Ecosystem Hard Truths: A Strategic Dialogue with Key Tech and Innovation Ecosystem Players, Builders and Investors

Event Overview This is a closed-door, working session designed for people actively shaping the African innovation ecosystem; investors, builders, and institutional actors with real decision-making power. The session confronts a central tension: the gap between capital deployment and ecosystem development. While capital continues to flow into the market, questions remain about founder readiness, deal quality, long-term value creation, and the structural role investors play beyond funding. This is not a showcase or a visibility play. It is a deliberate, high-candour conversation built to surface what is usually edited out of public discourse: • What investors actually experience versus what is publicly stated • Where the ecosystem is structurally underdeveloped • The trade-offs between extraction (returns) and cultivation (ecosystem building) • What needs to change in how capital engages the market The design of the session prioritises participation over performance. Every attendee is expected to contribute, challenge perspectives, and engage directly with opposing views. The outcome is not just insight. The room is structured to drive clear, time-bound commitments from participants on what they will do differently within the ecosystem.