Africapreneurs #8 - Go Africa

15 May 2019 13:00-16:30DLA Piper, Kungsgatan 9, Stockholm

Join us as we explore solutions to your pressing challenges of doing business in sub-Saharan Africa. Powerful stories will be shared by Swedish businesses and investors that have ventured to these markets.

How many companies in Africa earn annual revenues of $1 billion or more? Over 400 - and growing according to McKinsey. In 2015, African consumers spent an estimated $1.4 trillion and by 2025, this is expected to exceed $2 trillion. Africa’s population stands at about 1.2 billion people today and projected to double to 2.4 billion by 2050, many of whom will be predominantly living in urban areas in the future.

It will become increasingly important for the competitiveness and growth of Swedish companies to take advantage of business opportunities and be part of the rapid development of sub-Saharan Africa.

Go Africa is an internationalization programme currently being run by Inclusive Business Sweden aiming to provide inspiration, knowledge, network and support to Swedish growth companies that want to explore business opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa.

Join us for Africapreneurs #8 – Go Africa which is the concluding event of this phase of the Go Africa programme. The programme and event are funded by Tillväxtverket, the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth.

We are proud to present three highly inspirational speakers to share stories from Trine, TaskRunner and MTI Investment- more details below.

Program (13.00- 16.30)

13:00 Registration & Mingle

13:30 Introduction to Go Africa by Mike Debelak

13:40 Short introduction to the SWEACC by Jan Furuvald

13:50 Hanna Lindquist, Communications & Customer Growth Manager at TRINE

14:10 Robin Szekely, CCO & Partner at TaskRunner

14:30 Fika & Mingle

14:50 Pontus Engström, CEO & Co-founder at MTI Investment

15:10 Johanna Zilliacus, presenting the Nordic Climate Facility funding opportunity

15:20 Q&A: Go Africa panel with speakers

15:40 Peer-to-peer learning workshops: Tackling your common challenges

16:20 Future of Go Africa, Wrap-Up & Mingle

The Go Africa event is free-of-charge but please note that a no-show fee of SEK500 excl. VAT will apply if you get a spot and don’t show up.

After the program, SWEACC invites members with valid membership to stay for their Annual General Meeting 2019 from 17:00. Members are welcome to register no later than the 10th of May with SWEACC. For more information contact info@sweacc.se

Speakers

Hanna Lindquist
Communications & Customer Growth Manager at TRINE

Hanna is one of the powerhouses behind the fast-growing start-up Trine and is responsible for Trine's communication and customer growth. TRINE is an impact fin-tech startup with a unique crowd investing platform that enables people to invest in specific solar energy projects in developing countries. Their vision is to eliminate energy poverty around the world and are active in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Hanna will share her experience from TRINE as well as from her stint living and working in Kenya.

Robin Szekely
CCO & Partner at TaskRunner

Inspired by how his father often went to a neighbour to get help with cars and lawn mowers, Robin founded Taskrunner. TaskRunner is a smart platform that aims to re-engineer on-demand labour by leveraging intelligent systems and humans-in-the-loop to deliver paid services through a highly scalable API. TaskRunner is operating in Sweden and expanding throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Robin has a background in business economics and has experience working with Swedish companies on new market entry and global expansion.

Pontus Engström
CEO & Co-founder at MTI Investment

As the co-founder and CEO of MTI Investment, Pontus has years of experience in investing in companies in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Tanzania. Their portfolio consists of companies like Zanrec, Shambani Milk, Ecohomes and Atsoko. Pontus will share powerful stories and lessons learned from their challenges, successes and the occasional failure. Pontus has 15 years of portfolio investment and consulting experience from firms such as Credit Swiss, DnB, and Boston Consulting Group. As well as research experience in financing of entrepreneurship and human resource management.