Nigeria’s largest lender wants to expand to Asia
Access Bank, Nigeria’s largest lender by assets plans to expand into Asia early in 2024. Opening a subsidiary in Asia could enable the bank to serve customers in the region that is the largest non-African trading partner. Per Semafor, the bank hopes to receive approval from regulators by the end of 2023. With $26.5 billion in assets under management, Access Bank Group will join South Africa’s Standard Bank Group ($161.53 billion AUM) and TymeBank, the South African challenger fintech to open shop in Asia. Standard Bank has offices in Singapore and Dubai, while TymeBank recently expanded to the Philippines. While speaking at the just-concluded Africa Financial Industry Summit in Lome, the capital of Togo, Hebert Wigwe, chairman of Access Holdings, the parent company of Access Bank, warned that Africa could be cut off from the global financial system. “You cannot blame European or American banks who chose not to be here. We blame ourselves, if we’re not big enough to support our people.” “We told ourselves that we’ll keep pushing that wall until we make sure we are on the global stage. We will be in London, we will be in the US, we will be in Hong Kong, we will be in all of these markets to make sure that our people cannot be disintermediated,” the bank chief said. A 2021 report described the company’s goal as “to become an aggregator in Africa, building a global payment gateway and providing trade finance support and correspondent banking services.” In July, the bank announced it had agreed to buy Standard Chartered’s subsidiaries in Angola, Cameroon, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, as well as its consumer, private and business banking business in Tanzania. This came after a series of acquisitions and new subsidiaries that saw the bank open shop in Angola, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique. Access Holdings, the parent company of Access Bank currently has a UK subsidiary and operates representative offices in China, Lebanon, and India. Its UK subsidiary also operates a branch in Dubai, the UAE. Its current international operations serve corporations and other banks at the institutional level, as opposed to the retail banking services it offers in its African locations. The bank has not disclosed where it plans to set up shop or whether this new expansion means it will begin offering retail banking services in its Asian operation.
Read MoreWomen in tech: a five-year retrospective.
The African tech industry has seen a remarkable transformation over the past five years, and at the forefront of this change are a growing number of African women who are making significant contributions to the sector. While the representation of women in tech remains below par (less than 15% of Africa’s tech start-ups have at least one female co-founder, with fewer than 10% having a woman CEO), there has been a noticeable increase in their participation, driven by a combination of factors, including increased access to education and training, the rise of mobile technology and digital platforms, and a growing recognition of the importance of diversity and inclusion in the tech ecosystem. Numerous initiatives, such as coding boot camps, mentorship programmes, and scholarships have emerged to provide women with the necessary skills and knowledge to thrive in the tech sector. One such initiative is The Future is Female Mentorship Programme, which trains female founders in communications, public relations, and working with tech media. Claudine Moore, founder and convener of the programme told TechCabal that since its inception in 2020, the number of applications they receive has increased every year, with applications coming in from Nigeria, Kenya, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Uganda, South Africa and a few others. She emphasised that there’s more the growing representation of women in the industry enables more women to apply and participate. Another notable programme is the Google for Startups Accelerator: Women Founders, which provides equity-free support, mentorship, training, and networking opportunities for women in tech across the continent. Notable alumni of the accelerator include Clafiya (founded by Jennie Nwokoye), a health-tech startup that raised $610,000 in a pre-seed round earlier this year. She Code Africa, a non-profit organisation geared towards providing and upskilling for women and girls interested in STEM, has over 30 thousand members in their community. The organisation often collaborates with others to organise seminars, conferences and boot camps that teach young women relevant skills needed to thrive in the rapidly changing industry. Undoubtedly, for women, there’s a growing interest in STEM-related and tech roles, but the gap is still wide, and the journey is still long. Perhaps one of the greatest factors that point to this disparity is the difference between the sheer number of mentorship programmes for women, compared to those geared towards funding women’s startups. The pressing problem of many mentorships and not enough funding. According to a 2022 report by Partech Africa, only 3% of venture capital funding in Africa goes to startups with a female CEO. This means that male-led startups are 33 times more likely to secure funding than female-led startups. While investment in female-led startups has grown in the past five years, and there are a few VC funds and organisations providing investment opportunities for female-led startups, the disparity is still high. Brenda Wangari of Madica attests to this fact: “There has been limited access to investor networks coupled with little representation of women in the sector. Investors have also been investing following various patterns which have locked out women founders from funding opportunities,” she told TechCabal. According to the Diversity Dividend report by Disrupt Africa, which surveyed over 2,000 African startups, approximately 14% of them had at least one female co-founder, and 10% had a woman CEO. Despite the fact that female-led startups typically perform better than male-led ones, in 2022, male-led startups received 96% ($4.6bn) of the total volume, leaving female-led ventures with 4% ($188m). According to a report published by Disrupt Africa in 2022, in the dominant countries with startup founders (Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt), the percentage of funded startups with at least one female co-founder was less than 30% across the board. Even more concerning is the record low in funding that the first half of 2023 the ecosystem has recorded. According to a report by The Big Deal, “Single female founders and exclusively female founding teams raised just $22 million in equity funding in H1 2023, the lowest 6-month number since H1 2021.” However slow, there might be some promising progress. Maya Horgan-Famodu, founder and partner at Ingressive, told TechCabal, “I’m seeing more women represented across all the tech venture funds across Africa; almost all of them have at least one female partner or one female C-suite executive. There is significant representation on the investing side, female and women of colour and indigenous African women are well represented. I’m also seeing female-only investment firms, both investors at these firms and portfolios that are only dedicated to investing in women-owned businesses. For example, Moremi funds, it’s the gender lens investing fund of funds,” she added. Brenda Wangari shares this sentiment: “There have been promising recent developments. We are now witnessing more female-led African companies raising significant capital as well as managing funds that are actively writing checks. There has also been a rise in communities like Women Who Build Africa, which is solely focused on bringing together and supporting women in the African tech ecosystem.” In 2021, Eloho Omame and Odun Eweniyi founded First Check Africa, a female-focused angel investment fund. The mission was simple: to make it easy for African women to raise capital and invest in tech. Combined with the work of women like Yemi Keri and Ivana Osagie of Rising Tide Africa, Fatoumata Ba of Janngo Capital, Maya Horgan Famodu of Ingressive, Lisa Thomas of Samata Capital and many others, there’s hope that the ecosystem will grow to a point where female-led startups will secure equitable funding and have access to all the tools they need to grow. Claudine Moore believes that women supporting women is the fastest way for this growth to happen. “What’s important is women supporting women, which is why I created the Future is Female Mentorship program.” The participation of African women in tech has witnessed incredible growth over the past five years, and this trend is expected to continue in the coming years. With increased access to education and training, the rise of mobile technology
Read MoreKenya picks Microsoft as cloud partner for e-govt services beating Google and Amazon
Kenya has selected Microsoft as its cloud partner as part of a broader initiative to migrate government services to the Azure cloud platform, beating out players like Amazon and Google. The government hopes that a partnership with Microsoft will give Kenya’s digital transformation plans a boost. “Microsoft will assist the government with the responsibility of adopting a cloud-first strategy, transforming public service delivery through the adoption of technology and improving efficiencies in provision of e-government services for citizens,” said a statement from the ICT Authority (ICTA), which witnessed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Microsoft, alongside the ICT ministry. The Kenyan government started digitising most of its services such as immigration applications as soon as President Ruto began his tenure in August 2022. Over 14,000 services, such as those offered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have been onboarded to the e-Citizen platform. The e-Citizen portal allows Kenyans to access the services available through various agencies. With Microsoft’s help, taking the services to the cloud will improve efficiencies in providing the services to citizens. Microsoft is one of the oldest technology companies in Kenya. It set up an ADC office in Nairobi in 2019 and has been forming partnerships with other local organisations such as universities. The American tech corporation has also been instrumental in revising the computer science curriculum in Kenyan colleges. Other cloud providers, such as Huawei, have also been working with the government, but in different capacities. For instance, Huawei is one of the companies helping the country expand fibre coverage under the National Optic Fibre Network Backhaul Initiative (NOFBI). AWS launched a development centre in Nairobi, a second in Africa after opening one in Cape Town, South Africa. President Ruto said that the centre would be key to “bolstering its corporate citizenship credentials through its support for a robust framework to anchor optimal interactions between government, clients, start-ups, and other partners.”
Read MoreAfter issuing insurance to 2,000 drivers, Brolly is partnering with Bolt in Ghana
Brolly, the Ghanaian Techstars-backed insurance startup, has partnered with Bolt, the global ride-hailing company, to provide insurance coverage exclusively in Ghana to ride-hailing drivers with daily premium payments. Brolly, a Ghanaian insurtech startup underwritten by Allianz, is partnering with Bolt to insure drivers in Ghana. The startup had piloted its pay-as-you-go auto insurance solution, which allows drivers to pay premiums daily or weekly, with over 2,000 ride-sharing drivers before the partnership. However, the partnership now allows Bolt drivers to access insurance within the Bolt driver app, removing the need for them to have multiple platforms. “Since we began Brolly a year ago, we saw that ride-sharing drivers were naturally attracted to our way of making premium payments,” Bernard Braah, the CEO of Brolly, told TechCabal. Brolly’s underwriting partnership with Allianz allows it to take a cut out of every policy that is sold on its platform. Braah added that the startup chose Allianz because it aligned with Brolly’s goal of continent-wide expansion, as Allianz is present in more than a dozen African countries. Africa is the continent least protected by insurance; the sector only contributes 3% of the continent’s GDP, which is less than half the global average. The penetration rate for insurance in Africa is 2.8%, the lowest for any continent. For many Africans, the cost of annual insurance premiums makes it an unaffordable luxury. Brolly, which currently has 4,000 users, initially started by collecting monthly payments but introduced daily and weekly payments to align with the income patterns of ride-hailing drivers and small business owners. “With flexible payments, people can actually get the services they need because I have actually observed people struggle to pay their premiums,” Braah, the former general manager of Unique Insurance, a twenty-year-old insurance company, told TechCabal. Motor insurance is the second largest contributor to Africa’s insurance market after life insurance. However, some customers can submit damaged cars for insurance, as most insurance companies do not physically inspect cars before insuring them. To combat this, Brolly integrated artificial intelligence by using image and video recognition technology to eliminate fraudulent claims. The startup uses this technology to verify claims and ensure that claims match the pictures that customers send in at the underwriting stage.
Read More
👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – Nigeria launches its Startup Engagement Portal
In partnership with Share this newsletter: Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Happy pre-Friday If you’re an avid gamer or just looking for a short sweet read today, check out this article on what gaming can teach us about mastery and efficiency. In the article, a League of Legends player tells us how people who want to learn new things should focus on efficiency first before they aim for mastery. Read Mastery v Efficiency: A gaming perspective. In today’s edition Nigeria launches startup engagement portal OpenAI reopens doors to CEO Kenya adopts Microsoft’s cloud-first strategy in public sector M-KOPA expands to South Africa FSCA warns against GS Partners The World Wide Web3 Opportunities Policies Nigeria launches Startup Engagement Portal Image source: Bosun Tijani (X) The Nigerian government has launched its Startup Engagement Portal thirteen months after its Startup Act was signed into law. On Wednesday morning, minister for communications, innovation and digital economy Bosun Tijani announced the launch of the Startup Support and Engagement Portal. What is the Startup Engagement Portal? It’s the doorway into the Startup Act…literally. Every benefit or opportunity given under the Nigerian Startup Act hinges on the startup portal. Established under S. 30 of the Act, the Portal is a one-stop shop for startups. It helps startups easily handle paperwork and registration with agencies like the Corporate Affairs Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Central Bank of Nigeria. Startups that also register on the portal will get access to fiscal and tax incentives like tax breaks. The Act hints that only startups registered on the Portal—otherwise called “labelled startups” will be allowed to operate in the country. As Tijani says in his tweet, the Portal will also help the Nigerian government select representatives for the Startup Consultative Forum, a forum that will select leaders for a National Council for Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NCDIE)—the body in charge of implementing the Startup Act. The minister has urged all startups, VC firms, accelerators and angel investors in the country to register on the Portal. Zoom out: Nigeria’s implementation of its Startup Act might be a year behind schedule, but the delay could be understandable given the transition of power following its elections. So far, the country remains one of five—after Tunisia, Senegal, DRC, and Togo—to have a Startup Act. Several other African countries including Ghana, Rwanda and Kenya are reportedly developing similar laws. Access payments with Moniepoint Moniepoint has made it simple for your business to access payments while providing access to credit and other business tools. Open an account today here. Big Tech OpenAI reopens doors to CEO as board shuffles out GIF Source: Giphy OpenAI has annulled its divorce to CEO Sam Altman and co-founder/president Greg Brockman. Yesterday, the ChatGPT parent company announced that Altman and Brockman will be reinstated to their previous positions. The company also announced that its board of directors have been reconstituted to include ex-Salesforce CEO Bret Taylor, former US secretary of treasury Larry Summers, and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo who was on the old board of directors. JSYK: Altman was fired abruptly on Friday after the board accused him of being incapable of leading OpenAI forward. Shortly after his dismissal, Brockman, who was also removed as president, also quit along with senior researchers at OpenAI. Chief technology officer Mira Murati was then appointed interim CEO. By Sunday, blindsided OpenAI investors like Microsoft pushed the board to negotiate Altman’s return but things began to fall apart when my brother Jaja Altman demanded the board’s removal as a condition for his return. The board then, on Monday, hired another interim CEO, former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear, to replace Murati who had begun siding with Altman. On Tuesday, Murati, along with lead scientist Ilya Sutskever who many say spearheaded Altman’s removal over a disagreement the two had, joined 500 employees at OpenAI to demand the board’s removal and Altman’s reinstatement—or face mass resignations. At the same time, Microsoft had already hired Altman and Brockman to lead an AI division, and it was offering all OpenAI employees places on the new team. And now? Now, it appears pressure from investors, the media and the employees have panned out. Altman is set to go back to his position, and the new board is going to create a larger board of nine people to govern OpenAI. There’s also going to be an investigation into what prompted the Altman’s dismissal in the first place. Government Kenya adopts Microsoft’s cloud-first strategy in public sector The Kenyan government is looking to improve its flexibility and responsiveness in its public sector. The government announced its adoption of Microsoft’s cloud-first strategy to enhance public service delivery. What’s a Microsoft cloud-first strategy? It is an approach to IT that prioritises the use of Microsoft cloud services over on-premises solutions. Microsoft will collaborate with the national government, Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) through the ICT Authority to establish a joint working framework. The framework is expected to be finalised by February 2024. Zoom out: The agreement aims to accelerate Kenya’s digital transformation and align with the objectives of the Kenyan digital economy blueprint, with a focus on fostering technological adoption, improving the efficiency of e-government services, and enhancing cybersecurity awareness. Introducing: IP Whitelisting on Paystack Tighten security for your business by declaring the specific IP addresses from which Paystack should process API requests. Here’s how to set it up. Energy M-KOPA to bring affordable solar energy to South Africa amidst electricity crisis M-KOPA Solar. Image source: The Kenyan Wallstreet M-KOPA is bringing light to South Africa amidst the country’s electricity crisis. The digital financing firm is expanding its pay-as-you-go model for solar panels and smartphones to Soweto, five months after it secured $250 million in debt and equity to fund its expansion across Africa. Loadshedding in SA: Earlier reports in July show a 12-hour-long power outage in January, which eased up in May following South Africa’s efforts to enhance its generating capacity. However, Eskom warned in September that load shedding
Read More
🚀Entering Tech #49: Mastery v Efficiency: A gaming perspective
Here’s what gaming can teach us about mastery and efficiency. 22 || November || 2023 View in Browser In partnership with #Issue 49 Efficiency v Mastery: A gaming perspective Share this newsletter Greetings ET readers Today’s edition is an answer to our most asked question, “How can I master xxx in x months?” It should take you approximately 7 minutes to read, and I promise you it’s definitely worth it. by Timi Odueso Lessons from League of Legends In an October 30 thread, I wrote about how much I love League of Legends—an online multiplayer battle arena game—and how it’s taken me two years to become an efficient player. League of Legends champs. L-R: Lux, Jinx, Yasuo and Blitzcrank Let me explain: League of Legends has over 180 million players and 166 champions, most with five abilities. For each of these champions, there are about 63 runes that enhance their abilities, and about 200 items they can buy in-game (all of which will have different effects on the champions). The main gameplay in League is called Summoner’s Rift where two teams battle to destroy each other’s base across three different lanes—it’s capture the flag. It’s a 5 v 5 game and everyone starts at Level 1 for every game. That means that you, a player who’s attained mastery of one champion, could be paired up with four other players you don’t know who want to try out new champions. The Summoner’s Rift Map The result of the above: there no assured wins because winning isn’t just about how good you are. Not because you’re bad players, but because even though it’s the same map and the same champions, it’s not the same item combinations, nor the same players, the same runes or even the same skins. In fact, the League wiki says that are over 2 million different item combos, and over 51 million different team compositions to play in the game. There are too many moving parts to learn all at once. When my UX designer friend Boluwatife Oyinloye introduced me to League in November 2021, I felt like absolute crap for the first two weeks because my avatars, the champions I tried to play, died every minute. But the moment I found one champ I could play, a long-range sniper named Caitlyn, I latched on and played her—and only her—for twelve months straight. I played many good games, yes, but this meant that when Cait was banned in certain games or if someone else on my team chose Cait before I could select her, I would suck. A year later, I discovered Senna, a long-range undead champion, who I think is the best thing since small chops, and again, I latched on. I had two champs, but I still wasn’t efficient enough. I was too nervous, too unsure—I sometimes still am. If you’re thinking, How dis one take consine me? Hold on, you’ll get it soon. Nine months ago, I started frequently playing another mode called ARAM—All Random, All Middle. In this mode, the game picks one of League’s 166 champs at random for you to play. Everyone is also put on a single lane, instead of the three lanes in the standard Summoner’s Rift mode—which is different because you can pick which champion or lane you want. In ARAM, however, the computer selects a champion for you at random, and the game is played on one lane. I was forced to play champions I would never try over and over again. I should mention that I didn’t play ARAM because I wanted to learn new champions, I did it because I sucked at Summoner’s Rift and wanted to win well at something. ARAM Map Now/Today, I have some form of mastery in 15 champions and I can play up to 50. The more important point is that I now know all 166 champions and their abilities. And this means that when I play against Tryndamere, a man who—like many African leaders—refuses to die, I know to keep my distance when his eyes glow red. When I play Chogath—a horned beast of insatiable hunger, like me at 2 AM—in ARAM, I know to buy Warmog’s Armour so I can regenerate my full health in 10 seconds. I also know—by hard lessons—never, ever, ever, to run after Singed even if he has just 1 hit point left; he leaves a noxious gas in his trail that slowly kills you. More recently, League introduced a new map and I find myself playing any champion on that map and doing fairly well. As I said in this tweet, I’m not a top player yet, but I’m comfortable enough in my champion’s skin because I know what I’m up against—I know who I am fighting. Simplify with Rowvar Simplify property investment with Rowvar. Start here. First, be efficient… Now, how does this winding story concern you and why should you give a flying rat’s rump? Well, because by far the most frequent question I’ve been asked on #EnteringTech’s Ask a Techie segment is: “Can I master xxx within a couple of weeks/months?” or some variation of it. Some even add “…and get a dollar-paying job too?” And each time, it takes every morsel of good judgment I have, and the threat of my manager Muyiwa beating me not to say, “No, the hell you can not! Na play?” Mastery, or even efficiency, takes a surmountable amount of time and hard work. It’s not enough that you read about something or are good at doing your everyday role, you have to know what’s out there too; what your competition looks like, how you fare against it, and how you can play on the same field. When I’m not doing the only thing I love 100%—sorry Muyiwa, work is not my passion, I lied on the application form—I work as a Senior Editor at TechCabal where I manage newsletters. I’ve been at TC for almost three years now, and I can confidently say
Read MoreAn inside look at how interest rates are pressuring VCs and stifling innovation
This article was contributed to TechCabal by Yacob Berhane, Co-Founder & CEO of Pariti. Founders…we’re not the only ones struggling. In the past 18–24 months, we’ve heard the term “dry powder” over, and over again. Basically, the perception is that after record-setting fundraising years, VC funds are sitting on massive piles of capital that they haven’t deployed. The perception in many of my conversations with founders is that investors are sitting on cash and watching us flounder. The reality is far from that. I wanted to write this for my fellow founders who may not have the time to research or may not have had the exposure to capital markets as I did during an investment banking stint. Hopefully, this is helpful and informative in tying some of the different threads on this topic together. Sorry for the jargon; I’ve done my best to link back to useful resources to help you along the way. This isn’t a pity party for investors; it’s a reality check for us. There’s no one coming to save us. We have to build resilient businesses solving big problems, with great distribution/moats, adapt to the new AI world, and still grow at exceptional rates. If that sounds ridiculous, it is. But so is believing we can build a unicorn and change the world—right? Mario Gabriele, writing in The Generalist, once said, “If the 2020s have one ultimate message, however, it is that we live in the most chaotic timeline. This is the age of superbugs and superbubbles, lockdowns and collapses. Welcome to the roaring twenties: a decade of pandemonium.” The quote above captures the essence of what it means to be a founder, especially a millennial one. We’ve come of age in rapid boom and bust cycles and now need to get comfortable with the reality that until interest rates come back down, there’s no reason to believe the VC dollars will start flowing at a high clip. It would be awesome to look at the Fed Funds Future contracts and be able to predict rates, but I’d rather spend time and effort figuring out how to build a phenomenal business that solves massive problems. This allows us to endure the hard times so that we’re able to appreciate the good ones to come. Topics to unpack New normal for founders and investors. The definition of a good deal has drastically changed. Yes, as founders, it feels like the goalposts have now moved—they did! But not just for us. VCs are struggling to raise. If you check the data, you will see that it’s hard out here for everyone. If you’re a VC that doesn’t have a good track record of DPIxTVPI or some solid name-brand exits, raising the next fund is an uphill battle. Focus on protecting portfolio value. General partners (GPs) have needed to and will likely continue to focus on the bird in hand rather than over-indexing on the birds in the bush, thinking (and/or hoping) their portfolio founders will just figure it out. Funds have ring-fenced capital to their portfolio to ensure survival for their winners and potential winners (as best as they can) to be able to ride out the storm (hopefully). It’s also a new world for a lot of VCs. Many GPs are new to this game and have never been through a bust cycle just as us founders, so we’re all learning in real time. We also must remember our investors have other investments and only approximately 30 days in a month. So, a good exercise for us founders is to look at the size of the fund compared to how much they invested and consider what they mark you at and the likelihood you’re a fund returner or not. It’s not easy, but that level of sobriety is critical, especially in these times. Opportunity cost for calling capital. Depending on the limited partner (LP) base (institutional, endowment, pension fund, HNWI), they can have different capital needs. In an environment where you can earn 500+ basic points (bps) risk-free and be able to get out of money markets in days, it begs the question: Why allocate into illiquid asset classes like early-stage equities, especially when your public market equities are down over-indexing the portfolio in equities in general? So now what? Ask yourself: Is this my life’s work? If it is, you’re playing an infinite game. There’s no shame in losses that come with that, as long as you operate with integrity and genuinely are obsessed with solving a problem that can improve the lives of others. This whole thing is a series of experiments. Something else that’s important to align with your leadership team and major investors is: Are we going for default alive, investable, or acquirable? Be clear and decisive here. Remember: build something that matters to people. We obviously all want to be fund returners, unicorns etc. Sometimes that’s not in the cards. Sometimes it is. What is in your control is being customer-focused and obsessed with solving problems using data and feedback. At Pariti, we’ve realised that by co-creating with our community building around data x AI models, we can change capital and talent markets and empower people to earn. Supercharging their efforts with AI does not replace them. Some of our community referrers are earning more monthly than the average GDP/per capita in Africa. Are we satisfied? No! But every day I get reminded that there are people in the world grateful for what we’ve built, and that reigns supreme above all else. For those of us who make it through this cycle, I believe the businesses we are building will be some of, if not the most, transformational businesses the world has ever seen. If you want to learn more about this and other related topics sign up here. I’ll be interviewing founders/investors over the coming weeks to unpack more of these current events and get different perspectives from early-stage to growth-stage founders & investors.
Read MoreM-KOPA expands to South Africa with pay-as-you-go solar panels
This article was contributed to TechCabal by Seth Onyango via bird story agency. M-KOPA is finally rolling out its pilot operations in South Africa five months after it secured over $250 million of debt and equity to fund its expansion across Africa. The company, which pioneered a pay-as-you-go model for solar panels and smartphones in East Africa, will partner with local retailers and distributors to offer its suite of smart products to low-income households in the vibrant township. Recently, the firm sought a sales executive through postings on Glassdoor and Beebee, as it looks to bolster its drive in Soweto. Last year, Jesse Moore, M-KOPA CEO and Co-founder said the firm would expand to more markets across Africa and scale to over 10 million customers in the next few years. South Africa thus represents M-KOPA’s fourth-largest market, following Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana, where the company has enjoyed relative success with a diverse range of consumers. In Soweto, M-KOPA aims to replicate its Kenyan success in a market often disrupted by power outages due to load-shedding. Despite these challenges, South Africa’s dynamic and varied economy offers a new frontier for M-KOPA. Choosing to start in Soweto is seen as a strategic move, given the township’s similarity to the markets where M-KOPA has previously thrived. The area’s demographics, mainly low to middle-income households, align well with M-KOPA’s product range. According to tech analyst, Martin Macharia, the entry into the South African market is a natural pivot. “The country, despite its economic strides, grapples with challenges such as frequent power outages and a significant portion of the population still living without regular access to important amenities,” he noted. “M-KOPA’s innovative solutions, therefore, which have seen great success in Kenya and to some extent Nigeria, are poised to offer much-needed relief in these areas. By partnering with local retailers and distributors, M-KOPA is not only contributing to the economy but also embedding itself within the community, ensuring that its solutions are tailored to meet the specific needs of the South African consumer.” M-KOPA’s products include smartphones, electric motorcycles and solar power systems, which customers can pay for in small instalments over time, using their mobile phones. The products are embedded with credit through a smart digital connection, giving customers instant ownership and access to essential services. As of March 2022, it had reached 2 million customers across four African markets, with the latest funding haul setting it on course to become the dominant player in that space, possibly a unicorn.
Read More
👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – ChatGPT now has a free voice chat option
In partnership with Share this newsletter: Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Good morning If you ever need someone to talk to, here’s a notice that ChatGPT is here for you. Yesterday, the company rolled out a voice chat feature for all ChatGPT users, and it’s completely free to use for everyone who downloads the app! You can choose from one of five voices and ask it anything, the same way you’d ask with the text feature. There’s a boatload of functionality for this from having discussions about work, talking through your ideas, or even asking how to make $20 million like we did—investments and high-risk ventures, btw. Hopefully, OpenAI will employ its own service to mediate its in-house CEO scuffles. In today’s edition GetEquity questioned over unpaid funds Alerzo lays off 100 employees Aduna Capital raises $20 million for Northern Nigerian startups Stream Spotify for free in Mali, Madagascar, and DRC Telkom needs more time to buy 5G in South Africa The World Wide Web3 Opportunities Startups GetEquity questioned over unpaid funds GIF source: Tenor Yesterday, a TechCabal investigation revealed that capital marketplace GetEquity was at the centre of a police complaint on unpaid funds. According to the report, another startup, Peppa, filed the complaint after GetEquity stalled in remitting about $14,000 which Peppa had raised on GetEquity’s platform. The report led to the detention of GetEquity co-founder Temitope Ekundayo who was invited for questioning by the police force and subsequently detained for two days. Backstory: GetEquity operates as a private marketplace where other startups can raise money from private individuals. In July, Peppa had raised $43,000 on GetEquity’s platform. When it requested a payout, GetEquity instead proposed a four-week payment plan which Peppa founders say GetEquity did not stick to. According to Jude Dike, co-founder at GetEquity, fluctuations in dollar rates affected the startup’s ability to remit funds. Investments on GetEquity are made in several currencies, but the platform remits its funds in US dollars. At the time of the complaint, GetEquity had remitted $29,000 to Peppa and had $14,000 to balance. With the report and detainment of its co-founder, the startup now says it has paid the outstanding amount. While Peppa says it only filed a police complaint as a last resort, GetEquity says it’s now considering legal action over the detention of its co-founder. Access payments with Moniepoint Moniepoint has made it simple for your business to access payments while providing access to credit and other business tools. Open an account today here. Layoffs Alerzo lays off 100 employees eight months after last layoff round Adewale Opaleye, CEO Alerzo. Image Source: TechEconomy. Alerzo, an e-commerce startup, has laid off at least 100 employees eight months after it laid off 400 employees. The e-commerce startup, which secured $10.5 million in a Series A round in 2021, cited the implementation of an “end-to-end warehouse management system” and improved process automation as the reasons for the layoffs. Insiders familiar with Alerzo’s operations revealed that the majority of the affected workforce worked in the company’s 40 warehouses. The company implemented new software that eliminated the need for several lines of approval, leading to redundant roles, and at least two staff members were let go from each warehouse. Support measures: Alerzo is taking steps to support the impacted employees. Laid-off employees will receive a one-month severance package and continued Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) coverage until the end of the year. Funding Aduna Capital launches $20 million fund for Northern Nigerian startups Surayyah Ahmad Sani and Sanusi Ismaila Aduna Capital has launched its first $20 million fund dedicated to discovering and nurturing early-stage startups across Africa, especially those in Northern Nigeria. The investment firm, founded by TTLabs founding partner Surayyah Ahmad Sani and CoLab Founder Sanusi Ismaila, is focused on empowering female founders and startups in underserved regions like Northern Nigeria. Northern Nigeria? Yes. With a population of over 100 million people, Northern Nigeria offers a vast untapped market, positioning itself as a pivotal region for growth. Additionally, research has shown that female-led startups generate 78 cents in revenue for every $1 invested, while male-led startups generate only 31 cents. The firm aims to focus on this by giving 50% of its investments to female-led startups. A pan-African approach: Aduna Capital’s investment focus also has a pan-African approach beyond northern Nigeria. The fund will put 25% of its investments towards startups in the rest of Nigeria, and another 25% across the African continent. Per Ahmad, the fund will be investing between $50,000 to $200,000, in startups, but will occasionally write angel checks to help fill gaps in funding from other investors in the region. The firm also plans to sell its stakes in companies when they reach the Series A stage. However, Ahmad mentions that the firm intends to keep about 20% of the companies they invest in and continue to invest more money in these chosen companies as they grow. Zoom out: Aduna joins a growing number of venture capital firms that are recognizing the entrepreneurial potential of Northern Nigeria. THESCATHGROUP (TSC), for example, has already provided early-stage funding and advisory support to ten tech startups in the region, including The AgroTrader and OffKay. These investments are helping to fuel innovation and economic growth in Northern Nigeria. Introducing: IP Whitelisting on Paystack Tighten security for your business by declaring the specific IP addresses from which Paystack should process API requests. Here’s how to set it up. Media You can stream Spotify for free in Mali, Madagascar, and DRC GIF source: Tenor Spotify users across three countries in sub-Saharan Africa no longer have to worry about data to stream music on the platform. Telecom Orange has partnered with Spotify to allow smartphone users in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, and Mali to listen to music on Spotify without buying data. How does it work? The French telco will be providing free data bonuses for Spotify users who sign up for an Orange mobile offer in these countries. The
Read MoreLagos startup filed Police complaint against GetEquity founders over unpaid funds
Peppa, a startup that offers escrow services to people online shoppers, has filed a police complaint against Jude Dike and Temitope Ekundayo, the co-founders of GetEquity, a self-described “marketplace for private capital” that helps startup founders raise venture funding from retail investors. The police complaint is related to $43,000 that Peppa had raised using GetEquity, three people with direct knowledge of the matter told TechCabal. Those sources confirmed that Ekundayo, GetEquity’s COO, was invited by the police and detained for two days in connection with the complaint. He has now been released and GetEquity said it plans to institute legal action over his detention. The Alagbon division of the Nigerian Police Force did not respond to a request for information. GetEquity told TechCabal that the police complaint and the subsequent detention of its co-founder was an “intimidation tactic,” claiming the startup had already paid $29,000 out of the $43,000 raised by Peppa. GetEquity says it has now paid the outstanding amount owed. “We approached GetEquity to help us collect money from angel investors as part of a small family and friends round,” said a source at Peppa who requested anonymity to allow them to speak freely. According to the terms of that deal, GetEquity would collect these funds on behalf of Peppa and a commission for its service. “As our company had completed a Know Your Customer (KYC) process, our agreement stated that we could collect the money that had been raised whenever we were ready, and it would be wired to us,” said the person at Peppa. Two people at GetEquity confirmed that Peppa completed the funding round in July. Yet, when the company tried to collect the money it had raised, GetEquity could not pay upfront and proposed a four-week payment plan instead. GetEquity later reneged on that payment plan. GetEquity says FX volatility impacted ability to pay “As a business, we’ve had to deal with high volatility in the Nigerian exchange rates,” said Dike, CEO at GetEquity. He explained that his startup receives funds from investors looking to back startups listed on the GetEquity app. Retail investments are deposited in several currencies, while the platform pays the funds to the associated startups in US Dollars. He claimed that while the company makes provision for exchange rate volatility in the process, the “volatility of the Naira increased exponentially between 2022 and 2023.” “You had situations where if the investor makes a payment today, it takes two days for the transaction to settle, and the price of the US Dollar may have changed by as much as N200 in those two days.” Dike admitted that this extreme volatility “led us into a hole we needed to sort out with our liquidity partners.” He said the company’s outstanding payouts were worth tens of thousands of dollars without a timeline for when it suffered the financial crisis. However, Dike claims that the company eventually rectified the situation and said it entered into an agreement with Peppa to stagger those payments. At the time of the police complaint, GetEquity still owed $14,000. One person at Peppa said the company filed a police complaint only as a last resort after months of dialogue with GetEquity.
Read More