Five EIC-backed companies heading to GITEX Africa 2025 — who they are and what they bring

Brussels, March 13th 2025

Summary

›Five European companies funded by the European Innovation Council will exhibit at the EIC pavilion at GITEX Africa 2025 in Marrakech from 14 to 16 April 2025.
›The delegation is supported by the EIC International Trade Fairs Programme 3.0, which provides coaching, matchmaking and onsite services to help European deep tech firms enter new markets.
›The five firms cover water and nanobubble tech, blockchain and digital identity, agrivoltaics solar glass, satellite AI for precision agriculture, and biometric wearable payments and health monitoring.
›Organisers ran a pre-departure workshop on 11 March and will continue bespoke coaching, investor matchmaking and reverse pitch sessions prior to the fair.
›Participation provides visibility and lead generation but pursuing commercial traction in African markets will require careful work on local partnerships, procurement channels, regulatory compliance and IP strategy.

Five EIC-backed companies heading to GITEX Africa 2025

A delegation of five companies supported by the European Innovation Council will showcase technologies at the EIC pavilion during GITEX Africa 2025 in Marrakech from 14 to 16 April. The mission is organised under the EIC International Trade Fairs Programme 3.0, part of the EIC Business Acceleration Services. The selection emphasises sectors where European deep tech firms see commercial opportunity in Africa such as agriculture, water management, renewable energy, blockchain-based services and wearable security and payments.

Why GITEX Africa matters and what the event delivers

GITEX Africa is an outpost of the GITEX GLOBAL brand that aims to connect tech buyers, investors and startups across Africa and beyond. The organisers report rapid growth. The 2024 edition drew more than 30,000 visitors and 1,500 exhibitors from 130 countries, with nearly 700 startups and in excess of 400 investors. Those headline metrics show scale and media reach, but they do not guarantee business outcomes for individual participants.

Trade fairs are useful for visibility, networking and early-stage commercial conversations. For deep tech companies the real value often comes from targeted matchmaking, local pilot agreements, procurement leads and investor follow up. The EIC programme bundles pre-departure briefings, onsite matchmaking and coaching to increase the probability of tangible follow ups. Still, converting leads into pilots, contracts and scale requires additional commitments such as local partnerships, regulatory clearance, proof of concept work and longer sales cycles than consumer events may imply.

How the EIC is supporting the delegation

The delegation is part of the EIC International Trade Fairs (ITF) Programme 3.0. The service offers pre-departure market briefings, expert coaching, B2B matchmaking and follow up mechanisms. According to EIC materials, their Business Acceleration Services have supported thousands of meetings and reported deal flow and fundraising figures since 2021. Those aggregated numbers are useful to measure programme scale but they do not reveal conversion rates per event or sector specific success. Companies should treat trade fair participation as one component in a longer commercialisation plan.

A pre-departure workshop for the five selected companies took place online on 11 March. The workshop brought together EIC representatives and market experts to prepare the teams for onsite activities. In the run up to GITEX Africa the EIC will continue one-on-one coaching, reverse pitch sessions and curated investor meetings.

The five EIC-backed companies selected for GITEX Africa 2025

AquaB Nanobubble Innovations, Ireland:What they do. AquaB develops nanobubble generation systems. Nanobubbles are gas bubbles at nanometre scale with different physical behaviour than larger bubbles. AquaB says its generators produce high concentrations of stable nanobubbles with low energy consumption and offers applications across water treatment, algae management, agricultural irrigation and some oil and gas uses. Technical detail. Nanobubbles can alter gas transfer, dissolved oxygen and particle behaviour in liquids. Measurement requires light scattering and nanoparticle tracking analysis. AquaB highlights patents and testing protocols and claims ultra-low energy operation and deployment flexibility. Caveats. Nanobubble technology is promising for certain niche problems but claims of wide productivity uplifts need independent replication in local conditions. Scale up, maintenance, water chemistry variability and cost per treated volume are decision factors for buyers in agriculture and industry. Companies and buyers should also evaluate lifecycle costs and regulatory approvals for water treatment additives or process changes.

Billon Group, Poland:What they do. Billon is a blockchain and distributed ledger technology company offering document and data exchange, digital identity and digital cash solutions. The firm positions its protocol as regulatory compliant and suitable for regulated markets, with use cases in trusted documents, digital product passports and asset tokenization. Context and claims. Billon emphasises an architecture optimised for throughput, client side encryption and governance features and public sector integration. It has been cited in relation to the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure and pre commercial procurement activities. Caveats. Enterprise blockchain claims often face adoption friction owing to integration complexity, data protection rules, identity verification and procurement inertia. For public sector use, interoperability with national ID and payment infrastructures and clear demonstration of compliance with AML, KYC and GDPR requirements are essential. Prospective customers should request architectural audits and independent security assessments.

Brite Solar, Greece:What they do. Brite Solar develops nanomaterial solar glass and translucent coatings for agrivoltaics and energy efficient building glass. Their products aim to enable dual land use for food production and solar energy generation, to save irrigation water and to provide benefits such as frost protection under certain configurations. Technical context. Agrivoltaics involves tradeoffs between light transmission for crops and energy yield. Materials that selectively filter or redirect light can help optimise the food water energy nexus for specific crops and climates. Caveats. Agrivoltaics outcomes are site and crop specific. Farmers and project developers need local pilots to understand yield impacts, microclimate effects and maintenance. Payback and financing depend on module lifetime, integration costs and local regulations governing land use and grid connection.

DigiFarm, Norway:What they do. DigiFarm provides satellite analytics and agtech APIs powered by deep neural networks for field boundary detection, crop classification and automated yield mapping. They claim crop classification accuracy above 90 percent and use machine learning models to upscale Sentinel class imagery using super resolution techniques to deliver sub 10 metre detail. Use cases. Their services are targeted at insurers, paying agencies, agribusiness and farm advisory systems and include historical and in season time series analytics. Caveats. Remote sensing models require extensive local ground truth and careful calibration across geographies. Claims of super resolution from 10 metre sensors to 1 metre should be validated with independent ground truth in the target market. Data privacy, licensing of satellite data products and integration with national reference systems are practical hurdles when selling to public payers or insurers.

Invis Wearables, Poland:What they do. Invis develops watch straps and wearables that integrate contactless payment capability, motion based biometric authentication and health monitoring. The company highlights motion AI for continuous authentication and sensors for heart rate, temperature and stress metrics. Payments integration. Invis uses tokenisation services such as Fidesmo and supports multiple banks through partner arrangements, with certifications from major card networks reported on their site. Caveats. Wearable biometrics and health monitoring sit at the intersection of consumer electronics and regulated health claims. Security, secure tokenisation, card network certification, and compliance with data protection and medical device rules are critical. Continuous authentication has value for convenience but it must be paired with rigorous privacy safeguards and an attack surface assessment for fraud vectors.

Snapshot table of delegation

Company	Country	EIC support	Primary sector and technology
AquaB Nanobubble Innovations	Ireland	EIC Accelerator	Nanobubble generation for water treatment and irrigation efficiency
Billon Group	Poland	EIC SME Instrument	Enterprise blockchain for trusted documents, digital identity and digital cash
Brite Solar	Greece	EIC SME Instrument	Nanomaterial solar glass for agrivoltaics and energy efficient buildings
DigiFarm	Norway	EIC Accelerator	AI powered satellite analytics and precision agriculture APIs
Invis Wearables	Poland	EIC Industrial Leadership - Innovation in SMEs	Wearable biometric authentication and contactless payments

Practical implications and what to watch for

Trade fair participation gives companies a concentrated opportunity to test messaging, meet customers and start pilot conversations. For investors and corporate partners, events are useful signal points to benchmark technology readiness and commercial traction. But trade fair success rarely equals market entry. European vendors need to prepare detailed commercial pilots, clarify certification and regulatory paths, secure local partners for distribution and service, and be realistic about timelines and margins in new markets.

How EIC awardees should prepare

1. Define clear commercial objectives for the fair such as lead categories, procurement contacts or pilot terms. 2. Bring validated demonstration data and independent test results where possible. 3. Prepare an IP and data protection checklist adapted to target markets. 4. Plan post event follow up with local partners and investors, including realistic timelines for pilots and procurement. 5. Be ready to adapt business models to local payment, contracting and regulatory realities.

The EIC offers matchmaking, coaching and post event support through the Business Acceleration Services. Companies that combine the EIC support with robust local market work stand a better chance of converting trade fair meetings into commercial traction.

Where to get further information

Open calls, detailed event pages and support materials for the EIC International Trade Fairs Programme 3.0 are published on the EIC Community Platform. Companies and stakeholders with questions about the GITEX Africa mission can contact the EIC Community helpdesk and select the event related category. The original EIC announcement includes a standard disclaimer that the article is for information and not the official view of the European Commission.

Final note. Support programmes and trade fairs amplifying European innovation are valuable, but they are not a substitute for rigorous evidence of field performance, regulatory strategy and local commercial adaptation. Observers and prospective partners should look for independent data, measurable pilot outcomes and clear procurement or licensing pathways when assessing the likely impact of the showcased technologies.

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