Event reports
On 2 and 3 October 2018, the first afric'Up Africa Startup Summit took place in the Tunisian capital. During the two-day conference supported by the KAS Regional Program South Mediterranean, African and international invitees, from experienced start-uppers to young entrepreneurs, from mentors and investors to digital experts, shared their visions, ideas and innovative business models with each other.
Throughout the summit, African start-up representatives had the opportunity to pitch their ideas in front of invited investors and veteran entrepreneurs of the African digital industry and abroad. Selected startups were supervised by a committee of experts in order to prepare their pitches and were granted access to private side-events gathering key actors of the African digital transformation scene. Other parts of the summit provided a discussion formats on issues relating to the startup ecosystem with senior experts, CEOs, and officials from Tunisian and African governments.
Covering issues such as cybersecurity, smart cities, digital laws as well as cryptocurrencies, the panel discussions during the conference addressed a broad scale of themes concerning Africa and its digital future. The afric’Up Africa Startup Summit constituted a unique opportunity for Tunisia to re-inforce the country’s commitment to establish itself as a significant technology hub in Africa, and to showcase the potential of a creative youth on which the country needs to draw.