AfriKonnect Summit to bring African startups and corporates together on one stage in Casablanca

AfriKonnect Summit is the latest addition to Africa’s vibrant startup scene. Two of the largest ecosystem players of Moroccan tech scene, StartupYourLife and LaFactory have come together to organize the two-day event on March 22-23 that aims to engage startups with corporations.

The event is being organized in partnership with Outlierz Ventures, a Casablanca-based seed fund that invests in tech startups in Africa, and with the support of U.S. Department of State’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI).

It’s an invite-only event that is gathering 200 key decision makers, government representatives, startups founders, and investors from across the continent and global institutions.

The summit will host talks and sessions by some high-profile speakers of the region including Khaled Talhouni, Wamda Capital’s Managing Partner, the Global Innovation Cataylyst Kamran Elahian, Aaron Fu, Managing Director of MEST, the largest incubator of Arica with operations in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya, Marième Diop, Investment Manager at Orange Digital Ventures, Niama El Bassunie, the co-founder and CEO of YC-backed WaystoCap, and Shola Akinlade, the co-founder and CEO of Paystack, a Nigerian payments startup that has raised $1.5 million in funding until now.

The sessions will be across six tracks; fintech and blockchain, agritech, transportation, healthtech, investment and venture capital, legal and regulations.

AfriKonnect will also host some exclusive B2B matchmaking meetings, facilitated by Outlierz Ventures, to enable decision makers from large organizations to meet pre-selected African startups that could potentially be a great fit to offer value to these organizations.

Kenza Lahlou, Managing Partner of Outlierz Ventures and co-founder of StartupYourLife, speaking about the event said, “We are excited to announce the first Afrikonnect Summit. The African continent is undergoing a tech revolution and new business models are redefining the traditional sectors. It is now time for startups and large corporations to work together to co-innovate, reveal the future success stories of the continent while providing to large companiesthe agility and the expertise startups have to reinvent themselves and disrupt their own industries”.

Mehdi Alaoui, founder of LaFactory, also shared his thoughts, saying, “I’m proud to be part of the
Afrikonnect adventure. The whole LaFactory team is very happy to be a partner of this first summit which, I am
sure, will become a must-attend event. At the time of open innovation and the great flight of digital Africa, it
was more than opportune to create a platform to connect ecosystems, engage major groups and embrace
Africa.”

The summit will be held at LaFactory, Technopark Casablanca. You can learn more about it and read full agenda here.