Tomiwa Aladekomo, CEO of Big Cabal Media, the powerhouse behind one of Africa’s leading tech publications, TechCabal, shares insights on his company’s ambitious plans for the upcoming Moonshot by TechCabal 2024 conference. In this candid conversation, we explore the significance of the event in shaping the African tech ecosystem and the need for African tech companies to think beyond borders and expand globally. The conversation also touched on AI in Africa and what companies on the continent are doing in the space.
What are the primary goals and objectives for Moonshot by TechCabal 2024? How will this event improve on last year’s conference?
We launched Moonshot last year to be a conference for the most important players in tech in Africa. Given the event is held in Lagos, Nigeria, it was only natural that most of the people who attended came from here, making the event Nigeria-centered. However, we want to do things differently this year and make it a more continental affair. For this year’s conference, we will have speakers from all over the continent. We are introducing three major new content tracks this year. One of them we call Fuel, the Investor Conference, which will have LPs, family offices, and investors from all over the continent in attendance. Another one is the Government Regulation & Policy track, for which we are inviting government representatives from countries both on the continent and outside, including Algeria, Rwanda, Syria, Ghana, Egypt, the UK, the US, and the Netherlands. The third new content track is CleanTech & ClimateTech, where we will discuss green technology – an increasingly important area of focus for investors across the continent.
This year’s Moonshot will also have new formats. One of these formats is the roundtables, which will bring active players in the tech industry together to discuss and brainstorm solutions to some of the continent’s problems. One such roundtable is the Creative Economy Roundtable, which will bring investors like Afrexim together with key leaders in the creative economy to discuss financing the infrastructure of the creative economy on the continent. We will also have an international trade roundtable as well as demos, which will shine a light on areas where tech is making an impact, especially in the AI industry.
Beyond these, we will also have tours of the Lagos art scene and tech ecosystem. In addition, we will have more mixers and parties during this year’s conference. Lagos has an incredible nightlife and an equally incredible creative scene, and we want people coming from outside the country to experience that. We want them to meet people, learn, and make life-changing deals. Our goal is to create an environment where that is possible.
How successful would you say last year’s Moonshot was and what impact would you say it has had on the African tech ecosystem?
I believe last year’s event was a great success, especially for a first-time event. We had 2,600 people from across 12 countries in attendance. We had significant conversations about the future of commerce, the creative economy, and emerging tech. We also had Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, as a speaker. The audience’s feedback was tremendous as well. They learned a lot from our masterclasses and workshop sessions, as well as the startup pitch competition Battlefield. I think it was really exciting for a first-time event.
From your point of view, and by extension, that of Big Cabal, what are the challenges of global expansion to the African tech ecosystem?
Before we get into the challenges of global expansion, we need to ask the question: “Why do we need to expand globally?” The orthodox approach for tech companies on the continent is to build for the continent. That would have been fine if our economies were great. However, what we’ve seen over the past few years is that our economies are not as large and robust as we thought they would be. The currency depreciation that is plaguing countries across the continent is especially hurtful, particularly to companies that raised capital in dollars. The depreciation hurts their returns and makes life more difficult. Because of this, we need to go out and build for global markets, instead of just African markets. By expanding globally, African tech companies can safeguard themselves against economic challenges at home.
Now, to the challenges. Any company that is looking to expand to a new market has to learn to sell in those markets. Such a company will have to build capacity in different departments. For example, it has to have the capacity to receive payments and customize its products for members of the new market. Such a company also has to learn to comply with the rules and regulations of the new market. These, and more, are the challenges that companies looking to expand globally have faced and are facing.
What opportunities does global expansion provide to the African tech ecosystem?
Global expansion will make African tech companies more resilient, especially since they will be less reliant on the African market and less susceptible to its unreliability. Global expansion will also help businesses grow faster. In my opinion, the fact they will be tackling a larger scale of problems is also an exciting opportunity.
How will Moonshot 2024 help African tech companies harness these opportunities?
At Moonshot by TechCabal 2024, African tech companies looking to expand globally will get the opportunity to learn from companies that are already building for the world, through our masterclasses and workshops. The conference will have 85 speakers who are doing exceptional things in the tech industry and who will be sharing their knowledge during these masterclasses. Attendees will also have the opportunity, from a business partnership perspective, to connect with companies that are helping businesses work across the world. For instance, Raenest, which is one of our sponsors, provides payment solutions to businesses such that they can open a US bank account and collect their revenue in USD. Sabi, our headline sponsor, is building the rails for African startups and businesses to trade with the rest of the world. So, the conference provides attendees the opportunity to meet and engage with partners like that, as we have over 100 exhibitors coming. All of these, as well as the roundtables, will explore how African tech businesses can go global.
I believe that every company, every industry has its strengths. Looking at the African tech ecosystem, in what area would you say it is the strongest and can immediately compete in globally?
I think the areas where the African tech ecosystem is the strongest are fintech and commerce. On the fintech side, Africa has been a big experimental playground for fintech and has moved ahead of the rest of the world in terms of fintech solutions. I think we’ve built some interesting fintech solutions that we can deploy globally. Commerce is another area in which we’ve excelled. And when I say commerce, I don’t just mean e-commerce, but other types of commerce, including B2B commerce. In my opinion, companies like Sabi and OmniRetail are doing remarkable things in that space. They are building advanced models for use across the continent. I believe these models will do just as well if they are tuned to serve a global audience. While I believe those are two areas where we are ahead, I’m excited about what the future looks like, especially in Clean & Climate Tech and AI.
How will you gauge the success of this conference? What metrics would you use to determine whether Moonshot by TechCabal 2024 has been a success?
We will be using attendance and value provided. Attendance needs no explanation. However, for value, we will be looking at different things starting with the knowledge imparted during the conference. We will ask the question: Did attendees feel like they learned something from this conference? To assess this, we will send out surveys. Secondly, we will examine the effectiveness of networking at the event. To do this, we will ask questions like: Did attendees meet other people and make meaningful and useful connections? We used these metrics for last year’s event and got high marks. Attendees felt like it was a high-quality audience. They learned a lot and also met people who they feel are relevant. Furthermore, I want to see deals getting done, from our investors finding strong portfolio companies to our LPs investing in VCs. Last year, Meta announced some of its major investments in the market at Moonshot as well as some of the great work happening within its ranks. I hope to see more of the same this year, with companies making meaningful announcements about their investments in Nigeria and the African technology scene.
Earlier this year, I was doing research for a project on AI. During that project, I discovered that Africa has made little to no progress in that field. What are your thoughts about that?
AI in Africa is still in the very early stages. Nevertheless, tech companies on the continent are doing great work. Earlier, I mentioned that we will have different formats at the event. One of these formats is demos, which will showcase technology in action on the continent. One of the reasons we came up with this particular format is to shine a spotlight on AI in Africa. While African tech companies aren’t building LLMs and related AI tech, they are using the technology in innovative ways that we believe deserve to be showcased. We will have demonstrations on AI, which will reveal the companies that are using the technology in meaningful ways. We will also highlight African AI companies with market-ready products. Additionally, we will have an AI competition, which will be hosted by Zindi, the first data competition platform in Africa.
What advice would you give to entrepreneurs and innovators who want to make an impact in Africa?
The VC winter that has been happening over the past couple of years has caused some people to doubt the African tech ecosystem. To those people, I would say that it’s still early days, and there’s a bright future ahead. Every possible future for the continent will have technology as a major driver of productivity, growth, and investment returns. It will require a lot of resilience and hard work, but eventually, the African tech scene will thrive and accomplish great things. So, don’t lose faith.