Amazon’s Kuiper satellite secures Nigerian permit to begin operations in 2026
Project Kuiper, the Amazon-owned satellite internet initiative, has taken a major step toward entering Nigeria’s broadband market after securing a landing permit from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to begin operations from 2026. Dated February 28, 2026, the seven-year landing permit authorises Kuiper to operate its space segment in Nigeria as part of a global constellation of up to 3,236 satellites. According to the NCC, the approval aligns with global best practices and reflects Nigeria’s willingness to open its satellite communications market to next-generation broadband providers. NCC’s permit to Amazon’s Kuiper. Image Source: NCC website. The permit positions Kuiper to provide satellite internet services over Nigerian territory and sets the stage for intensified competition with Starlink, currently the most visible low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite Internet provider in the country. The permit also gives Amazon LEO legal certainty to invest in ground infrastructure, local partnerships, and enterprise contracts, while signalling to the wider market that Nigeria is now a contested LEO battleground rather than a Starlink-led monopoly. For regulators, telcos, and large customers, Kuiper’s approval introduces real competitive tension—one that can reshape pricing dynamics, accelerate service rollouts, and force incumbents to raise performance standards across the satellite broadband ecosystem. When contacted for comments, a spokesperson for the Amazon team in Africa told TechCabal that they had nothing Nigeria-specific yet except what was publicly available, but would reach out when they did. “We don’t have any information to share beyond what is publicly available at this time, but we’ll sure be in touch if we announce anything,” the spokesperson noted in a Tuesday email. What the NCC approval covers The landing permit enables Amazon Kuiper to offer three categories of satellite services in Nigeria: Fixed Satellite Service (FSS), Mobile Satellite Service (MSS), and Earth Stations at Sea (ESAS). FSS enables broadband connectivity between satellites and fixed ground stations, such as homes, enterprises, telecom base stations, and government facilities. This is the core service behind satellite home internet and enterprise backhaul. MSS, by contrast, is designed for mobility and resilience. It supports direct satellite communication with portable or handheld devices and low-power terminals, typically used for emergency communications, asset tracking, maritime safety, and connectivity in remote or hostile environments. ESIM extends high-speed satellite broadband to moving platforms, including aircraft, ships, trains, and vehicles. These systems rely on sophisticated antennas that can track satellites in real time while in motion, making them critical for aviation and maritime connectivity as well as logistics and transport sectors. Together, these service categories indicate that Kuiper is not entering Nigeria as a niche rural broadband provider alone, but as a multi-segment connectivity platform targeting households, enterprises, mobility, and critical infrastructure. Why the “super-high” frequency matters Kuiper’s Nigerian permit covers operations in the Ka-band frequency range, also known as super-high frequency, with uplink frequencies between 27.5 and 30.0 GHz and downlink frequencies spanning 17.7–18.6 GHz and 18.8–20.2 GHz. These bands fall squarely within the spectrum used by modern high-throughput satellite systems. Ka-band is strategically important because it delivers far greater data capacity than older satellite frequency ranges such as C-band and Ku-band. C-band, which operates between 4 and 8 GHz, relies on large dishes and is valued for its stability and resistance to heavy rain but offers limited bandwidth. Ku-band, operating between 12 and 18 GHz, supports smaller dishes and higher speeds for broadband and television services, yet is more susceptible to weather-related interference. By contrast, Ka-band operates at higher frequencies, enabling significantly higher traffic capacity and making it better suited for modern high-speed broadband services. Higher frequencies allow wider bandwidth allocations, supporting multi-gigabit traffic capacity and dense spot-beam architectures that reuse spectrum across different regions. For users, this translates into faster speeds and lower latency. For operators, it means a lower cost per bit at scale, making satellite broadband more competitive with terrestrial alternatives in urban and semi-urban markets. The trade-off is that Ka-band signals are more sensitive to rain and atmospheric conditions, particularly in tropical regions like Nigeria. However, modern LEO constellations mitigate this through adaptive modulation, power control, and intelligent routing across multiple satellites and gateways. The significance of 100 MHz bandwidth Kuiper’s approval includes 100 MHz of bandwidth per channel, a design choice that reflects a balance between performance and cost. In LEO systems, wider channels deliver higher speeds but require more expensive and power-hungry user terminals. A 100 MHz channel is well-suited to Kuiper’s target performance. Amazon has indicated that its standard customer terminal is designed to deliver speeds of up to 400 Mbps. This bandwidth size allows reliable delivery of those speeds while keeping terminals affordable enough for mass adoption. From a regulatory perspective, dividing the spectrum into 100 MHz channels also allows Kuiper to serve multiple users simultaneously using frequency division techniques, improving overall network efficiency. Why Nigeria matters to Project Kuiper Nigeria is one of Africa’s largest untapped broadband markets. With a population exceeding 200 million, rapid urbanisation, a growing digital economy, and widespread connectivity gaps—especially in rural areas—the country presents a prime opportunity for satellite broadband operators looking to bridge underserved communities. The NCC estimates that over 23 million Nigerians live in unserved and underserved areas, and mobile broadband penetration is still at 50.58% as of November 2025. LEO satellites are particularly attractive in markets like Nigeria because they offer low latency, unlike traditional geostationary satellites. By orbiting much closer to Earth, Kuiper’s satellites reduce signal travel time, enabling real-time applications such as video conferencing, cloud services, online gaming, and financial trading. For enterprises, Kuiper’s services could support telecom backhaul, oil and gas operations, mining sites, ports, logistics corridors, and remote industrial facilities where fibre deployment is costly or impractical. Raising the stakes for Starlink Kuiper’s entry significantly raises competitive pressure on Starlink, which has enjoyed a first-mover advantage in Nigeria. While Starlink has rapidly built brand recognition and a growing subscriber base with over 66,000 subscribers, making it the second-largest internet service subscriber, Amazon brings a different kind of competitive muscle. Amazon officially rebranded Project Kuiper to Amazon Leo
Read More23 million underserved Nigerians could go online if spectrum reform works
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)’s newly released 2025–2030 Spectrum Roadmap aims to bring broadband to 23 million people across 87 unserved and underserved clusters, according to the Universal Service Provision Fund, Nigeria’s primary financial vehicle for closing the digital divide. The roadmap, released in December 2025, sets out how Nigeria plans to allocate, price and deploy radio spectrum over the next five years. Spectrum, the invisible resource that powers mobile networks, satellites and wireless internet, is one of the most powerful tools available to the government to shape connectivity outcomes. The NCC bets that reforming how this resource is managed can unlock rural broadband coverage that market forces alone have failed to deliver. At its core, the roadmap answers a pressing question: how can Nigeria make it commercially viable for operators to serve communities that have long been considered too remote, too sparsely populated or too expensive to connect? Why spectrum reform matters now Nigeria crossed 50% broadband penetration in 2025, but that milestone masks deep geographic inequality. Urban centres enjoy multiple layers of 4G and growing 5G coverage, while many rural areas still rely on patchy 2G or remain completely offline. The challenge is not demand—millions of Nigerians want connectivity—but cost. Building towers, laying fibre and powering base stations in rural terrain is expensive, and returns are slower. The NCC’s roadmap frames spectrum reform as a supply-side intervention. By lowering the cost and complexity of deploying networks, especially in low-income and high-cost regions, the regulator hopes to tilt investment decisions in favour of rural expansion. The policy prioritises efficient use of low-band spectrum below 1 gigahertz (GHz), which travels longer distances and requires fewer base stations, making it particularly suited for rural coverage. Flexible licencing is another key pillar of the policy. Rather than forcing operators into rigid, one-size-fits-all deployment models, the NCC plans to allow spectrum use to reflect local realities. The regulator is also weighing targeted incentives for operators that extend coverage into hard-to-reach areas, using regulatory levers to shift investment where it is most needed. “Overall, Nigeria’s evolving spectrum landscape demonstrates that long-term market leaders have built spectrum depth through sustained investment, early technology adoption, and consistent participation across multiple assignment cycles—ranging from refarmed GSM holdings to digital dividend and capacity bands,” the NCC said in its roadmap. From edge case to core strategy A notable shift in the roadmap is the elevation of satellite connectivity from a complementary option to a core pillar of national coverage. The NCC acknowledges that terrestrial networks alone cannot economically reach every part of Nigeria. Low-Earth Orbit satellite systems are expected to play a growing role in connecting remote schools, health facilities and communities where fibre and towers are impractical. The Commission also plans to optimise existing geostationary satellite assets and explore high-altitude platforms and other non-terrestrial technologies for mobile backhaul. These alternatives could reduce reliance on expensive fibre links and lower the overall cost of rural network operations. This approach reflects a broader rethinking of what “universal access” looks like in a country with Nigeria’s size and geography. Connectivity, under the roadmap, does not have to be delivered through a single technology, so long as service quality and affordability targets are met. The pricing question While the NCC presents the roadmap as an investment-friendly framework, operators say execution, especially around pricing, will determine whether the policy succeeds. Gbenga Adebayo, president of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), which represents the four biggest mobile network operators, including MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and T2 Mobile, argues that spectrum pricing remains one of the biggest risks to network expansion. According to Adebayo, evidence from global markets shows that when spectrum prices are set too high, consumers ultimately pay the price through slower rollouts, weaker coverage and higher service costs. “Radio spectrum is a scarce and valuable resource,” Adebayo told TechCabal. “ But when spectrum prices are too high, consumers suffer from slower mobile data speeds, worse coverage and delayed deployment. That directly undermines digital inclusion and the National Broadband Plan.” ALTON has pushed for what it calls “reasonably objective” spectrum pricing, arguing that affordable access to sufficient spectrum is essential for delivering high-quality mobile broadband services. Closely linked to pricing is the industry’s call for instalment-based payment options. In Nigeria, spectrum licences are typically paid for upfront and in full, a model operators say drains capital that could otherwise be invested in network rollout. Adebayo notes that, apart from one exception, the upfront payment model has left operators with limited funds to meet coverage obligations after winning spectrum. Licence refarming challenges ALTON is also urging the NCC to align licence durations with global best practice. Citing GSMA research, the group argues that long-term licences—often 20 years or more—provide the certainty needed for large-scale network investments, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, where payback periods are long. Another flashpoint is spectrum refarming. As demand for 4G and 5G grows, operators need the flexibility to repurpose spectrum currently tied to legacy 2G and 3G services. Technology-neutral licensing, ALTON says, would allow operators to upgrade networks at a pace driven by market demand, maximising the social and economic impact of mobile broadband. The industry group has also raised concerns about how spectrum assignments are handled. Under current practice, some spectrum lots are auctioned while others are administratively assigned. ALTON says this has created opportunities for arbitrage, where entities acquire spectrum without plans to deploy networks, only to trade it later for profit. The NCC did not respond to requests for comments on the concerns raised by ALTON. Quality of experience, not just coverage Beyond access, the roadmap places growing emphasis on the quality of experience. The NCC has committed to nationwide minimum data speed thresholds by the end of the decade, alongside improvements in reliability and service consistency. Achieving those targets will require more than new spectrum. The roadmap prioritises stronger fibre backhaul to base stations, better integration of existing networks and redundancy through microwave links in hard-to-reach areas. Spectrum trading guidelines are also
Read MoreIdo Sum on what Africa’s VC industry needs to do achieve scale like US and Israel
Long before Africa’s venture capital (VC) ecosystem became as visible as it is today, Ido Sum was already helping shape it. As one of the earliest partners at TLcom Capital, an Africa-focused venture firm managing over $250 million, Sum spent 14 years investing across the continent and helping define the firm’s strategy from its London office. During that time, he led investments in several African startups and served on the boards of four companies: Zone, a blockchain-powered payments infrastructure provider; uLesson, a Nigerian edtech platform; Littlefish, a South African fintech; and Ilara Health, a Kenyan startup expanding access to affordable diagnostics. In September 2025, Sum announced that he was leaving TLcom after 14 years at the firm. Two months later, he published a widely circulated essay arguing that Africa’s VC industry is not broken despite the scarcity of large, repeatable exits, but simply earlier than many investors are willing to admit. While Sum does not shy away from the truth that if African tech investors can’t systematically return capital, the venture cycle will break and the industry will eventually fold, he places the continent’s VC ecosystem at a comparable stage to the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s, Israel in the 1980s and 1990s, Europe in the late 1990s, or India in the early 2000s—markets that only matured after decades of iteration. Sum argued that these ecosystems matured through decades of repetition, deep pools of capital, non-equity financing, a funnel that allowed progression, domestic acquirers, and a growing base of experienced operators. Africa, by contrast, remains in what he calls “Act One” with a thinner startup funnel, smaller and largely local exits, limited institutional scaffolding, and a talent bench still under development. The mistake, Sum argues, is pretending otherwise. Africa’s venture industry, he says, needs to stop behaving like it is in “Act Three” and instead design funds, strategies, and expectations that reflect current realities while deliberately building toward the next chapter. In our conversation, Sum expands on these ideas, unpacking the distortions created by impact-heavy capital, the risks of funding everything with equity—over-dilution and inflated valuations—and why capital efficiency matters even more in fragmented markets with limited exit options. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You worked at TLcom for well over a decade. Why now—after leaving TLcom—did you decide to write this piece about Africa’s VC ecosystem? Was there a specific deal, conversation, or experience that made you sit down and write it? It was a collection of many conversations and interactions over the years, and also trying to reflect. Before that, it’s important to state that people who were close to me and worked with me had heard a lot of this before. I presented parts of this data at Oxford, where I gave a lecture in a course for managers within the African tech ecosystem. I’ve shared parts of this internally before and in conversations with people. So most of it wasn’t a surprise to people who have worked closely with me. I just had the time now—time I didn’t have before—to sit down, think it through, substantiate some things that were previously more intuition-based, and put them together. It was half for myself, but also with the hope that, on a good day, it would strike a conversation. I’m not saying my view is the right or only view. I just felt this needed to be voiced and put somewhere as a reference so we can have a conversation about it. If you had to compress the entire essay into one sentence—advice for founders and VCs—what would you say? Think independently and challenge your thinking with data. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be aspirational or ambitious, but my advice is to think independently and integrate data into your thesis-building. What’s your bar for a fund being good in Africa? The same bar as everywhere else. Return a lot of money. You say VC is a very simple business—you take $1 from LPs and return $3. In your experience, has that been realistic for Africa, given currency devaluation, how early the ecosystem is, and systemic challenges? Of course, the one and three are oversimplified. But there are a few simple truths about the business. Historically, venture capital has been a pretty poor asset class globally—not just in Africa. The top-performing funds are outliers, but at an industry level, returns have struggled. I don’t assume the average return of African VC will be 3x—it’s not that anywhere in the world, and it won’t be here. But we do need several outlier funds that can hit or exceed that at scale. Returning five times a million dollars is very different from returning five times fifty or five hundred million. Success, to me, is having a few funds that show global-level returns on meaningful amounts of capital. Without that, attracting global capital will remain hard. It’s a chicken-and-egg problem, but if we can’t show returns at scale, it’ll be extremely hard to attract non-concessionary capital. I agree it’s a chicken-and-egg problem. There have been signs of returns, but mostly via secondaries. How do isolated returns become more widespread, and can secondaries deliver that at scale? There’s a scale issue. Returning a high multiple on a small amount is very different from doing so on a large amount. For 5x $50k, someone needs to pay you $250k. To 5x $5 million, someone needs to pay you $25 million. That’s a massive difference. We’ve seen reasonable secondary returns on small invested amounts, not systematically on large ones. To see that, you need large growth rounds in the hundreds of millions, where tens of millions can come off the table. We’re not systematic there yet. Much of the capital comes from DFIs with impact mandates. Does that reduce accountability around returns? It’s not an accountability issue. None of us would be here without DFIs—they were the first money in. Intuitively, they’re probably 70–75% of the capital in the ecosystem. That matters. But it often creates friction. DFIs push
Read More“Work broke during COVID, we built an operating system to fix it”: Day 1-1000 of Flowmono
In 2020, Babatola Awe, then a consultant for Deloitte, was paying for Zoom, Microsoft 365, and a growing list of international software tools, all priced in dollars. Every invoice was a reminder for Awe: African businesses were paying Western companies to do African work. When COVID-19 hit in March that year, work broke. Documents were trapped in locked offices. Approvals depended on physical signatures. Emails became databases. WhatsApp groups became project management systems. For Awe and his co-founder, Akintayo Okekunle, the dysfunction was expensive. “We asked ourselves, How long will Africa depend on the West to enable business productivity?” Awe recalls. By 2021, they had an answer: not much longer. The two quit their corporate jobs and launched Flowmono, an AI-driven platform combining e-signatures, workflow automation, and document management, built specifically for African businesses. Day 1: The ₦720,000 problem The spark came from a client project. Someone asked them to build a contract management platform. While working on it, a question emerged: How do people actually sign contracts digitally? The answer was clear. DocuSign charged ₦720,000 ($480) annually. Adobe Sign charged ₦431,820 ($288). For Nigerian businesses, those prices were prohibitive. “Their solutions are expensive and not tailored for Africa,” Awe says. “That’s when we decided to build something for Africa, by Africans, and for the world.” Flowmono launched at ₦204,000 ($140) yearly, more than 70% cheaper than DocuSign, more than 50% cheaper than Adobe Sign. But cheaper wasn’t enough. It had to work at an enterprise-grade level. The team made a critical decision: build everything from scratch. No white-labeling. No licencing third-party code. Every line of code written in-house using Angular, .NET, C#, JavaScript, and TypeScript. “We built everything ourselves; our platform is 100% our intellectual property,” Awe says. “Every tool, every module, every line of code is designed for Africa, but benchmarked to global standards.” Day 500: The customers who forced them to level up Flowmono’s early customers weren’t startups testing a cheap alternative. They were enterprises with real security requirements and zero tolerance for failure: Stanbic IBTC, UAC, CardinalStone, and Coronation Bank. Banks demanded audit trails. Financial services firms needed encryption meeting international standards. Corporates wanted seamless integrations. While the features worked from the start, the user experience told a different story. “It was the UX that customers didn’t find seamless,” Awe admits. “This forced us to revamp our whole product interface in the middle of 2025.” The overhaul was comprehensive, including navigation, customisation, and the entire visual design. “Half of the features that exist on Flowmono today came directly from customer requests, especially enterprise customers,” Awe says. Every enterprise demanded more. And every demand made Flowmono stronger. Landing Stanbic IBTC as a customer required intelligence, preparation, and patience. “We got into the room through networking,” Awe explains. “But we also knew they were using Adobe Sign, and we knew their use cases already.” The Flowmono team had done their homework. They understood Stanbic’s workflows and where Adobe was falling short. “We saved Stanbic more than 70% of the cost compared to what they were spending on Adobe.” But knowing the value and closing the deal were different things. What followed was seven to eight months of proof-of-value demonstrations; multiple rounds of testing, security audits, integration trials, and stakeholder approvals. Banks don’t move fast. Enterprise procurement doesn’t favor startups. “It took like 7-8 months to close with them after doing a series of proof of value,” Awe recalls. When Stanbic finally signed, it validated more than Flowmono’s product; it validated the strategy: build for enterprise, price for Africa, compete on value, not just cost. More importantly, Stanbic became proof. If a Nigerian bank trusted Flowmono with sensitive documents and compliance workflows, other enterprises could too. Beyond signatures: Building the operating system By 2023, customers were no longer just asking for faster signatures. They wanted faster decisions. Approvals stuck in email chains. Vendor onboarding delayed by manual processes. Compliance checks slowed by paperwork. Financial reviews bottlenecked by spreadsheets. The expansion was inevitable. Between 2024 and 2025, the company launched new features to reach more customers: Flowmono Automate and Flowmono VPMC. Flowmono Automate allows businesses to design custom workflows for HR onboarding, procurement, finance approvals, and contract management—without writing code. Flowmono VPMC manages vendor relationships, purchase orders, and compliance documentation from a single dashboard. “If 20% of organisations use Flowmono today, we can create interconnectivity between business processes that the world has never seen before,” Awe says. The promise was measurable: businesses adopting Flowmono cut approval times by up to 50%, reduced compliance risk, and freed employees from manual paperwork. Flowmono was becoming what it always intended to be: an AI workflow operating system. The AI that signs (but never without permission) In 2024, Flowmono integrated AI, not as a replacement for human judgment, but as an enhancement. “Technology should make humans more human,” Awe says. “AI should handle repetitive tasks so humans can focus on strategic work.” Flowmono’s AI now provides document summarisation, automated workflow creation, risk detection in contracts, and intelligent document search using Natural Language Processing. The most ambitious feature: an AI co-signer. “It doesn’t sign on your behalf autonomously,” Awe clarifies. “It reads documents, categorises them, matches them to the correct signature stored securely, and recommends actions based on rules you set.” An executive could instruct the AI to automatically sign reimbursement requests under ₦50,000, while flagging larger contracts for manual review. Security remains paramount. Flowmono is PCI DSS-certified and employs encryption and tokenisation to ensure signatures never touch cloud AI services. “The AI assists, but it never replaces the human in the decision loop.” Flowmono has scaled without traditional venture capital, supported instead by Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub. The subscription model is straightforward: ₦204,000 ($142) annually versus DocuSign’s ₦720,000 ($500) and Adobe Sign’s ₦431,820 ($301). Customer retention is strong enough that enterprises expand from signatures into full workflow automation—suggesting real problems are being solved. Day 1000 Flowmono’s bet is simple: African businesses will increasingly choose platforms designed for African realities, priced in local
Read MoreDigital Nomads: Why Mauritius is Africa’s new magnet for foreign wealth and tech talent
In December 2025, Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB), the country’s largest bank, and advisory firm Stewards Investment Capital published a report reviewing the economy’s growth over the past year. The paradisiacal nation now has over 4,800 millionaires—individuals with liquid wealth of $1 million or more—including 14 ultra-wealthy centi-millionaires. On a “wealth per capita” basis of $40,800, Mauritius now ranks as the wealthiest country on the continent, blowing past second-placed South Africa. Wealth per capita measures the average total value of assets, including financial holdings, real estate, and other material property, owned by each person in a country. It is a direct indicator of material prosperity. Mauritius, often described as a “melting pot” moulded by centuries of migration and colonial exchange, is positioning itself as a hotbed for global wealth and millionaires seeking comfort, safety, and business predictability and stability. MCB cited Mauritius as an attractive place to live, work, and plan due to its thriving financial services sector, solid tech infrastructure, competitive tax regime, and strong safety and security, compared to neighbouring countries. These perks are drawing foreign interest. According to the Bank of Mauritius, the country’s central bank, strong foreign direct investment (FDI) is flowing into the country from France, South Africa, the UK, and the UAE. In H1 2025, South Africa drew R1.7 billion ($103 million) in direct investment into Mauritius, placing it firmly among the country’s most influential foreign investors. “Everybody would love to move to Mauritius,” said Alejandra Wolf, co-founder of AfricaNomads, a pan-African coliving and travel platform for digital nomads. “[Due to proximity], South Africa has [visa-free] access to Mauritius, and [Mauritius] is definitely safer. I would think most South Africans making the move would be because of stability.” Get The Best African Tech Newsletters In Your Inbox Select your country Nigeria Ghana Kenya South Africa Egypt Morocco Tunisia Algeria Libya Sudan Ethiopia Somalia Djibouti Eritrea Uganda Tanzania Rwanda Burundi Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Central African Republic Chad Cameroon Gabon Equatorial Guinea São Tomé and Príncipe Angola Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Namibia Lesotho Eswatini Mozambique Madagascar Mauritius Seychelles Comoros Cape Verde Guinea-Bissau Senegal The Gambia Guinea Sierra Leone Liberia Côte d’Ivoire Burkina Faso Mali Niger Benin Togo Other Select your gender Male Female Others TC Daily TC Events TC Scoop Subscribe Why South African capital keeps choosing Mauritius South African money didn’t arrive in Mauritius by accident. It follows a path of least resistance, drawn by a sense of familiarity that makes the island feel legible rather than foreign. For Janique Maduray, a South African software engineering student at the African Leadership University (ALU) in Mauritius, the decision is often a rational calculation of cost and stability compared to other global hubs like Dubai. “I would say it’s more affordable to come to Mauritius depending on what your reason is,” said Maduray. “It’s not too expensive if you’re comparing it to home in South Africa, and you will get good tech understanding and a job market here.” To facilitate this movement, the Mauritian government has engineered specific policy levers. The country offers occupation permits (OPs) for professionals, investors, and self-employed individuals, alongside long-stay and premium visas that allow foreigners to live and work remotely from the island. Perhaps the most powerful incentive is property-linked residency. Foreigners who purchase a home worth at least $375,000 gain permanent residence, a policy that functions like a citizenship-by-investment programme and serves as a direct source of FX for the local economy. Mauritius is also part of a small cohort of African countries that issue digital nomad visas. Once these investors and nomads arrive, the contrast in daily life often justifies the cost. Safety weighs heavily on the decision-making process. While crime and political uncertainty have become persistent anxieties in South Africa, Mauritius offers a rare predictability. Maduray describes this freedom as a relief from the high-alert existence required in South African cities. The country recorded 27,621 murders between 2023 and 2024, and several major cities like Pietermaritzburg, Pretoria, Johannesburg, and Durban have reached “very high” crime index scores above 80; everyday life in these urban centres often involves constant vigilance against violent and property crime. “In South Africa, crime rates are pretty high. Safety is something that you have to always be alert about, speaking from a perspective of a woman as well,” said Maduray. “Here in Mauritius, you can take a walk at 6 p.m. without fear of being followed; in South Africa, you wouldn’t be advised to do that.” Beyond safety, the migration is driven by Mauritius’ tax-friendly nature. In South Africa, top earners can face marginal income tax rates as high as 45% plus additional levies on investment income, whereas Mauritius offers a single low flat rate on personal income, creating a stark contrast that many high‑income professionals see as financially irresistible. “In South Africa, you are taxed according to the income that you earn. The higher you earn, the more tax you are going to pay,” Maduray explained. “However, here in Mauritius, the corporate tax rate is a flat 15% [with the top rate of personal income tax reaching 20% for high earners]. That difference alone plays a big role in why South Africans come here.” The fiscal environment has turned the island into a strategic launchpad for business. Alexia Jolicoeur, a Mauritian engineering student, said business formation on the island is notably frictionless. The country has successfully positioned itself as a critical entry point for capital entering the continent, said Jolicoeur. “It is not hard to set up a business in Mauritius, whether you are a local or a foreigner,” said Jolicoeur. “There are a lot of facilities, and it is really easy for you to just set up a business and get going.” Due to this relative ease, consumer electronics, among other things, are some of the low-cost items imported by South African entrepreneurs, who often sell slightly higher to the Mauritian market perceived for its wealth. The trade corridor between South Africa and Mauritius has become one of
Read MoreAfrica’s startup exits are shifting from IPO dreams to local buyers
For Africa’s tech founders, the exit door is still open, but it no longer leads where many once expected. Between 2023 and 2025, the continent recorded more than 100 startup exits, roughly half through mergers and acquisitions, while public listings barely featured, leaving trade sales as the most reliable route to liquidity. The shift is not just about volume but about who is buying: regional banks, telecoms operators, insurers and private equity firms that already operate in these markets and understand the regulatory and political risks involved. As 2026 begins, that buyer mix is changing founder behaviour. With late-stage capital scarce, initial public offering (IPO) windows effectively closed, and early-stage funding recovering only in pockets, many founders are choosing smaller, locally driven exits rather than waiting for global acquirers that may never arrive. A funding winter feeds a deal wave The rise of this exit machine is rooted in the comedown from Africa’s funding boom. Funding into African startups surged to over $3.3 billion in 2022, then fell by about 28% to $2.4 billion in 2023, with the number of funded startups shrinking by more than a third. More recent counts suggest funding recovered to roughly $2–3 billion annually in 2024–2025, but the rush-of-money era has ended. The change is now colliding with a cohort of African startups founded between 2015 and 2019, many of which last raised capital at 2021 valuations. They are larger, older, and need more cash than bridge financing can offer. At the same time, limited partners are pressing venture capitalists for returns, leading to a rise in exits even as new investment slows. The African Private Capital Activity Report recorded 63 exits in 2024, almost 50% higher than the previous year, the second-highest tally on record after 2022. According to this TechCabal Insights report, there was a double‑digit merger and acquisition (M&A) volume in 2023, followed by a sharp acceleration. By mid‑2025, African tech had posted its highest half‑year M&A count ever, with fintech accounting for nearly half. A year‑end review put full‑year 2025 deal numbers up nearly 70% versus the prior year. In short, the funding winter has turned into a consolidation cycle, with a backlog of venture‑backed assets finally finding buyers. The new buyers’ club 1. Regional incumbents, including banks, telcos, insurers, and retailers If there is a single defining buyer of African startups in 2026, it is the African incumbent scrambling to digitise. Banks, telcos, insurers, and retailers are turning to acquisitions to gain an edge by buying licences, agent networks, and product teams instead of building from scratch. South Africa’s Lesaka paid roughly $85.9 million for Adumo, a payments fintech, to bulk up its merchant acceptance network. TymeBank acquired SME financier Retail Capital, turning a startup lender into a distribution engine for its own SME products. In Kenya, Nigerian fintech Moniepoint acquired Sumac Microfinance Bank to secure a local licence and enter into East Africa’s credit market. These regional incumbents buy startups that can move the needle on core metrics such as loan book growth, valuation, and merchant volume within 12 to 24 months. That logic is set to tighten in 2026 as shareholders take a harder look at digital transformation spend. 2. African scale‑ups as serial acquirers The second emergent buyer is less obvious in the data but visible on the ground: African startups buying other African startups. The merger of Kenya’s Wasoko and Egypt’s MaxAB created a cross‑continental player in informal retail, quickly followed by further consolidation, such as the acquisition of Egyptian wholesaler Fatura. In logistics and mobility, acquisitions like BuuPass snapping up QuickBus or Yassir buying smaller delivery players underline the same trend. In January 2026, Flutterwave acquired Mono in an all-share deal to integrate open banking across its vast product and geographic reach. South African fintech Ukheshe acquired payments processor EFTCorp, whereas Kenyan banks are seeing their own payment and agency networks courted by acquisitive regional players. Licence‑buying transactions, such as Moniepoint–Sumac, show how regulatory assets are becoming acquisition targets in their own right. 3. Global players Global names still matter, but their role is narrower. Payment networks, software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms, and infrastructure players have all picked their spots in Africa. Stripe’s acquisition of Paystack, WorldRemit’s deal for Sendwave, Equinix’s acquisition of MainOne, Deel’s buyout of payroll platform PaySpace, and BioNTech’s takeover of InstaDeep. Global rates have steadied, and core markets are slowing, but Africa still offers double-digit growth in digital payments, connectivity, and consumer services from a low base. In 2026, the bar will be higher, with fewer acquisitions and buyers backing only high-conviction assets that function like infrastructure rather than stand-alone apps. 4. Private equity and secondaries Secondaries accounted for roughly a third of exits in 2023–2024, according to AVCA, up from a five‑year average below 30%. Another AVCA report logged 20 private equity (PE)- to-PE exits in 2024 alone, evidence of a maturing recycling loop even in a tight liquidity environment. A regional PE fund may buy out an early VC and a founder in a profitable financial‑services platform, and a continuation vehicle might roll a cluster of consumer assets into a longer‑dated structure. But for LPs, these are often the difference between mark‑to‑model and cash‑on‑cash. The return of IPOs Africa’s public markets are slowly reopening to tech, but only for a small elite. In late 2025, Johannesburg and Casablanca hosted rare tech listings. South‑Africa‑linked Optasia and Moroccan fintech Cash Plus went public after years of drought. Across the continent, IPOs still account for a low single-digit percentage of startup exits, and there is little to suggest that 2026 will be different. Where they do occur, liquidity is driven by local pension funds, insurers, and asset managers, not by the global tech investor base. The geography of buyers Domestic acquirers already account for just over half of startup exits. Add in regional African buyers, and the intra‑African share climbs well above 50%. Gulf and MENA buyers, often backed by sovereign capital, are becoming more visible in fintech, logistics, and healthcare, leveraging proximity
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5 African startups advancing commerce, creators, crops, and legal cases
Startups On Our Radar spotlights African startups solving African challenges with innovation. In our previous edition, we featured three game-changing startups pioneering HRTech, e-commerce, and mobility. Expect the next dispatch on January 9, 2026. This week, we explore five African startups in the e-commerce, data management, legal, and artificial intelligence sectors and why they should be on your watchlist. Let’s dive into it: Yelen is building an e-commerce ecosystem for Francophone Africa (E-commerce, Côte d’Ivoire) Founded by Ibrahima Sylla in June 2025, Yelen is building an e-commerce ecosystem for small and medium-sized businesses across Francophone Africa that are excluded from online commerce. Although SMEs are important to Francophone African economies, as they make up over 90% of firms, fewer than half currently sell online. The founder observed that while platforms like Shopify exist, they often lack integration with local payment methods like mobile money, which forces merchants to constantly juggle informal logistics and disconnected tools. Yelen allows sellers to create an online storefront without writing code. Vendors can sell both physical and digital products from a single store, accept payments through mobile money or cards, and manage orders and customers on the same dashboard. The platform integrates local payment rails through partners like PowerPay to enable cross-border payments across Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Benin, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Togo, with operators such as MTN, Wave, Moov, and Orange displayed based on the buyer’s location. Yelen’s landing page. Image source: Yelen For logistics, Yelen supports local delivery handled by merchants themselves, while international shipping is facilitated through a DHL partnership. Buyers of physical goods can be required to pay either the full amount upfront or a 10% commitment fee to reduce failed deliveries. Funds are held in a digital wallet and are only accessible to the seller after the customer receives the product. Yelen operates a tiered business model. On its starter plan, the platform takes a 10% commission per transaction. On its business plan, which costs about $200 monthly, Yelen reduces its commission to 3.5% and offers advanced features like custom domains, deeper store customisation, order management, and customer support tools. The company also earns 2–5% commission on logistics for shipments handled through its partners. Additional revenue streams include paid social media advertising services, dubbed Yelen Ads, SMS and email marketing campaigns, and an Instagram integration that allows sellers to import posts directly into their storefronts. Since its launch, Yelen says it has onboarded over 3,000 vendors and processed about $40,000 in transaction volume. Why we’re watching: In 2024, the Ivorian e-commerce market generated a revenue of $534 million, a market where Sylla has 70% of its users. Yelen aims to tap into this market and accommodate both physical and digital commerce. It wants to solve the trust problem by allowing a 10% pre-payment commitment to reduce delivery failure. The startup handles cross-border mobile money payments and integrates local payment rails in Francophone Africa, adding a layer of trust for buyers and sellers operating across informal channels. Kave Africa wants to automate influencer marketing for brands (MarketingTech, Nigeria) Launched in October 2025 by Faith Aminu, Kave Africa is a creator marketing platform built to help brands work more effectively with nano and microcreators. Aminu, who has spent over five years in marketing and worked with product-led tech companies, said the idea for Kave came from repeated firsthand experience. She observed that Nigerian brands often default to celebrity influencer marketing and overlook smaller creators who dominate the creator ecosystem. She also saw that brands struggle with sourcing creators, negotiating rates, tracking performance, and managing campaigns, all of which are typically handled through spreadsheets. Kave Africa streamlines this by connecting brands with vetted creators and managing the entire campaign lifecycle. Creators sign up on the platform and specify their niche, and then they are rated using a scoring system that considers posting consistency, video quality, and audience authenticity, as some creators use bots to boost their follower count. A key part of this system is Kave’s integration with TikTok’s API, which allows the platform to access backend metrics, like fake followers and ad-driven engagement that are not visible on the frontend. Kave’s landing page. Image source: Kave Brands can either search for creators directly on the platform or publish a campaign with a fixed budget and brief. Interested creators will then apply to allow brands to select from the pool based on their ratings. The platform operates an escrow payment system where brands deposit the campaign funds upfront, but money is only released to the creator’s wallet after the content is delivered and approved. Kave also provides detailed campaign analytics, such as link clicks, traffic driven to brand pages, views, and follower growth. Kave monetises by taking 20% of each campaign budget as a processing and service fee. Since its launch, Kave says it has built a database of about 6,000 creators and has worked with brands such as Tolaram Group, the parent company of Indomie, Colgate, and other consumer brands. Why we’re watching: The African creator economy is expected to reach $29.84 billion by 2032 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.7%. To accelerate this growth and tap into this market value, Kave is tackling an inefficient process in creator marketing by replacing spreadsheets and manual sourcing with structured workflows and verified data. Its biggest differentiator is its use of TikTok’s backend API to rate creators based on real engagement rather than surface-level metrics, to give brands more confidence in performance. The startup is also building a community: it says it hosted 3,500 creators at its Kave Creator Fest in December 2025. Clisense wants to help African farmers stay ahead of climate shocks with predictive insights (Agritech, Rwanda/Nigeria) Clisense is an agritech startup using data science and climate analytics to help smallholder farmers anticipate and adapt to climate-related risks such as flooding and disease outbreaks. Founded by Ayomide Agbaje in December 2023, he noticed that overnight rainfall frequently led to floods that wiped out crops in the hilly
Read MoreIn 2026, smart money will find its way to Francophone Africa
Africa’s venture capital story has always been geographically narrow. The ‘Big Four’—Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt—absorbed the majority of capital, talent and attention. In 2024, those four markets captured 67% of all African venture funding, according to global venture firm Partech. Yet concentration is no longer producing comfort. Currency volatility, regulatory unpredictability, and declining capital efficiency have forced a rethink from investors to find a new source for durable returns. In 2025, there were 66 M&A deals, representing a 69% increase year-over-year. Francophone Africa accounted for several notable exit events during the year. Pan-African logistics firm Logidoo acquired Ivorian digital freight startup Kamtar; Moroccan super app Ora Technologies acquired Cathedis, a local last-mile delivery startup; AfriCar Group (AUTO24), an automotive marketplace startup, acquired Ivorian car price platform, Koto.ci; Senegalese payment gateway PayDunya acquired by South African payments platform Peach Payments; US-based Global Shop Group acquired Ivorian e-commerce marketplace ANKA; and Saviu Ventures, an early-stage VC focused on Francophone Africa, also exited its investment in pan-African eyewear startup Lapaire. By comparison, 2024 recorded 36 M&A deals, with only three exits in Francophone Africa (as of H1). The only reported tech deal was Yassir’s acquisition of Tunisian meal delivery startup KooL. Exits in Francophone Africa last peaked in 2019, with 13 M&A deals. While 2025 was not the region’s strongest year on record, it likely marked a clear improvement over 2024 and helped restore investor optimism. In 2026, that reassessment could push capital deeper toward Francophone Africa. While the Big Four will still matter because of their proven commercial outcomes for investors, Francophone Africa could be an emerging market worth exploring. Why 2025 invented smart money The shift began when Francophone Africa’s macroeconomic growth became impossible to ignore in 2025. The region’s gross domestic product (GDP) was estimated to grow by 4.8% in 2024 and remain above 4% through 2025, outperforming the continental average of roughly 3.8%, and higher than the 3.9% and 4% projected for North and West Africa in the same year. This was driven by economic advancements from Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, and Benin, which maintained projected growth rates above 5%. Morocco combined moderate growth with investment-grade sovereign status, a rarity on the continent. The relatively stable currency, the CFA franc, pegged to the euro, has been a key factor in startup math. Currency stability helps ensure that startups do not see their capital eroded by exchange-rate volatility. In contrast, the naira depreciated against the dollar by over 40% between 2023 and 2024. Capital flows followed fundamentals. African startups raised over $3 billion in 2025, yet recovery remained uneven. The Big Four still dominated volume, but outside those markets, Francophone countries accounted for about 55% of equity funding across the rest of the continent, a share that held despite a funding decline in Francophone markets in 2024. The composition of capital also shifted. According to the African Private Capital Association (AVCA), venture capital represented nearly 60% of private capital deal activity in Francophone Africa between 2021 and H1 2024, compared with negligible levels before 2016. Deal volume averaged 44 transactions per year between 2021 and 2023, almost double the 2012 to 2020 average. Governments and regulators are beginning to recognise the opportunity. In 2025, they took steps to lay the groundwork for tech innovation, from Senegal’s Startup Act to an interoperability initiative between the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) and the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC). This collaboration between the two regional central banks is expected to ease cross-border fund flows, address longstanding trade bottlenecks, and unlock new opportunities for logistics businesses across the region. Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, and Morocco are three Francophone African countries to watch in 2026; frontier markets, like DR Congo, are showing more promise going into the new year. Senegal’s second act Senegal shows the new investment logic more clearly than any other market in the region. For years, its tech story began and ended with Wave. The mobile money company’s $1.7 billion valuation in 2021 proved that a Francophone market could produce a unicorn. But without repeatable success, that hype cooled until recently, and oil played a part. In 2024, production started at the Sangomar offshore oil field and exceeded expectations. Senegal produced 16.9 million barrels in its first year. In 2025, output forecasts rose to 34.5 million barrels, with most of that target reached by August. Annual oil revenues are projected to cross $1 billion. Gas production also grew. The Greater Tortue Ahmeyim LNG project began exports in April 2025 and reached commercial operations two months later. Phase one capacity stands at 2.3 million tons per year, with expansion planned. A third project, Yakaar-Teranga, holds around 25 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas and is moving toward a final investment decision. This resource income has improved fiscal stability and given the government room and the revenue to act. Senegal is now trying to expand its non-oil revenue—which majorly comes from telecoms—to other technology sectors. It activated its Startup Act in November 2025, offering tax exemptions, access to public procurement, and clearer regulations for startups. Infrastructure investment followed, including the Diamniadio Science and Technology Park, backed by the government and the African Development Bank. Wave continues to play the role of a market enabler. With over 20 million customers, nearly half of Senegal’s population, Wave still collects 1% in transaction fees, making it a comparatively cheaper payments service provider compared to other financial institutions. The company also powers SMEs and startups, directly contributing to the tech and informal economy’s growth. With consumer fintech established, investment has shifted toward logistics, agri-tech and B2B commerce. Senegal’s position as a regional trade hub, anchored by the Port of Dakar and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) market access, makes supply chain digitisation commercially viable. Capital is flowing to companies that move goods, finance inventory, and formalise trade rather than those competing for marginal consumer wallets. Côte d’Ivoire’s case Côte d’Ivoire has become the financial anchor of Francophone West Africa. The
Read MoreFrom phones to fibre: How Africa’s hardware strategy quietly shifted in 2025
Africa’s relationship with technology underwent a structural shift in 2025. After decades as a net consumer of imported devices, networks and energy systems, the continent is increasingly treating hardware manufacturing as strategic infrastructure rather than an industrial afterthought. What began as scattered experiments in phone assembly and solar panels is now converging with a much larger transformation: the rise of hyperscale digital infrastructure, energy-backed data centres and continent-wide fibre systems that demand local production at scale. By the end of 2025, this shift had taken on far greater significance. Africa’s hardware push was no longer just about lowering costs or creating jobs, but about who controls the physical backbone of the digital economy. As data centres, fibre networks and energy systems become critical national assets, local manufacturing is increasingly tied to questions of resilience, economic security and technological sovereignty. The ability to build and maintain these systems at home now shapes how much value African economies retain from digital growth, and how dependent they remain on external supply chains. Smartphones, chips and the limits of leapfrogging Early attempts to localise electronics manufacturing exposed both the promise and the limits of Africa’s industrial ambitions. Rwanda’s Mara Phones project, launched in 2019, is a defining case study due to the scale of ambition and promise to succeed where similar projects have failed in countries like Nigeria due to poor funding and government buy-in. The Kigali facility locally manufactured motherboards and sub-boards, a rare achievement that symbolised industrial sovereignty. But the economics were unforgiving. Priced between $130 and $190, Mara’s devices struggled against cheaper Chinese and Korean alternatives in a market where smartphone penetration hovered around 15%. Despite creating skilled jobs and proving technical capability, the project ultimately buckled under global price competition. Kenya adopted a more pragmatic approach. In late 2023, East Africa Device Assembly Limited (EADAK), backed by Safaricom, Jamii Telecommunications and Chinese partners, opened a large-scale assembly plant in Nairobi. Instead of aiming for premium differentiation, the facility focused on volume, cost efficiency and logistics, producing affordable 4G smartphones at around the $50 price point. Within its first year, the plant produced more than one million devices, validating a strategy that prioritised scale and demand aggregation before deeper localisation of components such as batteries and circuit boards. By December 2024, the Athi River-based plant, operated with an annual capacity of up to three million units, surpassed the one-million-device production mark. This output supported Safaricom’s broader ambition to connect 20 million customers with 4G-enabled devices, contributing to a base of 23 million active 4G devices on its network by late 2025. Favourable government policies helped reduce device costs by about 30%, enabling models such as the Neon Smarta and Neon Ultra, locally assembled and sold by EADAK, to continue to retail for as little as $70 by December 2025. Even so, rising competition from established international brands like Infinix and Redmi limited the venture’s market traction, with local handset market share for Neon smartphones falling to 0.68% by mid-2025. Kenya has also pursued higher-value manufacturing at the margins. Semiconductor Technologies Ltd, operating at Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, runs one of Africa’s few commercial fabrication facilities producing nanotechnology and integrated circuits for export in partnership with U.S.-based 4Wave. While its current footprint is small, a U.S.-funded feasibility study to expand into legacy automotive and power chips reflects a broader recalibration of global supply chains. Hardware as the backbone of the green and connected economy Energy has emerged as one of the most consistent success stories for local hardware manufacturing in Africa, largely because production has been tied to clear, long-term demand rather than speculative industrial ambition. Kenya’s Solinc solar manufacturing plant in Naivasha, operational since 2011, shows how localisation can work when industrial policy, financing models, and market needs are aligned. The facility produces solar modules ranging from 20 to 250 watts, serving both rural households and a growing urban middle class in search of reliable power. Its expansion has been supported by regional exports to markets such as Uganda and Tanzania, as well as pay-as-you-go financing models popularised by firms like M-KOPA, which have lowered upfront costs and unlocked mass-market adoption. In 2025, Solinc East Africa further consolidated its role as a regional anchor for solar manufacturing. As Africa’s longest-running photovoltaic producer—a company that manufactures materials and products to convert sunlight directly into electricity—the firm produces over 140,000 solar panels annually at its Naivasha plant, with a total installed production capacity of approximately 8.4 MW. Solinc moved beyond the off-grid retail segment into larger commercial and industrial projects, supplying systems ranging from 20 kW to over 500 kW. This diversification allowed it to balance high-volume consumer demand with higher-margin industrial installations, strengthening the economic case for energy as one of the most viable pathways for sustainable local hardware production on the continent. As price gaps between locally assembled panels and imported Chinese modules continue to narrow, purchasing decisions are increasingly shaped by non-price factors. While Chinese products still dominate overall market share, buyers are placing greater weight on warranties, after-sales service, and supply continuity. At the same time, major Chinese investments in solar manufacturing hubs in countries such as Ethiopia and Egypt are giving rise to hybrid production ecosystems, where foreign capital and technology are combined with African labour and regional markets. Even so, critical upstream components—such as wafers and precision manufacturing equipment—remain concentrated in Asia, underscoring the limits of localisation in the near term. This hybrid model of global design paired with deep local integration is also becoming visible in other technology-intensive sectors. Zipline’s drone delivery operations in Rwanda and Ghana demonstrate how globally engineered hardware can be embedded into national infrastructure when aligned with public policy and service delivery goals. Since its launch in Rwanda in 2016, Zipline has reduced blood and medical supply delivery times from hours to minutes, integrating aircraft, software platforms and regulatory frameworks directly into public health systems rather than operating as a stand-alone logistics service. By 2025, Zipline had evolved from a
Read MoreWith US visa bond, the path to Silicon Valley just got steeper for African startups
From January 2026, founders, investors, executives, and freelancers from more than 20 African countries will face a new financial hurdle when trying to visit the United States. Under a revived US visa bond programme, applicants who otherwise qualify for short-term business and tourist visas (B1/B2) will be required to post a bond of $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000, refundable only if they exit the US before their authorised stay expires. The countries affected by the directive include Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Angola, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, Zambia, The Gambia, Gabon, Benin, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Burundi, and Cabo Verde, among others. Most implementation dates fall on January 21, 2026. Applicants must complete a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immigration bond form, submit payment through the US Treasury’s online platform, and enter the US only through three designated airports: Boston Logan, JFK, and Washington Dulles. On paper, the directive aims to curb visa overstays, but in reality, it could pose a significant headache to Africa’s tech ecosystem, which is its most globally connected industry. Founders and senior executives often travel to the US for fundraising, accelerator programmes, partnerships, and conferences. Freezing working capital For early-stage African startups, where seed rounds fall between $50,000 and $250,000, the $10,000 refundable bond is akin to locking up an equivalent of one to three months of working capital. Sending multiple team members to US trips for conferences or pitches could prove problematic for such companies. The US visa bond could favour founders backed by international capital or institutional investors who can front the bond. Those without liquidity—including many women and young entrepreneurs—may travel less. Fundraising headache The US remains one of the most significant sources of capital for Africa’s startups. In recent years, US-linked venture funds have participated in more than a third of major African venture deals. Face-to-face engagement matters in investor due diligence, especially in a risk-sensitive funding climate. The new policy could tilt the scales further toward founders who already have US-based networks, creating an access gap. Accelerator programmes—long seen as a bridge between African startups and Silicon Valley—may also feel the effects. In-person residencies require several weeks in the US. Some accelerators may cut the number of African founders invited in person. While the Trump administration frames the intervention targeted at overstays, it could hit the startup ecosystem, which gets capital through relationships and mobility.
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