AfricArena announces speaker A-list for North Africa summit

The chief executive of Open Start-up Tunisia, Dr Houda Ghozzi, and Breega founder Ben Marrel are among the A-list speakers confirmed for AfricArena’s upcoming North Africa summit.

Ghozzi, who is also a researcher in Tunisia and France, launched Open Start-up Tunisia in partnership with Columbia University. The pre-incubator has already trained 220 high-potential students and 120 mentors while creating 14 impact ventures. The initiative is said to have strengthened the Tunisian entrepreneurial ecosystem and facilitated students’ employability within the country’s start-ups.

Hosted from 30 to 31 August in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, more than 20 founders of African start-ups in the region will deliver investment pitches that can accelerate their business’ growth. The summit is held in partnership with the GIZ, Expertise France and Smart Capital.

GIZ is an international enterprise owned by the German government while Expertise France is the French international technical cooperation agency. Smart Capital, a management company approved by the Financial Markets Council, invests in innovative Tunisian SMEs.

Organisers say besides the start-up pitches, AfricArena’s two-day summit will also feature top speakers and panel discussions featuring A-list ecosystem thought leaders. This includes some North Africa’s finest business, tech and investment experts.

Besides Ghozzi, AfricArena has also confirmed the participation of Ben Marrel, founder and chief executive of Breega, a European venture capital fund designed to finance start-ups in the digital economy. Breega is known as a fast-growing VC specialised in financing tech start-ups from ore-seed to series B stage.

Other top speakers include Zach George and Mohamed Karar, both from Launch Africa Ventures. Besides being managing partner, George is also the co-founder and chief investment Officer of Startupbootcamp Africa, the leading multi-corporate backed venture accelerator program in Africa.

Start-ups are urged to register online as a series of virtual pitching sessions are set to commence in August already. Successful start-ups will then go through to the Tunisia summit to showcase their innovative tech and business solutions. Delegate tickets are also currently on sale.

AfricArena VC Unconference

“We are extremely excited to hold an exciting week of events starting with the AfricArena VC Unconference followed by the AfricArena North Africa Summit, which is going to assemble investors from the different corners of the region,” says Christophe Viarnaud, the founder of AfricArena and chief executive of technology firm Methys.

Two days before the Tunisia summit, selected start-ups will also be invited to take part in a day-long bootcamp facilitated by Start-up Village, a community of start-ups and network partners with a focus on AI and Quantum, and The Dot, Tunisia’s leading hub for digital innovation and entrepreneurs.

Also, parallel to the founders bootcamp will be the much anticipated, invite-only North Africa Investor Unconference. This is where Africa-focused start-up investors and venture capitalists will take part in discussions and workshops centred around co-investing and how to ease the process in investing in tech start-ups on the continent. Between 20 to 30 investors are expected to attend.

AfricArena is a leading African tech ecosystem accelerator. Through a series of online and offline events, it accelerates the growth of tech start-ups and the ecosystems in which they operate by providing a platform where they can share their business models, gain valuable networks and attain funding.

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