Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) has announced the third MEST Africa Summit, which will take place in Cape Town, South Africa, from 18-20 June 2018
Formerly known as the Africa Tech Summit, this year’s event will go Pan-African, bringing together top entrepreneurs, investors and executives from Africa, Silicon Valley and Europe, to discuss trends, challenges and opportunities affecting markets across the continent.
The theme of this year’s summit will be ‘The Year of the African Scaleup?’
MEST is also announcing the MEST Africa Challenge, a Pan-African pitch competition that will be held on the second day of the summit and will include winners from each city’s regional event, which will be held in late April and early May.
Aaron Fu, MEST managing director, said, “The MEST Africa Summit serves as a meeting ground for Pan-African entrepreneurs, investors and ecosystem partners, and this year looks to ignite discussion around the real challenges and opportunities businesses face when reaching scale, as the startup space in Africa continues to mature.”
Panel discussions during the Summit will feature expertise from leading African entrepreneurs, investors and executives, and will highlight those companies looking to scale to new African markets and the partners who can help them succeed. Topics include a debate over the best African country to start a business; a discussion of the latest fintech, agritech and blockchain innovations, why women code better, and more.
MEST entrepreneurs have developed solutions addressing local and global markets, received outside follow-on funding from global investors, and have gained admittance to top accelerator programs such as Y-Combinator, 500 Startups and TechStars.
