venture Capital (VC) space, covering details from Due Diligence to Deal Sourcing to the different ways Venture Capitals can add value and support companies throughout their investment, exploring and explaining complicated topics such as
- Syndication
- Angel and VC investments
- Legalities of setting up VC Funds
- Angel Groups to invest in African startups.
Dream VC has returned into the arena with two programmes equipped with an impressive 500 hours of content, more than triple the contact hours fellows get with the Dream VC staff.
The programmes include;
- Launch into Venture Capital
- Investor Accelerator
Launch into Venture Capital
This is the first programme by Dream VC, which will run for 14 weeks from June to September 2022. It is a foundational crash course into Venture Capital for young working professionals with less than five years of full-time work experience.
The application for this programme went live on March 8 and will be processed on a rolling basis until the deadline on May 1, 2022, at 11:59 GMT. The fellowship also has an early bird deadline on April 1, 2022, at 2300 hrs GMT.
Individuals who will participate in Dream VC’s Launch into Venture Capital will attain access to both live and recorded training sessions per week and project assignments emulating real work done by VC analysts and associates. They will also engage in workshops, interact with onfield African-focused Venture Capital analysts and associates, and benefit largely from comprehensive career development modules specifically on how to break into the VC industry.
Lastly, Launch into VC participants will also access a dedicated mentorship network through a matching system that pairs inbound Launch into VC fellows with former Dream VC Graduates. The matching will allow the new members to foster ties, build connections and overcome existing challenges in the VC space.
Investor Accelerator
This second programme targets to assist in launching or accelerating seasoned careers of experienced founders, operators, African enthusiasts and working professionals interested in catapulting into the Venture Capital Investment World as investors, startup advisors or ecosystem builders.
Read: Investors rush for Africa’s B2B e-commerce startups
The application for this programme went live on March 8 and will be processed on a rolling basis until the deadline on May 1, 2022, at 11:59 GMT.
The rigorous and immersive Investor accelerator programme will launch in June 2022, running for 20 weeks until late October.
Participants in this programme will be taught actively, with multiple live sessions every week, occurring on evenings and weekends to engage them. Investor accelerator guarantees over 800 hours of content, distributed across strategic block-based learning and complemented by a team of panels with leading industry professionals like GPs and Executives in many Venture Capital firms actively investing in or based out of Africa markets.
Investor Accelerator participants will also sharpen their investing skills by reviewing active deals, drafting investment memos, and presenting them monthly at a mock Investment Committee meeting.
Dream VC targets to catalyze the next generation of young African investors, focusing on driven and underrepresented individuals (homegrown Africans, diaspora, and beyond) who wish to be impactful ecosystem builders in their communities.
The economic growth in Africa has tremendously accelerated in the past few years and has gained more and more interest from international investors and partners. However, there is a massive gap between ‘homegrown financing solutions’ and funding towards ‘homegrown startups’ in almost all the countries across Africa. The majority of the investors active in the African market are foreign, topped by European and North American investors.
Homegrown startups are doing exceptionally well in the market, such as Future Africa, created by Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, former managing director of Flutterwave and a co-founder of Andela.
Read: Africa: Google picks fifteen startups for its accelerator programme
