OceanHub Africa

Choosing the right programme

• Apply to the Acceleration Programme if you already have paying customers and want nine months of coaching from an Entrepreneur in Residence.
• Treat the Blue Loop Facility and ForSea Invest as a later step. The page says strong ventures are put forward for these instruments and they run their own processes.
• Look at Coastal Community Development if you run a cooperative or micro-enterprise on the coast.

How applications work

• Apply through the online form. You will upload your company incorporation documents, which are required, plus your investor pitch deck, financial statements if you have them, and evidence that you meet the entry requirements.
• Evidence means invoices, signed customer contracts, repeat sales or renewals, and impact measures.
• Shortlisted applicants record a 5-minute pitch video from their pitch deck.

How selection works

• Every application is checked against the entry requirements, or against the rules for the exception seats.
• The Entrepreneurs in Residence interview promising applicants to test their evidence.
• Scoring covers market opportunity, a scalable model, capacity to use investment and support, room to grow beyond the first market, and ocean impact.

What reviewers look for

• A defined customer and payer, and a credible value proposition.
• A track record of revenue, customer growth and clear unit economics.
• Founders who can commit regular time, and someone accountable for the finances.
• A product or model that can travel to other countries or regions.

OceanHub Africa is an ecosystem builder for ocean-impact entrepreneurship in Africa. It runs an accelerator for revenue-generating Blue Economy startups, an investment arm and a venture studio, and it advises organisations working in the African Blue Economy. The programmes are for African ventures and the page does not invite India-based founders. The team is based in Cape Town, South Africa.

How the programmes work

The OceanHub Africa Acceleration Programme is a 9-month accelerator for up to 10 revenue-generating Blue Economy startups. Each founder is paired with an Entrepreneur in Residence who coaches them weekly and builds a work plan with them, and the team gives one-to-one coaching sessions, investor-readiness support and introductions to funders when the time is right. The programme includes an in-person bootcamp and ends with an investor pitch. There is no participation fee and no equity is taken. Founders pay only for their own travel to the bootcamp and showcase. The Entrepreneurs in Residence bring years of building, funding and scaling businesses, and the programme includes a regional Entrepreneur in Residence for West African and Francophone markets.

The page gives two timings that do not match exactly. It describes a 9-month programme, and it also says the accelerator starts in March 2027 and graduates in early 2028. Applications for the 2027 cohort are open. Selection closes on 6 December 2026, and applications are reviewed on a rolling basis after that.

Alongside the accelerator, OceanHub Africa anchors ForSea Invest, an impact-first investment vehicle, and runs the Blue Loop Facility, an interest-free loan fund for early-stage blue ventures. Strong ventures from the accelerator can be put forward for these capital instruments, which run their own processes. Its Venture Studio builds low-tech ocean solutions in-house and also takes outside ideas. Its Coastal Community Development work offers training, coaching and help with grant applications for coastal enterprises.

Who can apply

The accelerator is for Blue Economy startups in Africa that already have customers who pay. Ventures must be registered and active in the Blue Economy or an adjacent sector, and the page names fisheries, aquaculture, ocean robotics, waste management and circularity, climate tech and maritime logistics among them. A venture needs at least two founders, and at least one team member must commit to weekly workshops and coaching. A formal market study is not required, but the team looks for a defined customer and payer, a credible value proposition and a realistic path to growth. A small number of seats are reserved for ventures that are not yet commercially proven but show breakthrough innovation, backed by registered or pending IP and a written path to revenue.

Scale

The site gives different counts for the startups it has supported. One page says 69 startups since 2020. The application listing says the coaching team has worked with 79 Blue Economy startups across 17 countries since 2019, and that the alumni network has 42 ventures. Read these as the organisation's own figures, which do not agree with each other.

Who runs it

Herland Cerveaux is the Managing Director. The team includes an Acceleration Lead, a Venture Studio Lead, a Venture Development Manager, Entrepreneurs in Residence and an Engineer in Residence. A board of non-executive directors and advisers sits alongside them. The team page invites applicants to view open positions.

Locations

The head office is at The Avenue Conference Venue in the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town. Coastal Community Development works in seascapes at Rumaki and Tanga-Pemba in Tanzania, Antsiranana in Madagascar, and Inhambane and Metuge in Mozambique. The page does not name the venue for the in-person bootcamp.