CES 2025 CELEBRATES LAUNCH OF INAUGURAL AFRICA PAVILION WITH AFRICAN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ECOSYSTEM PARTNERS
Elias Jabbe attended and photographed the 2025 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show – referred to by organizer Consumer Technology Association as “The Most Powerful Tech Event in the World” – launched in Las Vegas on January 7, 2025.
The 2025 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show – referred to by organizer Consumer Technology Association as “The Most Powerful Tech Event in the World” – launched in Las Vegas on January 7, 2025.
Among the 4,500 global exhibitors that prepared to welcome around 140,000 international visitors in Nevada until January 10, the inaugural Africa Pavilion shined as an example of international collaboration and support of the startup ecosystem across the African continent.
Over the course of several days, startup founders and investors shared their insights through pitches, live broadcasts and panels that were held in the Eureka Park section of CES featuring international exhibitors and interviews with radio and television stations. The full agenda and list of startups pitching is available at africa-pavilion.com as well as on the Africa Pavilion section of the CES 2025 website.
Communicate Online conducted several interviews at the African Pavilion following a ribbon cutting ceremony that was attended by CTA President Kinsey Fabrizio, CTA Vice President John Kelley and African Pavilion founder Easy Show Morocco as well as partners Morocco NOW, Manos Capital, University Mohammed VI Polytechnic and Equality Partners.
According to Easy Show Morocco CEO Lamia Aamou, founder of the African Pavilion alongside Aminata Bassene and Jessica Chin Foo, CES 2025 was the ideal time to finally establish a space for Africa’s rising startup ecosystem in a collaborative manner.
“During my 15 years of attending CES, I noticed that the African startups were not situated in one space. Driven by the vision I had that was inspired by Africa’s villages, I wanted to create a pavilion with a village where experts from various African countries can showcase their expertise. Each tribe historically specialized in certain areas and offered unique contributions to local marketplaces: our idea for Africa Pavillion involved this approach in a modern era,” said Aamou.
“We found that the vision of His Majesty Mohammed VI is oriented towards the African continent and South-South trade, which helped us become partners with our neighbors and Morocco Now. Our Africa Pavilion team launched in February 2024 is led by women: we have Morocco, Senegal, Cameroon, Mali, Rwanda and Togo represented initially within our collective for CES 2025,” added Aamou.The effort to create a larger space for Africa’s technology ecosystem at CES 2026 is already being planned by Aaamou, who is an active member of an organization called Maroc de Demain that unites Moroccan thought leaders around the world.
Impactful Investments
The rapidly evolving digital ecosystem that was the theme of the 2025 CES theme “Dive In” was on full display at Africa Pavilion events held within the Venetian Convention and Expo Center and nearby at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The theme of globalization was prominent at this year’s CES which expected 50,000 international visitors who learned about upcoming 2025 trends at those venues and others throughout Las Vegas.
The global impact of Artificial Intelligence – alluded to in the CES 2025 theme to encourage attendees to further their knowledge of last year’s AI theme – was also acknowledged by Africa Pavilion organizers.
“In regards to investment nowadays, everyone is turning to AI. However, AI is not a tool, it’s a strategy. Thanks to AI it is now possible to create customizable customer journeys at scale,” said Equality Partners CEO Mounir Douiou, an investor who served as an Africa Pavilion video production coordinator alongside Paris-based partner VALYU.
“In today’s challenging financial climate, investors want to invest in companies that are already having success with signing on clients.”
Building the future digital ecosystem
University Mohammed VI Polytechnic President Hicham El Habti traveled from the innovation-focused campus in Benguerir near Marrakech in order to speak on several African Pavilion panels. Along with his colleagues visiting from the campus abbreviated as UM6P, El Habti hosted events at both the Venetian Expo and the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Following his keynote which elaborated on the importance of strategic partnerships – “Advancing Entrepreneurship and Accelerating Scientific Innovation in Morocco and Africa” – El Habti shared a preview of 2025 initiatives led by UM6P on campus and globally.
“When we started, we had to build a community of researchers from Morocco and other African countries. We were happy to attract experts from the Moroccan diaspora and wider African diaspora. Our main asset is our students: 7,000 students are in our programs. 3,600 students are involved in software coding and our curriculum encourages taking on entrepreneurship as a mindset instead of just looking for a job after graduating,” said El Habti.
“60 percent of Africa’s population is young. We want to enable the youth to utilize these technologies.”
El Habti added that 2025 will include UM6P plans to explore opportunities to deepen previous collaborations with UAE-based GITEX in Marrakech and several global tech ecosystem leaders.
“We are not just focused on Morocco: we are open to innovation from all over the world.
Following the launch of our startup campus StartGate and partnerships we signed with Plug And Play and MIT Sandbox, we are hosting our second annual Deep Tech Summit in May 2025. UM6P is also announcing our latest partnership: Station F in Paris is where we will have our own space by the end of January 2025. This will allow Moroccan startups to benefit from the Station F ecosystem in Paris while also helping accelerate entry to Morocco’s market.”
Las Vegas and beyond
The conclusion of CES 2025 and the first edition of the Africa Pavilion emphasized the importance of looking to the future.
Along with tours of the African Pavilion given by groups including Paris-based digital think tank HUB Institute, the upcoming generation of leaders was highlighted.
In addition to the final day of CES featuring a Youth Pitch Session organized by KESKI'A Consulting – featuring pitches by Paris-based startup founders Rahma Cheikh, Selma Rhanim and Manassé Lumbu – the future of emerging technology was analyzed.
Yassine Laghzioui, who serves as both Director of Entrepreneurship and Venturing at UM6P and CEO of UM6P Ventures, shared milestones of the progress of Africa’s technology ecosystem.
Following a panel in which he discussed national investment with Moroccan Investment and Export Development Agency CEO Ali Seddiki, Laghzioui spoke about the role of UM6P as a catalyst on the African continent.
After participating in the first edition of Dubai World Trade Center-based GITEX held internationally, Laghzioui’s team is planning to follow up GITEX Africa in Marrakech with another global gathering.
UM6P is hosting the second annual DeepTech Summit on its Benguerir campus on May 8-9, with this year’s edition tackling how AI is transforming deep tech innovation. Following investments in deep tech and digital transformation that brought global startup founders to its campus, UM6P is aiming to further inspire international collaboration at the DTS Summit following 1,500 attendees from 30 nationalities attending the 2024 edition.
“Over the past four years, we’ve launched more than 17 such initiatives, spanning everything from entrepreneurial mindset training to full-scale acceleration. As a result, we’ve helped more than 850 startups and early-stage projects get off the ground. The top 40 among those startups succeeded in raising more than $60 million collectively and creating jobs—all while serving as role models for future entrepreneurs,” said Laghzioui.
“Still, we realized that incubation and acceleration alone aren’t enough. That’s why we created UM6P Ventures, one of Morocco’s leading pre-seed and early-stage venture capital firms. It has invested in more than 30 startups worldwide, with 70 percent being led by Moroccan entrepreneurs.”
As Morocco prepares for the international spotlight as the host of events such as the 2030 World Cup, the closing speech at African Pavilion delivered by Aamou summarized the historic week’s message.
“‘Africa is the future’ is a saying of the past: Africa is today.”
