About the program

One of the world's most prestigious universities, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is partnering with the Mauritius Telecom to offer a free technology incubator program hosted by the Telecom Campus at Ebène, through the MIT-AFRICA Global Start-up Lab (GSL) Program. This multidisciplinary initiative promotes technology entrepreneurship and software development skills in emerging regions.

The GSL incubator will walk future Mauritian entrepreneurs through all the steps of starting a successful startup in a condensed 8-week program taught by MIT instructors.

The GSL scheme is well renowned for its curriculum materials, software technologies, platforms and networks that will enable the techno-entrepreneurs of the future to foster innovation and enable the start-up ecosystem to achieve some quantum leaps.

Components of the course include a detailed business venture curriculum, funded business competitions, guest lectures, and networking events in order to help future Mauritian entrepreneurs develop their ideas.

1. You get to learn how to transform an idea into a start-up and craft your own path.
2. You shall build and extend partnerships and network with like-minded peers.
3. You will be participating in a pitch competition where angel investors and funders will have the opportunity to invest in your start-ups.
4. You will benefit from the coaching, mentorship and expertise from top-notch MIT resources and all this for FREE.

1. 2007 Kenya graduate, Mark Kaiga was named one of the Forbes 30 under 30 (http://aiti.mit.edu/blog/mit-aiti/)
2. Hehe Ltd, a mobile services company founded by MIT GSL students during the Rwanda 2010 program has multiple service offerings and has been contracted by the Rwandan government, and signed a regional development contract that has been acknowledged by Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as ‘one of East Africa’s fastest growing mobile development companies’.
3. Cchub, a mobile application company founded after MIT GSL Nigeria 2012 won USD20,000 in the Nigerian GoogleApps Developer Challenge 2012. The team also received a USD32,000grant to develop a tourism and event website for Nigeria.
4. DynAds, a startup that came from 2012 Colombia Team was selected to develop the official mobile application for the 2013 World Games in Colombia
5. As part of the SriLanka 2011 program, one of the startups attracted what was possibly the first inventor-friendly convertible note financing in Sri Lanka’s history. Their mobile app, loaded to Google Play currently has over 50,000 downloads.
6. Two groups in the Sri Lanka 2011 program were each awarded USD70,000 marketing budgets by a regional mobile operator.

Since the first pilot program in Kenya in 2000, MIT GSL has expanded well beyond the founders’ initial expectations. Over the years, this programme has been offered over 50 times in in fourteen different countries: Nigeria, Rwanda, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia Sri Lanka, India, Mexico, Colombia, Indonesia and the Philippines). More than 2000 participants have benefitted from the mentorship of some 150 MIT instructors, and to this date over 76% of participants are still working in their start-ups.