For years, African event organisers have struggled with using different platforms for ticketing, voting, forms, payments, and broadcast. Demfati, a Nigerian startup, is solving this problem by bringing everything together.
With Demfati, organisers can now handle every aspect of their event from a single dashboard. The startup eliminates complexity, reduces cost, and speeds up event setup, creating a seamless experience for both organisers and attendees.
In this edition of Techparley’s DRIVE100, where we spotlight Africa’s most promising and impactful startups, we turn our attention to how Demfati, founded by Emmanuel Ekunke, is transforming how events across Africa are created, managed, and monetised through an all-in-one system.
“We solve the problem of fragmented event infrastructure,” Ekunke told Techparley. “Today, if someone wants to run an event in Africa, they need to use multiple tools. Demfati brings all of that into one unified platform.”
What You Need to Know
Demfati’s value lies in its simplicity. Instead of forcing users to link several disconnected services, it offers one cohesive platform where everything works natively.
According to the company, event organisers can instantly access:
- A ticketing system (free or paid)
- Fraud-protected event voting
- Customisable registration forms
- Payments and settlements
- Digital wallet functions (for cashback, refunds, and bonuses)
- WhatsApp integration for attendee engagement
“We solve the fragmentation by giving one clean hub where the event owner can run everything end-to-end,” says Ekunke. “There’s no ‘connect this to that to get the other thing’. Everything is already native in Demfati. So instead of using 5 different apps, it’s just one URL.”
Ekunke says, by consolidating tools, Demfati eliminates the pain points of using several platforms, reducing complexity, third-party fees, and disjointed reporting.
How Demfati is Different
Where global platforms like Eventbrite, or TixAfrica each serve one purpose, Demfati is built for Africa’s multi-layered event culture. It isn’t just a ticketing app or a voting tool; it’s a full-fledged event operating system (OS).
“We are not a ticket platform or a voting platform. We are an all-in-one event OS for Africa. So instead of an event host using 4-6 tools and linking them manually, they just create their event once in Demfati and everything is there automatically,”
By merging the capabilities of ticketing systems, voting apps, form builders, and fintech rails, Demfati positions itself as the first platform to truly reflect how African events run in the real world.
Demfati has already moved beyond the idea stage. The platform is now live, with real events running end-to-end on its infrastructure.
Meet the Team
At the core of Demfati is a team with deep technical roots and hands-on experience in fintech, identity systems, and event technology.
- Emmanuel Ekunke (CEO & Founder): A full-stack engineer with over nine years of experience, including leadership roles at Tekanza and as Head of ICT for a NIMC partner in Calabar.
- Gracious Ekunke (COO & Co-founder): A tech analyst who oversees product operations and ensures user feedback directly informs platform evolution.
- Divine Opara (Engineering): A backend developer focused on payments, wallet logic, and data infrastructure.
How it’s Overcoming Challenges
Simplifying event workflows in Africa hasn’t been easy. Ekunke says Demfati has tackled challenges by stripping out unnecessary steps, building native modules (instead of relying on third-party tools), and designing everything mobile-first.
“One of our biggest challenges has been simplifying all the complexity behind event workflows into something any organizer can set up in minutes,” he said.
“Events in Africa are messy. People mix tickets, voting, forms, and WhatsApp on the fly. We had to take all of that chaos and make it feel like one smooth flow.”
Another hurdle has been trust. Many organisers are wary of digital systems, preferring manual setups. To address this, Demfati works closely with early adopters, offering hands-on support to prove the reliability of its system. Each successful event helps shift perceptions.
Building Africa’s Event Economy Future
Looking ahead, Demfati aims to position itself as the default event infrastructure for Africa. The team says it is focused on onboarding more creators, refining payment settlements, and deepening partnerships with promoters and brands across the continent.
By the five-year mark, founder Emmanuel Ekunke says the goal is clear: to establish Demfati as the standard digital rail for event transactions across Africa.
This ambition is unfolding against the backdrop of a booming global event technology market, valued at $8.4 billion in 2024 and projected to reach $17.3 billion by 2030. Analysts note that such growth highlights a vast opportunity for platforms like Demfati to address Africa’s event challenges.
By unifying ticketing, payments, voting, and engagement into one seamless ecosystem, experts say Demfati is not only helping organisers run more efficient events but also laying the digital foundation for Africa’s event economy.
Talking Points
It is impressive that Demfati has created an all-in-one platform that simplifies how events are organised and managed across Africa, addressing one of the industry’s biggest challenges; fragmentation.
By merging ticketing, voting, payments, forms, and WhatsApp engagement into a single ecosystem, Demfati removes the friction of juggling multiple disconnected tools, helping event organisers save time, reduce costs, and boost revenue.
At Techparley, we see how this integrated approach could reshape Africa’s event landscape, enabling organisers; from promoters and brands to community groups to operate with greater efficiency and transparency.
The platform’s mobile-first design and seamless payment features make it especially suited for Africa’s fast-growing digital economy, where many users rely on mobile devices and need low-bandwidth solutions.
With Africa’s event management industry projected to grow rapidly over the next decade, Demfati is well-positioned to become the continent’s foundational digital rail for event transactions, driving innovation and new opportunities in one of Africa’s most dynamic sectors.
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