Female Innovation
Afropean Leadership
Initiative

No. FIALI is open to founders who have already incorporated and to those on the verge of doing so. The grand prize can even cover essential incorporation costs.

No, but you should have genuine interest in digitalisation and AI, and a business model that can scale. The programme is built around applying those tools to whatever you are building.

Frankfurt and the Rhine-Main region. There is a particular focus on founders from the city's Afropean, immigrant and international diaspora communities.

This website and the application form are both available in German and English, and you are welcome to apply in either. FIALI is built for the international founder community in Frankfurt and the Rhine-Main region.

Frankfurt am Main, in 2026. The exact dates and the venue are confirmed closer to the time and announced here — applicants are notified directly, so you do not need to keep checking the page.

Between 10 and 15. It is deliberately small - the point is a room where you are known, not an audience you sit in.

An individual 90-day growth plan built during the Growth Lab, practical AI and digitalisation training, and a pitch in front of Frankfurt corporates, investors and business angels at the Summit.

A Startup Innovation Grand Prize of €1,000 awarded to 1 person. It covers prototyping and product development, branding and market entry, first marketing and sales activity, and incorporation costs. The winner is selected based on the growth potential and innovation of their model.

Everything happens in the form at the bottom of this page. There is no separate portal and no account to create. It runs in four short steps — Profile, Venture, Focus and Review — and is available in both German and English.

Required: your name, your role, an email address, the name of your company or venture, its sector or business model, and a short statement of motivation. Optional but useful: country, phone number, company website, the stage your venture is at, your interest in AI and digitalisation, and whether you would like to be considered for the Grand Prize.

A few minutes once you have the above to hand. The form does not save partial progress, so it is completed in one sitting — it is worth drafting your motivation statement before you begin.

Applying is free and nothing is charged at any point in the application. FIALI is a supported programme; if any participation costs apply, they are confirmed with selected founders before anyone commits to a place.

Your application is recorded immediately and marked for review by the ABCN team. You will see a confirmation on screen as soon as it has been received.

There is no fixed closing date. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis as they arrive, and the cohort is strictly limited to between 10 and 15 founders — so applying earlier genuinely improves your chances.

The cohort is capped at 10 to 15 founders, so strong applications will not always fit a given round. ABCN runs business roundtables, cultural salons and cross-border gatherings throughout the year, and the network stays open to you regardless of the outcome.

Your application is stored in a database hosted in Frankfurt and is visible only to signed-in ABCN administrators. It is never readable from the public website and is not passed to programme partners automatically. You can ask us to correct or delete it at any time — the privacy notice explains how.