The French Embassy has revealed the 14 inaugural winners of the Habesha Creative Lab, a program launched under the Ethio-French Touch initiative to support Ethiopia’s cultural and digital creative industries.

The Habesha Creative Lab, set to officially open on May 24, 2025, at the Alliance Ethio-Française, provides support to entrepreneurs working in:

• Animation
• Video games
• Virtual reality (VR)
• Augmented reality (AR)
• Artificial intelligence (AI)
• Digital design

Support Offered to Participants

• Tailored mentorship and business coaching
• Technical training
• Access to co-working space
• Project funding (up to €10,000)

Selected Projects

For Incubation:

• One More Round – Animation
• Hiyaw Initiative – Animation
• Lomi – Video game
• Digital Hands – AR
• VR-SPPT – VR
• NARO – AR

For Acceleration:

• Behagerlij Kids – Animation
• Lijinet – Animation
• Keffa the Curious Goat – Animation
• Dade Kits – Video game
• Enechawet Ethiopia – Video game
• Tsehafe-Gojjo – VR
• Pro Kelem – VR
• Lucy AI – AI

What’s Next?

A new phase of the program focusing on women entrepreneurs in the cultural and creative industries will launch in August 2025.

Partners: Alliance Ethio-Française, SPOC, Iceaddis, Diversion, 3DNetInfo, Rubika