Orange launches the African Social Venture Prize.
The project aims at promoting social innovation for development, thanks to information and communication technologies, through financial and management support to new businesses.

Rewarding ventures using technology for development purposes
The African Social Venture Prize will reward three projects or enterprises addressing needs of the ‘bottom of pyramid’ market in Africa through technology. The digital projects range from e-health and mobile banking to digital and mobile applications for education or agriculture. They therefore represent huge opportunities for social development.

An initiative part of a larger Innovation strategy and Corporate Social Responsibility policy
Orange has commercial operations in 17 countries in Africa. This project is at the crossroads of its Corporate Social Responsibility policy and its Innovation strategy. By promoting social ventures, Orange aims at raising awareness about the role that Information and Communication Technologies can play in development.

Prize
The 3 winners will receive a financial grant (25K€, 15K€, 10K€) and they will also benefit from a 6-month mentoring by management experts.

How to participate
Participants, regardless of nationality, must be more than 21 years old, can either be students, entrepreneurs running companies since no more than 2 years on the launch day of the competition. The companies or projects are required to target at least one of the African countries of Orange’s footprint. Their core business has to use technology in an innovative way to enhance living conditions of local populations

Application will be possible from June 8th to September 15th 2011.                 
all required material and information are displayed on the website: www.starafrica.com
orange.socialventure@starafrica.com