Starting up, scaling and acquiring start-ups in Africa: A night with Oresti Patricios

Michal Wronski, the founder of Fuseware a powerful digital media monitoring and reputational tool that tracks online media mentions, sentiment and share of voice and enables organisations to track their own or competitor brands. Fuseware was recently acquired by Ornico and this journey of start-up growth to acquisition will form part of a discussion at the event.

Ornico, under the leadership of Oresti Patricios, has thrived in an ever evolving marketplace and saw its fair share of challenges, as all businesses do. In over 30 years of the company's existence, Ornico lived through recessions, competitors rising and falling as well as markets transforming at the blink of an eye. The business continues to grow across Africa, innovate and reinvent itself year after year.

In the 2014 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Report, South Africa showed some of the lowest levels of youth entrepreneurial propensity in Sub-Saharan Africa at 23.3%, with Uganda recording the highest youth entrepreneurial propensity at 55.4%. According to the GEM Report, 26% of South African early-stage entrepreneurs have more than 25% of customers abroad. Apart from South Africa "the highest level of internationalization (more than 25% of customers abroad) is observed among early-stage entrepreneurs in EU economies" according to the 2014 GEM Report.

Patricios is a firm believer in the fact that entrepreneurship can tilt the scales for African economies to become leading global players. He is also a mentor and an investor to various forward-thinking ventures that have the potential to change their chosen industries. It is in this role, as both an investor in start-ups and an entrepreneur who began this journey in the 1980s, that Patricios is passionate about sharing insights and growing businesses.

"As a continent whose economy is on the rise, African entrepreneurs innovate from the need to improve lives - both theirs and those of society in general," Patricios says.

Ornico, similar to other South African businesses that have expanded to the rest of the African continent, cut its teeth building operations in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and partnerships in 11 other African countries that the business has a footprint in. Part of the commonly held assumption amongst both large and small businesses is that the continent is behind and most business models will be a natural fit. This has proven to be an expensive lesson that caused even corporate organisations to close down operations in some parts of the continent.

Join Oresti and iAfrikan to find out what drives Oresti Patricios and find out what his perspective on building in Africa is. Book your tickets to attend on Thursday, 25 June, here: http://www.iafrikan.com/events/