The SWEAT Africa idea was born by several young start-up owners and entrepreneurs from Cape Town and Stellenbosch, after a 14 km run in a challenging mountain route that is part of the Cape Epic – one of the most extreme mountain race events in the world.

After ending the run, we met in a wine bar and restaurant in Stellenbosch, where we discussed the growing Tech and Biotech ecosystem that we were developing – with international Angel Investors, working at Google DeepMind and OpenAI. As everyone was sweating, we talked about how hot it gets in February, and how we were hosting a thriving African Tech acceleration programme during the hottest month of the year – namely the BRAIN programme, by Open StartUp International and MIT Africa. 

It all clicked, and we decided there and then that this is it – we will start SWEAT Africa as a two-day event, with the purpose of bringing investors, founders, entrepreneurs, and young start-up owners to Stellenbosch in Africa, in the hottest month of the year, to work together, sweat, and develop the Africa that we all want and dream of!