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Massachusetts Institute of Technology Legatum center for development & entrepreneurship

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OMA @ MIT

Open Mic Africa @ MIT (OMA@MIT) is a conversational series about Africa’s rising innovation sector featuring tech entrepreneurs from the continent. This interactive, five-part program runs from February to May and will draw on guest CEOs, founders, and industry leads to delve into core facets of Africa’s innovation landscape. Topics will include financial inclusion, supply chain logistics, startup VC funding, and African e-commerce on and off the continent.

OMA@MIT serves as the on-campus companion to the Open Mic Africa tour—a cross-continent series organized by the Legatum Center to discover and support local entrepreneurs tackling Africa’s greatest challenges. OMA@MIT circles back to campus to provide students and community members with opportunities to engage with entrepreneurs who are leading Africa’s innovation revolution.

 

More on OMA@MIT

Each 90-minute session opens with a look at key trends, hurdles, and opportunities in African tech, setting the stage for an in-depth moderated discussion with the guest. To connect innovation in Africa with work being done at MIT, selected students and researchers then have a chance to share a snapshot of their current work.

OMA@MIT will also feature a session at MIT’s 2019 Africa Innovate Conference in April. Co-producing the series are MIT Legatum acting director Megan Mitchell, faculty advisor Anjali Sastry and The Next Africa author and TechCrunch contributing writer Jake Bright, who joins Legatum as an Innovation Lead for spring term 2019.  

 

Past Events

Entry Points for Investment in Africa’s Tech Landscape

Jake Bright, Techcrunch contributor, will be on campus to moderate a conversation with Marieme Diop, venture capital investor at Orange Digital Ventures.

Venture capital and non-equity funding of African tech ventures has more than tripled over the last decade. What is the state of funding in Africa? Who’s investing? How can founders access capital? What’s unique about the startup investment model for Africa’s tech ecosystem?

A networking session will follow the conversation.

Appetizers will be available.

Please RSVP for this free event.

Two-Page Briefing on Tech Investment in Africa & VC Marieme Diop

 

The Connectivity and the Digitization Gap

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

5:30 – 7:30 PM

Internet is the baseline for startup ecosystems and despite recent gains, Africa remains last in nearly all global metrics for digital connectivity. How does Africa bridge the connectivity gap for its people and its startups? Jake Bright, a TechCrunch contributor, will moderate a conversation with Oswald Jumira, Head of Innovation Partnerships at Liquid Telecom.

A networking session will follow the conversation.

Location – E52-164, Sophie & Morris Chang Building, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA

For more on Open Mic Africa click here

 

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