Design and Delivery of a Pan-African Startup Acceleration Programme

Scope

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), through its timbuktoo initiative, invites qualified firms, consortia and joint ventures to submit proposals for the design and delivery of a Pan-African startup acceleration programme in Kenya (GreenTech), Nigeria (AI and FinTech) and Rwanda (HealthTech). The selected service provider will recruit and select 40 early-stage ventures per country and deliver a five-day in-person academy in each market, a shared five-week virtual accelerator for 45 finalists, and an in-country activation week culminating in a Demo Day with investors and corporates in each market. It will also run a one-day AI rapid-prototyping build sprint in each country and a three-week Silicon Valley immersion for three selected founders. The assignment covers all participant and delivery-team logistics, monitoring, reporting and knowledge handover, over approximately 33 weeks from contract signature. UNDP is seeking providers with proven experience in startup acceleration, venture investment and investor engagement, and delivery capacity across African markets.

How to participate

Interested suppliers must register in the UNDP Quantum supplier portal (free of charge) and submit their proposal electronically through the portal, under negotiation reference [UNDP-RWA-00425]. Proposals submitted by email or in hard copy will not be accepted. The full RFP documents, including the Terms of Reference, the pricing-location annex and the mandatory financial proposal form (Excel), are available in the portal. Technical and financial proposals must be submitted separately, as instructed in the RFP. 

Requests for clarification must be sent through the portal  12 hours before the deadline ; UNDP’s answers will be published to all bidders. Suppliers who need assistance with Quantum registration may consult the supplier guides on the UNDP website or contact at procurement.rw@undp.org.

SCOPE OF THE TENDER

Scope of tender

UNDP seeks a firm-level Service Provider to design, mobilise, deliver, monitor and close a Pan-African Startup Acceleration Programme across Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda under one contract. The scope covers:

1. Inception and mobilisation: a consolidated implementation plan and three country plans, staffing and mentor roster, logistics and duty-of-care plan, risk register and results framework.
2. Recruitment and selection: a four-week call for applications in each market, reaching beyond capital cities, and the selection of 40 ventures per market (120 in total), with at least 40% women-led or women-co-founded ventures and an auditable, conflict-free selection process.
3. Three in-country startup academies: five days each, in Nairobi, Lagos and Kigali, ending with a Pitch Day and the selection of 15 finalists per market.
4. One shared virtual accelerator: five weeks for 45 finalists, with at least 270 hours of individual mentoring, an investment-readiness diagnostic and a 90-day execution plan for each venture.
5. Three in-country activation weeks: five days each, culminating in a fully produced Demo Day with at least 10 investor or corporate organisations and two curated meetings per finalist.
6. Three AI rapid-prototyping and product-shipping build sprints: one twelve-hour sprint per market for 50 participants.
7. A three-week Silicon Valley immersion: for three selected founders in the San Francisco Bay Area, including preparation, travel, programme access and follow-through.
8. Logistics, monitoring and handover: end-to-end participant and delivery-team logistics (travel, visas, accommodation, insurance, venues, catering); monitoring and data quality; three country reports, a consolidated report, a knowledge publication, and handover of reusable curricula and datasets to UNDP.

The contract is priced as a lump sum per deliverable and paid against accepted deliverables per country, with no advance payment. Consortia and joint ventures are accepted, provided that one lead entity is fully accountable. Proposals will be evaluated using the combined scoring method (70% technical, 30% financial). The detailed requirements, quantities and evaluation criteria are set out in the Terms of Reference and the RFP documents.

Interested suppliers must submit their offer directly in the system as instructed in the solicitation document, following the instructions in the available user guide. n case you have never registered before, you can register a profile using the registration link shared via the procurement notice and following the instructions in the guides available in UNDP website:  https://www.undp.org/procurement/business/resources-for-bidders. Do not create a new profile if you already have one. Use the forgotten password feature in case you do not remember the password or the username from previous registration.

Search for the specific tender using search filters and subscribe to the tender in order to get notifications in case of amendments of the tender document. If you need support with the online system, you can contact the contact details of this tender as indicated in the solicitation document.

UNDP OFFICE RWANDA 

PROCUREMENT UNIT