Entertainment Week Africa (EWA) has introduced a grant pool for African creative businesses selected for its 2026 Deal Room programme, expanding its efforts to help founders access funding, mentorship and investment opportunities.
The initiative targets a key challenge facing the sector, with a 2026 survey of 377 Nigerian creatives identifying access to affordable funding as the biggest structural barrier to growth.
The grant pool was announced at the EWA Deal Room Alumni Meetup in Lagos on October 7. The grant pool will support businesses in the 2026 cohort that demonstrate strong growth potential. Selected businesses will receive grants during EWA 2026, which is scheduled to be held in Lagos from November 17 to 22.
The programme builds on the Deal Room’s 2025 edition, which received more than 178 company applications, advanced nine businesses to the accelerator stage and generated live investor interest in four companies, alongside N25 million in funding.
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Participating businesses included Aktivate, Atsur, FriendnPal, Growwr, Prop’ly and Sports Reels, with mentorship and investment support from Future Africa, Catalyst Fund and Consonance Invest.
Kemdi Ebi, lead mentor of the Deal Room, said many creative entrepreneurs had strong ideas but lacked the commercial preparation and investor connections needed to grow their businesses.
“The ecosystem needs some level of acceleration and training,” Ebi 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.”
Previous participants have also reported business growth through the programme. Bukunola Bolajoko, founder of 1101 Technologies, said the Deal Room broadened her company’s focus beyond technical execution to business development and investor engagement.
Tele Lawal, founder of Kouture Paradisé, used connections within the EWA ecosystem to expand sales into the United States, the United Kingdom and Sweden, supported by logistics partnerships for international operations.
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For the 2026 edition, participating founders will receive mentorship and be assessed by a jury that includes Ebi. Businesses considered to have strong growth potential will be eligible for grants from the pool, although EWA has not disclosed the amount available for the new funding initiative.
Beyond the Deal Room, EWA operates platforms including the Content Market, Music Market, Sync & Licensing Desk, Rights & IP Desk, Distribution Desk and Pitch Rooms, which aim to connect creative businesses with commercial partners, distribution opportunities and potential investors.
The platform brings together participants across music, film and television, fashion and beauty, artificial intelligence and technology, art and animation, live events and creative enterprise.
The event will run under the theme “Closing the Gap”, with applications open for creative businesses seeking to participate in the Deal Room programme.
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