Legazy returned to the 2017 Web Summit after having attempted to purchase a Web Summit conference in 2016 with $1million letter of intent. Legazy founded by Zuko Tisani one of the world’s top 350 entrepreneurs under the age of 26, according to the Kairos Society, arrived in Lisbon with Africa’s largest TMT company Telkom and their executives prepared to purchase a Web Summit conference to be hosted in South Africa for the next 3-years.
The deal went cold when both parties couldn’t come to an agreement on the numbers. Zuko’s relationship with Web Summit began earlier that year when he attended the Rise conference in Hong Kong and with platinum band was treated to Web Summit’s hospitality and had dinner discussions with the founder of Web Summit Paddy Cosgrave and other tech giants Dave McClure from 500 Startups. It was at dinner where the offer of $1million was given to Zuko.
Instead of giving up on the hopes of bringing the tech world to Africa, Legazy pivoted and took the largest African delegation to the tech world. Twenty startups and two of their board of investors, one being Lebo Gunguluza, South African judge on Dragons Den (networth est. $20mil) and Stephen Newton Former CEO Naspers e-Commerce and Google Africa.
Of the twenty startups that exhibited at the Web Summit, most of the South African entrepreneurs were funded by Standard Bank, Africa’s largest bank and major partner of Legazy. Because Zuko sits on the advisory board of the Chamber of Commerce of Lisbon and South Africa so was able to give intimate engagement to all startups from Business Leaders in Lisbon, Incubators, VC’s etc.
The stories that have come from the entrepreneurs selected for the excursion are amazing, a lot of them had left South Africa only for the first time because of the Web Summit sponsorship. Some of the wins involve upwards of $300,000 in investment (term sheet stage).
Incubation offers to Startup Boot camp London. Partnership with Portuguese bank BNI Banco for one of the Fintechs and valuable connections made for expansion. Startup Lisboa will be incubating a South African startup in February to April 2018.
Legazy continues its pursuit on locking down a major international conference partner for 2018 in South Africa, the market and interest is there to grow the community and improve the ecosystem, from last year’s $1million USD Letter of Intent it seems that the budget is there though too.
Legazy which mainly focuses on sourcing investment-ready startups and getting brokering seed investments from its large pool of investors hopes to be the needed gateway for the world to recognize Africa for its beauty and talent.
