August 6, 2026

On 31st July 2026, Startup Kano officially launched the Africa-Asia Venture Bridge Webinar Series, a new initiative designed to connect African startup ecosystems and select ventures with Asian investors, mentors, and innovation partners. The series was conceived as more than a one-off event; it marks the beginning of a structured pathway that starts with ecosystem visibility and investor dialogue, and is designed to progress toward startup mentorship, investment readiness, and deeper partnership development, eventually feeding into a planned virtual venture studio. Nigeria led the pilot phase as the series’ inaugural country session, with Uganda, Egypt, and Zambia set to follow in the months ahead. Each country session in the series follows the same structure: an ecosystem context briefing, curated startup pitches, an investor perspective, and open discussion on investment support and cross-border collaboration. The Nigeria session, themed “Scaling Innovation from Africa’s Largest Entrepreneurial Market,” 55 people registered within one week for the session and 43 attended the full 90-minute session, a turnout that reflects genuine interest from founders, ecosystem players, and investors alike. Attendees described the session as educative and engaging, with substantive exchanges continuing well into the Q&A segment. Setting the Tone: Why This Series Exists The session opened with Ahmad Bature, Co-Founder of Startup Kano, framing the purpose of the webinar for participants, explaining that the series was convened to address a persistent gap in African innovation: founders across the continent are building real, tested solutions every day, but too often lack the visibility, partnerships, and investor access needed to scale beyond their home markets. Ahmad set the context for why a structured Africa-Asia dialogue, rather than a one-off pitch event, was the right vehicle to begin closing that gap. He then handed over to Aida Isah El-Hassan, Managing Director of Startup Kano, to deliver the official welcome address. Aida welcomed participants joining from across Nigeria, other African countries, and Asia, describing the moment as a reflection of a shared belief that innovation thrives when ecosystems connect, collaborate, and create opportunities beyond borders. She noted that what many African founders need most isn’t more ideas, but greater visibility, stronger partnerships, and access to new markets and investors, which is why this series was created. She framed the Venture Bridge as Startup Kano’s effort to bring together African innovators, ecosystem leaders, investors, and strategic partners to exchange ideas, build relationships, and open doors for collaboration, expressing hope that the session would mark the beginning of many meaningful, lasting partnerships between Africa and Asia rather than a single isolated engagement.Aida also took a moment to specially acknowledge Jun Kojima, Director of Ant Capital, Japan, thanking him for his collaboration, trust, and commitment in helping bring this initiative to life. She closed her remarks by thanking the ecosystem partners, speakers, startup founders, and every participant who made the session possible, before handing back to Ahmad to guide the rest of the program. Country Ecosystem Briefing: Nigeria’s Digital Innovation Landscape Delivering the Country Ecosystem Briefing, a 15-minute segment placed immediately after the opening, was Victoria Fabunmi, National Coordinator of the Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI) under NITDA. Her participation was specifically requested to add institutional credibility and policy perspective to the session, giving Asian investors, mentors, and strategic partners a grounded overview of Nigeria’s innovation landscape, ecosystem strengths, policy environment, and emerging opportunities.Victoria brings over 15 years of experience across venture capital, private equity, and startup ecosystem development to the role. Before joining ONDI, she was an Investment Principal at Atlantica Ventures, where she led investment readiness programs and supported innovation hubs across the continent. She has also co-founded three successful technology-enabled businesses, giving her a rare combined vantage point as policymaker, investor, and founder. Her briefing touched on Nigeria’s startup and digital innovation ecosystem, key sectors and opportunity areas relevant to investors, recent policy and institutional developments supporting startup growth, the role of public and private ecosystem actors in enabling innovation, and why Nigeria as Africa’s largest entrepreneurial market is positioned as a natural anchor for Africa-Asia startup collaboration. The session’s focus areas of mobility, commerce, enterprise technology, creative economy, and climate innovation were reflected directly in the lineup of startups featured later in the program. The Investor Perspective: A View from Asia Representing the Asian investor community was Jun Kojima, Director at ANT Capital, Japan, a key partner in bringing the Venture Bridge series to life alongside Startup Kano. Jun brings extensive cross-border investment experience across private equity, venture capital, and portfolio management, with a career spanning leadership roles at Golden Egg Ventures, DG Ventures, Japan Post Capital, Manulife, and Visa Worldwide. He holds a B.A. from the University of Sydney and a Master’s degree from the University of Technology Sydney. His session offered participants a candid, practitioner’s view of what Asian investors look for when evaluating African ventures: the diligence priorities, market signals, and partnership structures that matter most from a cross-border investment standpoint. As co-creator of the series, Jun’s presence also underscored that the Venture Bridge isn’t a one-directional showcase, but a genuine two-way exchange built jointly by African and Asian partners from the outset. Startups in the Spotlight Five Nigerian startups pitched during the showcase segment, spanning minerals, robotics, energy, developer infrastructure, and mobility, a deliberate cross-section reflecting the session’s stated focus areas: GenesysOne: Founded by Ubaid Sulaiman, GenesysOne is building a platform to turn Africa’s fragmented mineral supply into verified, traceable, export-ready inventory. Using blockchain-backed Digital Product Passports with GPS origin data, lab assays, ESG scoring, and carbon footprint tracking, the company addresses a systemic trust gap in global mineral supply chains. Miners currently lose 40-60% of potential value due to lack of price transparency and market access, while buyers face unverifiable origins and regulatory exposure. The company has $2M in lifetime offline GMV, a copper pilot running in Tanzania, four MOUs with large-scale mining companies, and four LOIs worth $8M in its pipeline. GenesysOne is raising SGD 500K in pre-seed funding. Dalton: Founded by Yaseer Abdussalam and Jacob Gill, Dalton is building what