Africa Early Stage Investor Summit 2025

Nov 27, 2025, 8:30 AM - Nov 28, 2025, 10:39 PM (SAST)

About Event

Join us at the Africa Investor Summit - the ultimate platform for growth and success. Unite, Innovate, and Invest with top industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors at #AIS2021. This two-day conference is the perfect opportunity to network, learn, and stay ahead of the game in the fast-paced world of business in Africa. Don't miss out on this chance to gain valuable insights, build connections, and take your business to the next level. Register now and secure your spot at the Africa Investor Summit - where the future of Africa's economy is being shaped. See you there!

Why Attend?

Welcome to the Africa Investor Summit - the ultimate platform for growth and success. Unite with industry leaders, innovate with cutting-edge ideas, and invest in your future at #AIS2021. Join us on November 28-29, 2024 for the most anticipated conference of the year. With expert speakers, interactive workshops, and valuable networking opportunities, this is an event you won't want to miss. Don't just take our word for it, come and experience the power of collaboration and inspiration firsthand. Register now and be a part of the next wave of innovation and investment in Africa.

Day - 01

19:00

Opening Cocktail

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All ticket holders are invited to kick-off #AESIS2024 with our opening cocktail at Allure Rooftop 71 Waterkant St, Cape Town, thanks to our partners with 22 On Sloane, African Angel Academy and GSMA.

Please note, this gathering has a limited capacity so we will be ensuring registration at the door, so make sure you RSVP here before the list closes. The event begins at 7pm.

We look forward to welcoming you!

Day - 02

08:30

Early Stage Investor Breakfast

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Networking, a meet-and-greet breakfast for delegates of AESIS, with an opportunity to connect with and hear from notable personalities in the early stage investment ecosystem.

09:30

Welcome Keynote

Fadilah Tchoumba
ABAN

Fadilah Tchoumba

ABAN

Fadilah Tchoumba is the CEO of ABAN and the fund manager for Catalytic Africa, a co-investment facility for early-stage startups in Africa. She also serves as the Director of the African Business Angel Vehicle, which focuses on sector-specific ventures. Additionally, Fadilah is a founding member and senior analyst at Amzill, a data collection and analysis firm. She sits on the advisory board of ENRICH in Africa and the $1billion Timbuktoo Initiative. Before joining ABAN, Fadilah managed investment portfolios for institutional investors with interests in African trade. She also served as Director of Business and Innovation for the Royal Commonwealth Society, where she led the development of innovative projects aligned with Commonwealth values. Fadilah has been instrumental in creating tech-driven funds for innovative startups, including sharia-compliant vehicles, establishing herself as a leader in alternative asset classes in Africa. Passionate about innovation and sustainability, she advocates for early-stage investing, cross-border investments, and policy development to drive success in Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Fadilah holds a BA in Economics and Philosophy from Connecticut College, a diploma in International Commerce and Trade from Georgetown University, and a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics.

09:35

Early Stage Capital Mobilization in Africa for Growth and Impact

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Access to capital to power early stage companies

Tomi Davis
ABAN

Tomi Davis

ABAN

Harry Tomi Davies (TD) is an ICT Expert with a background of technology management for FTSE 100 level companies in the UK, US and Africa. He directs and advises a broad range of organisations globally, writes and blogs (occasionally) while maintaining a significant network of connections across most of the major social media platforms. He is a regular public speaker and mentor of a broad range of individuals with a personal goal of “maximizing the creation of social and economic value using digital technologies better”. Systems Analyst turned Tech Strategy Advisor, Public Speaker and Angel Investor, Harry ‘Tomi Davies (TD) is Collaborator-in-Chief at TechnoVision, co-founder of the Lagos Angel Network (LAN) and President of the African Business Angel Network (ABAN). For nearly two decades after graduating from the University of Miami TD led implementation of innovative technology-led transformation initiatives in the Oil & Gas, Retail, Information Technology and Telecommunications industries for influential global brands Elf Aquitaine, Marks & Spencer, Ernst & Young and Sapient across Europe, the United States and Southeast Asia. In 2000 his focus shifted to Africa where he helped create the African Agriculture Technology Foundation (AATF), led the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative in Nigeria and delivered a World Bank pilot of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS) that uncovered over 20,000 ghost workers in the Nigerian Government payroll system. Leading these kinds of innovative initiatives in Africa using his goal-oriented approach to project delivery which consistently delivered effective results inspired his 2014 book “The African Project Manager”. TD is Chairman of TextNigeria (Telecoms) and Non-Executive Director at MBO Capital (Private Equity) and Big Cabal Media (Media & Entertainment). He is a member of the Lagos State Science, Research & Innovation Council (LASRIC) and sits on the board of Laptops4Learning (L4L) Nigeria, the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF) and the Global Business Angels Network (GBAN). As a thought leader with increasing knowledge gained from nurturing entrepreneurs in a growing portfolio of tech-enabled early stage business ventures originating from Africa, TD’s personal mission is “to help drive Africa’s development by supporting young entrepreneurs using innovation and technology to create social impact and economic value.” TD can be reached at www.tomidavies.com and on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook as TomiDee

09:50

Founder to Investor Journey

Melvyn Lubega
Breega

Melvyn Lubega

Breega

Melvyn is an actuary by training and an experienced technology entrepreneur and executive. He was Co-founder and Director of Go1, a large corporate education content hub for on-demand training and resources. Melvyn built and scaled the company to attract more than $400 million in investment from leading tier-1 investors before becoming South Africa’s first unicorn. Ever close to the latest global trends and given his rich global network, Melvyn continues to advise heads of state and cabinet ministers across Africa and Europe on positioning their countries to attract investment and to take advantage of the global transition to both digital and green economies.

10:00

Guest of Honor Address

Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa
Naspers

Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa

Naspers

10:15

State of the Industry

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A presentation of the most recent data that reflects the performance and growth of the African early stage investment ecosystem, followed by a discussion with leading investors to highlight the key drivers of growth, address main challenges and add their contribution towards pioneering new pathways in early stage capital mobilization.

Dario Giuliani
Briter Bridges

Dario Giuliani

Briter Bridges

Nonnie Burbidge
Untapped Global

Nonnie Burbidge

Untapped Global

Nonnie joins Untapped Global as Co-Head of Investments, Africa (ex SA) following over a decade working in financial services including PE and VC. Nonnie was previously an Investment Principal at Zephyr Management, Acorn Funds based in East Africa investing in high growth tech enabled startups in the region. Prior to this Nonnie founded and led an innovative cloud kitchen start up that received pre-seed funding from Antler. Before turning to start up entrepreneurship, Nonnie spent 2 years as a Vice President at Emerging Capital Partners. Prior to joining ECP, Nonnie founded the East Africa Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (EAVCA) as its first Executive Director, leading the organization for 4 years and serving on it’s Board of Directors for an additional 2 years after leaving its leadership and management. Nonnie was previously an Associate at TBL Mirror Fund and Associate Consultant at africapractice. Nonnie holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Bristol, England.

Joel Nana Kontchou
Makoe Ventures

Joel Nana Kontchou

Makoe Ventures

10:45

Resilience Tactics

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How can startups attract the attention of equity investors during a low funding cycle? Under very limited funding conditions, how can operational excellence help?

Mike Mompi
Enza Capital

Mike Mompi

Enza Capital

Mike is a coFounder and Managing Partner at Enza Capital. He is an experienced venture investor and entrepreneur focused on high-growth technology businesses solving problems across Africa, and he is a Kauffman Fellow (KF 28). Mike has worked across 4 continents and sits as a Director on the boards of multiple venture-backed technology companies across East, West, and South Africa. Prior to launching Enza Mike was an Investor at the Global Innovation Fund where he focused on venture-stage investing in African tech companies. Mike previously built and ran the early-stage investment business at ClearlySo, a venture-backed Impact Investment Bank in London, and he is a coFounder of the Accra Angel Network. Mike has broad entrepreneurial experience as an angel-backed coFounder of a youth-focused online-banking platform in the UK, a coFounder of the UK office of the now global MakeSense, and the Founder of two home services businesses while in University. In addition to venture capital Mike has public equity experience as a buy-side investor at a $4bn+ Asset Management firm within Credit Agricole. Mike holds degrees in Economics and Communications from the University of California, Davis. He is an avid tennis player, skier, sailor, and painter. Mike is a Trustee at the Treebeard Trust, a social investor that supports transformational initiatives creating a fairer society, and he is a Trustee and co-founder of the Black Global Trust, a vehicle supporting black advancement at scale. Mike lives in Nairobi and spends his time across Africa, Europe, and the US.

Zachariah George
Launch Africa

Zachariah George

Launch Africa

Managing Partner @Launch Africa Ventures; Leading African Tech Angel Investor; Chief Investment Officer @Startupbootcamp Africa; Former Wall Street Investment Banker; Stanford and I.I.T. alum; Harambean; Musician; Dad Zach is the Managing Partner at Launch Africa Ventures, Africa's leading early-stage venture capital fund with a portfolio of over 140 tech startups spanning 20+ countries. As Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Startupbootcamp AfriTech, Zach plays a pivotal role in driving innovation through the continent’s top multi- corporate-backed venture accelerator program. His influence as an angel investor is reflected in his backing of over 50 pioneering African startups, including notable successes like Flutterwave, KudaBank, Mono, and Marketforce. Zach's expertise has earned him widespread recognition, with features in leading publications like Fast Company, Destiny Man, Forbes, and CNBC Africa. In 2020, Les Echos, France's Financial Times equivalent, named him one of Africa's Top 4 Most Influential Persons in Technology. Before his roles in venture capital and tech, Zach led Africa investments for U-Start, Europe’s largest network of private multi-family offices. His earlier career in New York saw him working in investment banking at Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital, specializing in mergers & acquisitions, corporate finance strategy, and risk management. Zach holds a Master’s degree in Finance & Management from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology. Beyond his professional pursuits, Zach is a talented musician with acoustic guitar, piano, and vocal albums, “Give A Little” (2010) and “Humans with Hearts” (2018), available on iTunes and Spotify. He has a passion for theater, enjoys hiking, tennis, squash, and is currently working on a non-fiction book, combining his love for creative writing with his diverse experiences.

Kevin Simmons
Loft Inc.

Kevin Simmons

Loft Inc.

Kevin Simmons is a successful Venture Capital investor specializing in pioneering early-stage risk capital vehicles in emerging markets and a recognized ‘exceptional leader in VC’ by the UK Government. A former Venture Partner with pan-African VC leader LoftyInc Capital, he is a GP of the Alpha Fund, a $75m early-stage VC fund. Kevin has invested in over 150 technology companies including 3 of Africa’s 8 unicorns. He co-founded Valhalla Investment Group in Houston, TX, and helped start the Afropreneur Angel Group, the most successful early-stage risk capital group in Africa. As CEO of UK electric vehicle software Electric Miles, he navigated the company to a successful sale in 2023, and he has helped launch four other technology startups, including award-winning venture Aceleron where he was the founding CFO and COO, and notably led their expansion to Barbados. He serves as an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at the University of Bristol for the globally acclaimed SetSquared Incubator, which was ranked #1 in the UK and #3 in Europe by the Financial Times in 2024. Kevin regularly teaches classes on innovation and risk capital and teaches a summer program for Oxford Royale Academy at the University of Oxford. He holds degrees from the U.S. Naval Academy, with service at the United States Military Academy at West Point, Stanford University, Rice University, and the University of Oxford.

Franziska Reh
Uncap

Franziska Reh

Uncap

Franziska Reh, born 1988, is the CEO & Co-Founder of Uncap, an investment-and technology company focusing on enabling access to finance for early-stage companies in Africa. Franziska holds a BSc in Business Administration from Frankfurt School of Finance and Management as well as an MSc in Global Sustainability from the Rotterdam School of Management. She is also a certified bank clerk. Franziska started her career at Deutsche Bank in 2008, where she spent 5 years in different positions within commercial banking as well as an executive assistant to the CEO of Private & Business Clients. After her masters she gained 3 years of experience as a consultant at Accenture Strategy & Sustainability working with governmental clients and public companies around circular economy, digital sustainability and strategy. During a 1-year secondment as a project manager at the World Economic Forum, Franziska set-up and led large multi-stakeholder initiatives fostering cross-sector collaboration. Since 2019, Franziska is the CEO & Founder of Uncap, an investment and technology company revolutionizing access to funding for early-stage entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa. With it’s investment arm Unconventional Capital, Uncap provides revenue-based financing to early-stage SMEs, mostly in East Africa. Uncap also recently launched Level, a B2B SaaS company providing a co-pilot for funders and accelerators in the African ecosystem, leveraging powerful integrations with Open AI, Onafriq and Zignsec. Uncap has raised funding from well-known impact investors, family offices and foundations, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Bayer Foundation and works with partners such as the GIZ.

Egla Ntumba
MsFiT Ventures

Egla Ntumba

MsFiT Ventures

Egla Ntumba is the co-founder and managing partner of MsFiT Ventures, a Cape Town based SME debt fund that provides flexible working capital and supply chain finance to female-led SMEs. Prior to that she was a senior venture capital investor at Newtown Partners where, on behalf of DP World’s corporate innovation fund, she invests in disruptive technology startups with global ambitions. Her investment focus was on global trade enablement and logistics. Looking specifically at early-stage startups that use technology to change the basis of competition in supply chain, logistics, and healthcare. Before joining venture capital, she was a corporate banker and deployed $1B+ in trade finance and managed debt portfolios of large multinational corporations (like Coca Cola, DHL, Reckitt Benckiser) across East, West, and Southern Africa. Egla had an early start in entrepreneurship when, for eight years, she was the chief operating office (COO) of a high-growth consumer retail business where she led the expansion strategy. She is passionate about leveraging her platform to help disruptive small businesses scale across Africa.

11:25

Coffee Break

11:45

Gender Smart Investing

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An honest conversation. Over mentored? Over-trained? and under funded... Let’s unpack where the disconnect truly lies.

Eghosa Omoigui
Echo VC

Eghosa Omoigui

Echo VC

Eghosa Omoigui is the founder and Managing General Partner of EchoVC Partners (a seed & early-stage technology venture capital firm investing in underrepresented founders and underserved emerging markets). Before this, Eghosa was with Intel for nearly 10 years and his last role was as Intel Capital Director, Consumer Internet & Semantic Technologies, where he acted as a senior investment professional focused on platform-agnostic consumer, web services and digital media-based investment opportunities in the US, EU & Asia. Omoigui also drove ICap's stage-agnostic investment focus on next generation semantic technologies, AI, ML, smart data, AR and the realtime web. Eghosa was personally responsible for developing supporting theses and sourcing investment opportunities in various companies including AdMob, Jaiku, Powerset, Facebook, LinkedIn, Teracent, Qik and Pandora. Eghosa has advised SWIFT (the inter-bank consortium) on technology innovation for financial services (InnoTribe), is a member of the ASTIA Venture Advisory Board (an organization focused on mentoring and supporting women entrepreneurs), member of the Board of Directors of Rising Tide Africa (an organization focused on aggregating and harnessing the power, networks and capital of women angel investors), was a winner of the Moss-Adams/ASTIA Women Entrepreneur Mentor of the Year award, and is a Kauffman Fellowship and Pipeline Angel Fellowship Mentor. EchoVC Pan-Africa Fund's disclosed investments include HotelsNG, the leading hotel booking platform in Nigeria, NextCounsel, the leading CRM suite for African law firms, Lifebank, a last mile supply chain platform for blood and other essential medical supplies, Cellulant, a cross-border payments platform, Payjoy, a device management and finance platform for emerging markets, Octamile, a provider of digital insurance, and Kukua, an animation-driven edtech platform. EchoVC Eco Pilot Fund I is EchoVC’s pre-seed vehicle focused on making pre-seed first-institutional-check investments into African startups focused on neoenergy, sustainable mobility, agriculture and food security, and climate risk. EchoVC Eco Seed Fund I is currently in market. Eghosa collects colognes, has a particular fondness for big dogs, and loves futbol and cricket. He attended law school at the University of Nigeria and University of Pennsylvania and business school at Babson College.

Yemi Keri
Rising Tide Africa

Yemi Keri

Rising Tide Africa

Pauline Koelbl
ShEquity

Pauline Koelbl

ShEquity

Pauline Koebl is a double Fulbright Scholar and Fellow, an impact investor with a focus on gender-lens investing, and a leading innovation expert in developing and emerging economies. She is dedicated to addressing Africa's $42 billion gender funding gap and accelerating the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As the Founder and Managing Partner of ShEquity, Pauline is catalysing inclusive growth in Africa by investing in early-stage, impactful, and scalable women-led businesses across Sub-Saharan markets. ShEquity’s unique ecosystem approach combines an investment readiness program, SHEBA, designed to de-risk women-led businesses, with smart early-stage investment. This holistic model ensures that African women entrepreneurs receive the support they need to thrive and scale their innovations. With over a decade of experience driving innovation and supporting SMEs and startups across Africa, Pauline serves on the boards of various impact-driven companies and organizations in Africa, Europe, and the USA. Her expertise lies in innovation, entrepreneurship, and the economic empowerment of women and youth. In 2022, Pauline was recognized as one of the 100 Leaders building 'Meaningful Business,' an acknowledgment of her efforts in combining profit and purpose to achieve the UN Global Goals. She is a passionate advocate for inclusivity, gender parity, impact investing, and women’s economic empowerment. Pauline regularly engages in public speaking on these topics, championing sustainable development and funding home-grown African innovations. Her work continues to inspire and drive meaningful change across the continent and beyond.

Aly El Shalakany
54 Collective

Aly El Shalakany

54 Collective

Aly El Shalakany has invested, mentored and coached various startups globally across a number of different sectors. Aly is the Managing Director for Egypt and North Africa at 54 Collective, Africa’s most active, hands-on, early stage venture capital investor. Prior to joining 54 Collective, Aly was the Managing Partner of Acasia Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in early stage tech and tech enabled startups in the Middle East and Africa. Aly was also the cofounder of the Acasia Group (formerly the Cairo Angels), one the leading startup support and enabling organizations in the Middle East and Africa. Aly is also a Founding Partner and member of the Investment Committee of Saudi Angel Investors, an angel fund that invests in startups in Saudi Arabia, a member of Afronpreneurs Angel Group, a syndicate of angel investors investing in African tech startups and a limited partner in a number of venture capital funds, including the Launch Fund in Silicon Valley and the LegalTech Fund.

12:25

Capital Providers Dialogue

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This dialogue will focus on the perspectives, strategies, and contributions of LPs and GPs, exploring how they engage with and influence the investment ecosystem in Africa.

David Van Dijk
Boost Africa

David Van Dijk

Boost Africa

Damilola Thompson
Diligence Africa

Damilola Thompson

Diligence Africa

Justin James
Fireball Capital

Justin James

Fireball Capital

As an Investment Professional at Fireball Capital, we seek to invest and support the South African and Africa venture capital ecosystems. We perform this function through a collaborative approach by investing and partnering with the very best venture capital managers and by investing directly in venture solutions that are seeking smart capital that can internationalize their business on the global stage. We are building a diversified risk adjusted portfolio of innovation and high growth for our clients. As head of Investment Risk, I am responsible for the design, upgrade and maintenance of the internal investment risk systems. I also monitor daily mandate compliance and portfolios oversight. Each day I am responsible for building a comprehensive picture of risk across the full range of investment portfolios. This picture is built by collating data from prime brokers, administrators, auditors, custodians and compliance consultants. This allows me to track the daily movements in leverage, directional exposure, position concentration, derivative exposure, volatility and VaR for all underlying funds as well as for the aggregate fund of funds. I utilise my knowledge of database management (SQL) and Visual Basic coding to create front end user interfaces for the portfolio management team to analyse the funds. I form part of the investment committee and assist in assessing the ESG component within our funds. I previously worked in Bermuda for 5 years where I was responsible for managing the global counterparty credit risk at Fidelity Worldwide Investment (FIL Limited). Prior to that, I worked at PWC in their financial services / investment management departments in Cape Town, New York and Bermuda, where I was exposed to hedge funds, investment management and insurance clients.

Julia Stausberg-Umuerri
DEG

Julia Stausberg-Umuerri

DEG

Julia leads the develoPPP Ventures program at DEG Impulse, a subsidiary of the German development finance institution DEG and part of the KfW Banking Group. The matching funds facility provides non-dilutive capital to innovative early-stage startups in Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda, currently supporting a diverse portfolio of 67 companies. These startups deliver impactful solutions across crucial sectors such as climate, agriculture, health, education, and mobility. With 16 years of experience in impact investing and private sector collaboration, Julia has held various roles in international consulting, market research, and development cooperation in both Germany and Nigeria.

Meit Ghandi
FMO Ventures

Meit Ghandi

FMO Ventures

13:05

Keynote

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Harnessing Africa’s demographic dividend through Investment, capitalizing on Africa’s youthful population and growing consumer base .

Lawrence Eta

Lawrence Eta

Lawrence Eta is a distinguished speaker, author, and thought leader widely recognized for his contributions to diverse sectors, including technology, leadership, and social impact. With deep expertise in navigating organizational change and driving innovation, Lawrence has successfully guided numerous companies and individuals toward achieving greater performance and success. His book, Bridging Worlds, delves into creating inclusive and adaptive environments, offering practical solutions for leaders facing the complex challenges of today’s rapidly shifting landscape. Lawrence is celebrated for his unique ability to distill complex ideas into clear, actionable strategies, empowering audiences to embrace new perspectives and drive meaningful transformation. His presentations consistently challenge conventional thinking, urging leaders to rethink their approaches and catalyze positive organizational change. With his exceptional blend of insight, extensive experience, and engaging delivery, Lawrence continues to shape pivotal conversations around leadership, transformation, and innovation, making a lasting impact.

13:15

Lunch

14:40

ABAN-DGGF Roundtable: Key Insights from the 2024 Angel Investment Survey

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An in-depth analysis of the survey results, encouraging a collaborative exploration of their implications and applications in the angel investing landscape. Offering actionable insights and fostering a dialogue on how the findings can be used to inform investment strategies, support start-ups, and shape the future of angel investing.

Tomi Davis
ABAN

Tomi Davis

ABAN

Thuli Montana
Briter Bridges

Thuli Montana

Briter Bridges

Thuli Montana is the Research and Insights Lead at Briter Bridges. She is an experienced international development researcher and consultant with over ten years of experience leading and designing research projects focused on urban climate resilience, sustainable development,tech and innovation, and impact investing across Africa. Thuli is passionate about working at the research and policy implementation interface, and providing data-driven advisory services on investments that contribute towards innovation, inclusion and impact across Africa.

Alexandra Fraser
Viridian

Alexandra Fraser

Viridian

Alexandra Fraser is the CEO and founder of Viridian. Viridian is an impact agency that designs and delivers programs for early-stage entrepreneurs, investors and entrepreneur support organizations across Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Our programs act as a catalyst for these key economic actors, ultimately growing shared prosperity across Sub-Saharan Africa. Alex has over 20 years’ experience in the early-stage investment space, is an angel investor, start-up advocate and is passionate about building a vibrant, sustainable high growth entrepreneurial ecosystem and culture across the continent, to drive economic growth and job creation. She is deeply embedded and connected with the entrepreneurial, investment and innovation communities through her involvement with various organizations and as an independent strategic consultant. Alex’s early career included working for a biotech and medical device fund, before moving into technology transfer and commercialization, followed by a move into a newly established VC fund in South Africa where she was responsible for deal sourcing, analysis, due diligence, investment memo preparation and research. Since leaving VC over the past 10 years, she has assisted a number of startups raise funding, provided independent DD services, mentored entrepreneurs on numerous accelerator programs and is a regular guest lecturer at a number of business schools. Alex is also a founding member of ABAN (African Business Angels Network www.abanangels.org ); a co-founder of Dazzle Angels (www.dazzleangels.com) an early-stage fund focusing on increasing the number of women angel investors in South Africa and also to provide more seed stage funding for women-led businesses. Through Dazzle and other angel groups she is an active angel investor and has a portfolio of 8 businesses. Most recently, she co-launched and is a Lead Facilitator for the African Angel Academy (www.africanangelacademy.com), the first online training program for African angel investors, delivered by experienced angels. To date AAA has trained over 700 angels from 23 African countries and supported over 24 new angel groups. Alex also serves on the investment committee of Jaza Rift Ventures, an early-stage African healthtech fund. Alex holds a BSc in Molecular Biology and a Post Graduate Diploma in Entrepreneurship from the University of Cape Town, a Master’s Degree in International Business and Emerging Markets from the University of Edinburgh and a Certificate in Company Directorship from the Institute of Directors, UK.

Julia Kho
Triple Jump, DGGF

Julia Kho

Triple Jump, DGGF

Julia Kho is a passionate advocate for the role of entrepreneurship and innovation in driving economic, environmental, and social development. With over a decade of experience, Julia has dedicated her career to connecting these fields and fostering sustainable growth. She began her journey in Europe as a project manager for the European Business and Innovation Centre Network, before transitioning to the global stage by joining the World Bank Group. For five years, Julia contributed to infoDev’s private sector development initiatives, focusing on designing and implementing innovative business incubation and early-stage financing services. Currently, at Triple Jump, she leads the knowledge agenda for the Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF), an investment initiative by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The DGGF seeks to bridge the financing gap for the "missing middle"—entrepreneurs who have outgrown micro-financing but lack access to conventional financial services. As part of the Seed Capital and Business Development (SCBD) Facility team, Julia works to further the impact of the DGGF by providing technical assistance, seed capital, and business support services to intermediary funds and local SMEs. She also spearheads the knowledge development and sharing component, conducting research, testing assumptions, and sharing insights on financing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries and emerging markets, fostering industry-wide knowledge exchange. Julia’s work is driven by her commitment to empowering entrepreneurs and supporting sustainable development through innovative financial solutions.

Anthony William Catt
Ventures 54

Anthony William Catt

Ventures 54

With a decade of experience in start-up ecosystem building and investment across EMEA, Anthony is the founder of Ventures 54 a Pan-Africa ecosystem-building advisory firm focused on mobilising global investors and capital into the Africa tech ecosystem. Providing support to Government Insitutions, DFIs, Venture Capital Funds & Ecosystem Support Organisations between Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. He is also the co-founder of London Africa Network, the UK’s biggest community of leaders operating in the UK-Africa tech, startup and investment corridor. He was the first Investor in Residence for Google for Startups, EMEA, helping lead its first European - Africa startup investment programme and the Investor Relations advisor to the Google Black Founders Fund in Africa. Currently based between South Africa and the UK he involved in policy focused initiatives to boost startup and investor ecosystem development with both countries Government's which includes being an acting member of the South Africa Startup Act Steering Committee. Previous to this Anthony was working on capital mobilisation between South-East Asia and Europe, most notably supporting the facilitation of Series A & B deals including for European Mobile Bank Monese Series A that was co-lead by Korea Investment Partners. Alongside his work he also produces content on LinkedIn and Twitter spotlighting opportunities, talent and resources in Africa tech, startups and investment.

14:40

Capital Markets Policy: Updates, Challenges, and the Road Ahead

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A look at the evolving landscape of capital market policies, exploring recent updates and their implications for investors and startups. The dialogue will also tackle ongoing challenges, including regulatory hurdles, market volatility, and access to capital, particularly in emerging markets.

Elizabeth Howard
Lelapa, WAI, ACfA

Elizabeth Howard

Lelapa, WAI, ACfA

Elizabeth is an entrepreneur and the founder of Lelapa, an advisory firm specialised in African capital markets development. In 2015 she co-founded LelapaFund, an equity crowdfunding platform focused on East Africa. LelapaFund’s regulatory challenges led her to establish the African Crowdfunding Association (AfCA) and drive the regulatory agenda. She advises several African regulatory authorities on the design and implementation of regulations for investments-based crowdfunding, a tool to boost investment in African start-ups and small businesses. She also founded Women in African Investments (WAI Group), an influential network of over 220 female investment professionals. Before that, she worked in academia and the private sector in risk management and financial economics. Elizabeth holds several Board and Advisory Board member positions in the industry and is a Council Member of the Advancing Women in Investing (AWI) Foundation. Elizabeth holds a Masters in Economics from Sciences Po Paris, a B.Comm Honours in Economics from the University of Cape Town and a Certificate of Entrepreneurship jointly delivered by Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and Ecole Polytechnique. Elizabeth is a dual citizen of South Africa and France.

Joe Kinvi
Hoaq

Joe Kinvi

Hoaq

Joe Kinvi (CA) is the founder of Borderless, an all-in-one platform for global communities. He also leads HoaQ, an investor community with over 100 investments across Africa and its Diaspora. Before embarking on his entrepreneurial journey, Joe was an experienced operator with a background in finance, mergers and acquisitions, business development, and partnerships. Joe has held key positions such as Head of Finance at Touchtech Payments (acquired by Stripe), Growth Lead at Stripe, and Partnerships Lead at Paystack.

Eghosa Omoigui
Echo VC

Eghosa Omoigui

Echo VC

Oswald Osaretin Guobadia
DigitA

Oswald Osaretin Guobadia

DigitA

A seasoned Business Transformation Expert with experience in helping organizations in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors drive operational excellence and revenue growth, as well as forge strategic partnerships whilst navigating complex business environments through a relentless focus on innovation within the African landscape. With close to three decades of robust experience spanning multi-million-dollar, large-scale infrastructure projects to trailblazing policy development that is shaping Africa’s promising digital landscape, Oswald continues to create value for stakeholders across borders and cultures.

15:25

Pipeline Building

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A more recent wave of innovation in the African early stage investment ecosystem is the approach of providing more than just capital, with more intentional and structured involvement in both pipeline development and portfolio support towards exit. This session will explore the models that investors are using to build platforms around early stage investing.

Aly El Shalakany
54 Collective

Aly El Shalakany

54 Collective

Martin Warioba
Warioba Ventures

Martin Warioba

Warioba Ventures

Martin Warioba is Founder and Managing Partner at Warioba Ventures, Africa-focused advisory and investment firm that provides advisory in corporate strategy, investment, project management, payments, risk management and technology. In addition, Warioba Ventures invests in early-stage startups, out of Tanzania as well as in East Africa, and builds sustainable ecosystem to support fintech and technology-related startups focusing on tackling Africa’s great challenges. Martin oversees management and operations of Warioba Ventures. He has 22-year experience in Information Technology, corporate management and payments, both as consultant, executive, project manager and software developer. Martin is one of key Payments and Digital Financial Services (DFS) experts in Africa and he was instrumental in development of payment scheme rules for world’s first mobile wallet-to-mobile wallet interoperability between Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in Tanzania as well as Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. He advices Central Banks, Commercial Banks, MNOs, FinTech, Startups, Public and Private Sector, NGOs on Corporate Strategy, Digital Economy, DFS Interoperability, Payments, Policy & Regulations, Risk Management and Technology Previously, Martin was a founder and Managing Partner at WS Technology Consulting, a successful business that operated across East Africa for 11 years. He also worked with Deloitte Consulting US LLP and Central Bank of Tanzania. Mr. Warioba has Computer Science degree with a minor in Mathematics from Louisiana State University as well as MBA and MSc in Information Management degrees from Arizona State University. Martin sits on board of CRDB Bank PLC and its Audit committee as Independent, Non-Executive Director, Board Chairman of CRDB Bank Foundation and Non-Executive Director representing all investors at DMRx LLC (Dawa Mkononi). Mr. Warioba is committed in mentoring young African professionals in areas of corporate governance, investment, leadership, management, technology and venture building. Due to his well-rounded technology and management expertise, Mr. Warioba is a regular speaker in many conferences and events across Africa. In his spare time, Martin enjoys reading, traveling and sports especially golf, basketball, athletics, and soccer.

Pedro Bandeira
Y Angels (Core Angels International)

Pedro Bandeira

Y Angels (Core Angels International)

Founded 9 companies and 10 non-profits in 20 years. During the last 10 years, built and/or managed 15 angel groups with more than 1000 angels in total. Co-founder & Board @ YAngel Co-Founder & Board @ COREangels International Co-Founder & CEO @ REDangels Co-Founder & Vice-President for Angels @ Investors Portugal - Portuguese Association for Early-stage Investors Contributing to professionalize angel investing because entrepreneurs do change the world and they deserve better angels.

Yannick Gayama
Double Feather Partners

Yannick Gayama

Double Feather Partners

Yannick oversees design, management and execution of programs and strategic partnerships for the Startup Ecosystem Engagement team at DFP. He was behind the launch of the first Japan-backed startup acceleration and corporate open innovation programs in Africa on behalf of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), as well as the 1st Japan-funded startup investment readiness support program for the UNDP Africa Sustainable Finance Hub in Angola, Zambia, and South Africa. He is passionate about Open Innovation, Strategic Returns on Investment, and developing programs that address critical ecosystem gaps from inception, early-stage investment, to exit. Prior to joining DFP, he was Chief Operations Officer (COO) and Senior Advisor at Inter Media Japan, an investment promotion agency based in Tokyo that helped embassies and national investment promotion agencies showcase investment opportunities to the Japanese business community. Before Japan, Yannick worked for over a decade in strategic stakeholder engagement, public affairs, and go-to-market strategy, and was Director at Weber Shandwick, a leading global PR agency. He advised, developed, and managed programs for a wide range of multinationals in life sciences, tech, and finance seeking to enter or expand in the North American market. Born from a Congolese father and Chinese mother in the United States, Yannick grew up in Ethiopia and Congo, graduated from high school in France, then moved to Canada as a student where he spent 18 years before moving to Japan in 2019. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Communications, complemented by a graduate degree in Game Design from the University of Montreal, followed by a Master of Public Policy and Global Affairs (MPPGA) from the University of British Columbia.

Olatokunbo Ige
Jonh Maxwell Team

Olatokunbo Ige

Jonh Maxwell Team

Olatokunbo Ige is a versatile social entrepreneur and human rights lawyer with over three decades of experience promoting peace, social justice, and cohesion across African societies. Her work focuses on utilizing law, social policies, and people-centered strategies to drive personal, organizational, and community development. Olatokunbo has worked at local, national, regional, and international levels, collaborating with NGOs, African governments, inter-governmental agencies, the United Nations, and businesses of all sizes. A strategic thinker known for "thinking outside the box," Olatokunbo has a proven track record of effectively managing programs and ensuring timely delivery. She has demonstrated expertise in advocacy, strategic development, and the full project lifecycle—implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. Fluent in both English and French, Olatokunbo is known for her excellent communication and leadership skills. In addition to her legal and social entrepreneurship work, Olatokunbo is a certified Trainer, Speaker, and Coach, as well as a founding member and Executive Director of the John Maxwell Team. She is a Competent Communicator and Leader through Toastmasters International, and an advanced certified Human Behaviour Consultant through both Personality Insights Inc. and the John Maxwell Programme. Olatokunbo's work continues to inspire change, as she builds bridges across families, communities, and businesses, advocating for harmony and social justice at every level.

15:25

Collaboration and Partnerships

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We will look at how global investors and diaspora communities can collaborate with local stakeholders to enhance the effectiveness of capital mobilization efforts.

Ben White
VC4A

Ben White

VC4A

With 20 years of experience across entrepreneurship, venture building, private equity, and venture capital, Ben White has dedicated his career to shaping the digital and technology landscape in Africa and other emerging markets. He began his journey by founding AfricaNews.com, one of the first pan-African news websites, and has since expanded his influence across Latin America, contributing to the growth of early-stage startups. As a thought leader in Africa’s tech and media sectors, Ben has undertaken ethnographic research on software cultures in Kampala, Uganda, developed an ICT Entrepreneurship portfolio at the Humanistic Institute for Development (Hivos), and designed a course on digital entrepreneurship at the University of Amsterdam. His impact extends to serving on the board of ActivSpaces, a Cameroon-based incubator, and co-founding AfriLabs, a pan-African network of innovation hubs. He is also a partner at Sanaga Ventures, an angel investor, and co-founder of the African Business Angels Network (ABAN). Additionally, Ben is part of the management team at Investing in Young Businesses in Africa (IYBA), a Team Europe Initiative. In 2007, Ben founded VC4A, an online platform supporting high-growth entrepreneurs across Africa and Latin America. VC4A has spearheaded initiatives such as the Africa Early Stage Investor Summit (#AESIS) and the Venture Showcase, an award-winning investment readiness program that has enabled high-growth ventures to raise over $850 million in venture capital. Throughout his career, Ben has excelled in organizational development, program design, and facilitating global collaboration to empower entrepreneurs and organizations across diverse industries. With a passion for entrepreneurship mentoring, incubation, and acceleration, Ben is committed to fostering positive change through innovation and investment. Born in New Mexico, Ben has spent over two decades working across Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa. Motivated by the entrepreneurial spirit and the untapped potential of emerging markets, he continues to pursue new ventures that leverage entrepreneurship as a transformative force for meaningful impact.

Fridah Ntarangwi
ZidiCircle

Fridah Ntarangwi

ZidiCircle

Fridah is an active leader in facilitating the African Diaspora towards entrepreneurship and investments in Europe and Green SMEs development in Africa. Fridah is the Founder of Zidicircle, an organization that facilitates diaspora-led development by activating the entrepreneurial and investing potential of the diaspora through training and enabling the Pooling of diaspora angel investments into green SME’s through the Zidicircle Coop investment vehicle. With a rich commercial, development and Finance background, Fridah sits in various boards and foresees the fund management of the Diaspora investment vehicle-Zidicircle Coop that she initiated. She was recognized by the European Union(EMEN project) for promoting migrant entrepreneurship, the Duisenberg Woman in Finance award, listed by the municipality of Amsterdam as the top female entrepreneur and listed as a top female entrepreneur in the Netherlands by Sheatwork.

Francis Omorojie
Ennovate Ventures

Francis Omorojie

Ennovate Ventures

Claire Nyambori
FMO

Claire Nyambori

FMO

Claire Nyambori-Diphoorn is a Technical Assistance Officer at FMO, the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank. Her role revolves around driving development initiatives across FMO’s core sectors by supporting various inclusive business and ecosystem building activities to increase bankability in emerging markets. On behalf of FMO, Claire also leads the African Resilience Investment Accelerator (ARIA) program which focuses on mobilizing investments in frontier markets in Africa. ARIA focuses on mobilizing investment for climate resilience and sustainable development in Africa. ARIA is a collaboration between FMO and BII, whose objective is to unlock investments in frontier markets. These are markets that typically receive fragmented DFI investments. The countries of focus are Ethiopia, DRC, Sierra Leone, Benin and Liberia.

17:00

Harvest Innovation

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Curated Farm To Table Tasting Experience With Storytelling.

GIZ SAIS invite you to celebrate fresh, locally sourced ingredients and the stories behind them. Each dish, crafted by award-winning chef of Emazulwini, Mmabatho Molefe, her maverick food pays homage to her heritage and represents an exciting new approach to South African cuisine and is paired with tales of sustainable farming, offering a flavorful journey from field to plate. Experience an evening where food and storytelling connect for a truly immersive dining adventure.

We will be providing transport. Please be at reception at 5pm as we will be leaving at 5:15.

17:00

Skyline Mixer

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Get ready to party at Skyline Mixer with FMO ventures and Friends(Breega, CAIF, LoftyInc Capital And TLcom Capital)! Kick back with cool drinks, epic city views, and a crowd of investors, founders, and trailblazers. As the sun sets, the energy heats up – it's all about music, mingling, and making unforgettable connections.

Bring your best vibe and dance moves!

*this event will be taking place at the Radisson Red Rooftop on the V&A Waterfront which is walking distance from the summit venue. Please meet at the reception area at 5. We will be walking from here at 5:15.

17:00

Padel and Pizza

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Join Digital Africa and Disraptor for a relaxed Padel and Pizza evening! After a productive day, unwind with some friendly games on the padel court, great conversations, and delicious pizza. It’s the perfect chance to connect, recharge, and have fun together in a laid-back setting.

*this will be taking place at The Bay Hotel, Camps Bay. Transportation will be provided to the event but not back from the event.

17:00

Sundowners at Sea

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Set sail on a sundowner cruise with Enza Capital, fellow investors, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders for an evening of networking and meaningful conversations against a stunning sunset backdrop. This relaxed yet engaging cruise offers a unique opportunity to discuss capital, share insights, and explore potential partnerships all while enjoying the views and the company of like-minded peers. Don’t miss this chance to unwind, connect, and set the stage for impactful collaborations.

*Meet at the reception at 5. We will then walk to the boat at 5:15 as we will be setting sail promptly at 6.

Day - 03

08:30

Day Two - Early Stage Investor Breakfast

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Networking, a meet-and-greet breakfast for delegates of AESIS with an opportunity to connect with and hear from notable personalities in the early stage investment ecosystem.

09:30

Day Two - Welcome note

Nicola Tyler
The Thinking Company

Nicola Tyler

The Thinking Company

09:40

VC4A Venture Showcase: She Wins Africa Edition

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The She Wins Africa Program, an IFC initiative, implemented by VC4A is supporting 100 female-led African companies to get access to funding. Selected ventures from the cohort, with proven traction and innovative solutions, will present their businesses’ opportunities. Don’t miss the chance to support closing the gender gap for African companies. The ventures pitching include: Advantage Health Africa, Yellow Factoring, Farmio Limited, Eshandi, Agriarche, Paycard SA and GoBEBA. Please check under the 'Venture Booth' Section to find out more.

10:05

Founder Wellness

Emmanuel Adegboye
Madica

Emmanuel Adegboye

Madica

Emmanuel Adegboye is the Head of Madica, a structured investment program for pre-seed stage companies in Africa. Launched in 2022, Madica empowers underrepresented and underfunded mission-driven founders on the continent. Before joining Madica, Emmanuel oversaw Africa strategy for Utopia, a platform for Urbantech entrepreneurs in emerging cities. As Managing Partner of Utopia Lagos, he designed and launched the Lagos Urban Innovation Challenge and Utopia’s virtual accelerator program. Emmanuel has a comprehensive understanding of the entrepreneurial and political landscape of Africa. He has extensive experience building and leading large-scale technology projects and initiatives in emerging markets. His prior roles include designing and managing Andela’s entrepreneurship center and managing special projects and programs at Venture Garden Group. He was also a 2021 Mo Ibrahim Foundation Academy Fellow with the Africa Program at Chatham House and he continues to engage policymakers on creating an enabling environment for entrepreneurs. Emmanuel holds a Bachelor's degree in Engineering Physics, an Executive MBA, and further postgraduate degrees in Space Applications and Environmental Management. He is also a certified Project Management Professional. Emmanuel believes entrepreneurs will build Africa’s future and he’s dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs who are solving Africa’s biggest challenges.

10:25

Coffee Break

11:10

GIZ SAIS Portfolio Pitch

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Partner investors bring 3 of their portfolio companies to pitch on stage to other investors for collaboration, co-investment and follow-on investment. The venture include Terraa, Rhea and SwiftVEE. Please visit the venture booth section to find out more.

11:35

Digital Africa Portfolio Pitch

12:00

Open Startup Portfolio Pitch

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Partner investors bring 3 of their portfolio companies to pitch on stage to other investors for collaboration, co-investment and follow-on investment.

12:25

Ennovate Ventures

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Ennovate Ventures will bring 3 of their portfolio companies to pitch on stage to other investors for collaboration, co-investment and follow-on investment. The venture on stage will be: Sema SpeakApp, Lima Africa, Swahilies. Please go to the venture booth section to find out more.

12:50

develoPPP Ventures

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Partner investors bring 3 of their portfolio companies to pitch on stage to other investors for collaboration, co-investment and follow-on investment.

Niklas Fisher
develoPPP Ventures

Niklas Fisher

develoPPP Ventures

Niklas is a Project and Investment Manager at KfW DEG Impulse. DEG, a development finance institution and subsidiary of the KfW Banking Group (German development bank), has the mission to promote business initiatives in developing countries and emerging markets to contribute to sustainable growth and improved living conditions. With experience across corporate, startup, and venture capital sectors, Niklas in involved in the develoPPP Ventures program, established by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. The program co-finances investments in startups in order to scale innovative business models that contribute to achieving the SDGs. Niklas holds a Master's degrees in Banking and Investment Management and a certificate in Private Market Investments from Said Business School, University of Oxford.

13:15

Lunch

14:30

The State of Exits: M&A, Secondary Buy-Outs in Africa.

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What is the state of exits and secondary buy-outs in Africa? As the market matures, secondary buy-outs are gaining prominence. How are key players—venture hubs, angel investors, and VC funds—shaping the journey from founding to exit?

Zachariah George
Launch Africa

Zachariah George

Launch Africa

Ido Sum
TLcom Capital

Ido Sum

TLcom Capital

Ido Sum is a Partner of TLcom Capital, Africa’s most active tech-focused VC fund, investing in early-to-growth stage with offices in Lagos, Nairobi and London. TLcom has 17 portfolio companies including Andela, Autochek, Pula, uLesson, Fairmoney, Illa and LittleFish. Since joining TLcom in 2011, Ido has been part of the founding team of the TIDE Africa fund and has vast experience in working with and mentoring tech start-ups across Africa. His board positions include Terragon Group, uLesson, Zone, Littlefish and Ilara Health. Prior to TLcom, Ido was the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Airlines WiMAX Communication, an East Africa-based mobile broadband operator., He also led a consulting business focused on web start-ups and web incubators in Israel and worked as a Business Development Manager at TMT – Israel’s largest interactive television company. Ido holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a BSc in Industrial Engineering from Tel Aviv University.

Thomas Van Halen
VC4A

Thomas Van Halen

VC4A

Thomas van Halen is a seasoned investment professional with over 13 years of experience and a deep network in startup ecosystems across emerging markets. Since joining VC4A in 2012, he has been supporting thousands of founders, both online and offline, while building the largest network of investors focused on emerging markets, comprising over 1,400 members on investors.vc4a.com. Currently, he leads programs with high-profile clients, including FMO and DEG, driving impactful initiatives to support entrepreneurship and investment on the African continent. Prior to VC4A, Thomas founded his own company and conducted extensive business research across Europe, Asia, and Africa, reflecting his entrepreneurial spirit and global expertise.

Wanji Ng'ang'a
Acumen

Wanji Ng'ang'a

Acumen

Wanji Nganga is the Associate Director of Investing in Acumen. In her role, she is responsible for leading the investing teams, making early-stage investments into companies in education, agriculture and renewable energy-powered appliances. Acumen is an impact investor using philanthropic funding to offer patient early stage capital to entrepreneurs. To date, Acumen has invested over $154M + of patient capital to 167 companies and impacted over 500 M people in Africa, Latin America, South Asia and the United States. She has 15 years’ experience and has spent 10 of those years working in the off-grid sector. Previously she was the Regional Manager in East Africa for Shell Foundation and led Shell Foundation’s activities and strategy in the region. She was responsible for driving and supporting the growth of SF’s partners and portfolio across a range of partners in the household energy, productive use and sustainable mobility portfolios. Before joining SF, Wanji spent her time growing businesses in the off-grid lighting sector in various regions in Africa, Latin America and the Pacific. She has worked with organisations such as GOGLA and SunKing focused on advocacy, financing and scaling companies in new markets. Wanji holds a degree in International Business Administration from the United States International University in Kenya, an Impact Investing certification from the Oxford University and a Masters in Development Finance from the University of CapeTown.

14:30

Global Development Funding

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Do global mandates define or respond to African capital allocation needs? DFIs are critical contributors to the African early stage investment ecosystem, both as a fund of funds and direct investors. This will be an honest debate about the nature of the influence of global mandates on capital allocation patterns in Africa.

David Van Dijk
Boost Africa

David Van Dijk

Boost Africa

Rachel Crawford
VilCap

Rachel Crawford

VilCap

Eight years with VilCap, based in London - worked from VilCap Nairobi office for three years. 12+ years in investment, technology, and innovation. She formerly worked on the investment team of private equity firm, Patron Capital ($1B+ AUM), then built their portco, Generator (a Harvard Business School Case Study that sold for US$470m) and for a tech startup. She's worked across Village Capital venture programs, ecosystem development and field-building research, in addition to a number of internal strategic initiatives and change management projects. She holds a Masters in Social Innovation from Cambridge University.

Kenza Lahlou
Outlierz

Kenza Lahlou

Outlierz

Kenza Lahlou is the Founder and Managing Partner at Outlierz Ventures, an Africa-focused early-stage VC firm dedicated to Seed stage tech-enabled companies. The fund backs founders using technology to digitize key traditional industries across the continent's main tech hubs with a focus on Francophone Africa, Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya. Kenza is a pioneer ecosystem builder and VC investor in Africa with a background in Technology and Investment. She lived and worked in Africa, Europe, Asia and the United States with experience spanning software engineering, management consulting and private equity. Kenza started her career as a Computer Science engineer in France, then acquired experience in Private Equity in Africa after a Masters in Business in Singapore. Before starting Outlier Ventures, she moved to Silicon Valley to work for a boutique advisory firm providing market entry services to tech startups/scale up companies from emerging markets looking to scale in the US market. Inspired by this experience, she returned to Morocco to co-founded StartupYourLife, one of the pioneer ecosystem builders in the country, as a leading community of tech founders to connect to investors and mentors in the region. After four years working on the ground with tech founders, Kenza witnessed the financing gap in early-stage VC in Africa and started Outlierz Ventures in 2018 as one of the pioneer Africa-focused Seed funds to back the next generation of outliers founders building category-defining businesses and transforming Africa. Kenza holds a BS and MSc in Computer Science from INSA in France and a Master of Strategy and International Business from ESSEC Business School in Singapore. She completed a Leadership Executive Program at the Harvard Kennedy School in 2016. Kenza is a Kauffman Fellow Class 25.

Fabrice Perez
Proparco

Fabrice Perez

Proparco

Abu Cassim
VC4A

Abu Cassim

VC4A

14:30

Investing Through Women and in Women

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An exploration of the innovations in the African early stage investment ecosystem that have unlocked gender lens capital. A closer look at female-focused investments.

Hlengiwe Makhathini
IDF Capital

Hlengiwe Makhathini

IDF Capital

Hlengiwe is a highly skilled, dynamic and astute investment executive, business leader, with board and governance experience. She has over 20 years’ experience in venture capital, corporate finance, fund investment and financial management. Hlengiwe qualified as Chartered Accountant of South Africa {CA (SA)} in 2005 and holds a Master of commerce (Accounting) from the University of Witwatersrand obtained in 2019. She has solid board experience having served in Boards of State-Owned Companies like ATNS; RTIA; DTPC; SA Express and Transnet Second Defined Benefit Fund (TSDBF) as well as a number of private sector companies. She is currently the Group Chief Investment Officer of IDF Capital, a fund with Assets Under Management (AUM) of about R2.5bn. She is responsible for the development and implementation of investment strategies for the Group. Her responsibilities include leading value creation initiatives to ensure that the returns promised to Investors are achieved. Prior to joining IDF Capital she was the Group Head of Corporate Finance for Transnet Group where she was responsible for structuring and fundraising for large expansion and growth infrastructure projects worth over R100bn. Hlengiwe acted as the Group Chief Financial Officer for from October 2023 to March 2024, and during this period led the negotiations to secure a R47bn government guarantee for Transnet and led the fundraising of R22bn using the guarantee. Prior to joining Transnet she served as a Divisional Executive Venture Capital & Corporate Finance at the National Empowerment Fund where she was responsible a portfolio worth over R3bn. She was responsible for the development of strategies to reduce impairments and grow the book in a sustainable way for the NEF. Hlengiwe is a dynamic public speaker and has presented in a number of conferences in her career including representing Transnet at the 10th SA Tomorrow Conference in New York.

Kristen Wilson
Innovate Africa Fund

Kristen Wilson

Innovate Africa Fund

Kristin is the Managing Partner at Innovate Africa Fund. With over a decade of experience, Kristin is a people technologist whose work empowers entrepreneurs and business teams to harness the power of data and technology. She also serves as Chief Strategy Officer at Spurt! where she crafts innovative solutions that combine human operations, data analytics, and software to drive growth for SMEs and startups in sub-Saharan Africa. She maintains a robust and active angel investment portfolio and is the Managing Partner at Bold Angel Fund. She also serves as the Venture Partner at Oui Capital and Investment Lead for the Rising Tide Africa Angel Network. Additionally, she is a Harris Fellow.

Christine Namara
Flat6Labs

Christine Namara

Flat6Labs

Ayodele Ogunnoiki
2xGlobal

Ayodele Ogunnoiki

2xGlobal

Ayodele is a Programme Manager for the 2X Ignite Programme at 2X Global, where she focuses on advancing gender-lens investing initiatives. With over eight years of experience in the finance industry, she is dedicated to leveraging finance for social impact and sustainable development. Prior to her current role, Ayodele spent five years at Symbiotics Group, deploying private debt to microfinance banks across East, West, and Southern Africa. Her work contributed to enhancing financial inclusion and supporting small businesses in underserved regions. She then joined Goodwell Investments for three years, specializing in equity investments in growth-stage companies in South Africa, where she helped scale businesses with high social impact potential. Passionate about empowering communities and fostering sustainable growth, Ayodele continues to use her expertise to drive positive change through innovative financial solutions.

15:15

Fireside Chat: Africa’s Catalytic Funding for developing Start-Ups

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Do local mandates define or respond to African capital allocation needs? Who are the critical contributors to the African early-stage to late stage investment ecosystem. This will be an honest debate about the nature of the influence of global and local mandates on capital allocation patterns in Africa.

Fadilah Tchoumba
ABAN

Fadilah Tchoumba

ABAN

Jean Marie Kanaura
KIFC

Jean Marie Kanaura

KIFC

Jean-Marie KANANURA is the Chief Investment Officer of Rwanda Finance Limited, the company promoting and developing Rwanda as a leading financial destination for international investment and cross-border transactions in Africa. Jean-Marie joined Rwanda Finance as a Business Development Manager in charge of the Central and West African region. Jean-Marie is a Finance professional with more than 15 years of experience in the Banking sector. Prior to joining Rwanda Finance, Jean-Marie worked with Euroclear Bank Brussels, where he worked in Asset Servicing and Securities Post-Trading Operations focusing on Project Management, Business Process Management, and Continuous Improvement. Jean-Marie holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from ICHEC Brussels Management School and an Executive Master’s Degree in Finance from Solvay Brussels School.

Sinazo Sibisi
Timbuktoo

Sinazo Sibisi

Timbuktoo

Ms Sibisi serves as the Chief Investment Officer of the Timbuktoo Africa Innovation Foundation. She has over 30 years of executive management experience in both the private and public sectors with a proven track record in development planning, innovative finance, business strategy, performance optimisation, impact design and measurement. Ms Sibisi’s career highlights include serving as a Partner/Director of Deloitte Southern Africa including acting as Public Sector Lead for the Firm and sitting on the Executive Committee, the Consulting Management Team and the Global Public Sector Board; serving as an executive at the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), including as the Chief Investment Officer for the LED Fund developing innovative solutions to boost local economic development, as the Divisional Executive: Planning driving the bank’s development planning and investment strategies, as Group Executive: Strategy, Marketing and Communications where she led the recapitalisation of the bank to spearhead growth and as Group Executive: Infrastructure Delivery developing and implementing new approaches to accelerating infrastructure delivery as well as sitting on the bank Investment Committee and the Advisory Board of Old Mutual’s Housing Impact Fund South Africa (HIFSA). In terms of tech experience, Ms Sibisi also served as the MD: Africa, Canada and Australia for Wyzetalk, leading the expansion of the South African born digital employee experience solution across the globe. Ms Sibisi has also served on numerous boards including Wesgro, Wyzetalk, the Advisory Board of the Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town and currently serves as the Chairperson of Terebinth Capital. She has also provided expert input into various key initiatives such as the AfDB’s Africa Economic Outlook 2016 and the WEF Africa Strategic Infrastructure Initiative and she has also written numerous thought leadership articles, one of which was recently published in the Harvard Business Review. Ms Sibisi is also a published author her debut novel being entitled The Meanness of Things.

Abraham Itule
Safiri

Abraham Itule

Safiri

15:15

Policy that Catalyzes Capital to Women Led Tech Enabled Ventures and SMEs

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Explore the policy levers that can be leveraged to advance gender lens investing. A look into the advantages and shortcomings of startup acts to advance the gender lens agenda.

Elizabeth Howard
Lelapa, WAI, ACfA

Elizabeth Howard

Lelapa, WAI, ACfA

Michelle Matthews
Viridian

Michelle Matthews

Viridian

Michelle Matthews is Chief Product Officer at Viridian, an end-to-end agency servicing the pan-African entrepreneurial ecosystem, and co-founder of NGO Book Dash, which has created hundreds of open-license titles and distributed nearly 4 million books to children who otherwise have none. Michelle started her career in journalism and then launched and ran a women-focussed imprint, Oshun Books. In recent years she has worked closely with technical and impact entrepreneurs and organisations through initiatives such as the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, Telkom FutureMakers, Yunus Social Business’s Reckitt WASH accelerator, and GIZ’s Hubs Go GreenTech. She has trained, mentored, and collaborated with dynamic people from more than 20 African countries. Her background in media and publishing has proven invaluable in capturing and disseminating stats, stories and approaches to economic development across Africa. As Chief Product Officer at Viridian, some of the products and frameworks that she's been instrumental in developing include course content for the African Angel Academy, the GIZ Open Innovation toolkit and the UK-SA Tech Hub Launch League Let's Talk Financing toolkit. Michelle has a BPhil in Sustainable Development (Stellenbosch, 2011) and serves on the Sustainability Institute's advisory board. She is currently completing her MPhil in Inclusive Innovation at UCT's Graduate School of Business.

Mark Kleyner
Dream VC

Mark Kleyner

Dream VC

Mark Kleyner is the co-founder of Dream VC, a leading venture capital institute dedicated to Africa and emerging markets. With extensive experience working within venture capital firms across the UK, US, Europe, and Africa, Mark actively advises, coaches, and mentors early-stage startups in West and East Africa. His mentorship has helped these startups raise over $12 million in venture financing and gain entry into renowned programs such as Google’s Black Founders Fund Africa, PioneerApp, TechStars, and Y Combinator. Passionate about leveraging the private sector to improve lives, Mark is a strong advocate for consumer and enterprise software startups as vehicles for positive global change. Through Dream VC, Mark has trained over 250 professionals across Africa and the diaspora, equipping them to enter the venture capital industry as emerging investors. His work has helped participants launch strategic corporate venture capital (CVC) funds, with alumni now working in more than 70 funds managing over $6 billion in assets under management (AUM). In addition to his work with Dream VC, Mark is a startup mentor at nine leading accelerators and incubators, including Startupbootcamp, Impact Hub Lagos, Seedstars, Founder Institute, and Village Capital. A frequent speaker on venture capital, corporate venture capital, and investing in emerging markets, Mark is committed to empowering the next generation of investors and entrepreneurs to drive innovation and economic growth in underserved regions.

Thea Sokolowski
Women Who Build Africa

Thea Sokolowski

Women Who Build Africa

Thea is a co-founder of Women Who Build Africa, a community created to support the growth of women founders, leaders, operators and investors in Africa's tech and business ecosystem. WWBA started in 2022 and has grown to nearly 2500 members across multiple African markets, supporting through mentorship, events, networking, matching and more. Thea has worked with African startups for nearly 12 years. Full time, she is the head of marketing at South African payments company Stitch, and previously led marketing at BFA Global / Catalyst Fund, MEST Africa and Meltwater.

15:15

Synergizing Capital

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Exploring advanced strategies for leveraging public-private partnerships (PPPs) as a powerful tool for capital mobilization. Beyond foundational concepts, this session delves into how PPPs can provide long-term stability and scalability, offering insights on structuring partnerships that drive sustained growth.

Bertil Van Vugt
VC4A

Bertil Van Vugt

VC4A

As Operational Director Bertil van Vugt has made significant contributions to VC4A, driving the organization’s mission to support and empower entrepreneurs across Africa and Latin America. His decade of work has contributed to the creation of the vibrant online VC4A.com community of startups, investors, and mentors, creating vital connections that enhance access to funding and resources. Bertil is responsible for program collaborations at VC4A, working with ESO partners to deliver high impact outcomes. With 15-years of experience working across Africa (Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and more), Bertil has managed multi-year multi stakeholder accelerator programs focused on selecting startups for match funding, investment readiness, job creation, inclusive business and social enterprise support.

Joanne Manda
Timbuktoo

Joanne Manda

Timbuktoo

Joanne Manda is the Senior SDG Investment Advisor in UNDP Africa Finance Sector Hub (AFSH) supporting countries in accelerating investments aligned with the SDG. Passionate about fighting climate change and generating development results through innovative financing mechanisms, Joanne pioneered UNDP’s work on innovative financing solutions including green bonds, Islamic finance and blended finance mechanisms for energy and other infrastructure projects. In addition, her experience extends to working with private-sector partners in the impact investment space.

Lawrence Eta

Lawrence Eta

Niklas Fisher
develoPPP Ventures

Niklas Fisher

develoPPP Ventures

16:00

Development Focused Investments: Can Impact and Profit Coexist?

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Explore the dynamic tension between driving positive social impact and achieving financial returns in high-impact/high potential sectors. This session dives into the heart of development-focused investments: Is it possible to balance purpose with profit? Are unique approaches needed across different high impact areas?

Tomi Davis
ABAN

Tomi Davis

ABAN

Pauline Koelbl
ShEquity

Pauline Koelbl

ShEquity

Andrew Darge
E3

Andrew Darge

Andrew is an Investment Manager at E3 Capital where he is responsible for deal origination and screening, through to execution and portfolio management. Throughout his career, he has advised and executed on transactions in numerous countries in Africa, as well as further afield in emerging markets such as India, Colombia and Indonesia. His experience covers several sectors including foods & agribusiness, fin-tech, logistics, digital infrastructure and energy & climate. Andrew is a qualified CA(SA) and CFA Charterholder.

Alexis Grosskopf
Ocean Hub Africa

Alexis Grosskopf

Ocean Hub Africa

Alexis Grosskopf is the Founder and CEO of OceanHub Africa, an ocean-impact accelerator focusing on strengthening the development and adoption of new sustainable ocean solutions in Africa. Alongside OceanHub Africa, Alexis co-founded the annual Ocean Innovation Africa summit to promote innovative technologies, policies and finance to further sustainable blue growth continentally. He holds a BEng in Mechanical Engineering, an MSc in Environmental Engineering from Imperial College London and an Impact Finance certificate from Oxford University. Former management and sustainable development consultant, he has since been working in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation for over 12 years, including 7 in Africa. In addition to OHA, he holds leadership positions on several initiatives such as within the 1000 Ocean Startups coalition, the Great Blue Wall initiative, the UN Ocean Decade task force for Africa, OECD expert for Blue Economy ODA guidelines and the AU/EU-backed Ocean Governance Strategy Group.

16:00

Co-investment and Matching Funds

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How can innovative models foster greater collaboration between investors and development stakeholders to address gender disparities? This discussion will uncover how strategic, gender-focused partnerships can unlock new opportunities for sustainable growth and positive change in Africa.

Fares Seaidi
GIZ SAIS

Fares Seaidi

GIZ SAIS

Martin Karanja
GSMA

Martin Karanja

GSMA

Martin Karanja is a Director for the GSMA Innovation Fund, a catalytic fund that supports start-ups to scale in Africa and Asia Pacific. Martin oversees the fund which has invested over £26M in 130+ startups that have raised over £660M in follow on funding. Martin joined the GSMA in 2016 as a Senior Manager, Ecosystem Accelerator, a programme whose main focus was to fund start-ups and foster collaboration with mobile Operators across LMICs. Prior to joining the GSMA, Martin worked at Hewlett Packard Enterprises as the Distribution Business Manager for East, West and Southern Africa. He’s also worked at Symantec Corporation as Regional Business Development Manager for East and Francophone Africa. Prior to that Martin worked at Airtel Africa group office as a Group Product Marketing Specialist for VAS across 17 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Martin holds a Masters in Global Business Management and a Bsc. in International Business Administration from United States International University.

Lisa Thomas

Lisa Thomas

Susan Nakami
Village Capital

Susan Nakami

Village Capital

Susan Nakami is a seasoned professional with over 12 years of experience in the entrepreneurship support space across Africa. Passionate about driving sustainable impact, Susan focuses on unlocking access to social and financial capital for founders pioneering innovative solutions in underserved markets. Currently serving as the Regional Lead for Africa at Village Capital, Susan leads initiatives that empower entrepreneurs and entrepreneur support organizations to scale their ventures and address pressing social challenges. In this role, Susan is committed to advancing entrepreneurial ecosystems and promoting inclusive growth across the continent. Before joining Village Capital, she contributed to the growth of Africa's entrepreneurship landscape through roles at Ongoza and the Kenya Climate Innovation Center. At these organizations, she designed and led impactful programs that supported early-stage startups in the climate sector and beyond. As an entrepreneur herself; and with a deep understanding of the unique challenges faced by founders, Susan remains dedicated to helping emerging leaders access the resources they need to drive transformative change. She combines a strong track record of leadership with a deep belief in the power of entrepreneurship as a catalyst for economic and social empowerment.

Stephen Gugu
Viktoria Ventures

Stephen Gugu

Viktoria Ventures

Stephen Gugu is a Co-founder and Director at ViKtoria Ventures a Kenya based consulting company focused on access to finance to early stage companies across Africa. Viktoria achieves its vision of democratizing access to capital for African Startups by designing and executing programs focused on entrepreneurs and angel investors, managing funds, and offering advisory services, which include valuation, due diligence, financial modelling, and deal structuring, among others. Some of the programs Viktoria is involved in include the Research to Commercialization which has impacted over 1,000 innovators in Universities across Africa and the African Angel Academy which has trained over 700 angel investors across the Continent and several others. Viktoria also manages the Viktoria Business Angels Network (VBAN), a sector-agnostic angel network out of Kenya focused on commercially viable early-stage investments from East Africa with traction. Through VBAN, Stephen has made several investments and assisted angel investors access and make investments in over 50 startups. Stephen Gugu is also a founder at InVhestia Africa Limited a financial advisory firm based in Kenya and working with entrepreneurs, investors, governments and development finance institutions across Africa. Under InVhestia he has handled numerous assignments in financial advisory including fundraising, mergers and acquisitions, financial modelling build, audit and training. He is a Venture partner with Consonance Investment Managers a focused early-stage and growth investing platform that helps entrepreneurs build leading companies across Sub-Saharan Africa. Stephen is an adjunct faculty member in Entrepreneurial Finance at Strathmore University Business School. He has taught finance and entrepreneurship related courses for the past 15 years. In this capacity Stephen acts as the academic director for the private equity and venture capital program in the business school. He sits on the board of several companies and startups. His education background consists of an MBA from Vlerick Business School in Belgium an undergraduate degree in Law from the University of Nairobi and several professional courses in Finance and Accounting During his spare time, he enjoys travelling and interacting with different world cultures. He maintains that to travel is not only to discover but most importantly to learn!

18:00

Awards Evening

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Theme: Honoring Excellence in African Early-Stage Investment

The Africa Early Stage Investor Awards is a prestigious initiative aimed at celebrating outstanding achievements within the African early-stage investment ecosystem. This awards event is dedicated to recognizing the visionary investors, pioneering funds, angel networks, and ecosystem enablers who have made exceptional contributions to building and nurturing the continent’s startup landscape.

The AESIS Awards will spotlight the individuals and organizations whose passion, strategic insight, and support have transformed startups into thriving enterprises that stimulate economic growth, create jobs, and empower communities.

Speakers

Ayodele Ogunnoiki

2xGlobal

Africa Early Stage Investor Summit 2025

Nov 27, 2025, 8:30 AM - Nov 28, 2025, 10:39 PM (SAST)

About Event

Why Attend?

Agenda

Day - 01

Opening Cocktail

Day - 02

Early Stage Investor Breakfast

Welcome Keynote

Fadilah Tchoumba

Early Stage Capital Mobilization in Africa for Growth and Impact

Tomi Davis

Founder to Investor Journey

Melvyn Lubega

Guest of Honor Address

Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa

State of the Industry

Dario Giuliani

Nonnie Burbidge

Joel Nana Kontchou

Resilience Tactics

Mike Mompi

Zachariah George

Kevin Simmons

Franziska Reh

Egla Ntumba

Coffee Break

Gender Smart Investing

Eghosa Omoigui

Yemi Keri

Pauline Koelbl

Aly El Shalakany

Capital Providers Dialogue

David Van Dijk

Damilola Thompson

Justin James

Julia Stausberg-Umuerri

Meit Ghandi

Keynote

Lawrence Eta

Lunch

ABAN-DGGF Roundtable: Key Insights from the 2024 Angel Investment Survey

Tomi Davis

Thuli Montana

Alexandra Fraser

Julia Kho

Anthony William Catt

Capital Markets Policy: Updates, Challenges, and the Road Ahead

Elizabeth Howard

Joe Kinvi

Eghosa Omoigui

Oswald Osaretin Guobadia

Pipeline Building

Aly El Shalakany

Martin Warioba

Pedro Bandeira

Yannick Gayama

Olatokunbo Ige

Collaboration and Partnerships

Ben White

Fridah Ntarangwi

Francis Omorojie

Claire Nyambori

Harvest Innovation

Skyline Mixer

Padel and Pizza

Sundowners at Sea

Day - 03

Day Two - Early Stage Investor Breakfast

Day Two - Welcome note

Nicola Tyler

VC4A Venture Showcase: She Wins Africa Edition

Founder Wellness

Emmanuel Adegboye

Coffee Break

GIZ SAIS Portfolio Pitch

Digital Africa Portfolio Pitch

Open Startup Portfolio Pitch

Ennovate Ventures