24 fast-growing African companies selected for the ‘DealRoom’ at Africa 2018 in Egypt

24 fast-growing African companies have been selected to win a place in the DealRoom to be held at the Africa Forum 2018 on December 8 and 9th in Egypt. It is a special matchmaking platform for African companies developed and run jointly by Asoko Insight and IC Publications.

The selected companies will meet and pitch their business to leading investors, private equity firms and venture capital firms to secure funding for their business expansion and growth ovet the two days. They will have a 30 minutes window to achieve this. These 24 companies – hand picked from over 200entrants from across Africa that applied to participate – were chosen for their strong financial track record, solid revenue, and expansion and export potential. Leading African economic intelligence company Asoko Insight and IC Publications ran the selection process.

Africa 2018 is the biggest business forum to take place in the continent this year, bringing together over 200 startups, nine heads of state, and over 3,000 delegates at Sharm -el-Sheikh on Dec 8thand 9th.

The Forum has special focus on Young Entrepreneurs Day, on the 8th December aimed to connect tomorrow’s future business leaders, with like-minded entrepreneurs and help them, through a series of workshops and discussions, take their businesses to the next level. It also hosted the inaugural Women Empower Africa sessions on the 8th to discuss and share ideas on gender equality in parliament and in boardrooms and help women shape Africa’s future.

Speaking on the partnership, Asoko Insight’s Chief Innovation Officer Obi Ejimofo said, “African businesses are rapidly growing in number and sophistication, but the challenge of positioning themselves in front of institutional investors and global corporates, remains. Being part of initiatives such as this, designed to enhance private sector cooperation and drive investment in sectors of strategic interest within Africa, is at the core of our vision at Asoko”.

Pedro Besugo, IC Publications said, “We have noted over the years that it is the start ups and small businesses which find it hard to raise finance to grow their business. To plug this gap we developed the DealRoom platform with Asoko Insight and launched it last year at Africa 2017. We are pleased to say that the number of entrants and those selected have doubled in a year. WE have also successfully used the platform at other business events.

Ismail Talbi, Partner, MD of AfricInvest Egypt said, “I have spent two days here in various meetings in the DealRoom. We are Looking for investment in Africa and we met a few companies that are interesting.”

The DealRoom at Africa 2018 will focus on companies from sectors including agri-processing, food and beverage, industrial manufacturing, consumer goods.

Here is the list of companies.