Investor Breakfast: Opportunities in Africa's AI Education Boom
Join us for a breakfast bringing together investors, founders, and ecosystem leaders exploring opportunities in Africa’s AI education.
In recent years, Africa has emerged as the world’s testing ground for AI in education.
Across the continent, startups, governments, and Big Tech are deploying AI solutions, from voice tools for dialects to offline-capable learning systems.
These innovations are helping close critical education gaps for millions of students while building the next generation of digital talent.
For investors, Africa’s EdTech ecosystem is rapidly becoming one of the most important frontiers for scalable AI deployment, where innovation is shaped in markets that demand affordability, accessibility, and impact at scale.
The breakfast will bring together VCs, family offices, technology companies, philanthropies, and ecosystem builders looking to invest in and shape the next generation of education across Africa.
Topics we will explore include:
Closing the world's AI skills and workforce gap
Investment opportunities in digital and AI infrastructure
Measuring real learning outcomes from AI deployment
Building scalable operational systems for digital education
Big Tech case studies: How Microsoft and Intel are rolling out large-scale AI initiatives across multiple African countries.
The next wave of AI-native education startups emerging across Africa
Our speakers:
Richard Osei-Anim, Founder and CEO, Coral Reef Innovation Africa, Lead AI Advisor across African education systems.
Richard works at the intersection of technology, education, and institutional transformation. A Mastercard EdTech Fellow, Richard has built and scaled a pan-African education and innovation platform delivering AI-ready Smart Labs, digital skills programs, and talent pipelines serving underserved communities. His work brings together governments, multinational firms, foundations, and universities to develop Education 4.0 initiatives integrating AI, coding, robotics, financial literacy, and entrepreneurship.
Mike Spaeth, Global Vice President, the United States Artificial Intelligence Institute (USAII®)
Mike Spaeth is an AI and public policy expert with 20+ years of experience scaling transformative technologies. As Global VP at the USAII, he leads global strategy, partnerships, and AI workforce development, advancing certification and training programs. Previously, he was Global Director of Generative AI at EarthDaily, collaborating with Microsoft, Google, and IBM. He also held executive roles at IBM, Moody’s, and AI startups, contributing to Watson and WatsonX go-to-market initiatives.
Moderator:
Jasmine Sandler, Founder & CEO, JSMedia
As a keynote speaker, corporate trainer and moderator, Jasmine Sandler has led over 500 talks and panels at some of the most exclusive executive conferences. She also hosts a female executive leadership podcast and event series at Warrior Women in Business, a platform for female executives. Through her agency JSMedia, Jasmine supports international clients with market expansion and executive branding.
Agenda:
9.00 am - 9.30 am Registration & Networking
9.30 am - 10.30 am Discussion Panel
10.30 am - 11.30 am Networking
SPONSORED BY:
About the organizers:
Coral Reef Innovation Africa designs, deploys, and sustains scalable AI and digital education infrastructure that strengthens school systems across the continent. We build operational systems that enable teachers to deliver technology education and allow institutions to measure outcomes.
The Vertical is the pioneering online publication that informs and educates the diverse community of international tech founders who are driving innovation in the U.S. Our mission is to empower international entrepreneurs by providing expert insights that address their unique challenges.
JSMedia is an executive branding and digital marketing consultancy. The woman-led agency helps international executives build bridges of influence across continents through organic content, social campaigns, marketing, sales materials, websites, microsite experiences, and more.
AfricaTech is a community of founders, investors, and builders for Africa in New York.