Africa Accelerated

$8 billion dollars later, what have we learned in the past decade about the enduring lessons of investing in and building successful early stage companies in Africa? Africa has seen a complete market cycle of boom and bust in the VC ecosystem, its first few exits and IPO, and a flurry of founders and media coverage. This panel features insights from serial founders, early stage VCs and leading accelerators. Expect to hear riveting insights on key questions including - What early stage investors have gotten right and wrong in choosing winners? How founders are getting wiser on choosing investors and achieving PMF? How the ecosystem will evolve as it unlocks new types of capital like venture debt and new models like studios?

There is a lack of focused discourse highlighting innovation in exceptional talent identification and development in Africa. There is an urgent need to harness/unlock the potential of Africa’s demographic dividend by way of its youthful population. This panel will seek to learn from a diverse set of entrepreneurs at the forefront of reimagining how we educate the world’s youngest population. We will explore how for- and non-profit models face incredible opportunities and challenges as they scale across borders on the continent.

Africa is in the midst of a digital revolution: approximately 473 million Africans are online, and an additional 300 million will likely join them by 2025. Average download speeds in Africa doubled between 2015 and 2019, while data costs halved. Underpinning this growth is the installation of digital infrastructure (fiber optics, data centers, and more) serving the continent. In this panel, we will hear from the folks building that infrastructure. We will understand the history, opportunities, and challenges in this sector.