Unveil Africa, a bi-annual event for identifying and connecting top African startups to angel investors and VC’s founded by Aneesah L. Serrano, in charge of Partner Relations, Donnie Nkelue, a Media Coordinator, Valeria Kallhoff as Event Supervisor and Bede Okoro as a Coordinating Officer, aims to be the continent’s first indigenous startup accelerator with a difference.
Unveil Africa wants to identify and filter out tech entrepreneurs with problem-solving, game-changing and future-shaping technological start-ups, and unveil them and their products to the watching eyes of hundreds of angel investors, venture capitalists, representatives of tech-driven firms and industry enthusiasts who have the right financial capability and networks. Out of the top 40+ startups chosen, the winner will walk home with $10,000 cash prize (no equity).
In an email statement to TechMoran, Bede Okoro, Unveil Africa’s Coordinating Officer says, “Half of the 20 fastest-growing economies in the world are in Africa. Never before has the continent been so open for business. But according to a recent research, investors, partners and entrepreneurs struggle to find each other to do deals.”
“It is also the most apt place to build business-relevant networks and meet face to face with industry experts, IT professionals, corporate high-flyers and many other tech builders with tomorrow’s technology in their hands,” Okoro adds.
Unveil Africa has a simple plan.
To unveil Africa’s emerging technology and trends to the right investors thereby solve local problems, create jobs and make profits for them.
Sort of a VC4Africa but offline, Unveil Africa aims to be a platform for individual investors and technology-driven firms to connect with disruptive startups as they break, for funding or partnerships.
Unveil Africa is in the business of identifying them and eventually unveiling them to a bigger audience.
The team says Africa for its tremendous growth.
“Being the second-most-populated continent, with around 1 billion people, has in the last couple of years experienced a tremendous increase in the use of the internet, mobile phones and other tech devices. This has undoubtedly created an expanse of need for locally fabricated mobile, web and software applications. And the demand has continued to rise.”
The continent’s major telecoms and phone manufacturing companies plus banks among others, also have a growing interest in new technologies to help them solve their own and their customers problems. Apart from that, the increasing uptake of ecommerce, mobile money and entertainment-oriented startups in Africa are booming and hoping to make a cut by the end of the day.
It’s this thousands of potentially marketable innovative tech solutions out there that Unveil Africa aim to identify and connect to investors, first in Nigeria around May for some $10,000 for the top prize, then across the continent.
