Salma Baghdadi is the Innovation Lead at WAVE Global, a platform for Ocean Regeneration in the FII Institute. In this role, she accelerates blue tech startups to
address pressing ocean challenges using innovation.

With over 15 years in Africa’s tech ecosystem, she transitioned from tech
entrepreneur to accelerating Startups and fostering local and african ecosystems. For the past five years, Salma has been instrumental in building Tunisia’s startup ecosystem. She led the implementation of the Tunisian Startup Act and numerous programs at Smart Capital, transforming the local ecosystem to over 1000 startups, 50+ support organizations, and achieving notable exits.

Salma extends her impact by advising governments and DFIs on emerging market startup ecosystem development through Ujenzi Advisory. In 2023, she was nominated as the African Ecosystem Builder of the Year by the African Startups Ecosystem Builders Summit.