Through a series of developer meetups, Infobip came to the front of technological transformation in Africa

Meetups are an increasingly popular form of acquiring knowledge and events perfect for networking with people with similar interests. They are organized to bring people together based on their preferences for specific interests or technologies, while the atmosphere is generally more relaxed than at conferences.

Croatian unicorn Infobip organized a series of developer meetups in the USA last year. In addition, Infobip organized several successful meetups for developers in Lagos (Nigeria) and Accra (Ghana), and this year they launched a series of meetups across Africa. As part of the first Infobip Connect tour, meetups were held in Accra (Ghana), Nairobi (Kenya), Cairo (Egypt), and Casablanca (Morocco) in the first half of February 2023, attracting an impressive crowd.

For more than a decade, Infobip has been the leader in its business segment on the propulsive African continent, where 19 of the 20 fastest-growing economies in the world are located. The communication services of Infobip are used by Africa’s largest telecommunications companies, banks, fintech companies, and numerous other strong technology companies.

First meetups were held in the USA

Meetups in Africa are part of Infobip’s global initiative of connecting with developer and startup communities worldwide, led by Ivan Burazin, Infobip’s board member for Developer Experience and founder of the Shift Conference, the biggest developer conference in South-East Europe.

After the series of meetups in the USA that started last year, we are happy that we have the opportunity to organize such events in Africa as well. We are also very happy because great turnout at our events in Africa by local developers and startups to whom we presented our solutions and products that can help them in their businesses. We are also pleased with the interest of some Croatian IT companies in our initiatives in Africa, and we will be happy to help them enter the African market.

The leader of Infobip’s initiatives towards developers in Africa and the architect of successful meetups is Marijan Cipcic, who pointed out that the local Infobip offices in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, and Morocco provided great support in the organization of the meetups.

After the successful first tour of the year, which was attended by almost 400 participants, we can’t wait for the next one, which will take place at the end of April and the beginning of May, during which we will organize meetups in Nairobi (Kenya), Kampala (Uganda) and Abidjan (Ivory Coast). As far as we know, Infobip is the only tech company besides Google that continuously organizes such events across Africa.

A bridge for Croatian companies that want to enter the African market

Infobip’s activities in Africa can certainly serve as a bridge for companies from Croatia that want to enter the increasingly attractive African market. Therefore, Infobip’s initiatives towards developers and startups in Africa are supported by Antonio Šeparović, co-founder and director of the financial startup Oradian, and Kristijan Luburić, director of the IT company venITure.

Oradian is inextricably linked to Africa, where we have been successfully operating for years, and in this context, we strongly support Infobip’s engagement among the local developer and startup communities‘‘, says Šeparović while Luburić added: ”Considering that the African market for company venITure is potentially very interesting, we are following Infobip’s activities in Africa and the excellent meetups for developers that they organize there with the special interest.

The startup and developer ecosystem in Africa has been booming in recent years. According to a report by The Disrupt Africa team, 633 African startups secured even more than 3.3 billion US dollars in investments in the past year 2022. By the same report, the total annual funding of African tech startups has grown by more than 1,000% since 2015. In Infobip, they are convinced that its initiatives will help further develop and strengthen the developer and startup ecosystem in Africa.