The 15th Orange Social Venture Prize in Africa and the Middle East has officially opened for applications as of March 11, 2025. Candidates from the 17 countries within the Orange footprint have until May 18, 2025, to submit their projects on the website (Apply Here).
Since its launch in 2011, OSVP, which has received nearly 15,000 applications, has a tangible impact on the lives of the winning entrepreneurs. More than 500 entrepreneurs have been supported and rewarded, including around a hundred at the international level.
The competition has two stages:
- A national stage to collect applications, between March and May 2025 in Orange’s 17 subsidiaries in Africa and the Middle East. At the end of the competition, the national winners will be chosen by a panel of judges made up of members of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and Orange representatives.
- An international stage, where each subsidiary will be represented by its 3 national winners and up to 3 women entrepreneurs competing for the International Women’s Prize. The projects will be evaluated by an evaluation committee made up of Group employees. Following their evaluation, 10 finalists will be chosen for the International Grand Prize and 5 for the International Women’s Prize.
A final jury made up of leading figures from tech and entrepreneurship in Africa and the Middle East will then be responsible, in October 2025, for choosing the 3 winners of the International Grand Prize and the winner of the OSVP International Women’s Prize from among the 15 projects selected by Orange Group employees. The winners will receive a financial contribution of:
- €25,000 for the 1st prize-winner.
- €15,000 for the 2nd prize-winner.
- €10,000 for the 3rd prize-winner.
- €20,000 for the winner of the International Women’s Prize.
In addition to financial support, OSVP winners benefit from support within Orange Digital Centers with the prospect of developing their business outside the borders of their respective countries.
The Orange Digital Centers are a real crossroads of opportunities, bringing together in the same space a School of Code, a Solidarity FabLab, and a digital manufacturing workshop.
The center entails FabLabs for digital manufacturing and prototyping, Orange Fab, a start-up accelerator that develops national and international business partnerships with one or more Group entities, and Orange Ventures Africa & Middle East, a €50 million investment fund that supports innovative start-ups.
Since 2011, the OSVP prize has been rewarding innovative start-up projects that use and develop new technologies to make a positive impact in Africa and the Middle East in the fields such as education, healthcare, e-commerce, agriculture, or environment.
2024 OSVP Winners and Categories:
- International Grand Prize:
- 1st Prize – SAVEY (Morocco): A logistics solution fighting food waste. By connecting manufacturers with catering professionals. It allows the real-time sale of produce that is unsold, over-ordered, or close to its expiry date through a geo-tracking and adapted delivery service. This helps to reduce waste while supporting restaurants, cafes, and other traders in the F&B sector.
- 2nd Prize – WeFix (Tunisia): A platform for repairing and recycling household appliances. The venture promotes the repair, collection, and recycling of out-of-service household appliances in Tunisia, contributing to a circular economy. The platform also offers refurbished white goods, reducing the environmental impact of e-waste.
- 3rd Prize – Cocoa Shield (Ivory Coast): AI and IoT-based detection of cocoa plant diseases. The AI technology embedded within drones or mobile equipment visually scans for the disease and smart stations monitor the plantations in real time.
- International Women’s Prize:
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- MyTindy (Morocco): An e-commerce platform enables artisans to sell their products via an online platform directly to international consumers. It offers training, marketing and logistics services, as well as support via AI. With more than 2,000 artisans in 40 countries, MyTindy collaborates with partners such as the Ministry of Handicrafts and Royal Air Maroc, strengthening its global impact.
- Jury’s Choice Award:
- Intella (Egypt) – Intella develops more inclusive AI models adapted to more than 25 Arabic dialects, often ignored by current models. It recently launched a speech recognition model with 95.7% accuracy, followed by speech analysis models. As a deep tech company, Intella is focused on integrating global advances in AI into the Arabic-speaking world, turning conversations into valuable sources of information.
Candidates from the 17 countries within the Orange footprint have until May 18, 2025, to submit their project on the website (https://apo-opa.co/3XHnehU).
Through this prize, Orange, as a committed operator, aims to contribute to the socio-economic development, support social and environmental innovation, and encourage entrepreneurship.
