A Peek Behind The Scenes: Dream VC Applications
Breaking Down the Numbers & Representation in Our Programs
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A year ago, Dream VC quietly launched its first applications for our inaugural cohort with the hopes of closing the investing knowledge gap for check-writers and ecosystem builders across the continent. Fast forward one year later, we have received an overwhelming amount of interest from people curious about investing and contributing to the African startup ecosystem. Across two cohorts alone, we have processed more than 2000 applicants from 30 African countries, with fellows dialing in five continents and multiple timezones.
That being said, we’d like to share some interesting findings we have extracted and learned from the whirlwind that Dream VC has been in from last year to now.
Our Cohorts
Dream VC is a young organization, so by the end of 2022, we will have 2 cohorts under our belt with 3 programs run. There has been an increase in total applications despite the difference in price point between the 2021 program and this year.
Breakdown Of The 2021 Cohort
For our inaugural cohort, we received a total of 1002 applications and had an intake of 31 fellows, with an acceptance rate of 3%. The average age of our fellows was 25, with most being in their mid-twenties to late twenties and exploring VC as a new career pivot after a few years of full-time work experience. After 4 months of rigorous and community-driven engagements, a total of 19 Fellows graduated from the program with an issued certification.
When looking at the specific demographics of Dream VC’s inaugural fellows, we found that 90% of the fellows were homegrown, which we classified as having been born, raised, and educated on the continent. We also had 12 African countries represented and 16 different Nationalities in total.
Although our initial intake consisted of 33% women, the final certified graduating fellows consisted of 60% women, meaning that all of the female fellows who joined the fellowship finished the program.
This should be a strong indication of the perseverance of our female fellows in particular, and we are committed to making a strong push to convert more women into our talent pipeline — especially given that only 15% of the 2021 applicants identified as female. At Dream VC, we urge more women to apply for our programs and also reapply for future cohorts if they were not accepted initially.
Breakdown Of The 2022 Application Cycle
For 2022, Dream VC opened our applications on March 8th and had them remain open for over a month and a half until our final deadline on May 1st. In total, we received a total of 1375 applications for our Launch into VC (“LIVC”) and Investor Accelerator (“IA”) programs.
Around 81% of the total applications were for our Launch into VC fellowship, and the remaining 19% were for the Investor Accelerator. We received a total number of 1,113 applications for Launch into VC, and 262 for Investor Accelerator.
Gender Breakdown
Out of the total applications for 2022, 31% of the applicants identified as female. When taking a closer look at the gender breakdown for each program, Investor Accelerator had a higher percentage of female applicants with 37% of total Investor Accelerator applicants, while Launch into VC had 29%.
Nationality Breakdown
When reviewing the nationalities of the applicants, it was found that for 2022, Dream VC has exponentially expanded its reach of applicants in both nationality and location. However, most of the applicants are still overwhelmingly from the continent and diaspora, which accounts for 86% of the total applicants. The remaining 14% hail from non-African countries such as India, Singapore, and Germany with non-African backgrounds.
When looking more closely at each program, 87% of the applicants for Launch into VC applicants were homegrown or African diaspora, compared to 83% of the Investor Accelerator applicants. This year saw 30 different African countries across the continent represented, with a majority of the applicants coming from Nigeria (43.7%), followed by Kenya (10%), Rwanda and South Africa (3.9% each respectively), Ghana (3.6%), Uganda (3.2%), Zimbabwe (2.9%), and Tanzania (2.3%).
Interestingly, the country represented the most by the diaspora applicants was Cameroon, followed by Nigeria, across both programs.
Across the different African regions, West Africa took the lead in applicants with over half of the applicants hailing from the region (58%). East Africa contributed to another quarter with approximately 29% of applicants coming from the area, followed by Southern Africa (6%), Central Africa (4%), and finally North Africa (2%). Dream VC’s footprint can still be solidified further, particularly in the ecosystems in North Africa, and our organization will be traveling actively to Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia to build relationships there.
Locations Breakdown
When looking at the locations of applicants applying from outside the continent (including diaspora and non-Africans), over 50% of them applied from the United States and the United Kingdom. We also saw an increase of Indian and Singaporean applicants from Asia, and a spread of interesting European countries including Belgium, Belarus, Germany, France, Finland, and Sweden.
Closing Remarks & Reflections
Since launching Dream VC in 2021, our team has been endlessly grateful for the overwhelming interest from the African & International community, as well as the selfless support that has been extended by various ecosystem partners and connections in our network.
Our application cycles have revealed several interesting insights into where the strong interest can be found in various startup ecosystems, as well as certain areas we are endeavoring on having better reach in (ex: North Africa and Arabophone countries).
We also strongly encourage more female applicants to apply AND reapply to our programs, as we are strongly committed to building out the opportunity & talent pipeline for black women in particular focused on investing in Africa.
This is only the beginning for us. Let’s build the ultimate launchpad for aspiring investors across the continent!
