Built in Africa Garage - A Startup Showcase
For this edition, we're bringing our Venture Showcase to Nairobi to celebrate the innovation, ambition, and resilience of African founders building businesses that solve real problems and create lasting impact across the continent.
This isn't a big, loose conference. We're keeping the room intimate and the day tightly curated, so every conversation, every pitch, and every connection actually earns its place. Expect fewer, higher-signal moments over a day built to be genuinely useful to the people in the room, not just another event to check off.
Why Nairobi?
Nairobi didn't earn the name Silicon Savannah by accident. It's home to one of Africa's deepest benches of founders, investors, and builders, anchored by a mobile money infrastructure that reshaped financial access for the whole continent and a hub network, from iHub to Nairobi Garage to Nailab, that's been turning ideas into ventures for over a decade. Kenya has led Africa in startup funding two years running, and the energy on the ground matches the numbers: this is a city proving, again and again, that world-class ventures can be built from Africa for Africa, and for the world.
It's the right room to put our venture portfolio's progress on a real stage.
What to expect
We're bringing together ventures from the African Impact Challenge ecosystem for a day built around substance over spectacle:
Keynotes from critical voices — legacy founders, current builders, and the sharpest minds in the ecosystem, sharing perspectives on innovation, technology, and what it actually takes to build in Africa.
Founder-led conversations — fluff-free, pre-curated discussions on building and scaling across health, climate, agriculture, and digital innovation. No filler, no open-mic; every conversation is shaped in advance to go somewhere.
AII Impact Updates — a look at how our programs are supporting African founders, where our ventures stand today, and what's next to accelerate innovation across the continent.
Venture Showcase & Pitches — an inside look at ventures solving real problems and building sustainable, measurable impact, on the exhibition floor and on stage.
Networking that clicks — real time built in for the conversations that turn into partnerships, capital, and collaborations, not just business cards.
Who should come?
Startup founders, investors looking for the next generation of African ventures, ecosystem builders, innovators tackling hard problems, operators who understand what scaling actually takes, and anyone invested in Africa's innovation story as it goes global.
Come find out what Nairobi's building. We can't wait to welcome you.