The Tour of Tech 2016 took place from November 15-20 and included events such as the High Growth Africa Summit Speakers’ Dinner, 500 Startups Investors Dinner, GitHub meetups with the Lagos developers’ community and Fashion + Tech: A Night With Pioneers. Yvonne Wassenaar, CIO of New Relic (NYSE: NEWR), Grieg Coppe, CSO of Intuit, Monique Woodard, partner of 500 Startups, five GitHub employees, and a cohort of private investors participated in the tour.
These are the main highlights of the 6-day event:
High Growth Africa Summit
During Tour of Tech 2016, Ingressive launched High Growth Africa Summit, a two-day conference teaching African founders how to launch, scale, and fund their high growth African businesses. It is backed by Silicon Valley: Intuit, New Relic, Google Launchpad for Developers, GitHub, and 500 Startups, and convened 150 global investors and 350 tech founders.
The High Growth Africa Summit Speakers’ Dinner
The High Growth Africa Summit Speakers’ Dinner was an elegant dinner party hosted by Ingressive at the home of the American Consulate General in Lagos, Nigeria. The dinner party was in honour of the many esteemed and incredible guest speakers many of whom flew thousands of miles to attend the High Growth Africa Summit. It was a well-deserved celebration after an impactful and successful summit and a wonderful opportunity for guests to network and interact in a relaxed social setting.
The 500 Startups Investors Dinner
The 500 Startups Investors Dinner, co-hosted by 500 Startups and sponsored by Aluko & Oyebode at Sky Lounge Rooftop, Eko Hotel & Suites held. It was an informative and enjoyable evening that featured many passionate about the power of technology to transform African businesses and over 50 global investors focused on tech in Africa including our partner and special guest Monique Woodard. Monique Woodard, venture partner at 500StartUps and co-founder of Black Founders is currently leading the charge in the $25 million micro fund being raised by 500 Startups to make early stage investments in black and latino founders.
Fashion Meets Tech
‘Fashion + Tech: A Night With Pioneers’ was an exclusive evening for pioneers of fashion and investment. The evening featured a bohemian style fashion show sans the runway in which models will mingle with guests and showcase designers pieces like living art. Special guests attending the event this year included: Ugo Mozie, a high fashion designer and stylist for many A-list celebrity clientele including Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, and Pharrell; Monique Woodard, Founder of 500 Startups’ $25 Million Black & Latino Fund; and a few designers such as Tokyo James, Ayo Van Elmar, Virtue Clothiers, Oroma Cookey-Gam and Joko Edu. We addressed fashion trends and Nigeria manufacturing with those ready to invest and collaborate.
Tour of Tech has brought companies including Y Combinator (their investments include Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, etc.), 500 Startups ($200M leading global VC & seed fund with 1300+ startups under management), and Techstars (largest global incubator) to Nigeria to meet local tech ecosystem, then invest in deals.
GitHub and New Relic back Tour of Tech
GitHub hosted a meetup, sponsored by Cafe Neo, where they trained local developers and gave out free GitHub accounts and access to their training. Over 80 of Nigeria’s top developers joined the meetup.
The tour was a successful one. Both GitHub and New Relic backed Tour of Tech.
Monique Woodard of 500 Startups and Joseph Glickman of Glickman Family Trust are carrying out due diligence on several investment opportunities. Monique encouraged several to join 500 Startups next cohort. The Glickman Family Trust is in diligence with several agritech companies they seek to back.
GitHub has financially supported several local computer science training programmes including Imisi3D. There are also several business partnerships and non-public investments that were established out of the High Growth Africa Summit and Tour of Tech.
