The Africa Tech Summit is coming to Lagos on December 6-7! It’s organised by MEST (the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology) which is based in Accra, Ghana. We’ve featured quite a few of the amazing startups that have come out of their 12-month programme and have received funding from the MEST incubator.
They organised the first Africa Tech Summit last year in Accra, and this time round the MEST lot are braving the Jollof rice of Lagos to bring the annual conference to Nigeria. MEST founder Jorn Lyseggen said ‘Lagos in particular is on its way to becoming an influential stage in the global tech space.’ Mark Zuckerberg’s visit this September just confirmed what Lagosians have always thought: they are the best!
The conference is going to gather some big names… including representatives from Google, Uber, Vodacom, Samsung and the BBC, as well as a range of African entrepreneurs from leading companies Iroko and MainOne.
We’re particularly excited by the MEST Demo Day – a new addition – on December 7 where MEST’s top portfolio companies will pitch in front of a range of investors. MEST has just launched a Lagos Incubator, which currently has a portfolio of five startups.
MEST have a great track record for supporting innovative startups by young entrepreneurs. For example, we interviewed Priscilla Hazel, Esther Olatunde and Cassandra Sarfo, the techies behind Tress, a social community mobile app for black women all over the world to find hairstyle inspiration and information about hair. After graduating from MEST, they were accepted to the Y-Combinator fellowship, a eight-week programme that comes with USD$20,000 worth of funding.
To get a ticket find out more here. We’re also giving away press passes for the event if you’re a tech writer who wants to get a chance to report live from the conference for TRUE Africa. Get in touch with us at info@trueafrica.co with some samples of your writing.