Lagos to Host 2025 AVCA Conference, Venture Capital Summit

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The AVCA Conference and Venture Capital Summit in 2025 will take place in Lagos, Nigeria, the organisers have announced.

The programme, which is Africa’s largest private capital gathering, is organised by the African Private Capital Association (AVCA).

The 2024 edition was held in Johannesburg last week and attracted over 700 delegates from more than 60 countries, with panellists discussing the global decline of VC funding and exploring a range of solutions to catalyse growth.

Speakers marked the influence of rapidly emerging technologies shaping African innovation and driving the digital economy, creating new skills and increasing efficiency, such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and quantum computing.

The VC summit saw participation from Africa-focussed venture capital funds, DFIs and global investors, including AfricInvest, African Renaissance Partners, Aves Lair, Altree Capital, Breega, Enza Capital, European Investment Bank (EIB), Flat6Labs, LoftyInc Capital, Lightship Anchor Fund, Octerra Capital,  Proparco, Savant, Sango Capital, Sawari Ventures, Standard Bank, TL Com Capital, USAID Prosper Africa, Ventures Platform, 500 Global, and more.

The chief executive of AVCA, Ms Abi Mustapha-Maduakor, said Nigeria’s position at the forefront of venture capital and private equity investment in Africa, backed up by a tech-savvy population and the recent rise in local investment funds and angel investors, sets the scene for a dynamic summit in 2025.

“Nigeria has emerged over the last decade as an investment hotspot in Africa. The country’s entrepreneurial spirit and well-established pools of local capital gave rise to some of Africa’s earliest unicorns, particularly in the payments sector.

“As we wrap up the conference in Johannesburg, we look forward to our next event in a city that has played an equally catalytic role in Africa’s investment landscape,” she stated.

At this year’s event, a Partner at Modus Capital, Andre Jr. Ayotte, while speaking on the panel The DeepTech Potential in African Tech, highlighted how founders can apply technology to build companies solving problems at scale.

Despite progress in tech-enabled sectors, Nick Allen, Managing Partner, Savant, noted that gaps in Africa’s tertiary education system have led to a lack of skilled graduates with sufficient engineering knowledge.

He added that in comparison to more developed markets such as Europe and the US, there is a lack of investors who understand how to finance deep tech in Africa.

While on another panel Seasons Change: Lessons Learned in Winter and the Path to Spring, a seasoned investor and Senior Partner at AfricInvest, Khaled Ben Jilani, raised the importance of active strategies to make businesses less capital intensive in order to anticipate new risks and navigate a lack of liquidity in the market.

Steve Beck, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Novastar Ventures, expressed that private equity firms and development finance institutions (DFIs) with dedicated VC teams had stepped in to partially fill the funding gaps, particularly in the early stages.