Africa Blockchain Festival Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Olubunmi Fabanwo addressing the crowd at the Block and Chill 2026 event in Nairobi./HANDOUT
Africa Blockchain Festival (ABF) has announced the launch of the ABF Fellowship Programme 2026, a new initiative designed to connect promising African blockchain and artificial intelligence founders with investors, venture capital networks and mentorship opportunities.
The Fellowship Programme will form part of Africa Blockchain Festival 2026, taking place from October 15–17 at the Sarit Expo Centre in Nairobi, and will strengthen the startup and investment component of this year's festival.
The global early-stage venture capital firm Antler and pan-African venture capital firm Launch Africa Ventures have partnered with Africa Blockchain Festival and Hevy Hub on the initiative, bringing experienced early-stage investors closer to founders developing the next generation of African technology companies.
Antler has been named the Official Venture Partner of Africa Blockchain Festival 2026, and its involvement will focus specifically on supporting the identification and evaluation of participating startups, serving on the jury for the Fellowship pitch competition during the festival, and delivering a technical startup workshop on the second day of the event.
Launch Africa Ventures, one of the continent's active early-stage venture capital firms, will also participate in the Fellowship initiative, supporting startup vetting on the ground and contributing to the pitch competition judging process.
The involvement of the two venture capital firms is intended to bring experienced investor perspectives directly into the Fellowship selection and pitching process, while giving participating founders greater exposure to how investors evaluate early-stage businesses.
Scaling Blockchain Businesses in Africa
The program addresses one of the biggest challenges facing technology entrepreneurs across Africa: turning innovative ideas and early-stage products into investable and scalable businesses.
Across the continent, young entrepreneurs are increasingly building solutions around artificial intelligence, blockchain, fintech, digital payments and other emerging technologies. However, access to early-stage investment, experienced mentors and international networks continues to determine whether many of these ideas progress beyond their home markets.
Selected founders participating in the ABF Fellowship Program will have the opportunity to showcase and pitch their solutions live on stage at Africa Blockchain Festival, presenting their businesses to an audience that includes investors, technology executives, founders, policymakers, financial institutions and potential commercial partners.
Qualified startups will also gain access to the ABF Deal Room, a dedicated environment at the festival designed to facilitate more focused investment conversations, introductions and potential deal-making between founders and investors.
Importantly, the program will continue beyond the festival, with qualified startups receiving post-event mentorship to help founders strengthen their businesses and prepare for future growth and investment opportunities.
Olubunmi Fabanwo, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Africa Blockchain Festival, said the Fellowship Program reflects ABF's ambition to create tangible opportunities for the young people building Africa's technology future.
"Africa has one of the youngest populations in the world, and that generation is growing up at a time when technology is completely changing what is possible. A young person in Nairobi, Kampala, Lagos, Kigali, Accra or Dar es Salaam can build a solution today that potentially reaches millions of people. The challenge is making sure that talent has access to the capital, mentorship and networks required to turn those ideas into sustainable companies," said Fabanwo.
"We don't want Africa Blockchain Festival to simply be a place where people spend three days talking about the future of technology. We want founders to walk into the festival with an idea, or growing company, and leave with new relationships, investor conversations, mentorship and a clearer pathway towards scaling their business."
Connecting African Innovation with Capital
The program will focus on identifying promising startups and founders developing technologies capable of addressing African challenges while potentially scaling into regional and international markets.
Participating individuals and companies could include startups working across blockchain infrastructure, artificial intelligence, fintech, payments, stablecoins, tokenisation, digital identity, cybersecurity and other emerging technology sectors. Applications are being sought from across East Africa, namely Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, but also across West and Southern Africa.
Fabanwo said improving access to capital is particularly important as Africa's young technology entrepreneurs increasingly develop solutions to challenges they understand first-hand.
"We have incredibly talented young people across Africa building solutions around payments, agriculture, healthcare, trade, education and financial inclusion. Increasingly, they are using blockchain and artificial intelligence to approach these challenges differently," said Fabanwo.
"Our responsibility as an ecosystem is to make sure those young builders are not disconnected from capital. Africa cannot build a serious technology economy if some of our best ideas struggle to get beyond the prototype stage simply because the founder could not get into the right room."
Building Technology From Africa
The launch of the Fellowship Program comes as artificial intelligence, blockchain and digital financial technologies create new opportunities for African entrepreneurs to participate in the global technology economy.
For ABF, this means looking beyond technology adoption and creating an environment where Africans can increasingly become the builders, founders and owners of technology companies.
"The next major African technology company could already be sitting on someone's laptop in Kampala, Nairobi, Lagos or another African city," said Fabanwo. "What matters is whether we create an ecosystem that recognises that talent early enough and gives it the opportunity to grow."
"We want young Africans to see technology as more than a career where they work for somebody else's company. They can build the companies themselves, create intellectual property here, employ people here and develop solutions in Africa that eventually compete globally. That is the bigger technology story we want the Fellowship Program to help accelerate."
Over time, ABF hopes the Fellowship can build a growing community of entrepreneurs who return not only as founders seeking investment, but eventually as successful business leaders, investors and mentors supporting Africa's next generation of technology builders.
Applications and further information regarding eligibility, selection criteria and participation in the ABF Fellowship Program 2026 will be communicated by Africa Blockchain Festival.
