Social entrepreneurship is the use of creative, innovative economic approaches to develop projects and organizations to meet social and environmental needs (access to healthcare, education, energy, employment, agricultural, information, and so on). Basically, it's entrepreneurship, but with the central goal of having a social and/or environmental business impact rather than simply business impact.
The Orange Social Venture Prize rewards projects or start-ups created less than three years ago that offer high-tech solutions based on mobiles or the Internet to meet the needs of the populations in Africa and the Middle-East. The Award embodies the Group’s values and commitments in the MEA region.
The international women award rewards either a woman, or a project offering a technological solution to improve the living conditions of women (women’s independence, creating or maintaining jobs, data collection on gender, digital inclusion and financial inclusion …). The international women award embodies the Group’s commitment to women’s entrepreneurship.
Launched in 2011, the Prize is celebrating its 13th year and Orange teams in the region have been strongly engaged to make it happen. Since 2017, the Prize evolved in order to reward more startups: a first phase of national competitions takes place in the participating Orange countries (refer to the list of countries in the Rules document online https://startup.orange.com/en) and each country designates up to 3 national winners who automatically enter the International Grand Prize competition.
No, each participant must submit their project only once by selecting the country of deployment of the project in the online registration form. The 3 winners from each country will automatically be positioned to enter the International Grand Prize competition in order to win €25,000 - €15,000 or €10,000.
For entrepreneurs who wish to participate in the two additional prizes, they have to indicate it on the registration form by answering “Yes” to the following questions:
They are people who identify a social need and use entrepreneurial approaches to create projects and organizations. They are often passionate, creative and like risk-taking.
Entrepreneurs over the age of 21 and start-ups operating for less than three years can qualify for the Prize.
There are no nationality requirements.
The projects must be implemented in one of the following countries in which Orange operates in Africa and the Middle-East, and listed in the Contest Rules.
The eligible countries are: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Jordan, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Tunisia.
The candidates have to submit their application form online at https://startup.orange.com/en, by going to the “Orange Social Venture Prize” registration form.
The application must comply with the competition rules, also available on https://startup.orange.com/en.
In order to increase your chances of success in the Orange Social Venture Prize 2021, an Entrepreneur’s Guide is available in the OSVP section of the website.
https://startup.orange.com/en is the Orange internet portal dedicated to start-ups around the world, whatever their stage of maturity.
It is the media that allows relaying the contest on the web and organizing the subscription process. For more information, visit https://startup.orange.com/en
The Prize officially launched on 9 March 2021. Candidates can therefore submit their application as of 9 March 2021 (09:00am GMT) on https://startup.orange.com/en. The deadline for submissions is 4 June 2021 (9:00pm GMT).
The national juries will meet and nominate up to 3 national winners by country in September 2021 and the International Grand Jury will meet in October to select the 3 winners of the International Grand Prize. A novelty this year, two additional prizes will be awarded by the International Grand Jury: an international women's prize and a special 11th year prize.
The juries are made up of members who are all professionals working in the ICT, innovation or development sectors, mainly in Africa and the Middle-East.
The jury will consider the social and environmental impact of the projects, their degree of innovation, the possibility of expanding the product or service to several countries and the financial viability and feasibility of the projects submitted.