Africa Startup Ecosystem Builders Summit and Awards

Every celebrated startup stands on infrastructure that rarely appears in the photograph.

Before the funding announcement, there was someone who prepared the founder for the room.

Before the first customer, there was someone who made the introduction.

Before the policy changed, the innovation hub opened, the accelerator launched or the market became accessible, there were people doing the slow and often invisible work of building the conditions in which entrepreneurship could succeed.

Africa celebrates founders, funding rounds and exits. Yet the people and institutions carrying the ecosystems behind those achievements are often underfunded, professionally misunderstood and recognised only when the systems they hold together begin to fail.

ASEB was created to change that.

The Africa Startup Ecosystem Builders Summit & Awards, known as ASEB, is the continent’s flagship gathering and recognition platform for the people and institutions building the environments in which African entrepreneurs, startups and innovators can succeed.

Often described as the Oscars of Africa’s Startup Ecosystem Builders, ASEB does not recognise visibility alone. It recognises the work behind the visibility. The mentors, investors, innovation hubs, accelerators, incubators, universities, researchers, policymakers, funders, corporate partners, service providers and community builders whose contributions make entrepreneurship possible.

ASEB 2026 takes place from 20 to 22 October 2026 at Alexander Forbes in Sandton, Johannesburg.

This fifth anniversary edition is a homecoming.

ASEB began in Johannesburg in 2022, travelled to Nairobi in 2023, Accra in 2024 and Addis Ababa in 2025. It now returns to the city where the journey began, carrying five years of continental stories, relationships, lessons and recognition.

The 2026 edition follows a continental selection process that received 1,786 nominations from 52 African countries. From this field, only 145 finalists were selected across 29 award categories.

But ASEB 2026 is not simply where awards are presented.

It is where Africa confronts an uncomfortable truth.

We cannot keep demanding stronger startups while neglecting the systems surrounding them. We cannot expect ecosystem builders to create opportunities without resources, support founders without support themselves, connect institutions that remain fragmented and continue carrying work that is rarely recognised as a profession.

Across three days, ASEB 2026 will bring together practitioners, investors, policymakers, researchers, institutions, development partners and recognised ecosystem leaders to examine what is weakening African startup ecosystems, develop practical responses and build relationships that continue beyond the event.

20 October 2026 will confront the systems, policies, infrastructure gaps, duplicated interventions and hidden costs that founders and ecosystem builders continue to carry.

21 October 2026 will move from diagnosis to action through institutional dialogue, regional conversations, collaborative sessions and practical solution building. The evening will culminate in the ASEB 2026 Awards Ceremony, where Africa will honour the people and institutions whose work has strengthened its entrepreneurial ecosystems.

22 October 2026 will offer a curated Johannesburg ecosystem experience, giving participants the opportunity to encounter the city’s innovation landscape, deepen relationships and explore future collaboration.

ASEB 2026 is an invitation to enter the room, contribute experience, build continental relationships and help shape ecosystem building as a recognised practice and profession across Africa.

Because the future of African entrepreneurship will not be built by founders alone.

It will be built by the people who make it possible for founders to begin, survive and grow.

Welcome to ASEB 2026.

The Oscars of Africa’s Startup Ecosystem Builders.

Alexander Forbes

Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa

20 to 22 October 2026

www.asebs.com

www.asebsociety.org