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The inaugural edition of Entertainment Week Africa (EWA) has concluded its four-day Deal Room programme on a strong note, positioning the platform as a serious catalyst for mature investment across Africa’s creative and technology ecosystems.
Held from November 19 to 22, the Deal Room was anchored on the theme “Closing the Gap” and brought together high-growth African startups, investors and industry mentors with a clear focus on building investment-ready businesses.
This year’s Deal Room recorded a noticeable leap in quality and preparedness among participating startups.
Mentors worked closely with founders to refine value propositions, strengthen core business fundamentals and sharpen investor-facing strategies.
Out of the 10 startups initially selected, eight successfully completed the programme and pitched to investors, securing follow-up meetings and attracting significant interest.
Kemdi Ebi, Co-Founder and CEO of EnterFive Inc. and Lead Mentor for the Deal Room, described the cohort as a major step forward.
He noted that compared to previous editions, founders arrived more prepared and intentional, with clearer paths to sustainability and scale.
He also highlighted the emergence of new sectors such as art-tech and sports-tech, which added fresh momentum to the programme.
According to him, some startups entered the Deal Room with existing commitments and exited with new investment or partnership opportunities.
The participating companies demonstrated strong traction across multiple sectors. Aktivate, a creator marketing platform, has generated over $91,000 in revenue and processed more than $740,000 in gross merchandise value, while FriendnPal, Africa’s first predictive multilingual AI mental-health platform, has delivered over 10,000 therapy sessions and intercepted 70 suicide crises.
Growwr, an AI-powered hiring platform, recorded $170,000 in total revenue and is preparing to scale into the US market, while Sports Reels continues to expand athlete discovery with over 2,300 users.
Other high-potential startups refining for scale included Hafrikplay, a Pan-African music streaming and distribution platform with over 100,000 users, and Prop’ly, Nigeria’s largest prop-rental platform serving hundreds of productions annually.
Atsur, an art-tech startup leveraging AI and blockchain to secure artwork provenance, also gained attention as it seeks pre-seed funding to drive institutional adoption.
The success of the Deal Room reflects growing momentum within Africa’s creative-tech ecosystem, supported by investors such as Future Africa, Askya Investment Partners, Catalyst Fund and Consonance Invest.
EWA Founder, Deola Art Alade, reaffirmed the long-term vision of the festival, stating that Entertainment Week Africa aims to become a key part of the city’s economic, intellectual and artistic capital.
With strong outcomes from its first edition, Entertainment Week Africa is already looking ahead. The next edition is scheduled for November 17 to 22, 2026, with plans for expanded pan-African programming and continued commitment to scaling Africa’s creative industries.
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