Africa Tech Summit and industry leaders from across the continent opened trading on the London Stock Exchange to celebrate the fourth annual Summit held in London.
The Summit, part of London Tech Week, convened 300 African tech leaders, investors, corporates and key stakeholders to drive investment and business forward, while also supporting the next generation of African innovators who pitched at the event. The year’s Summit was supported by Facebook, Yego Moto, The Baobab Network and Founders Factory Africa.
“We are delighted to be at the London Stock Exchange to celebrate the start of Africa Tech Summit London and open the market with industry leaders from across the continent. African tech is growing up fast, investment is increasing rapidly, and flotations are now happening in a very short space of time. We are excited for the future, which will see more African founded tech companies listed, expanding globally and reinvesting in the next generation of African innovators” shared Andrew Fassnidge, founder of Africa Tech Summit.
Tomi Davies, Co-founder of the Lagos Angel Network (LAN) and President of the African Business Angel Network (ABAN) shared, “in this first half of 2019 aside from the well-publicised Jumia IPO we’ve had impressive investment rounds happening across all tech enabled sectors from Fintech and Agritech to off-grid Solar. Depending on who you believe, African start-ups raised anywhere from $760 million to $1.2 billion last year. This means we can expect higher standards, bigger cheques and much tougher due diligence as we go along.”
After opening the market, delegates moved to Africa Tech Summit London which covered a range of topics including Mobile Financial Services; Investment; Blockchain; Digital; Payments and Lending; Scaling and Exits; Mobility; Tech For Good and Women In Tech roundtable. The Africa Tech Summit series provides insight and networking with the African tech ecosystem globally, with the flagship Africa Tech Summit Kigali returning to Rwanda on February 4th to 6th 2020.
