Grace Ashiru
More than 45 startup founders representing 15 African countries have begun to touch down in Paris, France, for Viva AfricArena. Commencing on Tuesday 14 June, the techpreneurs will participate in various pitch battles to attract European investment.
Bio from Cote D’Ivoire, Fcb.ai from South Africa and Yobante Express from Senegal are some of the hand-picked startups that are expanding from Africa to Europe. The African exhibition will be displayed before Vivatech, one of the biggest conferences for new businesses in Europe.
Station F, which is in the 13th arrondissement of Paris and is known as the world’s largest startup building, is where both Viva AfricArena and Vivatech will be held. Station F helps entrepreneurs grow by partnering with companies like Microsoft, Ubisoft, Zendesk and Google. It also has 3000 desks and private meeting rooms.
Christophe Viarnaud, the founder and CEO of AfricArena and an early-stage investor, will begin the event. Keet van Zyl, a venture capitalist and co-founder of KnifeCap, will give the keynote speech about the state of tech in Africa. Nick Bjorklund, an expert on pitches and public speaking, will be the master of ceremonies.
Some of Africa’s best technopreneurs have been rehearsing their pitches for weeks, preparing for the high-energy day of making deals and networks.
Yobante Express co-founder and CEO Oumar Basse say, “We want to add additional relay points in Europe and work with investors and partners so that the Africans in the diaspora can send packages from Europe to Africa and back.” Yobante express startup links local couriers with businesses to improve cross-border, last-mile and domestic delivery in emerging markets.
For Viva AfricArena, investors and incubators will compete with startups in financial technology, emerging markets, and sustainability.
Separate pitch competitions will be held at Viva AfricArena for start-ups in the fields of fintech, sustainability and emerging markets. Investors and incubators will also participate in these competitions.
Even though techpreneurs from all over the continent are coming to the event, Ventureburn knows that South Africa will be well represented with 10 entrepreneurs in Paris. Wandile Khumalo of Sykes, a health tech startup that offers virtual private counselling, and Joshua Fillmore of Strove, an all-in-one wellness app, are among these people.
TROTRO Tractor, an agricultural tech startup from Ghana, is on the list of impressive businesses to keep an eye on. Ariela Technologies is a hot IT services startup in Tunisia. Kenyans will follow Stima Boda’s progress, which offers charging services so that moto-taxi drivers can start driving electric motorcycles.
