At the upcoming Africa Forward Summit, taking place in Nairobi on May 11th and 12th, the Nova Garage initiative asserts itself as a continental platform dedicated to African entrepreneurship and innovation, with a clear ambition: to bring forth a generation of projects capable of making an impact on regional and international markets.
By hosting the first edition of Nova Garage in May 2026, Nairobi confirms its role as a hub of African innovation at the heart of Silicon Savannah, an ecosystem that has become one of the most dynamic on the continent thanks to its hundreds of startups and strong concentration of fintech, cleantech, and agritech actors.
Under the high patronage of the President of the Republic of Kenya and supported jointly by the French-African Foundation, the Autonomous Advancement Initiative, and the Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora, Nova Garage aligns with this momentum. This initiative positions itself as a space for continental convergence, aimed at supporting the most promising initiatives led by African entrepreneurs and members of the diaspora.
The application campaign will select fifteen entrepreneurs to present their projects on May 11, 2026, alongside the Africa Forward Summit, in front of an audience composed of investors, business leaders, public institutions, and international entrepreneurial ecosystem actors.
“We have spent decades talking about the future of Africa. Perhaps it is time to make room for those who are actually building it.”
– Dr. Abraham Korir Sing’Oei, Kenyan Minister of Foreign Affairs
An acceleration program supported by institutional and strategic actors
Nova Garage relies on close cooperation between leading institutional and economic actors. This synergy helps structure a reinforced support system designed to bring forth and accelerate high-impact projects. Specifically, entrepreneurs benefit from facilitated access to technical, financial, and strategic resources, as well as high-level sector expertise.
The ambition is clear: to transform promising ideas into strong companies capable of scaling up. Through in-depth operational support and direct connections with international decision-makers and investors gathered at the Africa Forward summit, Nova Garage aims to create the conditions for a true scaling-up for a new generation of African entrepreneurs.
A continental dynamic driven by a generation of entrepreneurs on the move
Beyond its Kenyan roots, Nova Garage is part of a broader dynamic: that of an African innovation now structured, ambitious, and resolutely focused on impact.
A new generation of entrepreneurs is emerging, less in an adaptation logic than in a creation logic, developing original solutions rooted in local realities and designed from the outset for scaling up.
This evolution is accompanied by a gradual transformation of innovation ecosystems across the continent, where exchanges between technological hubs are multiplying, fostering the emergence of synergies between cities and countries and contributing to the consolidation of an increasingly integrated economic innovation space.
Open applications: an opportunity to seize
Applications are open until April 23 and are aimed at African entrepreneurs under 35 with a structured project, an existing product, and a growth ambition.
Joining Nova Garage will allow selected entrepreneurs to access a strategic space for visibility, connections, and acceleration, in direct contact with the actors shaping the continent’s economy.
👉 Apply: https://www.novagarage.africa/
