Ewa launches deal room grant pool to put more capital behind africa’s creative businesses

Entertainment Week Africa is introducing a grant pool for standout businesses in its 2026 Deal Room, increasing a programme designed to join creative businesses with traders, mentors and industrial alternatives.

Entertainment Week Africa (EWA) is introducing a brand new Deal Room Grant Pool for its 2026 version, making a direct funding alternative for standout creative businesses taking part on this yr’s Deal Room.

The initiative is designed to tackle a persistent problem for creative businesses throughout Africa: shifting from a powerful thought or early-stage enterprise to a place the place the corporate can entice the capital, partnerships and industrial help required to develop.

The grant pool was introduced on the EWA Deal Room Alumni Meetup in Lagos on October 7, bringing collectively founders who’ve beforehand participated within the programme.

The Deal Room has more and more centered on what occurs past the preliminary investor dialog. Rather than merely making a platform for founders to pitch, the programme offers businesses with mentorship, investor entry and alternatives to strengthen their industrial readiness.

EWA

The 2025 Deal Room shortlisted 178+ firm purposes, with 9 firms advancing to the accelerator stage and 4 attracting dwell investor curiosity. Participating businesses included Aktivate, Atsur, FriendnPal, Growwr, Prop’ly and Sports Reels, with ecosystem and funding mentorship and help from Future Africa, Catalyst Fund and Consonance Invest.

Previous contributors have additionally reported tangible enterprise outcomes from their involvement.

Bukunola Bolajoko of 1101 Technologies described the Deal Room as a possibility to assume past technical execution and think about the broader ecosystem required to construct a stronger enterprise, whereas additionally creating investor connections.

For Tele Lawal of Kouture Paradisé, the EWA ecosystem contributed to the model’s growth into worldwide markets, together with the US, UK and Sweden, alongside new partnerships that supported its operations.

The 2026 grant pool is meant to construct on this basis by placing precise funding behind chosen businesses.

EWA

Businesses taking part on this yr’s Deal Room will work with mentors all through the method, with a jury together with their lead mentor assessing contributors in opposition to an outlined set of standards. Standout businesses will then be thought of for funding from the grant pool, which will probably be awarded throughout EWA 2026 in November.

The initiative is a part of EWA’s wider strategy to strengthening the industrial infrastructure round Africa’s creative financial system. Alongside the Deal Room, the 2026 programme contains the Content Market, Music Market, Sync & Licensing Desk, Rights & IP Desk, Distribution Desk, Pitch Rooms and different industry-facing platforms designed to create connections between creative businesses, consumers, traders, manufacturers and markets.

EWA 2026 will happen in Lagos from 17–22 November, bringing collectively six days of programming throughout seven creative {industry} tracks: Music, Film & TV, Fashion & Beauty, AI & Tech, Art & Animation, Live Events & Production, and Creative Enterprise.

Under the theme “Closing the Gap,” the 2026 version is concentrated on strengthening the connections between African creative expertise, capital, markets and industrial alternative.