Morocco is set to host the DEMO Africa event over the next two years. This was disclosed by the Silicon Valley based African Technology Foundation (ATF), Managing Partners of the Liberalizing Innovation Opportunity Nations (LIONS@FRICA).
According to Harry Hare, Executive Director of DEMO Africa, “Over the last six years, the DEMO Africa conference has traveled through Eastern, Western, and Southern Africa, and launched leading African technologies while showcasing the continent’s evolving entrepreneurial ecosystems and startups.
“As codified within our conference charter, we are heading to North Africa for the 2018 and 2019 editions of the annual event, and we are excited to announce Morocco as our host country,” he remarked.
According to Lions Africa, DEMO Africa connects African startups to the global ecosystem, and allows the most innovative companies to launch their technology products to diverse audiences filled with innovation stakeholders.
Over the last six editions of DEMO Africa, about 205 African startups have presented their uniquely African technology solutions to much fanfare, and the summit has successfully positioned some of the startups to receive over $50 million (USD) in aggregate funding over the same period. As a precursor to the main event, the DEMO Africa Bootcamp provides African startups with capacity building and training in venture creation, opportunities for connectivity to global innovation grids, access to capital, opportunities for further partnership expansion, and promoting best practices and successes in African-led innovation solutions.
“We are quite thrilled to witness the incremental progress around the North African entrepreneurial ecosystem, particularly Morocco, and we are quite grateful for the support of some remarkable local partners to ensure that the next two editions of DEMO Africa do an effective job of globalizing the regional ecosystem” commented Stephen Ozoigbo, Managing Partner of the Lions@frica initiative.
“Hosting DEMO Africa in Morocco will also give us the opportunity to engage with francophone startups across the continent and bridge the language barriers that previously affected our engagement with a significant number of startups.”
