Lessons from Copenhagen for Africa’s founders and investors
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
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Nigeria picks French, Israeli firms to build new communications satellites
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
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She learned finance on Wall Street. Now she is changing how Africa gets funded.
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
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The Ugandan founders who don’t want farmers waiting for rain
Rodgers Mwijukye and Ronald Asiimwe have known each other long enough to disagree without making much of it. They met in high school in Uganda in 2015, attended the same university, and took degrees that pointed towards very different careers. Mwijukye studied water and irrigation engineering; Asiimwe studied computer science. Mwijukye imagined postgraduate study, perhaps a PhD and a career in academia or public service. Asiimwe was the software guy, happiest behind a computer. Agriculture, however, kept pulling them towards the same problem. In Uganda, millions of farmers still depend on rainfall to grow food. For farmers in drought-prone areas, a failed rainy season can mean a failed harvest and, with it, the loss of a household’s income and food. Mwijukye had trained in precisely the engineering that could help farmers become less dependent on rain. The duo founded Drought Guard Africa in 2023, which designs and installs climate-smart irrigation, clean water, and solar energy systems for rural farmers, refugee settlements, and underserved communities. But building the technology turned out to be easier than persuading farmers to trust it. Many had farmed the same way for generations. A new irrigation system, however clever, meant little until they could see it working on someone else’s farm. “People believe successful stories from the people they know,” Mwijukye says. It is a lesson that captures much of their journey. Africa may have the technology, but the harder problem is getting it onto farms where it can actually change how food is grown. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. If the two of you had never met, where do you think your lives would have ended up? Mwijukye: I think I would probably be in public service or have continued with education. I did a bachelor’s degree in water and irrigation engineering, and I always felt I could go for a master’s, then a PhD, and perhaps join academia. Or I could have ended up working in public service in the water and irrigation space. Asiimwe: I don’t know why he’s saying this because the truth is, he founded this before I joined him. He didn’t get into it because we were together. We’ve been together for more than 10 years. We met in high school in 2015 and went up to Senior Six together. We later took different paths but ended up at the same university. I was doing computer science, but I would always go to his room. If we had never met, I think I would still have ended up in agriculture. Most of the projects I worked on at university were agriculture-related. Before this, we also co-founded a youth NGO. I’m still part of it, although I don’t put much time into it anymore because most of my focus is here. When did you first realise your co-founder wasn’t just a good colleague, but someone you’d trust with your career—and perhaps your reputation? Mwijukye: For me, it goes back to when we met in high school in 2015. We literally shared almost everything. From 2015 until around 2021, it was simply a friendship. We were always together, so we knew each other very well and trusted each other with almost everything. That made it easier for me to share the vision with him. It didn’t take him long to say, “Yeah, we can do this.” Asiimwe: After 11 years, he’s like a brother to me. Even without the business, we would still be close. I can stay in his room, and we can share almost everything. Business isn’t what brought us together in the first place. It’s almost a complement to the friendship. What’s something about your co-founder that frustrated you in the beginning but has since become one of the company’s biggest strengths? Mwijukye: When it comes to finding potential investors, grants, or other opportunities, that is not his thing. I would tell him, “Look, you can use LinkedIn for most of these things. People are always sharing opportunities. You just have to make yourself available and keep looking.” Even when I found an opportunity, following up and doing the application wasn’t his game. He’s into tech. He loves being on his computer coding. Eventually, I realised that it was actually useful because our roles became clear. I knew he could do that, so I had to do this. If I spend a day without scrolling through LinkedIn and different groups looking for opportunities, I feel like I’ve lost a million. I find the opportunities that fit us and do the applications. Asiimwe: For me, it’s his decision-making. Sometimes he comes across as a dictator. I tend to look at things objectively and ask, “How do you feel about this?” On his side, sometimes it’s just, “Let’s do this.” But I’ve realised that when he strongly believes in something, he puts all his energy behind it. What he speaks about, he enforces and supports. That has become a strength for the business. Rodgers Mwijukye. Image source: Drought Guard You’ve spent years trying to solve other people’s problems. Who helped you solve yours when you were close to giving up? Asiimwe: We’re solving farmers’ problems, although we also benefit because that’s how the business makes revenue. Along my journey, I’ve had many people helping me. Growing up, my family wasn’t really middle-class. Getting into a good school and university was difficult. But I grew up with scholarships. I got through high school on a scholarship and university through a government scholarship. So I feel like other people were solving my problems. That’s partly where I get the heart to help solve other people’s problems. Now I can combine that passion with business. Mwijukye: My elder brother has been very important. He works in cold storage, and he helped give me the belief that there is enough money in the world and investors are willing to fund you if you identify a real problem and organise yourself properly to solve it. At the beginning, we didn’t have
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From war zones to Kenya’s markets: How an ex-soldier built a $1bn lender
OPEYEMI KAREEM, in this feature, tells the story of how former British Army officer Wayne Hennessy-Barrett arrived in Kenya with little experience in finance and a simple question: what do small traders need to keep their businesses moving? Thirteen years later, that question has helped build 4G Capital into a lender that has disbursed more than $1bn in loans. Thirteen years ago, Wayne Hennessy-Barrett walked into Kenya’s informal markets with no bank, no loan book and, by his own admission, little conventional finance experience. He had one question for the traders he met: what did they need? The answers were remarkably simple. “I walked around and asked people what they needed,” he said. “They just said, I need a loan now to buy stuff and sell it.” That conversation would become the starting point for 4G Capital, the Kenya-based lender he would go on to build for micro and small businesses shut out of traditional finance. The problem was not that these businesses did not need money. They needed it constantly — to replenish stock, take advantage of a good buying opportunity or keep trading when cash was tied up elsewhere. But many had neither the collateral nor the financial records that banks typically demanded before lending. Hennessy-Barrett believed there was another way to decide who deserved credit. Instead of asking a small trader to prove their worth through assets or years of financial statements, 4G Capital would lend them working capital, watch how they repaid it and use that behaviour to determine how much they could borrow next. It was a simple idea, but one that would take the company from a $100 loan in its early days to more than $1bn in cumulative disbursements. In June, 4G Capital said it had disbursed more than $1bn across over seven million loans, while maintaining a repayment rate of about 95 per cent. The numbers are vastly different from where the company began. The underlying bet, however, has barely changed: that a small business does not necessarily need collateral to prove that it is creditworthy. Sometimes, it just needs the opportunity to demonstrate that it can repay. That bet began in 2013, when Hennessy-Barrett arrived in Kenya after working in the British Army and set out to build an unsecured lending business. Before he approved his first loan, he went looking for borrowers. He found them in the informal markets, walking from trader to trader and listening to what they said they needed. Building a lender on foot Before finance, there was the military. Hennessy-Barrett worked in the British Army, serving in conflict zones across the Balkans, the Middle East and South Asia. The experience left him with a conviction that communities emerging from conflict needed more than security. They needed jobs, functioning businesses and access to the capital required to build lives that could endure. After leaving the military, he joined a South African startup that sent him to East Africa to build an unsecured lending business from scratch. He arrived without the conventional finance background that might have seemed necessary for the job. Looking back, he believes that may have helped him. “Maybe I was lucky in not having a conventional finance background where I wouldn’t have been as receptive to that opportunity,” he said. So he started where the customers were. Hennessy-Barrett walked through Kenya’s bustling informal markets, speaking to traders and trying to understand what was missing from their businesses. “I walked around and asked people what they needed,” he said. “They just said, I need a loan now to buy stuff and sell it.” He explained that these responses informed 4G Capital’s first product: a $100 working-capital loan repayable over 30 days. To decide who qualified for a loan, Hennessy-Barrett told TechCabal that he built small field teams that moved from business to business through the market. Prospective borrowers answered about 40 questions, and their responses fed into a credit calculator to determine how much they could realistically borrow. Eighteen months after launching the operation, Hennessy-Barrett led a management buyout, allowing him to take ownership and begin trading as 4G Capital in 2015. 4G Capital merchants. Image source: 4G Capital Refining the idea For many startups, building a product the market wants is only the first step. Growth often brings the pressure to expand or pivot into other products. 4G Capital took a different approach. Instead, the company focused on improving the idea it started with. “We landed on a really good product-market fit with the first shot,” he said. As 4G Capital grew and issued more loans, it generated more data on users’ repayment habits. What started as the company’s credit calculator became Eva, Capital’s proprietary underwriting algorithm. Hennessy-Barrett explained the system analyses data points, including a business’s repayment history and seasonal trading patterns, to calculate how much it can responsibly borrow and how likely it is to repay. Today, Hennessy-Barrett said, the company’s underwriting process is almost entirely algorithmic. He also noted that in response to the realisation that many of its customers struggled with bookkeeping and stock management, which made it harder to grow their businesses or qualify for larger loans, 4G Capital introduced enterprise training alongside its lending. According to him, the goal was to help entrepreneurs build stronger businesses to improve repayment outcomes. As 4G Capital learned more about how goods moved between distributors and informal retailers, the company also introduced a supply-chain finance product. With this offering, distributors could receive immediate payment for goods supplied to retailers, while 4G Capital financed the transaction and collected repayment from the retailers over an agreed period. Still, Hennessy-Barrett said 4G Capital tested several new products over the years, but chose not to commercialise all of them. “We’ve had some very promising small product pilots… and we put them on ice because we’ve got so much to do with what we’re currently doing,” he said. The bet isn’t over The business Hennessy-Barrett built from conversations in Kenya’s informal markets has changed in scale.
Read MoreWhat ₦100,000 in Nigeria’s biggest bank stocks became in 8 months
Nigerians are putting more of their hard-earned money into the stock market than ever before. But what has that money actually earned them? Between January and May 2026, retail participation in the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) grew by 138.76% year-on-year, with ₦2.86 trillion ($2.13 billion) in equities traded. Much of the renewed interest in the market has coincided with a strong run in banking stocks, as investors bet on what newly recapitalised banks can earn from their larger balance sheets. But the rally has not rewarded every bank investor equally. A ₦100,000 ($74.43) investment in First HoldCo at the start of 2026 would have become ₦269,000 ($200.21) by August 26, while the same investment in UBA would be worth just ₦106,000 ($78.89). Between March 2024 and March 2026, Nigerian banks raised ₦3.37 trillion ($2.51 billion) in fresh capital from domestic investors. Much of that capital has gone into the country’s biggest lenders, including Access Holdings Plc, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO), United Bank for Africa (UBA), First HoldCo Plc, and Zenith Bank. With fresh capital, these banks now have greater capacity to grow their loan books, expand payments and other fee-generating businesses, and compete for larger corporate and retail opportunities. Investors are betting that stronger earnings will translate into higher share prices and dividends. So, how much would ₦100,000 ($74.43) invested in each of the five banks at the start of the year be worth now? Methodology: The calculations use each stock’s first trading price of 2026 and its August 26 price. They measure share-price appreciation only and exclude dividends, brokerage fees, taxes, and other transaction costs. What your investment became Share-price performance from January to August 26, 2026. Dividends and fees excluded. Your starting investment ₦ ₦50k ₦100k ₦500k ₦1m Original Investment Gain ‘; rowsHtml += ‘ ‘; rowsHtml += ‘ ‘; rowsHtml += ‘ ‘; rowsHtml += ‘ ‘; rowsHtml += ‘ ‘; rowsHtml += ‘ ‘; rowsHtml += ‘
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👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – OPay to NGX?
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية TGIFLUTW. Several companies are hiring this week, including critical local roles at Tether, Paystack, and Flutterwave. Head over to our updated job board. Let’s get into today’s newsletter. Become smarter about tech and commerce in Francophone Africa, and the policies shaping them. Read previous editions here first and subscribe below. Subscribe Quizzes OPay reportedly eyes the NGX Coronation sells part of its SPAR stake Who secured the bag? World Wide Web 3 Job Openings Quizzes How closely did you read TC Daily this week? One question, tap an answer. Nigeria’s FCCPC gave MTN conditional approval for its $2.2 billion IHS Towers acquisition this week. What’s the condition? A) MTN must cut its tower prices by 30% B) MTN must sell up to 30% of its IHS Nigeria stake to local investors C) MTN must divest from IHS entirely within five years D) MTN must share network data with Airtel and T2 Mobile Every business owner needs to watch this. The business questions you Google, answered by experts. Watch for free. companies OPay could bring its $4 billion IPO ambitions to the Nigerian Exchange Image Source: Tenor OPay, the Nigeria-focused fintech famous for its lightning-speed transfers and green army of point-of-sale (PoS) devices, has spent months preparing for a big debut on the American capital market. Now, in a slightly unexpected turn, the company may also be preparing to sell shares to investors back home through the Nigerian Exchange (NGX). It is unclear whether OPay could list exclusively in Nigeria or pursue a dual listing. What happened? According to local publication Nairametrics, OPay could be planning to list its shares on the NGX, though the company has not officially confirmed the plans. The timing, size of the offer, and number of shares it could sell are still unknown. Explain like I’m new here: In May, Bloomberg reported that OPay was planning a US public listing, seeking a valuation of $4 billion. At the end of 2025, Opera, one of its key investors, held a 9.5% stake in OPay which was worth $294.6 million, implying a $3.10 billion valuation. At the end of Q2 2026, that investment had grown to $300.9 million in fair-value gain, showing that OPay’s valuation has ticked up slightly to $3.17 billion. If the $4 billion valuation ask goes according to plan, OPay’s listing would considerably grow its current $3.17 billion worth. Sugar rush? The fintech’s performance is also drawing investor and potential stakeholder interest. In August, Bloomberg reported that Standard Group, South Africa’s largest lender, was in talks to acquire an OPay stake before it goes public. Temi Popoola, chief executive officer of NGX, earlier this month urged the Nigerian President to require Nigerian fintechs to list on the stock exchange, pointing out that companies such as OPay and PalmPay, which operate mainly in Nigeria, are considering foreign public listings. However, it is too soon to know whether that appeal affected OPay’s plans, especially without the fintech explicitly confirming its reported plans to list on the NGX. Why the NGX might look interesting: In the first seven months of 2026, the NGX’s All-Share Index (which tracks the performance of NGX-listed stocks) rose by 57%. By the end of July, the total value of those companies jumped by ₦58.9 trillion ($43.8 billion) to ₦158.2 trillion ($117.8 billion). The surge and strong NGX performance could convince fintechs such as OPay that there is deep market participation and local capital to tap if they look in that direction. Moonshot is back! Moonshot 2026 is coming! Join us at the National Theatre, Lagos on October 28 & 29 for two days of tech and innovation. Grab your early bird tickets now and get 15% off. companies Coronation trims its SPAR stake by more than $6.3 million Image Source: BusinessTech Coronation Asset Management, a South African asset manager that also operates in Nigeria, has sold over R100 million ($6.3 million) worth of shares in SPAR, but it has not walked away from the South African retailer. What happened? Coronation, an institutional investor in SPAR, sold part of its beneficial interest in the company. Following the sale, its stake has decreased from 10.89% to 9.53%, according to itscorporate filing on Thursday. Based on SPAR’s roughly 192.6 million issued shares, that is about 2.62 million shares. At SPAR’s share price around the time of the announcement,the sale was worth about R104 million to R105 million ($6.52 million–$6.58 million). Explain like I’m new here: Coronation manages money for clients, so it can buy or sell part of its stake in a listed company without exiting its entire position. The fund manager still owns about 18.36 million SPAR shares, making it one of the retailer’s biggest institutional shareholders. The sale does not signal a full exit, but it shows that Coronation is willing to trim its position even as it remains a major shareholder. State of play: Coronation’s stake reduction is roughly one in every eight SPAR shares it previously held. The original disclosure puts the sale at more than R100 million (about $6.26 million) at the same exchange rate. South African government-owned fund, the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), remains SPAR’s largest institutional shareholder with about 18.63%, followed by Allan Gray, a local investment company, with about 8.53%. Zoom out: Coronation’s sale is not necessarily a vote of no confidence in SPAR, as it still holds a significant stake in the company. The more useful signal is whether Coronation keeps trimming its SPAR stake, starts buying again, or holds its 9.53% position. insights Funding Tracker Image Source: TechCabal Insights Swvl, an Egyptian mobility startup, raised $13 million in strategic investment from Coefficient LP. (Aug 26) Here are the other deals for the week: Verascient, a South African AI-infrastructure company, raised $1.5 million in a pre-seed funding round from Founder Collective, Andrena Ventures, Cambridge Enterprise, and Summit Ventures. (Aug 24) Flowt, a Kenyan fintech startup, raised an undisclosed amount in pre-seed funding from Delta40 Fund I,
Read MoreRedmi Note 17 Pro Max: Release date, price and specs
Table of contents Redmi Note 17 Pro Max at a glance Release date Price Specs Redmi Note 17 vs Redmi Note 17 Pro vs Redmi Note 17 Pro Max How it compares to the Redmi Note 15 Pro+ Where to buy the Redmi Note 17 Pro Max Frequently asked questions Xiaomi launched the Redmi Note 17 Pro Max globally on August 27, 2026. It is the first Pro Max phone in the Redmi Note series, and it sits above the Redmi Note 17 Pro as the top model in the lineup. The phone’s biggest selling point is its battery. Depending on where you buy it, you get a 9,210mAh or 10,000mAh battery, paired with 100W fast charging. Below, you’ll find the release date, price, full specs, and how the Pro Max compares to the standard Note 17 and Note 17 Pro. Redmi Note 17 Pro Max at a glance Redmi Note 17 Pro Max release date Xiaomi announced the Redmi Note 17 Pro Max on August 27, 2026, as part of a global launch that also included the Redmi Note 17, Redmi Note 17 5G, and Redmi Note 17 Pro 5G. Sale dates and prices differ by country, so check the details for your market below. Is it coming to Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, or Ghana? Xiaomi has not confirmed a release date for the Redmi Note 17 Pro Max in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, or Ghana. None of these countries has a local product page for the phone yet, and Xiaomi’s Nigeria site still shows the Redmi Note 15 series as its newest model. Reports suggest the phone is headed to more African markets, but there’s no confirmed country-level pricing or sale date yet. If you see the Redmi Note 17 Pro Max for sale locally before an official announcement, treat it as an imported unit. It may not come with a local warranty. Redmi Note 17 Pro Max price Xiaomi has confirmed official prices in a few markets, while others are still pending. Here’s what we know so far. What would it cost in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Ghana? Xiaomi hasn’t announced local pricing for these markets. As a rough guide, converting the European price range (€599.90 to €649) at rates checked on August 27, 2026 gives you: Nigeria: about ₦968,000 to ₦1.05 million Kenya: about KSh90,400 to KSh97,800 South Africa: about R11,170 to R12,084 Ghana: about GH₵7,829 to GH₵8,469 These are direct currency conversions and don’t include shipping, import duties, taxes, or retailer markup. Your actual price will likely be higher once the phone reaches local markets officially, and prices may shift with currency changes. Redmi Note 17 Pro Max specs 1. Display and design A 6.83-inch AMOLED display with 1.5K resolution (2772 x 1280) and up to 120Hz refresh rate Peak brightness of up to 3,500 nits, with support for HDR10+ and Dolby Vision Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection on the front Weighs 229.5g and comes in Black, Cloud Blush, and other colours depending on your region Cloud Blush shifts from white to a pink-orange tone in sunlight or under UV light. 2. Chipset and performance The Redmi Note 17 Pro Max runs on a Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 chip, built on a 4nm process with a top CPU speed of 2.6GHz. Qualcomm says this chip delivers up to 21% better graphics performance and 20% faster app launches than the chip it replaces. In everyday use, like browsing and watching videos, the phone runs smoothly according to early hands-on tests. Heavy gaming at high settings can cause some stuttering. The Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 sits in Qualcomm’s mid-range lineup, so the Pro Max name doesn’t mean flagship-level power. 3. Cameras A 50MP main camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS) An 8MP ultrawide camera A 32MP front camera for selfies and video calls Video recording up to 4K at 30fps on both the front and rear cameras Compared to the Redmi Note 15 Pro+’s 200MP main camera, this is a step down in resolution. Higher megapixels don’t always mean better photos, but it’s worth knowing if you’re upgrading from that model. 4. Battery and charging A 10,000mAh battery in Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Xiaomi’s global markets, or a 9,210mAh battery in Europe and Australia 100W wired charging, with Xiaomi claiming a full charge in a little over an hour Up to 27W reverse wired charging, so you can charge other devices from your phone Xiaomi says the battery keeps at least 80% of its capacity after 1,600 charge cycles, or roughly six years of typical use One independent test in Singapore recorded a charge from 0% to 50% in 34 minutes, and close to two hours for a full charge, so actual charging time may run longer than Xiaomi’s marketing figures suggest. The charger isn’t included everywhere. Japan’s retail box includes a 100W adapter, but Xiaomi’s global page says the standard package doesn’t. Check your local listing before you buy. 5. Durability IP68 and IP69 water and dust resistance in most markets, with the full IP66/IP68/IP69/IP69K rating in global and Singapore units SGS-certified to survive a 3-meter drop onto hard granite in testing Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the display TÜV SÜD certification covering battery, drop, and water resistance tests Even with these ratings, water resistance can wear down over time, and Xiaomi’s warranty still has exclusions. Treat these ratings as durability advantages, not a guarantee. 6. Software Runs Xiaomi’s HyperOS 3 out of the box, on top of Android 16 Six years of security updates confirmed in Japan and Singapore Xiaomi’s 72-month like-new claim refers to an internal ageing test, not a promise of six years of major Android upgrades AI features like Circle to Search, Google Gemini, AI Writing, AI Interpreter, and AI Erase Pro, though availability depends on your region and language 7. Connectivity and other features 5G and 4G support, with dual SIM options that vary by market, and eSIM support in some regions Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 6.0 NFC and
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Kenya’s EV push gets boost as NCBA, BasiGo seal financing deal for 1,000 vehicles
NCBA Group, a banking group, has partnered with BasiGo, a Nairobi-based electric mobility company, to finance 1,000 electric vehicles, giving public transport operators, businesses, and institutions the option to buy or lease electric vans. The financing will be provided through asset finance and leasing, with BasiGo using the arrangement to scale vehicle deployment to public service vehicle (PSV) Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisations (SACCOs), established transport operators and individual operators. The deal also makes NCBA BasiGo’s first local investor. The partnership is part of the ambition to cut emissions from Kenya’s transport sector, where road transport accounts for more than 40% of the country’s total energy consumption and is its fastest-growing source of emissions. Kenya also spends over $5 billion annually on fuel imports, leaving its transport system exposed to volatile global fuel prices. This has created the opportunity for electric mobility. Kenya’s EV market has grown rapidly in recent years, with the government saying the number of registered electric vehicles rose from 1,378 in 2022 to 39,324 in 2025. According to the Ministry of Roads and Transport, the growth has been supported by lower-priced EVs and financing options tailored to the sector. “The transition to electric mobility is not simply about putting more electric vehicles on the road; it is about creating the financing and infrastructure needed to make them commercially viable at scale,” said Lennox Mugambi, Group Director, Asset Finance and Business Solutions at NCBA Group. “By financing BasiGo’s electric vehicles, we are helping bridge this gap by connecting capital to clean mobility solutions and making sustainable assets more accessible to operators. Through this approach, we are supporting the wider electric mobility ecosystem and helping accelerate Kenya’s shift towards cleaner, more sustainable public transport.” The partnership is another step towards BasiGo’s target of putting 1,000 electric buses on Kenya’s roads by 2027. At the time, the company had assembled 53 buses locally, with another 27 in production at its Thika assembly line, where it planned to increase output to 20 buses per month in 2026. Kenya’s public transport system relies on informal matatus and other public service vehicles. Some of these operators are organised into professional SACCOs, financial cooperatives that enable members to pool savings and access credit. Under the partnership, existing PSV SACCOs and established PSV companies could access financing of up to 90% of an electric vehicle’s value over 60 months. Individual SACCO members could access up to 80% over 48 months, while both groups would be eligible to pay a discounted processing fee of 1.5%. NCBA and BasiGo will also offer financing through BasiGo’s Pay-As-You-Drive model, which is designed to lower the upfront cost of switching to an electric vehicle. The model allows operators to pay for the vehicle as they use it, while BasiGo provides charging and maintenance services. “The most critical challenge in scaling electric vehicles in Africa is financing,” said Jit Bhattacharya, chief executive and co-founder of BasiGo. “We are proud to partner with NCBA to address this problem head-on for operators through affordable and creative financing solutions. Through this partnership, Kenyan PSV operators now have multiple financing options, from asset finance to leasing, to add a BasiGo electric vehicle to their fleet. With NCBA supporting BasiGo and our customers, we are excited to unlock the next level of scale for clean, electric public transport in Kenya.” Kenya is also increasing efforts to support the transition to electric vehicles. In February 2026, the government launched its National Electric Mobility Policy, which covers all modes of transport and provides a framework for EV adoption. The policy is backed by incentives introduced through the Finance Bill 2025, including zero-rated value-added tax (VAT) on electric buses, motorcycles, bicycles and lithium-ion batteries. This puts it alongside other African countries, including Rwanda and South Africa, that are using policy and financial incentives to accelerate EV adoption. The partnership also comes as NCBA prepares for a potentially bigger change of its own. In January, South African banking group Nedbank revealed plans to acquire approximately 66% of NCBA Group. If the transaction is completed, NCBA will become a Nedbank subsidiary. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – Pick n Pay, pick n scroll
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Happy pre-TGIF. Somewhere in Beijing, China, this week, a humanoid robot attempted a spinning kick, fell flat on its face, and watched its opponent celebrate with what looked suspiciously like a victory dance. The robots are competing at the World Humanoid Robot Games, which is apparently a real event and not the plot of a Pixar film we all missed. It suspiciously looks like somebody is making a case for robots to compete in the Olympics soon. Or, at the very least, get their own event. Anyway, if the robots take over, at least they’ll be entertaining about it. Let’s get into today’s newsletter. Become smarter about tech and commerce in Francophone Africa, and the policies shaping them. Read previous editions here first and subscribe below. Subscribe Ventures Platform closes $84m fund Kenya’s Musalia Mudavadi wants the country to join global cyber-police Pick n Pay is making grocery shopping feel like scrolling TikTok Cameroon sets deadline to disconnect untaxed mobile phones World Wide Web 3 Events funding Ventures Platform raises $84 million to make bigger bets on African startups Image Source: Tenor Ventures Platform (VP), the Nigerian venture capital firm, has closed its second fund at $84 million, almost twice the $46 million it raised for its first fund in 2022. This time, the firm is looking to write bigger cheques to own more equity in African startups it backs—up to 12%. What happened? The VP Pan-African Fund II has brought in four new investors, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD); Norfund, Norway’s development finance institution (DFI); the Dutch family office Alphatron; and the Ashesi University Foundation, to add to the $64 million first close of the fund in November 2025. Explain like I’m new here: Ventures Platform works like a startup shopper. It raises money from investors, pools it into a fund, then uses that money to buy stakes in young companies it believes can become much bigger. Some of the companies it has invested in include Paystack, PiggyVest, Moove, Mono, Remedial Health, and Raenest. The venture capital firm invests in these companies at their pre-seed, seed, or pre-Series A stage, and makes more money if those companies become more valuable. Fund II will follow the same playbook, but with bigger cheques. Playing into the funding pattern: Ventures Platform plans to invest up to $3 million initially, with an average cheque of about $1.5 million, while targeting 10%–12% ownership in the startups it backs. While the company has not disclosed the number of startups benefiting from this fund, the strategy fits the shift in African venture capital, where investors are putting more money into fewer companies. In H1 2026, African startups raised $1.44 billion, 1.4% more than the same period in 2025, while the number of deals dropped from 252 to 174. Yet, Ventures Platform coming to the table with bigger cheques gives African founders another sizable pool of capital at a time when fundraising has become more selective. Every business owner needs to watch this. The business questions you Google, answered by experts. Watch for free. companies Pick n Pay wants your grocery app to feel more like TikTok Image Source: Reuters Pick n Pay, the South African retailer, is bringing the scroll-and-shop habit to the supermarket. Its Pick n Pay asap! delivery app has launched Pick n Pay Inspire, a shoppable video feed that lets customers add products to their basket without leaving the video. What happened? A shopper watching a recipe can tap the ingredients on screen, add them to a basket, and have the groceries delivered within an hour. The feed will also include entertainment, product demonstrations, and Pick n Pay Clothing content; clothing orders take three to five business days. Pick n Pay says Inspire is the first feature of its kind from a South African grocery retailer. Explain like I’m new here: The idea is familiar to anyone who has seen a recipe on Instagram, taken a screenshot, opened a shopping app, and then tried to remember all the ingredients. Pick n Pay has been testing this behaviour since 2024 through Unreal Deals, a live-shopping show on its website and social platforms. Inspire brings that experiment into the app, where the video, basket, payment, and delivery happen in one place. The company’s asap! service already delivers groceries to customers’ doors, so the new feature is adding a content layer to an existing online shopping and fulfillment system. Between the lines: Pick n Pay is trying to make grocery discovery feel less like a chore and more like the way many people already find things online: through videos, creators, and recommendations. In July, it launched Penny, an AI shopping companion, giving customers another route into the same basket. Penny helps someone say or show what they want; Inspire helps them tap what they see. For a retailer competing beyond South Africa’s traditional supermarket aisle, the bigger bet is that the app can become a place where people discover dinner, not just pay for it. Zoom out: Grocery delivery is becoming a fight over more than speed. Retailers also want to control the moment when a customer decides what to buy. Pick n Pay is betting that the best grocery app may not feel like a catalogue at all; it may feel more like a feed that happens to end with a basket. Moonshot is back! Moonshot 2026 is coming! Join us at the National Theatre, Lagos on October 28 & 29 for two days of tech and innovation. Grab your early bird tickets now and get 15% off. cybersecurity Kenya wants to join a global cybercrime fight club Image Source: Tenor Kenya is preparing to join 76 countries in a treaty created to make it easier for investigators to chase cybercriminals across borders. What happened? In February 2026, Kenya’s Cabinet approved the country’s accession to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime; Kenya’s Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi is now asking Parliament
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