EWA Unveils Grant Pool For Creative Entrepreneurs
Entertainment Week Africa (EWA) has announced a new grant pool for its 2026 edition aimed at funding promising African creative businesses participating in its Deal Room programme.
The grant pool was unveiled at the EWA Deal Room Alumni Meetup held in Lagos on October 7, where founders from previous editions convened to share their progress and explore growth opportunities.
The Deal Room was launched in 2025 with an initial funding pool of N25 million. Its debut cycle attracted over 178 applications, with nine businesses progressing to the accelerator stage and four securing live investor interest.
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Participating companies included Aktivate, Atsur, FriendnPal, Growwr, Prop’ly and Sports Reels. The programme also provided mentorship and investment support through partners such as Future Africa, Catalyst Fund and Consonance Invest.
For the 2026 edition, participating founders will receive mentorship and will be evaluated by a jury, including Kemdi Ebi, the programme’s lead mentor.
Businesses demonstrating strong growth potential will be considered for grants from the pool, with winners to be announced at EWA 2026 in November.
The grant initiative is part of EWA’s broader strategy to strengthen the commercial infrastructure driving Africa’s creative economy. Other programmes include the Content Market, Music Market, Sync & Licensing Desk, Rights & IP Desk, Distribution Desk and Pitch Rooms.
According to EWA, the Deal Room has already helped past participants scale their businesses and refine their commercial strategies.
Bukunola Bolajoko, founder of 1101 Technologies, said the programme expanded her company’s focus beyond technical execution to include business development and investor engagement.
Similarly, Tele Lawal, founder of Kouture Paradisé, leveraged connections within the EWA ecosystem to expand sales to the United States, United Kingdom and Sweden, while securing logistics partnerships to support its international operations.
Speaking on the rationale behind the initiative, Ebi noted that the programme is designed to equip creative entrepreneurs with the skills and connections required to scale.
“The ecosystem needs some level of acceleration and training,” he said. “What you find a lot of times is people coming up with genuinely strong ideas, but without the commercial readiness and investor connections to scale them. The grant pool is our way of putting actual capital behind the businesses that show they can use it.”
EWA 2026 is scheduled to hold in Lagos from November 17 to 22 with the theme ‘Closing the Gap’.
The event will feature programming across music, film and television, fashion and beauty, artificial intelligence and technology, art and animation, live events and production, and creative enterprise.
