Midweek Check-In: Innovation Events You Have To Be At In 2025⚠️
seriously 😐don't sleep on these events!
Maberi, Dear Innovator 👋
Who else feels like January was only last week and now December is side-eyeing 👀 us from the corner? 😮💨
WELL, Well, well…
We’ve officially slid into the last quarter of 2025 and the African innovation scene is STACKED with events that you’ll 🫵 want on your radar before the year runs out.
Whether you’ll be attending ‘em to scout for investors, hunting for collabs, or just feeding your need to know (not judging, btw) these gatherings are where the ideas will be sizzling! 🥵🔥
Scroll 👇 to da good stuff
Nigeria Fintech Week
📅 Oct 7 – 9, 2025 | Lagos
It’s the big league for anyone building or funding digital finance. Expect hot product drops, spicy regulation debates 🥵 and enough networking opportunities.
GITEX Global
📅 Oct 13 – 17, 2025 | Dubai
Not on African soil but an absolute magnet for founders chasing global deals 💼 and cross-border capital. Pack your pitch deck and a power bank 😉You’ll need both!
Moonshot by TechCabal
📅 Oct 15 - 16, 2025 | Lagos
It’s called Africa’s innovation playground for a reason! 💪
Hear from over 120 speakers, explore 9 content tracks, and get face-time with investors, creators, and big thinkers. This isn’t just networking—it’s momentum.
Digital Africa Conference & Exhibition
📅 Oct 28 – 29, 2025 | Abuja
This year’s theme is ‘Sovereign Intelligence—Africa’s Voice in the Global AI Order’. If AI governance makes your heart go gbish-gbish (in a good way 😉), this is your kinda room.
🌍Africa Tech Festival
📅 Nov 10 – 13, 2025 | Cape Town
ATF is Africa’s mega-tent for all things tech. We’re talking telecoms, climate, fintech, AI, deep-tech, you name it! It’s definitely worth the flight ticket ✈️
Africa Startup Festival
📅 Oct 30 in Nairobi | Nov 28 in Lagos
On the down low, people call it the end-of-year deal-making-centre (shhh, no loud am 🤫). Just bring your A-game and a stack of business cards with the ink still fresh!
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Dear Innovator, check the dates, secure your passes, and plan your Q4 glow-up! The right room before the year ends might just set your 2026 on fire.
Where are you heading first? 👀
Tech Ecosystem Updates
In its Top 25 African Startups to Watch 2025, Bloomberg highlighted 4 African startups to keep an eye out for this year, and they are all in fintech.
Per speculations, these names may hint at which sub‐niches are getting investors’ interests.
Click the headline for the deets! 😉
Big moves brewing in East Africa! 👀🌱
MazaoHub has locked in $2M pre-seed to take its AI-powered farming tools beyond Tanzania and into the rest of Africa. Click the headline for the full deets!
Past Publication: Old But Gold
It’s no secret, Africa has been coming up short in the global AI race and sadly 😢, we might continue to do so if something is not done FAST!
👉 Read the full newsletter here 👈
Build the Future with GETAccelerated (Cohort 4)!
The GETAccelerated Program by Grooming Endowment Trust has already helped 30+ African startups raise funding, build partnerships, and scale solutions that change lives.
Now, Cohort 4 is all about AI-powered startups ready to drive real impact in Nigeria.
Over 16 weeks, selected founders will:
💡 Join a 3-day bootcamp & hackathon to shape AI-driven impact cases
🤝 Access 12 weeks of mentorship & digital acceleration
💸 Receive ₦1M non-equity funding each, with a chance to win ₦9M more at Demo Day
🌍 Plug into ecosystem support, partnerships, and post-program opportunities
If you’re an early-stage Nigerian startup (6 months–3 years old) building in health, education, fintech, agriculture, climate, MSMEs or trade—this is your chance to scale sustainably and create lasting impact.
👉 Click here to get started! 👈
You can also check them out on LinkedIn, X and IG for more info.
The Innovator’s Watchlist
Dear Innovator, these picks are both juicy and inspiring. It’s purrrrrfect for a weekend watch, or, if you wanna start early 😉, a quick break during the public holiday!
This thought-provoking psychological sci-fi film is about AI, power, and what it really means to “create” consciousness. It follows a programmer who has been invited to evaluate an advanced humanoid AI 🤖
Hosted by Samantha Murphy Kelly, this podcast digs into emerging tech & disruptive developments across sectors. It’s great if you want to stay ahead of what might be the next big thing 😍
Tech News Pour Toi!
(somebody’s been learning a new language😁)
MTN is set to help build African language AI models by supporting local data collection
Did you know? 🗣️ Nigeria’s telecom sector hit ₦15.02T in H1 2025. See the deets here
Scientists have built the world’s first rechargeable hydride ion battery.
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Alsooooo, Happy New Month!!! ✨✨
