The EMERGING Valley 2025 summit, scheduled for November 26, 2025, at the thecamp campus in Aix-Marseille-Provence, is an international summit focused on strengthening the technology and investment bridges between Europe and Africa, with expanded integration from Asia and the Middle East.
Marseille is positioned as a strategic digital hub for this intercontinental cooperation due to its exceptional connectivity via numerous submarine cables. The event is held under the High Patronage of French President Emmanuel Macron.
Core Strategic Pillars
The 9th edition of the summit is structured around four main strategic themes for driving innovation and sustainable development across the continents:
-
Innovative Financing: The goal is to deploy new models for agile, cross-border co-investment to support high-impact startups. The summit attracts top investors from Europe, Africa, the Gulf, and the US.
-
Inclusive AI (“Tech for Good”): Discussions center on positioning Artificial Intelligence as an ethical, sustainable, and inclusive tool for solving development challenges in the Global South, with a focus on African-led AI solutions in healthcare, agriculture, and education.
-
Soft-landing & International Scale-up: The summit facilitates the expansion of African companies into the European market, particularly in the Aix-Marseille-Provence ecosystem, helping them find local partners and investors. This is supported by programs like Soft-Landing Provence Africa Connect.
-
Positive Mediterranean: An initiative, in partnership with the AFD Group, focused on reinforcing Euro-Mediterranean cooperation through shared technology solutions and joint innovation to address common regional challenges.
Geopolitical and Digital Ambition
The 2025 edition explicitly aims to strengthen geopolitical and digital interconnection across three continents:
-
IMEC Corridor: The summit highlights the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) as a strategic lever for building transcontinental technology bridges.
-
Delegations: The summit features expanded official delegations from countries across Africa (including Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Kenya, DRC, Mauritania, and Comoros) and, for the first time, includes representatives from the EU Eastern Partnership (Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia), showcasing its growing geopolitical reach.
The summit provides a platform for over 700,000 participants and includes specific initiatives like the Provence Africa Connect Award to recognize collaborative, high-impact projects. The challenge remains in harmonizing regulatory frameworks for cross-continental financing and ensuring ethical standards for AI and data sovereignty.
