Bhluemountain is effective, reliable, and easy to work with. Schedule a free consultation and we’ll show you why we were named one of the top IT firms in Nigeria
start Now
We are a team of top-accredited professionals who are unceasingly committed to delivering trailblazing solutions that ensure your maximum productivity. We help our customers build the core foundation for a successful and secure digital transformation journey
Quality is at the heart of everything we do, and we continuously challenge ourselves to improve our services to meet or exceed the needs and expectations of our customers, while always complying with regulations and specifications.
Whilst we have a big smile on our faces about our recognition, we never forget that our team and our clients work together as one, so thank you for all of your support.
Together with our team of accredited experts, we assist businesses in navigating their current IT estates and digital future through informed and cost-saving IT models.
At Bhluemountain we help small and large enterprises, run their mission-critical systems and operations while modernizing IT, optimizing data architectures, and ensuring security and scalability across public, private and hybrid clouds. We deploy our technology solutions and services to enable businesses drive performance, competitiveness, and customer experience.
Whatever your industry area, we provide full-spectrum IT support services to help you meet changing business needs.
Effective Cloud Solutions and strategies that help you drive overall efficiency and scale effortlessly.
Gain key insights from data to drive impactful outcomes for strategic objectives.
Technology and industry consulting expertise to help you drive your digital transformation journey.
Walk around TechBBQ in Copenhagen, Denmark, and it does not take long to notice that the definition of a tech startup has become broad. There are the software companies one expects at a gathering of over 10,000 startups and investors. But there are also founders working on quantum computing, biotechnology, medical diagnostics, robotics, security systems, new food technologies, and ideas that have spent years inside university laboratories. For African founders and investors, this was perhaps the most interesting lesson about TechBBQ 2026, held at Copenhagen’s Bella Centre on August 26 and 27. The technology industry is broadening its scope. The African ecosystem has produced some extraordinary companies, but the ideas that attract serious VC backing can sometimes feel concentrated in certain areas. Payments, lending, digital banking, logistics, e-commerce, and increasingly AI have been the main focus areas. TechBBQ revealed that some of the money, attention, and entrepreneurial ambition that flowed into apps, marketplaces, and software-as-a-service companies over the past decade is moving towards harder problems like health, energy, defence, biology, and the physical economy. The event had a dedicated Life Science x Deep Tech stage. It brought together scientists, founders, investors, and researchers working across quantum technologies, life sciences, and artificial intelligence. Even the venue for TechBBQ’s Investor Day mentioned the change. VCs, corporate investors, and angels gathered at the University of Copenhagen’s Maersk Tower, in a district that TechBBQ says has 40,000 researchers, students, and staff, and has produced about 500 research-based startups. This is venture capital moving closer to building sustainable solutions across healthcare, agriculture, and manufacturing. Lesson one: Look beyond apps Deep tech challenges many traditional VC assumptions. A biotechnology company may spend years before earning meaningful revenue. Quantum computing requires specialised researchers and expensive equipment. Medical devices face clinical and regulatory hurdles. Defence startups must navigate governments and procurement systems. Climate technologies may require factories and physical infrastructure. These are not businesses that can always demonstrate product-market fit within six months and with a few thousand dollars in cloud computing credits. Yet they are moving towards the centre of the European technology conversation. TechBBQ described the gap between technologies that might arrive “someday” and those actually reaching the market as narrowing. Its Deep Tech Day focused on technologies including quantum computing, biotechnology, diagnostics, precision medicine, and sustainable food systems. The important part is not simply that these technologies exist. Universities have produced ambitious science for decades. Investors are increasingly trying to work out how to turn more of that science into companies. TechBBQ’s deep-tech pitch competition, for example, was open to companies with less than €2 million in funding that had a validated concept, prototype, or early scientific proof of concept. Eight companies were selected to pitch technologies addressing human and planetary health. That is a rather different starting point from another payments app. It also says something about where venture capital thinks the next valuable companies might emerge. TechBBQ event in Copenhagen, Denmark. Image Source: TechBBQ Lesson two: Difficult industries are becoming investable VC has traditionally asked whether a company can capture a large market. Increasingly, European investors are also asking whether the technology is strategically important to a country. That brings governments, universities, and large industrial companies much closer to the startup ecosystem. It also makes the boundary between technology policy, industrial policy, and national security increasingly difficult to see. There is an African lesson here. Some of the continent’s biggest problems sit in sectors investors have historically found difficult: energy, agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing, water, and transport infrastructure. They are difficult partly because software alone cannot solve them. But difficult does not necessarily mean uninvestable. Lesson three: Hard technology needs different money The change in ideas requires a change in money. Building a consumer app and developing a new biotechnology platform cannot be financed in quite the same way. The latter can require more capital, longer development periods, and investors willing to tolerate technical risk before there is much evidence of commercial demand. Some businesses will also need grants, government procurement, university partnerships, and corporate capital alongside conventional venture funding. That was another noticeable feature of TechBBQ. The ecosystem was not organised simply around founders meeting venture capitalists. Researchers, foundations, policymakers, universities, corporations, and public investment institutions were part of the conversation. This is partly because deep tech makes them necessary. A scientist trying to commercialise a university discovery needs something quite different from what a founder building another enterprise software product needs. Intellectual property must leave the university. Laboratories and equipment may be required. Regulatory approvals can take years. Specialist talent is scarce. Europe still struggles with this. One TechBBQ session asked about “Europe’s biotech spinout challenge”. Another examined how the Nordics could translate research into companies. The underlying problem is that Europe produces excellent science but has struggled to build enormous technology companies from it. The response appears to be an attempt to build a bridge between science and capital. It is worth watching because Africa also faces the problem. TechBBQ event in Copenhagen, Denmark. Image Source: TechBBQ Lesson four: Diversity of capital produces diversity of ideas African venture capital has become remarkably good at funding a relatively narrow range of ideas. Fintech is the obvious example. Payments, digital banking, lending, and financial infrastructure have attracted some of the continent’s largest venture rounds and produced many of its most valuable technology companies. There are good reasons for this. Financial infrastructure remains inadequate in many markets, mobile money has created unusual opportunities, and the potential customer base is enormous. But success can create its own gravity. Once investors understand a business model, more founders build versions of it, and more investors become comfortable funding them. The result can be an ecosystem with plenty of entrepreneurial activity but relatively little variation in what receives serious capital. TechBBQ provided an interesting contrast. A founder developing biotechnology could be followed on stage by someone working on quantum computing, food systems, defence, healthcare or climate technology. The ideas often seemed to start with a scientific or
Read More
French aerospace company Thales Alenia Space and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) have been selected to build Nigeria’s next communications satellites, as the government moves to expand broadband capacity and replace its ageing NIGCOMSAT-1R. The selection follows Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval on August 22 for the acquisition and deployment of NIGCOMSAT-2A and NIGCOMSAT-2B, allowing Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT) to move its long-running satellite replacement programme into the next phase. The two satellites are expected to provide additional capacity for broadband, broadcasting, enterprise connectivity and government services, particularly in areas where fibre and other terrestrial networks are too costly or difficult to deploy. The timing is critical. NIGCOMSAT-1R, Nigeria’s current communications satellite, was launched on December 19, 2011, with a 15-year design life and is reaching the end of that period in 2026. NIGCOMSAT says careful management of its onboard fuel will allow the satellite to remain operational until 2028, giving the government a limited window to finance, build and launch its replacement. Although the FEC has approved the contract, the project’s final cost has not yet been disclosed because financing is still being finalised. Jane Nkechi Egerton-Idehen, managing director and CEO of NIGCOMSAT, told TechCabal in a statement that the final amount will be made public once the financing is closed. “The amount will be official once the financing is closed,” Egerton-Idehen said. “That’s the stage that is ongoing now after the contract FEC approved. The funding is vendor-financed and backed by the Export-Import Banks.” The financing structure means the satellite vendors will provide financing backed by export-import banks. This is significant because satellite projects require substantial upfront investment, not just for the spacecraft but also for launch, insurance, ground stations, control centres, testing, and training. The selection of Thales Alenia Space and IAI comes after a competitive procurement process that began more than two years ago. NIGCOMSAT started defining the technical requirements in early 2024 and issued an Expression of Interest in June that year. The procurement process advanced in 2025, with major international aerospace companies, including Thales Alenia Space, Airbus, IAI, China Great Wall Industry Corporation, and Turkish Aerospace Industries, participating. The final selection assigns responsibility to the French and Israeli companies for delivering the two satellites and associated infrastructure. The contract goes beyond manufacturing the spacecraft. It includes launch and in-orbit testing, satellite control centres, tracking and telemetry stations, simulators, operational software, documentation, insurance and technology transfer. NIGCOMSAT-2A is planned for deployment at 42.5°E, and the project also includes backup ground infrastructure to improve the satellite system’s resilience. The satellites are designed to do more than replace NIGCOMSAT-1R. They will add capacity for broadband, broadcasting, enterprise connectivity and government applications, with the potential to extend services to communities that terrestrial networks struggle to reach. That matters because Nigeria’s broadband expansion— at 56.7% in June—increasingly depends on reaching areas where building fibre and other terrestrial infrastructure is commercially difficult. Fibre remains the preferred option for high-capacity broadband, particularly in urban areas, but deploying cables across sparsely populated or difficult terrain can be expensive. Satellites can cover large areas without requiring the same physical infrastructure to be built on the ground. The new satellites should therefore complement rather than replace Nigeria’s fibre and mobile networks. Their biggest value could come from filling coverage gaps where terrestrial infrastructure cannot be deployed economically. NIGCOMSAT’s additional capacity could be used by internet service providers, mobile operators, broadcasters, businesses and government agencies. These organisations could use satellite links to extend services without having to build their own long-distance networks. But more satellite capacity does not automatically mean cheaper or better internet for consumers. NIGCOMSAT and its partners will still have to turn the additional capacity into services that households and businesses can afford. The cost of satellite terminals, equipment, data plans and last-mile connections will determine how much of the new capacity reaches end users. That makes affordability as important as capacity. Nigeria could add significant satellite bandwidth without substantially closing its digital divide if the resulting services remain too expensive for the communities that need them most. The project is also intended to strengthen Nigeria’s wider space and digital technology ecosystem. NIGCOMSAT expects opportunities in areas such as satellite terminals, ground infrastructure, systems integration, technical support, telecommunications and broadcasting. Technology transfer and training could also help develop local expertise in satellite engineering, network operations and other specialised areas. The contract includes provisions for knowledge transfer, including training in space and ground-segment operations. The objective for Egerton-Idehen is ultimately to turn the satellite investment into practical value for Nigeria. “NIGCOMSAT-2A and NIGCOMSAT-2B will strengthen our national satellite capacity, expand connectivity and support critical communications across the country,” she said. “Our priority is to translate this investment into measurable value for Nigerians and position NIGCOMSAT for stronger impact within the global satellite and digital economy.” That commercial question could prove as important as the technical one. NIGCOMSAT is responsible for managing and commercialising Nigeria’s communications satellite assets. For the new satellites to deliver value, the additional capacity will need to attract sustained demand from telecom operators, ISPs, broadcasters, businesses and government agencies. The satellites could also strengthen Nigeria’s communications resilience. They can provide an alternative when terrestrial networks are damaged or unavailable, reducing reliance on foreign satellite infrastructure for some critical services. That has implications beyond broadband, including defence, emergency communications and other government operations. The FEC approval and selection of the two contractors mark important milestones, but the project is not yet complete. Financing still needs to be closed, followed by manufacturing, technical preparations, launch and in-orbit testing. The 2028 target gives NIGCOMSAT some breathing room because the company expects NIGCOMSAT-1R to remain operational until then. But it also sets a deadline to deliver the replacement before the existing satellite reaches the end of its extended operating life. The strategic case for the new satellites is straightforward: fibre and mobile networks cannot economically reach every community, and satellites can help fill some of those gaps. The harder question is whether Nigeria
Read More
There is a particular kind of distance between Wall Street and Lebowakgomo, a township in South Africa’s Limpopo Province. One is synonymous with global finance, enormous transactions and institutions moving billions of dollars across markets. The other is where Grace Legodi grew up in a family shaped by the horrors of apartheid, an enforced system of racial segregation, where her parents, a teacher and a social worker, placed an unusually high premium on education. Legodi eventually crossed that distance. She studied finance at the University of Cape Town, worked in mergers and acquisitions at Goldman Sachs, a global investment powerhouse, in New York and Johannesburg, and spent more than a decade across investment banking, venture capital and entrepreneurship development. Today, she is back in South Africa building Keyo Ventures, an investment manager financing early-stage businesses at the intersection of technology, infrastructure and the green economy across the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The Venture Capital (VC) firm backs companies working in areas such as electric mobility, water, waste management and sustainable agriculture, businesses that often look less like traditional software startups and more like the physical infrastructure behind the next generation of African technology. But Legodi’s return home is not simply a story about a finance professional leaving Wall Street for African entrepreneurship. It is about what happens when someone who has spent years inside one of the world’s most sophisticated capital markets decides that its rules do not always work for the innovation and businesses being built at home. “Keyo is a data-driven investor that unlocks capital for early-stage tech-enabled startups in the green economy and asset-backed businesses in Southern Africa,” the company’s website screams in bold letters. For Legodi, the problem is not simply that Southern African startups need more money. It is that the financial system is often designed for companies that already have the scale, track record, collateral or predictability that early-stage businesses do not yet possess. That is the gap Keyo is trying to fill. “Capital is not a commodity here. It’s a trusted relationship with integrity,” Legodi told TechCabal. In New York, she says, capital can move quickly because the infrastructure around it is mature: there is liquidity, established legal infrastructure and a deep pool of comparable transactions. In Africa, investors may spend months understanding the founder, the business and the formal and informal systems around it. “Scale fast, worry later” may work as a shorthand for some technology businesses in established markets. Legodi does not believe it translates neatly to Southern Africa. In many of the businesses she encounters, the founder is not simply building a product. They are also building the supply chain, finding customers, navigating regulation and, in some cases, creating the infrastructure the business needs to exist in the first place. “That’s why resilience and perseverance is good,” she said, contrasting it with investment banking’s emphasis on size and speed. It is an idea that has shaped Keyo’s investment approach. The capital gap Founded in 2023 by Legodi, Keyo focuses on businesses working in green mobility, water, waste management, sustainable agriculture and other parts of the green economy. Its model combines alternative financing with technology that tracks operational and financial performance. Grace Legodi founded Keyo Ventures to back Southern African businesses that traditional finance often overlooks. Image source: Keyo Ventures The companies Keyo targets often have customers, revenue and valuable assets, but are still too early-stage to secure conventional financing. Traditional venture capital tends to favour asset-light businesses that can scale without significant infrastructure, while banks generally require greater maturity and a longer operating track record. “Too capital-intensive for equity VC, too early for a bank. That gap is exactly where we operate,” she stated. Legodi is careful not to present debt as a universal solution. “We do not believe that debt is always the right instrument for an early-stage African business. We want to help entrepreneurs understand that there are different funding instruments that extend beyond equity or debt which become relevant depending on the life cycle of the business,” she told TechCabal. At the earliest stage, a founder might be better served by grants, competitions or simply customers paying for the product. Equity becomes more useful once there is evidence of market traction. Debt, she notes, makes more sense when a business has a proven model and assets generating enough cash flow to support repayment. That distinction matters because debt comes with an obligation that equity does not. Keyo prefers financing revenue-generating assets rather than businesses with uncertain cash flows. Its initial cheques typically range from R2 million ($125,000) to R3 million ($187,500), increasing as a business demonstrates performance and sustainability. The approach is visible in the firm’s work with Zimi Charge, an electric-vehicle charging infrastructure company. Keyo provided capital for infrastructure rollout while a development finance institution supplied quasi-equity to support staffing and working capital. The idea is not to replace equity but to give founders another option. “We come into the market as a complementary debt provider, not a replacement for equity,” said Legodi. Keyo Ventures backed Zimi Charge to help finance the rollout of electric-vehicle charging infrastructure in South Africa. Image Source: Zimi Charge/LinkedIn What institutional capital misses Legodi’s frustration with conventional finance is less about the existence of capital than the conditions attached to accessing it. She identifies four recurring barriers: revenue thresholds, minimum cheque sizes, currency mismatches and lengthy due diligence. Legodi believes institutional investors often define “early stage” at a revenue level that is already beyond the earliest phase of company building. Their large pools of capital also make smaller transactions less attractive. Meanwhile, investors with dollar-denominated mandates can create currency risk for businesses whose revenues are generated in local currencies. Then there is the paperwork. Legodi says institutional due diligence can take as long as 24 months before money reaches a business. For a young company, waiting two years for financing is not simply an administrative delay. It can determine whether the company survives. “Some of the most promising early-stage
Read More
