Monthly RoundUp – September 2026

After the summer break, September brought a new mentor and plenty of activity on both continents. Here's what we've been following.

🤝 Welcome to our new mentor, El Hadji Diop

We're pleased to welcome El Hadji Diop to the Chapter54 mentor network. Based in Senegal, El Hadji has more than 20 years of experience in development finance, working with DFIs and their partners across 18 African countries. He is the Founder and CEO of DevFi Performances and previously served as Regional Director for Central and West Africa at Planet Rating. With his knowledge of the microfinance and DFI sector, and his network across Agence Française de Développement, KfW, the World Bank Group, Enabel and several United Nations organisations, El Hadji becomes our in-house expert on these topics for founders in the programme.

💡 Myriad brings Gabon's microfinance leaders together

After co-hosting the Myriad Mixer with us in Dakar in June, our alumni scaleup Myriad headed to Libreville. For the first time, the team brought together decision-makers from Gabon's main microfinance institutions.

The discussion focused on digitalising the financial sector by starting from the everyday obstacles people face in accessing financial services, then building relevant solutions such as USSD and mobile money with those on the ground.

🍽️ Save the date: Chapter54 Dinner in Stuttgart

Next up is Baden-Württemberg. On 19 October, we're hosting a relaxed dinner at MBG Baden-Württemberg for founders, investors and operators looking beyond Europe for their next growth market. Chapter54 has supported the expansion of companies such as Ledger, OVHcloud and SumUp, and already works with several companies based in the region, including Computomics, EKU Power Drives and Immersight.

📅 19 October 2026 | 17:30
📍 MBG Baden-Württemberg GmbH, Werastr. 15, 70182 Stuttgart

Spots are limited, so email vprevi@partechpartners.com to reserve yours.

If you're a European scaleup weighing Africa as your next market, we'd be glad to hear from you and share what we've learned from the companies we work with.

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