The Federation of Information Technology, Telecommunications and Offshoring (APEBI) and DEMO Africa have today announced a partnership that will see the two organisations co-host and co-locate their events on the 24th and 25th October at the Sofitel Hotel, Rabat.
APEBI is known for its flagship event, AITEX, which has been running for the last three years in both Casablanca and last year Rabat. DEMO Africa has been running the DEMO Africa startup launchpad conference for the last seven years in different African cities. This conference will be the second edition of DEMO Africa in Morocco.
In the agreement, DEMO Africa and StarTex, the startup initiative at AITEX, will jointly run the startup agenda at the event bringing a total of one hundred digital startups from across Africa onto one platform. The startups will be selected through a rigorous selection process that both DEMO Africa and APEBI have been using for the past years.
“We are excited to partner with DEMO Africa in this year’s initiative, and we are confident that this partnership will produce better impact as we combine and leverage our individual organisational strengths to drive the innovation and investment agenda in the continent,” said Saloua Karkri Belkeziz, the President at APEBI.
APEBI launched the StarTex program during the AITEX event last year with about 50 startups participating and showcasing different technologies to the more than 1.200 attendees. With the partnership with DEMO Africa, the startup program will be increased to include keynote speakers, investor sessions, a talent corner, deal rooms, and product pitches.
“We are always happy to partner with strong, like-minded organisations like APEBI because such partnerships increase the impact of the work that we do,” said Harry Hare, the Founder and Producer of DEMO Africa. “Co-locating all our events at the same venue and the same time provides a critical mass of a C-level audience interested in the development of technology in Africa which we are proud to be a part of,” Hare continued.
After having hosted the first edition last October last year in Casablanca, DEMO Africa has been scouting for high-potential, digital startups from Africa since 2012 and has launched 240 startups which have gone on to raise more than US$65m in investment and billing. A call for applications to launch at DEMO Africa 2019 will be sent out by the end of March.
