Monthly Round-Up- April 2025

This month, we’re bringing you a special edition of the Chapter54 roundup - focused on the 3rd edition of the Chapter54 Summit, which took place at the end of March in Paris.

🤝 Held at Bpifrance Le Hub, the event brought together 150+ entrepreneurs, operators, investors, and ecosystem leaders from across Africa and Europe for a high-energy, deeply insightful day of exchange, connection, and candid conversation.

🌍 Three expert roundtables tackled the fundamentals of business growth in Africa: how to expand (and contract) across diverse geographies; how to acquire customers at scale as a startup or unicorn; and how to build effective partnerships with large corporates. Real-world experience took center stage, with insights from Vezeeta’s Chief Corporate Development Officer, Choucri Asmar; The Africa Talent Company (TATC)’s CEO, Hilda Kabushenga; Moniepoint’s VP of Corporate Affairs, Edidiong Uwemakpan; FieldPro’s Co-Founder, Paul Langlois-Meurinne; Ann Gitao , Vice President for Marketing at Vivo Energy, and Universal Music Africa’s General Manager, Franck-Alcide Kacou. They shared perspectives on everything from the cost of exiting markets to the importance of getting your product right before scaling.

🗣️ We also heard from Chapter54’s own Scaleups, with BUKU’s Jeff van der Laan sharing his journey, and from leading investors like Bpifrance’s Elodie Doussa, and KfW’s Johannes Scholl - who offered on-the-ground insights into what scale really looks like and made the case for long-term, collaborative investment across the continent. It was a powerful reminder of what’s possible when Europe and Africa come together not just to talk, but to build.

As our Chapter54 Scaleups know, scaling in Africa is about more than just business - it takes vision, grit, and a whole lot of perseverance. That’s why we closed the Summit with a special guest: renowned Moroccan pianist Nour Ayadi. She shared her incredible journey and reminded us how resilience, discipline, and ambition are just as key to success as any strategy. On that inspirational note, we ended the day with a lively networking cocktail.

Definitively a Summit by doers, with doers, for doers! Thank you to everyone who joined us, and especially to those who shared their stories and insights. Until 2026!