During the first day of the VivaTech exhibition in Paris, Jérôme Hénique, the CEO of Orange Africa and the Middle East (OMEA), and Isadora Bigourdan, the CEO of Digital Africa, signed a strategic partnership agreement. The primary objective of this agreement is to leverage the expertise and resources of Orange Digital Centers and Digital Africa to promote and strengthen the growth of African startups.
Under this partnership, the two organizations will collaborate to identify and select promising tech startups across the continent. The selected startups will gain access to a variety of resources, including mentoring programs, technical assistance, funding opportunities, and networking prospects through the Orange Digital Center and the Digital Africa community.
Recognizing that “digital talent is the key to transforming the African continent,” Isadora Bigourdan expressed her support for the partnership with Orange Digital Centers, emphasizing its alignment with their deployment strategy. This strategy aims to identify promising entrepreneurs at the local level and facilitate their access to support tools, financing, and advocacy through an international network of allies.
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Jérôme Hénique echoed this sentiment, stating that “this collaboration with Digital Africa […] adds an essential component to our current network of Orange Digital Centers, simplifying access to flexible financing solutions specifically designed to meet the needs of early-stage entrepreneurs. This collaboration represents real added value and will contribute to stimulating the growth of the African startup ecosystem.”
Orange Digital Center (ODC) is an ecosystem present in 17 countries in Africa and the Middle East, as well as 8 countries in Europe. Its purpose is to support, train, and mentor young people and innovators, enhancing their employability and preparing them for future jobs in areas such as AI and cybersecurity. Additionally, ODC aims to encourage individuals to venture into the digital field.
Each Orange Digital Center offers a range of free programs available to everyone in a single location. These programs include digital training for youth, startup acceleration, project support, and investment in startups.
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The collaboration with Digital Africa, an organization focused on enhancing the capacity of African entrepreneurs to design and scale digital innovations for the real economy, aligns with several recommendations proposed in 2022 by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. These recommendations aim to enable African startups to raise over $90 billion by 2030 and position Africa as a technology powerhouse.
The recommendations put forward by the Tony Blair Institute include developing innovative financing mechanisms, unlocking capital from institutional investors and companies, strengthening the capabilities of startups and support organizations, and establishing a “pan-African startup network.”
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard