DUBAI NOVEMBER 1 2022 / EMURGO Middle East & Africa (MEA), an Africa and Middle East-focused entity of EMURGO, a founding member of the Cardano blockchain, today announced the appointment of Ahmed Amer to serve as CEO of EMURGO Africa.
EMURGO Africa is a regional subsidiary of EMURGO MEA. Established in October 2021, EMURGO Africa focuses on driving Cardano adoption across the continent by identifying and investing in local blockchain startups developing socially impactful solutions on the Cardano blockchain. Since its inception, EMURGO Africa has forged strategic partnerships with tech venture-building studio Adanian Labs, and Kepple Africa Ventures, and launched Adaverse – a Cardano-focused tech accelerator in Africa – to invest in 20 regional startups.
In his role, Ahmed will manage and spearhead EMURGO Africa’s expansion and investment, alongside Yosuke Yoshida and Shogo Ishida, co-CEOs of EMURGO MEA.
Ahmed is an experienced investor in frontier tech in Africa, the US, Europe, MENA, and GCC regions. Having managed over USD 80 million in total asset value to date, Ahmed has supported founders and provided investment strategy support and expertise to HNWIs and family offices, financial institutions, DFIs, governments, and Fortune 500s including the IFC, JP Morgan Chase, UNICEF, Saudi’s SAMA/CMA, Morocco’s Ministère de l’Industrie and others. Ahmed has been involved with blockchain since 2013 and has since developed multiparty SaaS and BaaS implementations in digital transformation, fintech, payments, and supply chain solutions leveraging distributed ledger technologies and smart tokens. Prior to joining EMURGO Africa, Ahmed ran a family office in New York City, focused on frontier tech investing in blockchain, AI, ML, XR, drone tech, and robotics investing.
“Drawing from my experience leading EMURGO and driving Cardano adoption from the developed side of the world during my time served as CEO of EMURGO in Japan and CBO of EMURGO Group for the past 5 years, I now see more potential in the emerging markets, especially in the African region. Ahmed’s expertise as an experienced investor in the African region, being involved with blockchain, digital transformation, fintech, payments, and supply chain solutions, will definitely bring huge value to EMURGO and startups alike,” said Yosuke Yoshida, co-CEO of EMURGO MEA.
“We are excited to appoint Ahmed and gain valuable insights from his experiences dealing with the private and public sectors. I look forward to working closely with Ahmed to support the next generation of blockchain talent in Africa,” said Shogo Ishida, co-CEO of EMURGO MEA.
“Cardano has been a renowned next-gen Layer-1 blockchain for quite some time. I joined EMURGO Africa to build on the success of Cardano to date. Democratizing access to finance and supporting founders and youth in Africa, providing liquidity and financial tools for all is a very exciting feat. As EMURGO Africa CEO, I very much look forward to supporting entrepreneurs, private and public sector in leveraging the power of the Cardano blockchain to create strong, resilient, and equitable economies,” said EMURGO Africa CEO Ahmed Amer.
According to the UN, “Africa has the youngest population in the world, with 70% of sub-Saharan Africa under the age of 30. Such a high number of young people is an opportunity for the continent’s growth – but only if these new generations are fully empowered to realise their best potential. It is especially important that young people are included in decision making and given appropriate opportunities for work and to innovate.” In Standard Bank’s first annual African Blockchain Report, it was reported that global blockchain companies raised $25.2 billion in funding in 2021, a 713% increase compared to 2020, with African blockchain startups raising $127 million or a 0.5% share of total blockchain funding. These facts combined with Africa’s status as one of the fastest-growing continents for crypto adoption underscore the vast potential for the African blockchain industry to flourish in the years to come.
About EMURGO MEA
EMURGO Middle East & Africa (MEA) is a Middle East and Africa-focused entity of Cardano blockchain founding member EMURGO. EMURGO MEA oversees EMURGO Africa, a regional subsidiary focused on Africa’s expanding blockchain market. EMURGO Africa invests and partners with Africa-focused enterprises, startups, and accelerators to foster the development of socially impactful solutions on Cardano’s third-generation and environmentally-sustainable blockchain.
To connect and learn more, visit https://emurgo.africa