Burgers & Bucks: What Early-Stage Capital Is Backing in Africa in 2026
Thu Feb 12, 13:00 - Thu Feb 12, 14:30
Innovation City
ABOUT
What Early-Stage Capital Is Backing in Africa in 2026
12 February 2026 | 13:00–14:30 | Innovation City Cape Town
Early-stage funding conversations are full of noise; shifting market sentiment, global uncertainty, and recycled narratives about the “funding climate.” What founders actually need is clarity.
This Burgers & Bucks session launches Innovation City’s Food for Thought series, a new programme of high-signal conversations designed to move beyond surface-level narratives. The opening discussion focuses on what early-stage capital in Africa is actually backing in 2026, and the reasoning behind those decisions.
Join a candid, founder-first panel of investors and operators who are actively deploying capital across the continent. The conversation will explore the types of problems attracting real conviction, where repeatable traction is showing up across markets, and what’s quietly fallen out of favour.
Designed as an informal discussion (with burgers in hand), this session prioritises signal over soundbites and practical insight over theory!
You’ll walk away with:
- A clearer view of what early-stage investors are actually backing in Africa in 2026
- Insight into which problems, business models, and traction signals are attracting conviction
- An understanding of what’s falling out of favour and why some startups struggle to raise follow-on capital
- Perspective on how early funding decisions shape long-term growth, scale, and fundraising outcomes
- A sharper lens on how founders should interpret investor signals and time their raise
This session is for:
- Founders and co-founders at pre-seed, seed, or early growth stage
- Startup operators and leaders thinking strategically about capital and growth
- First-time and repeat founders preparing for an upcoming raise
- Angels, advisors, and ecosystem builders working closely with early-stage companies
- Anyone navigating the realities of building and funding companies in African markets
Less theory. More signal. Real insight from people close to the deals.
Seats are limited. Get your ticket now!
SPEAKERS
Zach is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Launch Africa Ventures - Africa's most prominent and active early-stage VC Fund with a portfolio of 160+ tech ventures across 25+ countries. He is also the Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Startupbootcamp AfriTech – one of the leading multi-corporate backed venture accelerators program in Africa.
Zach is a prominent Angel investor in 50+ leading tech startups in Africa including Flutterwave, KudaBank, Mono, Yoco and several others. He was featured on the cover of Fast Company (May 2018), Destiny Man (Nov 2019), Forbes (Aug 2023), and on several occasions on CNBC Africa. In 2020, he was recognized as one of the Top 4 Most Influential Persons in Technology in Africa by Les Echos (the French equivalent of the Financial Times).
Zach was formerly the head of Africa Investments for U-Start – the largest network of private Multi-Family offices in Europe. Prior to moving to South Africa, he was an investment banker on Wall Street covering mergers & acquisitions, corporate finance strategy and risk management at Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital, New York.
Zach has a Master’s degree in Finance & Management from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology. He is a member of MENSA International - the Global High IQ Society.
Outside of his professional life, Zach is an acoustic guitarist, pianist and vocalist with cover albums ‘Give A Little’ (2010) and ‘Humans with Hearts’ (2018) on iTunes and Spotify. He is an avid lover of theater and the performing arts, likes hiking and a good game of tennis and squash. He enjoys creative writing and is currently busy finishing a work of non-fiction.
Tramayne Monaghan is a future-driven leader and published author with remarkable achievements in expanding digital landscapes and recognised for leading technological start-up companies to achieve significant and sustainable growth and profits.
With a consistent and profitable track record of developing and propelling first-to-market products with customer-centric values while resuscitating underperforming portfolios, Tramayne reduces costs and secures lucrative future-fit opportunities through digital adoption and value creation.
Grounded with over fifteen years of experience, ten of which at an executive level within global organisations, Tramayne gained in-depth experience in a variety of tech startups, corporate innovation, corporate venturing and go to market strategies.
Egla Ntumba is the co-founder and managing partner of MsFiT Ventures, a Cape Town based SME debt fund that provides flexible working capital and supply chain finance to female-led SMEs.
Prior to that she was a senior venture capital investor at Newtown Partners where, on behalf of DP World’s corporate innovation fund, she invests in disruptive technology startups with global ambitions. Her investment focus was on global trade enablement and logistics. Looking specifically at early-stage startups that use technology to change the basis of competition in supply chain, logistics, and healthcare.
Before joining venture capital, she was a corporate banker and deployed $1B+ in trade finance and managed debt portfolios of large multinational corporations (like Coca Cola, DHL, Reckitt Benckiser) across East, West, and Southern Africa.
Egla had an early start in entrepreneurship when, for eight years, she was the chief operating office (COO) of a high-growth consumer retail business where she led the expansion strategy. She is passionate about leveraging her platform to help disruptive small businesses scale across Africa.
EVENT ATTENDANCE
Our team spends an immense amount of time creating and curating our weekly events. We would like to encourage a culture of commitment and follow through. Please note that participants who register but do not attend without prior notice will be blacklisted from future events. Should you no longer be able to attend the event, please change your RSVP status, which you are able to link to on your emailed ticket.
We look forward to welcoming you to Innovation City and appreciate your cooperation and understanding.