What is it?

The DFS Lab Stellar Africa Fund I (the “Fund”) is a joint fund by Stellar Development Foundation and DFS Lab which backs high-potential builders and teams in Africa who aim to transform the digital payments landscape and beyond by building on the Stellar network.

Selected Portfolio founders will have access to DFS Lab’s team and community as well as mentors from the Stellar Development Foundation and Stellar ecosystem companies.

The new Fund builds on previous blockchain bootcamp collaborations between DFS Lab and the Stellar Development Foundation which supported developers and startups building on Stellar’s open-source network in Africa, with wide-ranging product examples.

We make initial investments of up to $100,000 with further follow-on possible as teams grow.

What kind of teams are we looking for?

We are looking to back pre-seed and seed teams in Africa building products with a variety of use cases that can leverage the Stellar network, especially those solving for fiat-crypto ramps and those building cross-border payments for the continent.

Preferably, your team is familiar with the Stellar platform and already has a working product built on it, but we are also open to funding teams that are not already integrated but have a clear path toward implementing it usefully on their roadmap within 6 - 12 months after we invest.

What you get from us? We have a reputation for working very closely with our founders to provide them the support they need as they build their products, strengthen their operations and expand their market reach. Founders we invest in will get access to these from the DFS Lab team in addition to mentoring support from the Stellar Development Foundation.

DFS Lab X Stellar Fund Eligibility Criteria To be eligible for consideration, you will need to satisfy the following criteria:

1. Your company provides or intends to provide products and services primarily targeting customers and markets in Africa.
2. Your company is incorporated in the United States or has plans to do so prior to our investment. We will invest in startups incorporated as Delaware C Corporations with operating entities in their local geographies.
3. Your company has plans and/or a product pipeline that will integrate with the Stellar blockchain network. DFS Lab and Stellar will work with potential startups to understand and support their integrations prior to and after investment.
4. When an applicant submits materials to the DFS Lab x Stellar Fund, they should authorize a single representative to represent, act, and prepare the submission on their startup’s behalf. By entering a submission, you are representing that you are authorized to act on behalf of your startup.
5. The startup’s representative must also be a natural person who:
   1. is greater of 18 years of age or the minimum age required by law to use and hold cryptocurrencies and/or participate in the DFS Lab x Stellar Fund;
   2. is not located in, under the control of, or a national or resident of Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine, or any other country or region subject to sanctions by the U.S. Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Asset Control (“OFAC”), as may be updated from time to time;
   3. is not identified on the Specially Designated Nationals or Blocked Persons list provided by OFAC; and
   4. does not reside in a jurisdiction where the transfer and holding of cryptocurrency is illegal or would require a special license or authorization that such person does not possess.
6. We will also not consider applicants who are building a project or product that:
   1. violates any applicable laws, regulations, orders, judgements or rules or infringes or violates any proprietary right of any party, including patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of privacy, right of publicity, or other rights;
   2. involves, facilitates, supports, or promotes unlawful activities, including, but not limited to: fraud, drug trafficking, purchases on dark web markets, theft, illegal arms trafficking, human trafficking, abduction, extortion, embezzlement, corruption of public officials, acts of terrorism or terrorist financing, and intellectual property violations;
   3. involves, facilitates, or promotes gambling;
   4. is offensive, deceptive, harmful, or libelous;
   5. is or contains sexually obscene content;
   6. is discriminatory or abusive toward any individual or group; or
   7. contains, transmit, or instills malware or phishing pages or devices.