{"id":9125,"date":"2026-06-01T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/01\/bridging-africas-innovation-gap-from-potential-to-power\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T02:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T23:00:00","slug":"bridging-africas-innovation-gap-from-potential-to-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/01\/bridging-africas-innovation-gap-from-potential-to-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridging Africa\u2019s Innovation Gap: From Potential To Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alberto Onetti<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The global innovation economy remains largely defined by agglomeration dynamics. Worldwide, 19 ecosystems dominate the innovation landscape, increasingly concentrating innovation demand (corporates) and supply (scaleups) \u2014 attracting further growth capital (investors).<\/p>\n

\"Alberto
Alberto Onetti, Mind The Bridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile, other ecosystems struggle to achieve a meaningful presence on the global innovation map and are at serious risk of technological disruption and economic downfall.<\/p>\n

Yet something is happening below the surface. Over the past decade, the composition of the Global Innovation Ecosystems Life Cycle Curve changed dramatically, as the number of scaleup ecosystems worldwide has more than doubled.<\/p>\n

The trend is not stopping just here: we expect these figures to even triple in the coming years.<\/p>\n

In this new scenario, emerging innovation economies hold the potential for disrupting the agglomeration paradigm, toward a new scheme of interconnected networks of specialized local innovation hot spots.<\/p>\n

Among them, there is also Africa. While the continent still lacks ecosystems at the most advanced stages of maturity, it now counts four ecosystems at the startup stage and 40 at the standup stage, compared with respectively 25 of those 10 years ago, according to a recent analysis of the African innovation landscape<\/a> by my organization, Mind the Bridge<\/a>, in collaboration with Terna<\/a> and Crunchbase<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Africa: the awakening giant of the coming decade?<\/h2>\n

As of today, Africa\u2019s innovation economy includes 883 tech scaleups that have raised a combined $24.7 billion. Despite this progress, the continent still represents only about 1% of global figures.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The African innovation landscape remains highly concentrated around four main hubs: South Africa, Egypt (North-East), Nigeria (West Africa) and Kenya (East Africa). The North-Western corner of the continent still lacks a dominant hub, although Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria remain the leading candidates.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A testbed for clean technologies?<\/h2>\n

Emerging innovation economies that thrive on the global innovation map typically build on top of highly specialized, unique local strengths.<\/p>\n

Our recent analysis has identified clear evidence that Africa holds significant potential over the development of clean energy systems and technologies.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The relative prominence of the cleantech sector in Africa is evident from the data:<\/p>\n