Tech in Africa
A successful round of AfricArena’s West Africa Summit took place in Dakar, Senegal’s Radisson Blu Hotel on June 21 to 23. The 3-day conference was in partnership with DER/FJ and United Nations International Trade Centre #FastTrackTech Africa project, where pitches from over 20 startups operating in the region from Seed to Growth stages were presented while top minds in tech, business and investment across the region participated in keynotes and panel discussions.
The West Africa VC Unconference happened parallel to the Founders Bootcamp where African VCs and mainly francophone Africa-focussed investors participated in discussions and workshops centered on open source data tools, co-investing, regulations, and how to ease the investment process for continental tech startups.
The pitch sessions were split into seed stage, Serie A, and growth stage, and saw participation from startups from Ghana, Senegal, Benin, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Gambia. Based on the pitch cartegories, the winners are Zencey (Seed stage), Moja Ride (Serie A), CoinAfrique (Growth stage), and Assuraf (Innovative business model). Elohor Thomas the CEO of CodeLN took the most promising enterpreneur award.
In a statement, Bintou Adekoya, AfricArena’s COO said, “AfricArena’s second summit of the year had a fantastic line-up of innovative startups, investors, and iconic speakers who, during these 2 days, had the opportunity to create more interconnections between the different economies, more communication and also more exchange about the expanding West African ecosystem.”
