The 2026 BigFive Summit

The 2026 BigFive Summit

24-26 March, 2026, Innovation City Cape Town

The 2026 BigFive Summit

24-26 March, 2026, Innovation City Cape Town

Day 1 Tuesday, 24 March 2026

1700 - 1900 Opening Networking Event + “AI: The growth catalyst for African Businesses” Mini-Summit

1700 - 1730 Registration & Badge Collection, followed by Drinks & Networking

1730 - 1740 Welcoming Remarks

1740 - 1800 Featured Talk: Charles Laughlin, Co-founder, BigFive Digital

‘The Solopreneur Unicorn’

It takes a team to turn a startup idea into a unicorn ($1 billion valuation). Yet in Africa, bootstrapping startups can often afford only a few employees. Talent is abundant in Africa. Yet the hard skills required to scale a unicorn come at a price many talented founders cannot afford. AI has already changed this game. BigFive Summit host Charles Laughlin, the publisher of The Africa B2B Tech Report newsletter, explains why he believes there is a unique opportunity for Africa to host the world’s first “solopreneur unicorn”. And this may happen sooner than you think.

1800-1830 Panel Discussion

“AI for African SMEs”

Around the world, micro and small businesses have been eager to experiment with AI tools to get more done with less. This is always the objective whenever small businesses embrace a new technology. We will chat with founders who are building specific applications that small businesses can use to seem bigger than they are. And to reap the benefits accordingly. This panel will answer this question. Is AI the ultimate force-multiplier for SMEs?

Panelists

Speakers to be named

1830 - 1900 Wrap-up + more networking

END OF AI WORKSHOP

This event is sponsored by Telkom

Day 2 Wednesday, 25 March 2026

Innovation City Cape Town

0800 - 0900 Badge collection, coffee, and networking

0900 - 0915 Welcome to the 2026 BigFive Summit

0915-0945 Headline Address: Lanyard Myakayaka, Strategy Executive, Telkom

“The Plumbing of Prosperity – Building Africa’s Digital Public Infrastructure”

At the Summit, Lanyard will address a vital topic for the Business of African Tech -- the continent's digital infrastructure. In his talk, Lanyard will speak to how, "just as plumbing enables water to reach communities; digital infrastructure enables opportunity to reach people." Lanyard will also address how Telkom, one of South Africa’s dominant carriers, is contributing to this buildout.

0945-1000 Community Partner Presentation – Speaker TBA

1015 - 1045 Panel Discussion

“Exploring Inclusive Innovation in Africa”

How is digital innovation reshaping Africa’s informal economies? This session features leaders of African companies using emerging tech and innovative business models to help informal businesses and gig workers participate more fully in the economy, creating economic inclusion, increasing fairness, and improving safety.

Panelists

Imtiyaaz Riley, Founder & CEO, Loop

Simon Ellis, CEO, JemHR

Other speakers to be named

1045 – 1100 Community Partner Presentation – Speaker TBA

1100 - 1130 Featured Talk: André de Wet, Co-founder & CEO, Flood

"2026: The Year of the Super App"

Serial entrepreneur André de Wet will explore how super apps are unifying fragmented markets, bypassing device storage limits, and serving as the primary gateway for financial inclusion and informal trade across the continent. Flood, founded in 2020, is on a mission to build the 'Shopify' for bricks-and-mortar retail.

1130-1200 Fireside Chat: Zachariah George, MD, Launch Africa Ventures

It is a BigFive Summit tradition to welcome Cape Town venture capitalist Zachariah George for a fireside chat on the state of tech investing in Africa. Zach never fails to deliver powerful and candid insights wrapped in disarming humor. This is always a can't-miss conversation.

1200-1300

BigFive Summit Digital Marketing Forum

1200- 1230 Featured Talk: Amanda Louw-Bester, Founder, Pragmattica Consulting

“The Digital Doctor: Diagnosing Growth Before It Becomes Expensive”

As businesses scale, growth friction often appears long before leaders recognise it. Increased spend, expanded channels, and new AI tools rarely fix structural misalignment between strategy, go-to-market, and execution.

In this featured talk, Amanda — ”The Digital Doctor for Business Growth” — will share a practical diagnostic framework for founders and marketing leaders navigating complex digital ecosystems. The session explores how to identify growth symptoms early, avoid expensive scaling mistakes, and design clarity before deploying tactics.

1230 - 1300 Fireside Chat: Ross Munro, founder, EQTY

Is AI translating brand equity into real commercial value?

In this marketing-focused fireside chat, Summit co-host Amanda Louw-Bester and digital marketing entrepreneur Ross Munro tackle the long-running debate between marketing and finance – Are companies truly investing in growth or simply reporting activity?

These two digital marketing experts explore how a new generation of AI platforms is helping leadership teams translate brand strength, market demand, and marketing performance into commercial signals that CEOs, CFOs, and CROs can actually act on.

1300 - 1430 Networking Lunch

1430 - 1500 Fireside Chat: Rahul Jain, Co-founder & CEO, Peach Payments

"Building a pan-African fintech"

An exclusive fireside chat with Rahul Jain, co-founder and CEO of Peach Payments.

Since co-founding Peach in 2012 with Andreas Demleitner, Jain has helped turn the startup into a pan-African payments powerhouse. The company recently expanded into West Africa through the acquisition of Senegalese fintech PayDunya.

Jain is a leading voice on payment orchestration and scaling digital commerce in Africa. At the Summit, Rahul will share his insights on building "100-year businesses" and navigating the continent’s evolving regulatory landscape. Don’t miss this deep dive into the future of African fintech.

1500-1515 Community Partner Presentation – Speaker TBA

1515 - 1615

African Women in Tech Leadership Forum

1515 - 1545 Featured Talk: Laura Thomas, Founder, The Aligned Woman

Laura is the founder of The Aligned Woman, an EdTech platform redefining how women learn, lead, and navigate work, life, health, and identity. Laura’s talk will focus on "The Hidden Tax on Female Leadership".

"Research consistently shows that when women demonstrate the very traits associated with strong leadership - decisiveness, authority, ambition, and confidence, they are often perceived as less likeable," Laura told us in describing her talk. "And unlike their male counterparts, likeability significantly influences how their competence is judged. This is the hidden tax."

1545-1615 Panel Discussion – Women in Tech Leadership

Panelists

Speakers to be named

END OF THE 2026 BIGFIVE SUMMIT

DOWNLOAD THE 2026 BIG5 SUMMIT PROSPECTUS

Why join the BigFive Summit?

Since our first event in 2019, the BigFive Summit has served the community that builds, invests in, and takes to market new technology solutions that help African businesses thrive.

The BigFive Summit offers a unique opportunity for aggregators of African businesses (banks, telecoms, digital agencies, media platforms) to interact with the builders of B2B tech (startups) and those funding the innovation (VCs).

• Learn The BigFive Summit is information-rich and tightly curated to ensure the audience absorbs new information and gets their questions answered.
• Network The BigFive Summit is a rare opportunity to spend two days elbow-to-elbow with investors, senior corporate leaders, and innovative tech founders.
• Grow Attending the BigFive Summit is an investment in your personal and professional growth by keeping abreast of industry trends and forging new connections.

Sponsoring the BigFive Summit is a great way to position your brand as a leading driver of B2B digital transformation in Africa.

Every BigFive Summit sponsor receives the following benefits

Prominent branding -- before, during & after the summit

The BigFive Summit is not possible without its sponsors. Therefore, our sponsors’ images and logos are omnipresent in the event space – on screens, roll-up banners, and on individual items from coffee cups to serviettes. No one ever leaves a BigFive Digital event without knowing who its sponsors were and what they each do.

BigFive Digital promotes its sponsors in the lead-up to the event through social media – on LinkedIn, Instagram, X, Facebook, and other platforms. BigFive will also issue a press release no later than 28 days before the Summit to announce our lead speakers and sponsors.

Unless they opt out, each 2026 Sponsor joins a rotation of sponsor messages on the BigFive Daily Minute video newsletter on LinkedIn and Instagram, and in the Africa B2B Tech Report newsletter on Substack. Sponsors will be included in this rotation from the time they agree to sponsor the 2026 Summit through the end of the 2026 calendar year.

If a sponsorship includes a speaking role, the full session featuring the speaker is recorded and shared on YouTube following the Summit. In addition, excerpts of sessions will be shared as YouTube Shorts and clips on LinkedIn, Instagram, X, and other social channels. Sponsors will be permitted to opt out of having their presence shared with the public post-event. Panel discussions and fireside chats may also be repurposed after the event as episodes of the BIG5D Podcast.

Business development support

Delegate list

Every Summit sponsor receives a copy of the Summit delegate list (with full details, including contact information), one week before the event. A final delegate list is shared with sponsors 24 hours in advance of the summit. Because Summit delegates tend to make a late decision to attend, it is necessary to wait until very close to the Summit start date to share the delegate list.

Business development curation

Platinum and Gold sponsors receive concierge-level business development support. This means curated introductions, both in advance of the Summit and on-site at the event.

Thought-leadership opportunities

Access to our stage is an explicit benefit of sponsorship at the Platinum and Gold levels. For other sponsors, opportunities to participate in panel discussions are offered based on availability and alignment.

Every session at the BigFive Summit is professionally recorded. And every keynote, fireside chat, and panel discussion is posted on the BigFive Digital YouTube channel after the event. Upon request, we will provide the raw video footage to a sponsor of their Summit session, which they can use for their own content marketing purposes.

We also selectively repurpose on-stage content from the Summit in the following ways.

• As episodes of the BigFiveD Podcast
• As YouTube Shorts
• As social media clips on LinkedIn, X, and Instagram

Please download our Summit Sponsorship Prospectus for details on the available sponsorship tiers, their benefits, and the required investment.

DOWNLOAD THE 2026 BIG5 SUMMIT PROSPECTUS