AfricaIgnite, formerly AHUB, the Africa Tech Festival’s flagship event for start-ups and innovators from the African continent, has been announced as host of the African leg of the prestigious Start-Up World Cup 2023, and 10 start-ups African ups will have the privilege of competing for a place in the grand final which will be held in San Francisco, United States, on December 1, 2023.
$1 million up for grabs – The AfricaIgnite Start-up Pitch showcase will take place at the Africa Tech Festival in November in Cape Town, South Africa.
To participate, early-stage African start-ups and scale-ups with seed funding of up to $15 million will need to apply before October 15.
The finalists, who will be revealed on October 30, will then have to travel to Cape Town and present their project in front of hundreds of investors and technology leaders on November 16.
The winner of the Africa Tech Festival pitch competition will then be invited to participate in the grand finale of the Startup World Cup, to be held in San Francisco on December 1, for this impressive US$1 million investment, ahead of industry greats like Barbara Corcoran from ABC’s Shark Tank, Sundeep Jain, Chief Product Officer at Uber, Daniel Sturman CTO at Roblox and more.
Since its launch in 2016, the festival’s start-up platform has been committed to supporting the growth of Africa’s budding entrepreneurs and innovators. Interest in this offering has grown significantly, to the point where AfricaIgnite now has its own lifeblood.
James Williams, Director, Events | Connect Africa | Computer technology : “Africa’s bright, forward-thinking minds need a platform to network, inspire each other and co-build a stronger tech start-up investment ecosystem, which is exactly what we need. AfricaIgnite offer.
As the Africa Tech Festival, we are excited to partner with the Startup World Cup to give our African colleagues the opportunity they deserve to showcase their businesses on the global stage.
This is a very exciting partnership and, we hope, the first of many as the continent’s innovation sector gains momentum.
Investment in numbers
In 2022, Africa was the only region where investment in start-ups increased, with around $4.8 billion invested in around 1,000 companies.
That said, this sum still only represents a paltry 1.2% of all seed funding raised globally. However, this is expected to change quite quickly in the coming years, as the continent’s ecosystem of entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs fully embraces the digital revolution and connectivity, while Africans create solutions to many of their own and global challenges.
During 2021-2022, 37% of investments were directed towards the FinTech space, but its dominance is now being challenged by innovation and new business ideas that solve the energy and waste problems of the Africa.
Other sectors of interest also include telecommunications, media and entertainment, logistics and transportation, retail, agriculture and food, as well as the growing proliferation of deep technologies.
“We are very excited to partner with AfricaTech Festival for the Startup World Cup South Africa Regional and are delighted with the quality and enthusiasm of the competing start-ups,” said Anis Uzzaman, founder and CEO of Pegasus Tech Ventures, which created the Startup World Cup competition in 2016.
“Each year, we have been able to reach more entrepreneurs in more cities around the world and, in turn, connect more innovation ecosystems to Silicon Valley and the rest of the world.
“We hope this partnership will create valuable new opportunities for competing African start-ups.”
In good company
The Africa Tech Festival also holds its own when it comes to the investment community, with databases of several thousand investors and venture capitalists mainly spread across Africa and the United States, as well as a strong community of founders, entrepreneurs and start-ups.
In addition to the exciting Pitch Showcase of early-stage start-ups, in 2023 AfricaIgnite is looking to up the ante with a curation of content that is exciting, informative and sure to grab space for attendees.
The AfricaIgnite space located in the AfricaTech Hall will be a hub of activity offering excellent networking and matchmaking between founders and investors, a start-up marketplace and demo space (no pitch required), as well as a multitude of dedicated workshops and masterclasses. presented by the best professionals.
Delegates, start-ups and those considering launching into the new world of business can explore content that covers useful topics such as what to expect from the first year as a founder – what to do, become good and what to do. ignore; the power of collaboration in building a global business; perfecting the next “X” technology for future generations; create, finance and manage your start-up in an economically difficult period; concept to business – demystification of the entrepreneurial process, plus a series of discussions and presentations on financing, plus some very important information on exit planning 101!
There has never been a better time to head to Cape Town from November 13-16 to get in on the action at the Africa Tech Festival, the world’s largest and most influential technology, telecommunications and media gathering focused on Africa. In 2023, expect big things to happen in this space.
For more information, please visit the website here.
To apply for the pitch competition, please click here.
Featured image: A finalist pitch at the Africa Tech Festival 2022 Start-up Pitch Competition
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