Across January, February, and March, our community came together around our continued shared ambition: supporting impactโdriven founders and strengthening the Tech for Good ecosystem in Mauritius.
From our monthly Meet Ups to the preparation of the 2026 cohort, Q1 was defined by connection, new productive conversations, and collective learning, with founders firmly at the centre.
๐Let’s Meet up highlights
Throughout Q1, our Meet Ups continued to serve as communityโdriven gatherings for founders, mentors, partners, and ecosystem builders actively shaping innovation in Mauritius.
In February and in partnership with the La French Tech Mauritius for our first Meet Up, we kicked off the year by setting the tone for Growth & Innovation. Founders shared early ideas, mentors challenged assumptions, and together we reinforced a culture of practice over theory. As Jason Delorie reminded us, “entrepreneurship is a road of a thousand pitches.”
In March, we partnered with Holberton School Mauritius for a milestone Edition that combined the introduction of our 2026 cohort with a renewed focus on pitching as a learning tool. During this Meet Up, we also reaffirmed our longโterm partnership with MCB Punch, which supports founders beyond financing by enabling access to networks, expertise, and practical knowledge.
The session also featured a candid Entrepreneurs Therapy intervention with Thierry Lincoln on sales, partnerships, and the risks of building alone.
๐Innovators highlights – founders at the centre
๐น La Plage Factory updates
Q1 also prepared the ground for our next chapter. Alongside our continued focus on earlyโstage incubation, we are expanding into Growth & Innovation services to support scaleโups, corporates, and institutions.
Over the quarter, our mentor and expert community continued to grow, reinforcing collective expertise across entrepreneurship, technology, product, and goโtoโmarket. Our mentors act as longโterm ecosystem builders, contributing time, insight, and accountability to founder journeys.
๐น Startup highlights
The quarter also marked an important milestone with 17 approved projects, including:
- 14 startups entering incubation
- 3 projects advancing to acceleration
The cohort reflects strong diversity (in backgrounds, sectors, and problem spaces) united by a commitment to building impactโoriented, sustainable ventures across Tech for Good, SMEs, and startup innovation. Several founders have already reported early traction, clearer go to market focus, and stronger positioning following mentor feedback and pitching sessions.
Some quick wins and traction from our founders this past quarter:
- Cofounded by Pat Matheson and Dustin C. , VOSA’s beta users are learning on their platform daily, while their team continues to convert new B2B leads. Their pilot with MCB Madagascar is showing strong early results, including higher learner engagement in live lessons.
- Duodeal founded by Aymeric de Guerre has officially launched and is now deploying across B2B clients (logistics SaaS, events, hospitality, and catering), turning static PDF quotes into interactive selling pages. They also released a Hot Deal Score (0–100) to help sales teams prioritise followโups, signed ER Hospitality as a client and are betaโtesting AI quote generation to produce structured proposals from a simple brief in seconds.
These are just a few snapshots from our community. Explore the startups shaping Tech for Good across Mauritius and beyond: ๐ https://laplage.io/startups
๐น Ecosystem Engagements & International Cooperation
During Q1, we remained actively engaged across the innovation ecosystem, al local, regional and international levels, contributing to and learning from a diverse set of initiatives.
We contributed to the India AI Impact Summit 2026, intervening in the Mauritius side workshop to share a startupโecosystem perspective on AI adoption, with a focus on practical use cases, ecosystem gaps, publicโprivate collaboration and regional bridges between India, Mauritius and Africa.
We participated in sectorโfocused policy and industry dialogue at Les Assises de l’Agriculture, where discussions around Smart Agri and innovation adoption highlighted the need for stronger collaboration between startups, corporates and public institutions.
We supported earlyโstage startup financing through pitch sessions with our partner Mo Angels, helping connect founders with angel investors and addressing the persistent earlyโfunding gap in the ecosystem.
Our engagement with JOIST Innovent, the organisation’s flagship event in Greece, took the form of a recorded video contribution. This intervention helped kick off a content sequence on investing in and building ventures in Africa, positioning Mauritius as a strategic hub for entrepreneurship and capital flows.
More recently, we contributed to nationalโlevel discussions on AI and innovation policy in Mauritius. At the National AI Strategy and Fair Guidelines launch, Michel Cordani, Managing Director at La Plage Factory, took part in an onโstage exchange with the Honourable Dr. Avinash Ramtohul, FBCS CMgr, Minister of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation. His intervention focused on the Innovation Culture and Ecosystem workstream, welcoming the publicโprivateโpeople partnership (PPPP) approach as a key lever for accelerating responsible AI adoption.
Last but not least, we would like to share our thanks to le Journal des Archipels for featuring us, where we highlighted the importance of investing in entrepreneurship and innovation as a key contributor to the economic growth of the country and the “Indianocéanie” region.
๐๏ธ Coming Up
We’re looking forward to our next Meet Up on Friday, April 24th! Over the next quarter, keep an eye out for invitations to the Fresque de l’Entrepreneur and VC Readiness workshops and we’re excited to be part of VivaTech in June.
๐ Join our community of innovators
Are you passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship? Eager to make a difference?
We invite potential founders, mentors, experts, and sponsors to join our vibrant community. Your expertise, guidance, and support can help shape the next generation of smart entrepreneurs and drive meaningful change.
- Visit Our Website: Explore more about our initiatives at laplage.io
- Contact Us: Reach out to us at hello@laplage.io
- Join Our Monthly Meet Up: Connect with like-minded individuals at Coworking Port Louis on Friday, April 24th at lunch time.
- Do all three! ๐
“Let's build a brighter future together for Mauritius, Africa, and the world! ๐”
Related
Letโs Meet Up โ A milestone edition launching Cohort 2026 and strengthening the Mauritius Tech for Good community
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