By Folajimi Daodu, CEO, Vault Hill & Founder, Safira
Leave Riyadh in the morning. Deliver an AI masterclass by noon in Dubai to a group of bright-eyed Slovenian startup founders. Jump on a return flight. Land back in Riyadh in time to host 22 speakers at LEAP 2025, one of the world’s biggest tech stages. All in less than 24 hours.
It sounds unreal—but for those of us building across Africa and the Middle East, it’s often the reality. We don’t have the luxury of one market or one time zone. We operate at the intersection of ecosystems, cultures, currencies—and most importantly, opportunities.
That’s why I believe in platforms like South Summit. It isn’t just a gathering of investors and startups. It’s one of the few places in the world where innovation from emerging markets is seen not as “inspiration” but as infrastructure for the future.
Why South Summit Matters Now More Than Ever
I’ve attended a lot of global tech events. Some have prestige. Others have power. But few have the kind of connective energy I’ve seen at South Summit—where a Moroccan climate tech founder can share space with a Norwegian VC, and a Nigerian blockchain startup sits next to a Spanish foodtech innovator.
South Summit is not a stage. It’s a meeting point.
Not a podium for polished pitches, but a platform for meaningful exchange.
Here’s why that matters:
In Africa and the Middle East, the next billion users aren’t theoretical—they’re real people. They’re young, mobile, digital-first, and tired of waiting for imported solutions. They want homegrown answers to local problems—and many of those answers are already being built.
Take Wyre, for example—an African energy tech company deploying sustainable power management systems across communities. Or Sommalife, a social enterprise out of Ghana using AI and mobile wallets to empower rural farmers with transparent incomes and digital identity. They came third at the Entrepreneurship World Cup in Saudi Arabia last November—and their model is now inspiring a new generation of tech-for-good solutions.
These are not side-stage companies. They belong on the main stage.
South Summit = Shared Language, Shared Ambition
What I love most about South Summit is the intentional collision of different worlds.
You have European corporates meeting African founders.
Latin American unicorns exchanging notes with Saudi regulators.
Student entrepreneurs learning from policy veterans.
This isn’t innovation for the sake of optics—it’s innovation through action.
I was honoured to be a speaker at the first-ever South Summit South Korea in September 2024. I spoke on stage about leadership and AI. Then—true to South Summit style—I found myself in a shuttle bus having deep-impact conversations with the Managing Director of the IE University Foundation, followed by an evening reception with the Spanish Ambassador to South Korea.
None of that was planned. But all of it was possible because of South Summit. That’s the magic—it creates the space, you just have to show up with purpose.
In Riyadh, we took that same spirit and launched Safira, an events and innovation platform connecting African and Middle Eastern ecosystems. Not as a side project, but as a serious play to rewire how emerging markets engage globally.
My Message to Innovators and Visionaries Headed to Madrid
Don’t go to South Summit to be seen.
Go to be challenged.
Go to meet your co-founder, investor, regulator, or first global partner.
Go because the world is changing—and you want to be in the room where that change is being designed, debated, and deployed.
If you’re building from Lagos, Riyadh, Accra, Tunis, Casablanca, or Cape Town, South Summit is your place too.
And if you’re an investor, policymaker, or tech leader curious about where the next billion-dollar companies will come from—hint: look south. Look east. Look again.
We’ll be there.
