Italy made its debut at GITEX Kenya with a national pavilion at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre, bringing six startups and SMEs to Nairobi as part of a deepening technology and commercial push into East Africa. The headline announcement came from Harmonic Innovation Group, which revealed a €50 million venture fund for the continent and the establishment of the first Italian incubator in Africa, focused on climate tech and food systems. Italy’s participation falls under the Mattei Plan, Rome’s €5.5 billion framework for repositioning its relationship with African nations around investment-led partnership rather than traditional aid. GITEX Kenya, the first East African edition of the world’s largest tech exhibition brand, attracted over 1,200 exhibitors and an expected 35,000 visitors across three days.
Key Overview
- Event: AI Everything Kenya x GITEX Kenya 2026
- Dates: May 19–21, 2026
- Venues: Sarit Expo Centre and Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), Nairobi
- Italy pavilion location: Hall 2, Stand H2-A10, KICC
- Italian companies exhibiting: Aflabox, Balamb, CRMpartners, Eneron, Hcomm, Metaphora Lab
- Investment announced: €50 million via Harmonic Innovation Group
- Incubator focus: Climate tech, food systems intelligence, digital public infrastructure
- Framework: Italy’s Mattei Plan for Africa (€5.5 billion commitment)
- Expected attendance: 35,000 visitors, 1,200+ exhibitors
Italy marked its first official presence at a GITEX event in East Africa this week, launching a national innovation pavilion at GITEX Kenya as part of a broader strategy to build commercial and technology partnerships across the region. The pavilion, coordinated by the Italian Trade Agency at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre, was inaugurated by Vincenzo Del Monaco, Italy’s Ambassador to Nairobi, alongside ITA representatives and local business leaders.
Six Italian startups and small-to-medium enterprises — Aflabox, Balamb, CRMpartners, Eneron, Hcomm, and Metaphora Lab — exhibited at the pavilion, which also featured the E4Impact Foundation, an initiative originally launched in 2010 by the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. E4Impact has operated an entrepreneurship centre in Nairobi since 2018, funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, and has trained over 4,000 entrepreneurs and helped create more than 24,000 jobs across its programmes.
The €50 Million Africa Fund
The most significant announcement from the Italian pavilion came from Harmonic Innovation Group, whose CEO Emanuele Spampinato revealed a €50 million investment envelope for Africa alongside the launch of what it calls the first Italian incubator on the continent. The incubator will focus on climate technology, food systems intelligence, and digital public infrastructure, operating through the Harmonic Africa Startup Acceleration Programme, known as H-ASAP.
The programme was first unveiled at the Nairobi AI Forum in February 2026, organised jointly by the governments of Kenya and Italy alongside the United Nations Development Programme. H-ASAP is a five-year initiative developed in partnership with Primo Capital SGR, an Italian venture capital firm, and aims to accelerate the creation of innovative enterprises across the continent by providing capital, technical assistance, and market access. The programme builds on the track record of Startup Africa Roadtrip, a nonprofit initiative that has engaged 4,000 startups, accelerated 200 projects, and supported 50 companies through scale-up phases.
Harmonic Innovation Group itself has been scaling rapidly. The Calabria and Sicily-based innovation firm closed a funding round of approximately €600 million in 2025 to support an industrial plan that includes international expansion across the United States, France, Spain, India, and Africa. The company also manages Innovit’s operations in San Francisco, where it has been tasked by the Italian government with bridging the Italian innovation ecosystem with Silicon Valley. Under the H-ASAP framework, African startups from Mattei Plan partner countries will also gain access to this transatlantic innovation corridor.
At GITEX Kenya, Harmonic also announced the launch of a Nairobi–Italy–San Francisco–India innovation triangle designed to enable cross-corridor scaling for African founders. Partnership agreements were signed with AI Hub innovators including Chestify AI and Africa Compute Fund in Kenya.
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The Mattei Plan: From Aid to Investment
Italy’s participation at GITEX Kenya is framed within the Mattei Plan, Rome’s flagship Africa strategy announced at the January 2024 Italy-Africa Summit with an initial commitment of €5.5 billion. Named after Enrico Mattei, the 20th-century founder of Italian energy giant Eni who championed equitable resource-sharing agreements with African nations, the plan aims to reposition Italy’s engagement with the continent around co-creation and mutual benefit rather than extractive or aid-dependent models.
The plan operates across six pillars — education, health, energy, agriculture, water, and infrastructure — and now covers 14 African countries following its 2025 expansion, which added Angola, Ghana, Mauritania, Senegal, and Tanzania to the original nine partner nations. Kenya is one of those priority countries, selected in part because of its National Digital Master Plan.
A central financing mechanism is the Rome Process/Mattei Plan Financing Facility, a multi-donor fund administered by the African Development Bank. Italy anchored the facility with an initial €100 million contribution, later joined by the UAE with $25 million and Denmark with approximately €9.3 million. In April 2025, Italy also signed a co-financing agreement with the World Bank to accelerate Mattei Plan implementation, increasing its financial support to the International Development Association by around 25%.
Why Kenya and Why Now
Kenya’s selection as a priority market for Italy’s tech outreach reflects the country’s positioning as what organisers and policymakers routinely describe as the “Silicon Savannah.” The Kenya National Digital Master Plan 2022–2032 sets out an ambitious agenda covering digital infrastructure, government service digitisation, a unified digital ID system, training 20 million citizens in digital skills, and the integration of emerging technologies including AI and blockchain into public and private sectors.
GITEX Kenya itself is a milestone event. The inaugural East African edition of the GITEX brand — the world’s largest technology exhibition, originating in Dubai — signals that global tech capital is increasingly treating Nairobi as a serious regional hub. Organisers projected the event could help unlock up to $2.4 billion in AI-driven economic potential in Kenya, while broader estimates suggest AI could generate more than 300,000 jobs in the country by 2028.
The Italian Trade Agency set up a dedicated Pitch Arena within its pavilion, giving the six exhibiting companies direct access to local investors and ecosystem players including 637 Capital and the Association of Startup and SMEs Enablers of Kenya. The ITA described the pavilion as a matchmaking platform designed to convert institutional dialogue into concrete commercial partnerships.
Broader Implications
Italy’s presence at GITEX Kenya is part of a visible trend of European nations seeking deeper footholds in Africa’s digital economy. The Mattei Plan differentiates itself from initiatives like China’s Belt and Road by emphasising co-creation and partnership-based investment, though analysts note that its long-term success will depend on whether institutional commitments translate into sustained capital flows, skills transfer, and tangible outcomes for African entrepreneurs.
For Kenya, the event reinforces a regional halo effect that extends beyond its borders. Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Ethiopia all have active digital transformation agendas, and a successful GITEX Kenya draws investor attention to the broader East African sub-region. As the Italian Trade Agency put it, the pavilion represents “a critical strategic positioning” at a moment when Africa’s tech narrative is shifting from consumer market to creator of innovation.
Sources: Capital FM / Femme Hub / UNDP Kenya / Startupbusiness / Il Sole 24 ORE / Innovation Island / African Development Bank / The Organization for World Peace / Istituto Affari Internazionali / World Bank / E4Impact / Digital Watch Observatory / TechAfrica News / Africa Business Insight / The Star Kenya / Kenya News Agency
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