Over the last few years, I’ve watched Africa’s investment landscape go through wild swings. Capital flooded in during the boom years, cooled sharply as global markets tightened, and is now slowly recalibrating around climate, resilient business models, and real impact rather than just growth-at-all-costs. In this kind of cycle, where and how investors choose to show up in the ecosystem matters more than ever.

Later this month, one of the most interesting places to show up will be Sankalp Africa Summit 2026, happening at the Sarit Expo Centre in Nairobi on 25–26 February 2026. It’s the 13th edition of a summit that has, over time, become a serious marketplace for ideas, capital, and impact-first entrepreneurship across the continent.

This isn’t “just another conference” with endless panels and soft networking. Sankalp is deliberately structured as a working room for investors and ecosystem builders who are actually allocating capital across comparable markets in Africa and the wider Global South. 

This year’s summit is being curated with notable partners like Energy Catalyst, Ashden, Manufacturing Africa, FSD Uganda, GIZ and TNO. Its a chance to meet Africa’s next generation of scalable and sustainable startups with innovation and impact embedded at the heart of their business.

Why Sankalp Matters for Investors in 2026

Let’s start with the basics.

Over two days, Sankalp Africa Summit 2026 is expected to bring together 1,000+ delegates, including 400+ startups from 50+ countries, 200+ investors, and 150+ global leaders from the Global South, all under one roof at the Sarit Expo Centre. That’s a dense concentration of capital, pipeline, and ecosystem knowledge in a single venue in Westlands, Nairobi.

The programme is intentionally geared towards investors and ecosystem builders:

• Action-oriented discussions and high-level plenaries
• Sector-focused tracks, so you’re not drowning in generic content
• Closed-door roundtables where real issues get unpacked
• Live Deal Rooms and curated investor–enterprise meetings focused on capital deployment, risk, and scale

If you’re actively building a portfolio in Africa or trying to understand where to place your next bets in climate, agri, fintech, or other impact sectors, having that many relevant people in the same physical space for 48 hours is invaluable. You can’t get this kind of density of investors, founders, and ecosystem partners on Zoom.

“South–South Rising”: Why the Theme Actually Matters

This year’s theme is “South–South Rising: Building Bold Futures Together.” It’s not just a tagline.

For the longest time, African founders and funds relied heavily on capital and ideas coming from the Global North. That’s changing. We’re seeing more capital emerging from the Global South itself — Latin America, India, Southeast Asia, and of course across Africa — where investors understand what it means to operate in volatile, under-infrastructured markets and still build resilient businesses.

Sankalp leans into this shift. The summit’s sector focus reads like a map of where the continent’s real battles (and opportunities) are right now:

• Agriculture & Food Systems — From smallholder productivity to value chain digitization and climate-smart agriculture.
• Climate & Adaptation — Everything from clean energy access to resilience solutions for cities and rural communities.
• Healthcare — Access, affordability, and tech-enabled service delivery, particularly for underserved populations.
• Gender — Investing with a gender lens is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s core to how funds are structuring their theses.
• Circularity & Creative Economy — New business models around waste, recycling, culture, and content that are both commercially and socially powerful.
• Financial Inclusion — Still the backbone of African innovation, from fintech to embedded finance.

If you connect the dots, you realize this is less about “hot sectors” and more about a portfolio view of Africa’s next decade: climate, inclusion, and resilience as the spine of investable opportunities.

The Investor Bench: Who’s in the Room?

One of the easiest ways to judge an event is to look at who is actually committing the time to be there.

Sankalp Africa Summit 2026 is pulling in a broad mix of investors and ecosystem builders — from impact funds to DFIs, family offices, accelerators, and catalytic capital providers. Names you’ll see in Nairobi include Aavishkaar Capital, Novastar Ventures, FSD Uganda, DOB Equity, Norfund, Chandaria Capital, Rabo Foundation, elea Foundation, Village Capital, and Catalyst Fund. 

This is just a slice of the full list. The point isn’t to name-drop; it’s to underline that this is where you’ll find serious investors who have been writing cheques into African markets for years, alongside newer players looking to learn, co-invest, and build pipelines.

If you’re an investor, this is where you meet your peers, potential co-investors, and high-quality founders. If you’re a founder, this is where you meet decision-makers who can move the needle on your next round, not just analysts collecting business cards.

From Talk-Shop to Deal Room

A lot of events promise “deal flow” and “networking”. Sankalp takes it a step further by building deal mechanics into the programme itself.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

LIVE pitching sessions
Entrepreneurs will be pitching during the ASCEND programme and the popular Climate Deal Room. If you’re focused on climate or impact, this is one of the fastest ways to scan a curated pipeline of ventures already doing serious work on the ground.

Curated roundtables
These aren’t fluffy “future of X” conversations. Topics include:

• Managing exits in African markets
• Climate adaptation finance and blended structures
• Impact measurement that goes beyond buzzwords

Circular economy and new business models
The value here is peer-to-peer, investor-to-investor learning. You hear what’s actually working (and what isn’t) from people with live portfolios on the continent.

Closed-door investor roundtables
These are private sessions on entries and exits, blended finance, and adaptation capital, where people can speak candidly without worrying about quotes landing on social media five minutes later.

Live Deal Rooms
This is where things get really interesting. The Deal Rooms are set up as working spaces for investors and enterprises to dig into deals, structures, risks, and opportunities in real time. If you’ve ever walked out of a conference thinking “Great talks, but where are the deals?”, this is the antidote.

All sessions are designed as working rooms for investors who are actively allocating capital. Roundtables are capped, and pipeline is curated. This is not meant to be a passive spectator sport.

Who Should Be in the Room (and Who Probably Shouldn’t)

Let me be honest.

If you’re just looking for a selfie with a few VC logos in the background, Sankalp probably isn’t for you.

However, if any of the following describes you, then you should seriously consider being there:

• You’re an investor or fund manager actively deploying (or about to deploy) into African markets and want to deepen your pipeline, co-investor network, and understanding of where capital is really needed.
• You’re an ecosystem builder — accelerator, incubator, foundation, development partner — looking for partners, co-design opportunities, and real visibility for your portfolio.
• You’re a founder or leadership team member of a startup in agri, climate, health, fintech, gender lens, circularity, or creative economy, and you’re ready to have serious conversations with investors about scale.

If you’re only attending to sit quietly in the back of the room, tick a box, and go back to business as usual on Monday, you’ll get limited value. Sankalp works best if you come with:

• A clear agenda (e.g., “I want to explore climate adaptation deals between USD 250K–2M”, or “I’m looking for gender-lens co-investors in East Africa”).
• A partner, colleague, or portfolio founder with you, so you can split sessions and maximise coverage.
• A willingness to lean into working sessions, not just plenaries.

How to Get the Most Out of Sankalp Africa Summit 2026

If you decide to attend, here are a few practical tips from my side:

1. Book your meetings early
   Don’t wait until you’re at the Sarit Expo Centre to start asking who’s around. Use the delegates list (once available), your existing network, and the Sankalp team to line up key 1:1s, especially with funds and founders you’ve been meaning to meet.
2. Pick your tracks ruthlessly
   As so much will be happening — plenary sessions, roundtables, pitch sessions, Deal Rooms — it’s easy to spread yourself too thin. Decide upfront which sectors and activities matter most for your thesis and prioritise those.
3. Use Deal Rooms and roundtables as your anchor
   Plenaries are useful for macro perspectives, but the real value (and signal) tends to sit in smaller rooms where you can ask specific questions, share challenges, and explore actual collaborations.
4. Bring a portfolio company leader
   If you’re an investor, consider attending with a founder from your portfolio who’s ready for exposure, feedback, and possibly follow-on interest. Sankalp is a strong platform for them as much as it is for you.

Join Me in Nairobi — With a Little Perk

I’ll be on the ground at Sankalp Africa Summit 2026 at the Sarit Expo Centre, Nairobi, on 25–26 February 2026, taking in the conversations, meeting founders, and engaging with investors who are serious about deploying capital in Africa’s next chapter.

If you’re planning to attend, there’s a small bonus I can offer:

Use the code MOSES10 to get 10% off your registration.

You can register online here: Sankalp Africa Summit 2026

Or, if you prefer to talk to a human being, simply call 0716 227 777 and use the reference “MOSES” when you register.

If you’re actively building businesses or deploying capital in Africa, this is one of those events that can compress months of meetings and conversations into two very busy — but very productive — days. I’ll be there. If this is your space, you probably should be too.