#Africa4Future comes to a close at the Paris Air Show
The 6-month accelerator rounded out its final leg in Paris last week, as 10 participating African startups pitched on stage at the Paris Air Lab
The 10 startups in Airbus Bizlab and GIZ Make-IT in Africa’s #Africa4Future accelerator programme lived an aerospace founder’s dream last week, as they got to stand onstage and pitch their businesses at the Paris Air Lab, as part of the annual Paris Air Show — the world’s largest gathering of aviation innovation.
After 6 months of workshops and programmes across Africa and Europe, intense mentorship, cross-border collaboration, growth and more, the #Africa4Future programme came to a close in Paris. Flying in from 7 African nations, the founders had the opportunity to pitch their businesses twice in the French capital — and ample networking opportunities during the biggest week in aviation.
Events in Paris kicked off with an evening panel and pitch night held at The Family, where Rey Buckman of Airbus Bizlab and Matthias Rehfield of GIZ were joined by Simon Duchatelet of The World Bank and Soumeya Rachedi of Digital Africa to discuss the role of corporate and international institutions in strengthening African entrepreneurship.
The next day, Airbus CTO Grazia Vittadini introduced the #Africa4Future programme at the Paris Air Lab stage. Founders had the opportunity to pitch their businesses and answer questions from a curious, international audience keen to hear about innovations coming out of Africa.
Following the events, the founders took a step back during a team debrief to reflect on how they have changed over the course of the last 6 months. From major shifts in some business models, to significant technological developments, to new partnerships and cross-border collaborations, the teams pulled up their initial ‘diagnoses’ from their first workshop in Nairobi and reflected on what had changed. Personal and company growth saw incredible strides.
This programme was the first of its kind — a Public Private Partnership between Airbus Bizlab and GIZ Make-IT in Africa, implemented by MEST and Innocircle. It brought the expertise of an industry leader like Airbus, combined with government support from GIZ and local partners well versed in the African tech landscape. Its success has not only proven that promising hardware and software aerospace startups are prevalent on the continent, but has contributed to cross-collaborations that are setting the stage for a stronger aerospace ecosystem in Africa.
Congratulations to all the startups and we look forward to following your progress in the future!
See a recap from our Cape Town and Nairobi events here, and stay tuned for a case study covering the programme in detail.
