Thematic Lunch: Travel & Tourism

Africa is increasingly emerging as a dynamic player in the global sports arena. In recent years, African athletes have gained international recognition, and African sports federations have shown significant promise. This panel aims will delve into the challenges and opportunities within the African sports ecosystem, shedding light on unleashing talent, institutionalizing the appropriate infrastructure through smart investments and the path towards sports globalization. This panel will present viewpoints from across the sports ecosystem in Africa, including investors, operators, and former athletes.

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Although Entrepreneurship through Acquisition (ETA)— where entrepreneurs search for and acquire stable, cash-flow positive businesses to grow them over time—is growing in popularity across North America, few “search funds” have been established in Africa. Indeed, there has been limited data to support the case for investing in African search funds and the benefits of this novel asset class. 

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Still, ETA remains uniquely positioned to unlock value, attract talent, and accelerate the growth and development of SMEs—particularly family businesses—across the continent. This panel will focus on three key questions: 

(1) Is Africa ripe for the growth of search funds? 

(2) How can the traditional search fund model be adapted to work in/for the African context? 

(3) What other models can we leverage to see more African ETAs? 

(4) Share some success stories and what we can learn from them.

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The sponsor informational lunch will include a company presentation and the opportunity to connect with some of the company's executives.

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