November tech and startup events: London is the new Lagos

‌This month, there have been as many events in London, as there was in Lagos. And the attendance in London continues to grow. In this article, I'd give you a quick rundown of these events.

London

November 16

• Fidelity Bank International Trade and Creative Conference (FITCC)
• Kuda Bank UK Launch party

On my birthday, November 16, I moderated a panel at the Fidelity Bank-hosted International Trade and Creative Connect conference in West London. The event was big. It was a two-day event with lots of exhibitors and panel sessions on themes around agro, tech and the creative industry. My panel was on Applied Blockchain Technology. The titling was so apt, cause prior to the event, the FTX saga had just started. In fact, one of our panelist couldn't make it that day because one of his friends had committed suicide following what happened with FTX.

In the evening of that day (November 16), Kuda Bank held a UK launch happy hour in South East London. The launch event was attended by about 50 people or more. Present at that event were the cofounders, CEO Babs Ogundeyi and CTO Musty Mustapha. Also, one of their investors' Dr. Ricardo Schäfer, Partner at Target Global, some members of the Kuda Global Team and other ecosystem players were present. Kuda demoed their new app which featured a UK bank account that could be used for remittance.‌

Last week, November 22, London Africa community held their End of the Year party at the same location that Kuda used. At the event, I met friends and fans, as Belinda puts it, of Benjamindada.com. The London Africa community is membership-based and invites founders, investors, journalists and analysts working in the UK-Africa corridor. I had paid £60 in September to be a part of the community. I do not know what the cost would be like for the coming year but they have an interest form open.

Two days after (November 24), the sixth edition of the Africa Tech Summit, London took place at the London Stock Exchange. Attending the day-event costs  ~ £500 or more, depending on the ticket/pass you have. I couldn't attend that.

Last Friday, (November 25), Africa-focused investors, QED and Ventures Platform, alongside AWS held a Founder-Investor mixer in West London. I saw more than a few ecosystem players like Kola Aina, Iyin Aboyeji, Oo Nwoye, Uwem Uwemakpan, and Blessing Abeng. There must have been more than 70 people there that day.

Additional commentary

With the way the ecosystem is moving, it's hard to tell where anyone is based, Lagos or London. And really, why should that matter? Visas like the UK Global Talent give founders, and talents the geographic mobility needed to build relationships and conduct their business across multiple locations.

On the other hand, there is a proven number of people outside of Africa that is interested in doing business there. You'd see these people at multiple events focused on Africa. For instance, remember Belinda (that I mentioned above)? I saw her colleague and Partner, Systemic Innovation at the Founder-Investor mixer.

Now, let's segueway into Lagos and see the events that held in November. In London, you can expect a similar crop of people to attend this event. But don't be surprised when you see that someone flew Lagos to/fro London to attend some events.

What I found was that most of the events in Lagos, where the "operational" market is were focused on talents, and doing business there. While the ones in London were focused on expansion and accessing capital.

Lagos

November 12: Ingressive for Good's (I4G) Hackfest 2022

I4G held their first physical edition of the I4G HACKFEST 2022. The event brought together tech-enthusiasts across Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa. Benjamindada.com was one of their media partners and one of our colleagues, David Akinfenwa moderated a panel. I4G Cofounder, Blessing Abeng was in Lagos for this event and still made it to London for other networking events.

November 25: Lagos Digital Summit (LDS) 2022

The sixth edition of the Lagos Digital Summit with theme: "Scaling businesses leveraging digital technology" held on Friday, November 25, 2022. Ahead of the event, we published a press release on what to expect.

November 26: Three events took place

Zikoko, by Big Cabal Media (parents of TechCabal), held their Zikoko Fest 2022 headlined by Ayra Starr. It featured their Editor-in-Chief, Edwin Madu, as a performer whose stage name is Dwin the Stoic. Fun fact: Edwin and I were in the same department in University.

DevFest 2022

This one is dear to our hearts. Generally, developer-focused anything are an under-reported sector that we took by the horns once we started reporting on this space. We had reported on DevFest 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021. Thus, we were super excited to see that it was making a come back for a 2022 run.

GDG Lagos DevFest 2022 needs no introduction, it's about the biggest developer-focused event in Lagos. Look out for our 2022 recap!

The Fintech Summit 2022

TechPoint hosted a Fintech Summit themed "The Fintech in Everything". Professor Olayinka David-West, Associate Dean, Lagos Business School—who is no stranger to the startup ecosystem in Lagos—was the keynote speaker.

There we have it, 10 key tech and startup events that happened in London and Lagos in the month of November.

If you have any upcoming event in any of these locations and you'd like us to attend, please feel free to email hello[at]benjamindada.com

See you at December's round up!