DFP at the First AfricArena North Africa Summit held in Tunis, Tunisia. The two-day event (30th and 31st August 2022) featured three focus areas of interest and connectivity: Startups, Investors, and Venture Capitals (VCs). 

The AfricArena North Africa Summit was held in Tunis, Tunisia, and for the second time ever in the Country. The two-day event (30th and 31st August 2022) featured three focus areas of interest and connectivity: Startups, Investors, and Venture Capitals (VCs). 

With major objectives of supporting entrepreneurs; contributing to the North Africa Tech Ecosystem; connecting founders to market flow opportunities and access to capital; granting credits and benefits for startups via partnership; opening grounds for open-opportunity cooperates and to also select entries for the general summit in Cape Town, South Africa, the Conference featured real-time startups pitching from over 25 startups operating in Africa, and within the Seed stage, Series A and Growth stage. Startups were given the platform to showcase their capacities and innovative enthusiasm in various challenges to an audience of key local ecosystems including investors, cooperate bodies, venture capitalists, etc. 

Also, keynotes and discussions from the top and well-recognized minds in business, tech, and investment on the Continent were engaged to actualize the very objectives. For instance, Mr. Khaled Ben Jilani, Senior Partner, AfricInvest, in his keynote on “The State of Tech in Africa in North Africa vs the rest of Africa” gave an elaborate insight into the VC Funding in Africa with regards nature of growth within the latest five years as well as notable information needed by these startups to grow, easier and exponentially. Subsequently, a lunch and networking session was cut out to enable investors, founders, and members of the crowd mix-up, to get to know themselves in person and in a closer range, thereby smoothing the process of connectivity. 

In the same vein, a Panel session that engaged, bright minds in the Startup, Tech industries; emphasizing the intricacies of investment and the core technicalities involved was part of the program as well. It was indeed a pleasure to see Yannick Gayama and Kohei Muto from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) share the stage with Sachiko Hara, Nao Fuwa, and Naoki Uozawa, as well as the incredible panelists: Astria Fataki from the UNDP, Abigail Thomson from the FMO, a Dutch bank for entrepreneurship, Philip Kiracofe from Startup bootcamp, Houda Ghozzi from Open Startup. 

On the other hand, the influence of Double Feather Partners (DFP) on the success of the event cannot be overemphasized. With our vast interest and deep involvement in the African Ecosystem, we as front liners have readily stretched our tentacles and stamped our feet via supporting and carrying out Acceleration Programs as these. Our Africa Innovation Fund truly resonates with the vision and values of the Conference. Finally, on the Second day, and at the end of the event, every startup present was gifted 10,000 USD in AWS credits as additional business services to accelerate, build and scale their products using the AWS technology. Similarly, very few other companies (startups) were singled out for special awards in the Most Innovative Business, Best Seed Startup, and Most Promising Startup categories. 

The North African Start-up Ecosystem is full of life, and brilliant minds, and will continue to gradually mesh with those from Sub-Saharan Africa as long as we keep staying curious about each other. Thank you for these special moments – we look forward to staying connected and following everyone’s adventures!