Digital Africa: inclusive development through innovations
‘made in Africa’
copyright Social Inclusive Business Camp, Campus AFD, décembre 2019
MISSION
Driving innovative entrepreneurship across Africa.
Our mission is to equip Africa’s tech entrepreneurs with the capabilities to design and scale-up groundbreaking innovations for the real economy.
WHAT WE DO
We develop expertise, create knowledge-based communities, provide technical assistance, finance projects and businesses, ease market access and the creation of a regulatory environment that supports African innovation.
We use these drivers to nurture innovative projects and help them grow into successful initiatives that can transform the everyday lives of African people and boost the international competitiveness of Africa’s digital industries.
Our approach is based on a detailed analysis of the needs of entrepreneurs, using the data we have gathered from the field to organize our programs around 3 key points:
Supporting high-impact digital startups
Fundraising and sourcing finance to scale-up Africa’s tech innovations
Advocating policies that will drive digital entrepreneurship across Africa
ABOUT DIGITAL AFRICA
Digital Africa brings together a multinational community of partners who support Africa’s digital entrepreneurs – incubators, financial institutions, venture capitalists and tech clusters. The French Development Agency (AFD) was the driving force behind the creation of Digital Africa and continues to be a major partner.
As a super-aggregator of data, capacities, and opportunities, we have a unique ability to intensify entrepreneur financing, training, support and promotional activities.
OUR BELIEFS
To build efficient programs that reflect our mission, we believe in a collaborative approach, pooling our resources and creating commons with those of our partners and innovative African entrepreneurs themselves.
Open digital innovation
A new world is emerging out of Africa and it is digital innovation that is driving this positive change. An open, collaborative approach is a powerful way to magnify the impact of every solution.Co-development & economic growth
A strong Africa is an asset for the future and the partner of choice for regions worldwide. Promoting African solutions, Digital Africa is the bridge connecting Africa to global value chains. We support the talents of Africa’s digital startups – today and tomorrow.Digital transformation at the service of the real economy
The digital transformation must be inclusive and effect positive change on a social, environmental, and economic level. That’s why we are focusing our activities on the key sectors that will drive African development.Key Figures
Financing assembled by the French Development Agency (AFD) to ensure innovative companies receive support during every phase of their development: 55 million Euros to cover early-stage startup development, as well as incubators and seed funding, 70 million for venture capital for Series A to C funding, and 5 million in bridge funding to support startups impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Digital Africa brings together a community of partners in Africa’s tech ecosystem. This alliance of committed partners has led to the emergence of a highly effective and collaborative ecosystem supporting Africa’s innovative entrepreneurs.
Paris, Dakar and Johannesburg are the foundation for rolling-out a network of offices and connectors across Africa. The connectors will be selected for the quality of their fieldwork within Africa’s tech ecosystem, their ability to support our programs and promote open innovation.
For the Digital Africa Campus training program from the Resilient Summer School held in summer 2020.
A community of around 6 000 African entrepreneurs who follow us and with whom we interact via our various tools and platforms.
Short story
2018
THE BIRTH OF A KEY INITIATIVE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF AFRICA’S INNOVATIVE STARTUPS
The Digital Africa initiative was driven by French President, Emmanuel Macron. He was determined to lay the foundations for a new relationship between Africa and its international partners through co-development that would support Africa’s active entrepreneurship. Digital Africa fosters the talents of Africa’s digital startups – today and tomorrow.
2019
THE FEDERATION OF AFRICAN DIGITAL ECOSYSTEMS
Digital Africa used a range of promotional activities to help put digital entrepreneurship at the heart of development programs. It federates numerous partnerships with a wide variety of players to help entrepreneurs find appropriate solutions. This phase of the initiative also enabled us to analyze the needs of digital entrepreneurs and ecosystems and to determine what tools African entrepreneurs will need throughout their development.
2020
PROGRAM LAUNCHES
Digital Africa has launched a series of programs, Africa Next, Data 4 Digital Africa and Digital Africa Campus, resilient.digital-africa.co.
Part of the original initiative, these pilot schemes were fast-tracked into action in response to the economic crisis resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. They now form the basis for an ambitious framework of programs and the roadmap for the next 3 years.
OUR FOUNDER MEMBERS
AFD is the leading actor behind France’s development policy. AFD is involved in creating a common world, safer, fairer and…
AfriLabs was founded in 2011 to build a community around tech hubs – innovation spaces that serve as meeting points and communities…
Bond’innov is an incubator for projects which support innovation with a high economic and societal impact.
CFI projects French development assistance policy though the media of the global south, on behalf of the French Ministry of Europe…
Digital Observer 4 Africa is the leading platform to identify digital projects and open datasets in Africa.
Created in 2000 by a team of entrepreneurs and experts, Fing is a leading think-tank specialising on digital transformations.
The Global Entrepreneurship Network is a platform of programs and initiatives for a global entrepreneurial…
An independent non-profit organization, JOKKOLABS is an ecosystem of open innovation based on a community of entrepreneurs and an innovation center network…
La Fabrique connects actors and projects across Africa, capitalising on feedback, and creates an operational common ‘culture’ of…
The association focuses on creating a community to enhance the agricultural sector through innovation, while bringing consumers and farmers together through digital tech…
