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Video Games Thriving on the African Continent

12 April 2022 Comments (0) Business, Non classé

In 2015, sub-Saharan Africa had approximately 77 million gamers, but in 2021 that number had shot up to 186 million, making Africa one of the fastest-growing in the world.

Video gaming is taking off on the African continent

In 2015, sub-Saharan Africa had approximately 77 million “gamers” – someone who plays video games at least semi-regularly. In 2021 that number had shot up to 186 million. Crucially for developers, the number of people willing to pay for video games has also skyrocketed. When taking into account the growing youth population in Africa and greater access to mobile phones on the continent, analysts are predicting a compound annual growth for the video game market of 12% until 2026, making Africa one of the fastest-growing in the world.

Impressive growth, but small total numbers

While the number of gamers in Africa is increasing rapidly, the total numbers are still relatively small. Across the world, there are an estimated 3 billion gamers, meaning that sub-Saharan Africa currently only accounts for 6.2% of the total number of gamers in the world. South Africa accounts for the biggest market within in Africa, with nearly 40% of the population identifying as ‘gamers,’ compared to only 27% in Ghana and 23% in Nigeria. In Kenya and Ethiopia the gaming population makes up 22% and 13% of their overall population, respectively. For comparison, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) in the United States of America estimates that 67% of American adults play video games at least semi-regularly.

Why this growth is not just a pandemic pop

One of the biggest drivers of growth in gaming across the world has been in mobile games. Mobile gaming now dominates the market with the segment worth nearly $100 billion and showing a 7.3% YOY growth.

In Africa, video gaming has gone hand-in-hand with greater proliferation of mobile technology and smartphone ownership. In South Africa nearly 51% of the population have access to a smartphone, and it is estimated that by 2023 nearly 84% of the sub-Saharan population will own a mobile phone. This proliferation has meant that along with gaming, online shopping and social media have exploded on the continent. In some industries, such as banking, this has even led to a ‘leapfrog’ effect where traditional players, such as brick-and-mortar banks, have been skipped in favor of smartphone and internet-driven solutions. In the video game market, traditional devices such as personal computers or games consoles have low ownership numbers due to the relatively high cost of equipment, along with often unreliable power sources, and people are going straight to mobile gaming.

When looking at growth that occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic there is always the question of whether lock-downs and social distancing played a part and how long the trend will last post-pandemic. The video gaming trend in Africa has been going on a similar trajectory for many years now, and when comparing the percentage of adults that play video games in Africa to that of the United States it is clear that there is plenty of room for further growth.

The link – or not – with cryptocurrency

Frequently making headlines, it is no surprise that analysts have looked to see if cryptocurrency is important to the gaming community in Africa. TripleA notes that gamers are more likely to own crypto compared to non-gamers, with 55% of gaming millenials owning crypto as compared to just 5% of millenials overall. On top of this, 80% of gamers who own crypto are interested in using cryptocurrency for gaming purchases. In Africa and the Middle east, a total of 5.9 million gamers own crypto. Along with this, many game developers are looking for more ways of integrating cryptocurrency into gaming.

This has not always been a welcome choice however. Globally, crypto and blockchain technology in gaming is a controversial topic. Vice Magazine describes it as a ‘culture war’ between developers and players, and executives and crypto evangelists. Developers at major studios that are actively using or considering crypto in their games, such as Electronic Arts, Zynga, Behaviour Interactive, and Ubisoft, have described internal turmoil and disapproval over what is often seen as “dollar signs guiding executive-level decisions that seem to add little to the already wildly popular medium, and if anything, present a threat to how and why games are currently made.”

But if gamers want to use crypto, then perhaps it is simply a matter of implementation.

Local games, local developers

The African video game market is one that so far has seen little attention from the international community. This is allowing local developers like Nairobi-based Usuki Games, Ghana’s Leti Arts, and South African startup Carry1st to thrive. But with Africa having one of the fastest-growing video game markets in the world, it is unlikely to be long before multinational companies have the continent in their sights.

Photos : euronews.com – inews.co.uk

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The Africa Tech Summit returns to Nairobi for its 4th Edition

15 March 2022 Comments (0) Business

 In February 2022, the Africa Tech Summit returned to Nairobi with over 500 delegates, 150 guest speakers, and more than 350 companies, with the aim of bringing African Tech leaders and international players together across three key summits.

February 2022 marks the 4th Africa Tech Summit

On February 22nd and 23rd 2022, the Africa Tech Summit returned to Nairobi for the 4th edition of the exposition. This two-day event will bring together over 500 delegates, 150 guest speakers, and more than 350 companies to share their insights on technology on the continent. Attendees, both companies and investors, had networking and business opportunities in the FinTech, Startup, and Mobile sectors. The goal was to connect startups and visionaries with industry leaders from across the world and there were opportunities for startups to pitch live on stage, along with attending workshops, use a deal room, and join venture showcases. Previous Africa Tech Summits have been held in Kigali, London, Washington DC, and Shanghai, all with the aim of bringing African Tech leaders and international players together.

Getting the necessary funding at the Startup Summit

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, 2021 saw over $4.27 billion invested into African startups, a huge increase on 2020. In such a fast-moving ecosystem the Africa Tech Startup Summit is the perfect place for companies to pitch to investors. This summit, a recurring component of the Africa Tech Summit, will encourage collaboration and showcase investment opportunities with the aim of developing entrepreneurship and innovation in Africa. Industry leaders, corporations and startups will all have the opportunity to connect at the summit.

Crypto was prominent at the summit

FinTech (Financial Technology) solutions have become massively important across the continent, illustrated by the $200 million acquisition of Paystack and Beyonic by Stripe and MFS Africa, respectively. FinTech companies work with digital identity, remittance, cyber security, and payment and banking systems to offer services previously only available from traditional brick-and-mortar banks. This year’s summit focused on Decentralized Finance, a term for various financial applications of cryptocurrency or blockchain that has the potential to disrupt traditional financial intermediaries in Africa. This was continuing the theme set in the previous years where a Money and Blockchain Summit was held.

This year’s summit was supported by Celo and VerifyMe, and featured African Fintech leaders as they deep-dive into the opportunities offered by FinTech, Crypto and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) in Africa through conferences, panels, and organized sessions.

Tapping into Mobile Technology in Africa

Nearly 800 million people in Africa lack a mobile internet connection, but the sector is expanding quickly. By 2025 over 425 million people will be using mobile services on the continent, and the data center market in Africa and the Middle East attracted over $6.55 billion of investment in 2021. Opportunities are plentiful, and the Africa Mobile Summit featured keynotes, panels, and breakout sessions from across the sector. MarTech (Marketing Tech), gaming, connectivity, cyber-security, cloud computing, and application development were focused on during the mobile summit, which was supported by Ethiopian startup, Gabeya, a pan-African source for freelance professional talent that recently launched its talent mobile application. The 2022 Mobile Summit is the evolution of 2020’s Future Summit, which focused on new technologies across the African digital landscape.

Photo : resilient.digital-africa.co

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Africa stands to benefit from $1 trillion of investment into solar energy

21 December 2021 Comments (0) Business, Featured

 A partnership between the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and Bloomberg Philanthropies to mobilize over $1 trillion worth of investment into the solar sector could see the continent – home to 40% of the world’s solar potential – become a global leader in green energy.

International Solar Alliance and Bloomberg Philanthropies working together

A partnership between the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and Bloomberg Philanthropies was announced at the end of October 2021. The goal of this partnership is to mobilize over $1 trillion worth of investment into the solar sector to scale up solar energy production across the 80 member countries. Across the world, solar power capacity stands at about 788GW. $1 trillion in investment would see roughly an additional 1.6 TW of capacity added by 2030. Africa stands to benefit heavily from this investment – most of the ISA member countries are in Africa and much of the continent sits in the world’s ‘sunshine zone’ near the equator, the prime location for solar power generation.

Launched recently, the ISA aims to reduce global dependence on fossil fuels

The International Solar Alliance was launched in 2016, set-up by the current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi alongside former French President François Hollande with the goal of realizing a massive deployment of solar energy across the world. This would also help pave the way for future technologies. Since its inception, over 80 countries have signed and ratified the ISA Framework Agreement – a majority of them being African countries – making it the largest grouping of states world-wide after the United Nations.

Bloomberg NEF analytical backing paints Africa as the perfect place to start

The recent BNEF report titled Scaling up Solar in ISA Member Countries Report, paints a positive picture for investment in African solar power.

Global electricity demand is set to double in the next 30 years, however among the 80 nations that make up the ISA’s ‘beneficiary’ classification – low income countries with solar markets of less than 100MW annually – demand is set to triple.

At the same time, cost of photovoltaic modules and lithium-ion batteries have fallen rapidly. In 1976 crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules cost around $77/W when adjusted for inflation, while in 2021 the cost stood at only $0.24/W. The BNEF report predicts that the price will fall further still as manufacturers tweak the technology for higher efficiency and reduced amount of material waste.

Many of the ISA’s beneficiary countries are in Africa where strong sunlight, coupled with a lack of infrastructure to create energy from fossil fuels make these markets perfect for development. Unfortunately the report notes that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, investment in solar projects in 2020 fell below 2019 levels by 44%.

Solar power promises huge benefits for the African continent

Developing solar power on the continent has the potential to lift at least a billion people out of energy poverty. Along with that, strong investment in solar power on the continent would be a significant driver of Africa’s shift towards renewables. Right now, Africa is home to 40% of the world’s solar potential, but is home to only 1% of the world’s solar panels. This means Africa has the potential to become a global leader in creating a low or zero-carbon energy grid if solar power is developed heavily.

Along with lifting the region out of energy poverty and creating a new, green direction for power supply in Africa there would be economic benefits for the continent. If the One Sun, One World, One Grid Declaration (OSOWOG) released at Cop 26 achieves its goal of creating a worldwide grid where clean energy can be transmitted anywhere and anytime then a solar-rich region like Africa can sell the excess power generated across the world.

No small number of challenges still to be met

While the region certainly has potential, there are many challenges to overcome in order to turn the goal of $1 trillion into actual, on-the-ground investment. In a continent as large as Africa with thousands of languages and cultures across over fifty different countries, potential investors must deal with multiple governments, regulatory bodies, legal restrictions, and of course, cultural differences.

As of yet, how the money will be materialized, by who, and in what capacity remains a mystery. For those beneficiary countries that signed the ISA Framework, the only thing to do now is wait patiently for the ISA and Bloomberg NEF to release their upcoming Solar Investment Roadmap for 2022, which will shine a light on what the next steps will be to turn the goal into reality.

Sources: theafricareport.com – financialexpress.com

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Demand for Internet Growing, but Infrastructure lags Behind

18 November 2021 Comments (0) Business

Broadband penetration across the African continent is limited, and to meet the growing demand, the continent needs an additional 700 data centers, which will require collaboration between engineers, telecoms and governmental organizations.

Current state of internet in Africa

Broadband penetration across the African continent is limited. Even the leaders for internet penetration – South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya – only have broadband penetration of 64%, 45% and 40%, respectively. This is a far cry from countries like the UK, that boast a 96% penetration. This disparity has been highlighted by the pandemic, but even putting aside the increased demand on internet services during Covid-19 restrictions, demand for internet is growing fast on the continent, following a similar path to the rest of the globe. Streaming services, ride-hailing and banking are all leading the growth in content consumption. A new report by African Data Centers Association (ADCA) and Xalam Analytics has calculated that in order to meet the growing demand, the continent needs an additional 700 data centers for an additional 1000MW of capacity.

Differing responses to pandemic pressures

Across the world, the Covid-19 pandemic forced people to work from home and stay indoors. In countries with high broadband penetration internet usage more than doubled. On the African continent the situation varied. In Uganda, Rwanda, and Nigeria peak traffic actually decreased at the end of March 2020, while in South Africa usage spiked. This has been put down to the fact that in offices in Uganda, Rwanda, and Nigeria there is typically a good internet connection. This allows high-bandwidth applications to be used, but as people adjusted to working from home and using their own, often limited internet connections, these high-bandwidth applications caused problems. By contrast, in South Africa where internet infrastructure is more developed, industries were much better prepared to work from home, and so internet usage increased.

Server racks with telecommunication equipment in server room

With growing demand, Africa offers opportunities

For the data center sector, Africa offers a land of opportunity. The industry only entered the continent in 2008, and investment and development has been slow and uneven. IBM entered in 2016, and more companies like Microsoft and Huawei have joined since then. More than 30 Tier III or higher data centers have come online since 2016, effectively doubling the region’s hosting capacity. Despite this, only one third of Africa’s cities with a population of over 1 million have a local data center that meets Tier III standards.

Demand for internet services is growing across the world and more and more devices and industries are taking advantage of high-speed internet, so demand will not shrink. On top of that, Africa’s median age is 20 years old, less than half that of Europe, and an age at which data consumption is particularly high. This makes Africa a golden opportunity for those looking to invest in data centers. Investment was valued at $2 billion dollars in 2020, and the data center industry in Africa is expected to value $6 billion by 2026.

Concerted, coordinated effort required to meet requirements

ADCA’s report, while positive about the future growth prospects of internet in Africa, did warn that achieving the 700 data center target would be challenging. The land, power, and water requirements for data centers of a meaningful scale would need national, regional, and local government involvement. It also would come with a high cost. The average yearly cost to operate a large data center ranges from $10 to $25 million, before taking into account the upfront costs of building the data center and the initial set-up. When including access, power, network connections, servers, storage units, and software licenses the cost can be significant. One mile of fiber-optic connections alone can cost as much as $250,000. To make things more difficult, the infrastructure supply chain in Africa is significantly less developed than in Europe, Asia or the USA and many important components will have to be brought in from overseas.

With such a high price tag, it is clear that collaboration will be important. Industries must invest in connectivity across the continent, with engineers, telecoms and governmental organizations working together to improve connectivity and capacity across the continent as a whole.

A varied continent means varied challenges

While unified and coordinated action is required, addressing the continent’s data problems will also require looking at each region individually. With 54 countries, 2,000 spoken languages and vastly differing populations and population density, there is no universal approach to the problem. In many of the remote and poorly connected areas mobile internet like 4G may be the most economical option, and still a lack of access to electricity will be a major consideration. Nonetheless, the prospects of rapid growth demand and usage of the internet makes the investment a promising one.

Photos : cio.com / infotechlead.com / iclg.com

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Music Streaming Service Anghami gets listed and moves to the UAE

12 July 2021 Comments (0) Business, Featured

Anghami is now the first Middle East Tech Company to be listed on NASDAQ, following its acquisition by a SPAC and pending relocation the United Arab Emirates

The Middle East’s Top Music Streaming Platform

In 2012, Anghami revolutionized the way music was consumed in the Middle East by launching the first legal music streaming company in the Arab World. Now, it becomes the first Middle Eastern tech company to list on NASDAQ after merging with a special acquisition company (SPAC), Vistas Media Acquisition. With a music catalog including Arab labels such as Melody, Mazzika and Platinum Records alongside international labels like Sony and Warner, Anghami quickly grew in popularity. Initially launched in Lebanon, the company is relocating its headquarters to the United Arab Emirates with the support of the Abu Dhabi Investment Office’s (ADIO) Innovation Program. Anghami co-founder Elie Habib has been quick to make sure people know that they will “continue to have offices and teams and [they] are still recruiting in Beirut.”

Where Spotify goes Solo, Anghami goes Social

Anghami faced tough competition when it initially launched, with French company Deezer pouring $130 million into a regional expansion in the same year. Since then competition has only increased, with Spotify, Apple Music, and of course YouTube having a global reach, and significantly more resources at their disposal. Despite this, Anghami has managed to grow to have more than 70 million registered users, with over 1 billion streams every month.

Despite the crowded space, Habib was never worried about competition from these other providers as he felt the product was fundamentally different. He has stated that “We aren’t exactly tit for tat with Spotify – we have our own roadmap and differentiators that we focus on…we noticed, for instance, that most users were sharing music with others on WhatsApp, and a lot of our incoming traffic [also] happens via WhatsApp. If users use WhatsApp to send music, this means that they want to share.”

It is sharing that has been key to Anghami’s success. Habib’s theory is that music was meant to be social, not consumed alone, so the service makes it easy to connect with people and bond over music choices. Deep-learning and machine learning algorithms are used to match listeners with profiles that choose similar music, which led to people following more playlists from their matched users.

Anghami has continued with this focus, launching a live radio that features real-time text chat and voice chat to let any user, including artists and DJs talk to each other while playing songs and podcasts from Anghami’s library.

Another Tech Company in Abu Dhabi

The Government of the United Arab Emirates has been trying to entice innovative tech companies for some time, with the goal of turning the country from a consumer of technology to a producer of technology. Its Hub71 incentive program offers subsidized housing, office space and health insurance for companies in the seed and emergent phase, and while Anghami might be beyond that, Habib has stated that the city will invest in both the team and their research in the years to come. Part of the merger agreement is a $40 million commitment from UAE financial firm Shuaa Capital.

Capitalizing on the Extra Capital

Anghami will continue to operate under its own name after the merger with Vistas Media Acquisition. The pro-forma enterprise value is listed at $220 million, and it has been speculated that the company could be valued at close to $300 million following the deal. It is the first time a Middle East Tech Startup has made it on to NASDAQ and speaks volumes to the success of the company. Habib has said that they want to have “deeper penetration into high-growth, high revenue markets.” The newly raised funds are expected to be used to expand further in both Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Photos : Voicebot.ai – oerlive.com

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Pure Harvest Aims to Change the Face of Fresh Food

7 June 2021 Comments (0) Business, Featured

Having secured $60 million in funding, Pure Harvest Smart Farms is looking to expand its operations into Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, using advanced technology to bring food security to the arid Middle Eastern climate.

Year-round Local Fresh Food

Pure Harvest is a farming startup using hi-tech, fully climate-controlled greenhouses and a coconut shaving hydroponic solution. Their aim is to provide year-round fresh food in a region where nearly 90% of food is imported. Having secured $60 million in funding, with a further $100 million earmarked by Kuwait’s International Investment Company (Wafra), Pure Harvest Smart Farms is looking to expand its operations into Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, using advanced technology to bring food security to the arid Middle Eastern climate. CEO and co-founder Sky Kurtz described their pilot project in Abu Dhabi as showing promising results with the “potential for year-round local production at very high quality and at a very good cost structure.”

Taming the Desert with High Tech Solutions

Farming consumes huge amounts of water, leading to water scarcity even in temperate regions such as Europe and America. In the arid, dry desert wasting even a drop of water is inconceivable, and Pure Harvest Smart Farms claims their self-contained greenhouses offer a level of efficiency 30 times greater than traditional field farms.

This model of controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) uses greenhouses that go far beyond glass walls to isolate plants. A climate chamber removes heat and humidity from the outside air; this humidity is condensed and fed to the plants inside. There is no soil as plants are grown inside a nutrient rich solution and monitored by sensors to keep the plants healthy. Triple-paned smart glass windows and over-pressurized airflow help manage temperatures to within a 1 degree Celsius margin and carbon dioxide is added to optimize plant growth. 

Kurtz claims that Pure Harvest is expecting a yield of six to eight times more food per meter than other greenhouse farms, while using only one-seventh the amount of water. It will produce 17 to 23 times more food per meter than a traditional field farm.

A Large Market but Pure Harvest struggles to Gain Funding

Despite the success of the pilot, Pure Harvest has a long way to go. According to Kurtz, once they are producing at a scale of 30,000 square meters the produce should be 20-40% cheaper than imported fresh food giving them a very promising market.

But even with the investment of $60 million, and the $100 million soon to follow, Pure Harvest has struggled to secure the funding to expand. The industry is extremely capital intensive, and the Middle East venture capital market is less developed than in other countries. The company has managed to raise $50 million through bonds known as “Sukuk,” Shariah law compliant Islamic bonds, with a further $10 million investment from a January fundraising round led by Sancta Capital.

With the additional $100 million from Wafra, the total sum might appear to be significant, but compared to comparable ventures it is low. Recently a vertical farming firm in the U.S., Plenty, raised more than $500 million in funding.

A Promising Future for Local Food

With global supply chains heavily disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic and further shaken by the blockage of the Suez Canal by the Ever Given in March 2021, the UAE region has become increasingly concerned about securing a food supply. If Pure Harvest can deliver on their promises, they stand to benefit handsomely. At the moment there is no reason to suspect otherwise as the company moves forward with expansion plans. Already the Pure Harvest has reached a $35 million agreement with The Sultan Centre in Kuwait to build a farm stretching across 80,000 square meters that can produce millions of kilograms of fresh fruit and vegetables, well past the size that Kurtz marks for profitability.

Photos : findwonder.abudhabi / agfstorage.blob.core.windows.net

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Fujin, John Dodelande’s real estate company involved in the development of the Georgian tourism sector

12 April 2021 Comments (0) Business, Europe

John Dodelande Fujin

If John Dodelande began his professional career with a passion for contemporary Chinese art, after having developed a leading agro-industrial activity in the Caucasus region (Georgia), he is today one of the pioneers of an ambitious real estate developments company called Fujin.

Georgia is a country where European and Asiatics cultures meet, and have been blending harmoniously for thousands of years. Regarded as Europe’s green zone and ranked seventh in the World Bank’s 2020 index on ease of doing business, with a well-developed infrastructure and a skilled workforce, this “European jewel” has been determined in recent years to becoming one of the most influential tourist areas on our continent. 

And John Dodelande quickly understood this. His goal? Make this country an attractive territory for investors. This is why this businessman of the new generation built Fujin, a hotel development company based in Tbilisi which links the country from one end to the other. 

If Fujin has been able to rapidly develop its activity in order to attract numerous European or Chinese investors, always with the aim of further developing the Georgian tourist sector, it is thanks to the large network of influential contacts along the Silk Road, but above all,  to the unequalled experience of its director in the creation of partnerships. And even today, large-scale projects are still pouring in.

Among them is the development of the Tbilisi Airport Hotel. With this new 39,000 square-metre complex, the construction of a 120-room Ibis International Hotel and the opening of different local shops, the aim is clear: to create a new travel and entertainment centre in order to take advantage of the exponential increase in the number of tourists travelling through the country in the long-term. 

John Dodelande’s projects also include the development of a ski resort.  Thanks to the new road from Tbilisi, to be completed in 2023 and which will reduce travel time from the airport to two hours, this all-season destination, should attract a larger flow of travellers curious to discover all of Georgia’s breathtaking landscapes.  

We hope that this businessman will bring new surprises for the coming year! 

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Innovation and flexibility allowed MENA startups to raise over $1 billion in 2020

20 March 2021 Comments (0) Business, Featured

Innovation and flexibility allowed North African and Middle Eastern startups to raise over $1 billion in 2020

Despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, investors continued to believe in the potential of North African and Middle Eastern tech start-ups. The growth in venture capital investments in MENA countries in the latter portion of 2020 speaks volumes about the expected high returns in the coming years. While the total number of investment transactions in 2020 decreased 13% overall from numbers in 2019, a record breaking first half of 2020 and a rebound in late Q3 led to a year that, despite a global pandemic, shattered expectations for investment numbers.

The sectors benefiting most from high investment

While the total number of deals may have dropped, several key industries have experienced major growth throughout 2020:

  • Fintech, or financial tech did very well. Despite losing 19% of the number of deals, total funding for this industry shot up to $162 million.
  • eCommerce was a sector that lost 23% in deals but managed to come out with 24% more funding than the sector received in 2019.
  • Healthcare and Healthtech was an obvious winner given the public health crisis, and investment in Healthcare start-ups soared by 280% compared to 2019 for a total of $72 million in funding

Big winners of the year included the digital healthcare agency Vezeeta, securing a staggering $40 million in series D funding in early 2020, shortly after moving their headquarters to Dubai, and Dubai-based used car marketplace, Sellanycar.com that raised $35 million to expand the number of branches across the country.

United Arab Emirates takes the lion’s share of investment funding

The UAE maintained its powerful lead in total funding, taking 56% of the total of venture capital funding raised within the Middle East and North Africa for the year of 2020. Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia follow with 17% and 15% of the total funding, respectively. As a percentage of the deal share, very little changed compared to 2019. Most changes were only 1 or 2% of the deal share, with the exception of Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia increased the share of the number of deals by 6%, likely because of the large shift towards ecommerce and Fintech within Sauda Arabia during 2020.

Seed rounds and series A receiving the biggest boost in funding

Despite the increase in funding overall, the investment landscape does seem to have been altered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Pre-seed and early stage venture funding decreased in 2020, while Seed funding and Series A investments exploded, potentially reaching up to $3 million of funding. While exact numbers are still being confirmed, it suggests investors are less willing to expose themselves to risk on companies that are yet to bring a product to market, and instead focused on those with a promising outlook for rapid growth. Given the impact the global economy has seen from Covid-19 and the many countries facing a harsh recession, this change of tactics could be seen as a more cautious approach from investors.

A promising outlook for tech start-ups in the Middle East and North Africa

Although Covid-19 is far from over and many of the long-term economic impacts are still to hit home, raising over $1 billion of funding in 2020 is an incredible achievement for MENA start-ups. Chief Operating Officer at 500 Startups Courtney Powell, among others, have said that the outlook for 2021 is positive, and if the Fintech, eCommerce and Healthtech industries can innovate and succeed through the challenging year of 2020, then there is every reason to expect they will succeed in 2021.

Sources: ventureburn.com – gccbusinessnews.com

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The Internet Economy in Africa – Key takeaways of a $180 Billion Industry

13 January 2021 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Featured

The e-Conomy Africa 2020 report, a unique collaboration between the IFC and Google, sheds light on the great potential of Africa’s Internet economy, the promising tech entrepreneurs driving innovation, and the growing tech talent across the continent.

The e-Conomy Africa 2020 report, a unique collaboration between the IFC and Google, sheds light on the great potential of Africa’s Internet economy, the promising tech entrepreneurs driving innovation, and the growing tech talent across the continent. Of the top 20 fastest-growing countries in the world, nineteen are located in Africa. Driven by greater access to the internet as well as having an increasingly young and well-educated workforce, the IFC and Google predict an internet economy on the African continent worth $180 billion by the year 2025. This could reach $712 billion by 2050 and despite the impact of Covid-19, this ‘e-conomy’ is expected to be more resilient to the pandemic. This offers several promising avenues for investment on the continent.

Sectors Driving the Growth of the Internet Economy in Africa

Thanks in large part to easier access to mobile internet, several key sectors have been able to flourish in recent years:

  • Fintech, or financial technology, enjoys an average of 120% growth in funding year-on-year, and is the most heavily funded sector in Africa. With large amounts of the population unbanked, startups allow people to leapfrog from physical retail banking to online banking by offering services like payment processing, personal finance, insurance and microloans. Companies like M-PESA in Kenya, Fawry in Egypt and Paystack-62 in Nigeria lead the way in, with some companies growing at more than 100% annually.
  • Healthtech received $189 million in 2019, and the healthcare market in Africa is expected to reach over $100 billion by 2030. Companies like Zipline have been operating medical supply drone deliveries to rural areas, while Helium Health has been providing technological solutions for healthcare providers.
  • Media and Entertainment has seen a rapid increase in demand, thanks in part due to lockdowns and social distancing measures put in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Content specifically created in Africa can be found on globally-available streaming platforms, such as Netflix’s “Made in Africa” collection, and African-made content is expected to expand quickly.
  • E-Mobility and Food Delivery has been hard hit by the pandemic, as ride-hailing saw a decrease in demand due to work-from-home and lockdown measures. It is expected to rebound quickly however, as Africa has one of the lowest car to person ratios in the world. In some areas taxis and moto-taxis make up nearly 80% of motorized trips. Global ride-hailing companies like Uber and Bolt have entered the market in the past seven years, in addition to local startups, such as Little, Gokada, Gozem, MaxNG, Safeboda and Yassir. Startups within the e-mobility sector in Africa raised $62 million in 2019. Many of these startups have branched into food and grocery delivery to alleviate the impact of Covid-19.
  • E-Logistics platforms are helping informal retailers with companies such as Kobo360, Lori Systems, Sendy, and Truckr reducing the cost of cargo and local transportation.

Young Tech Talent in Africa Drives the Growth and Consumption of Online Services

Africa has the world’s youngest and fastest-growing workforce, one that is increasingly urbanized. Tech talent in Africa is at a historical high with nearly 700,000 professional developers across Africa, a number that is still rising. Women comprise one in five of the total developer population in Africa, higher than the United States, creating new opportunities for women, especially in Egypt, Morocco and South Africa. A skills gap still exists, with self-taught developers making up the same number of as those that are university-trained. Helping to bridge this gap will help encourage the growth of the internet economy in Africa.

With support and regulation from regional governments, the internet economy in Africa looks set to boom in the coming years, thanks to the hard work and entrepreneurship of local startups on the continent.

Photos : ifc.org – bp.blogspot.com – miro.medium.com

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Shaking up the African mobility arena

20 December 2020 Comments (0) Africa, Business

The micromobility tale

In order to adequately assess the micromobility situation in African countries, we have to note that transport alternatives vary tremendously depending on cultural beliefs, social status, geographic hindrances, availability, needs, demand as well as pricing. Most African households cannot afford to buy a car, or even rent one. But the government is yet to invest in bike-friendly infrastructures leaving people with no other choice than being heavily reliant on motorized vehicles to reach their destination. 

With a population of over 1 billion people and almost 75% of motorized trips, sustainable options should be provided to alleviate the demand of a growing population for a flexible, fast and clean microtransport system to commute in traffic-congested communities.

Bringing micromobility to Africa 

Bike sharing has started spreading like wildfire across the world. Unfortunately, this unique technology has known rather slow beginnings in most African cities and is yet to be embraced by the users at large due to the cultural misconception that a bike is a ‘poor man’s means of transportation’. Additionally, an evident lack of bike-specific infrastructure like dedicated cycling lanes, causes companies’ launch to lag behind. 

A fleet of electric scooters or bikes will drastically reduce long queues at bus stops due to an insufficient supply of public buses and will see a drop in household expenses as bikesharing is offered at a minimal fee compared to the high cost of taxis. Micromobility can also bargain on reduced gas-powered emissions, as there will be fewer cars on the streets and solve problems of dangerously high levels of pollution. Moreover, electric scooters are more likely to be a more viable mode of transport. According to “Wired”, a gasoline-powered car can travel 0.8 miles whereas an electric scooter covers 82.3 miles on an equivalent one-kilowatt hour of energy. It is also extremely convenient that electric bikes and scooters take up less space in a parking lot.

The Big Players

Micromobility solutions have been embraced by few operators such as Cycles (Nigeria), Baddel (Egypt), Guraride (Rwanda), Smoove (Morocco), Asambe (Zimbabwe), Lime (Cape Town), 

So far, the leading players in deploying microbility programs are Egypt and Morocco. In 2016, Marrakech (Morocco), was the very first to establish a bike-sharing startup across the city. Smoove, a French company, supplied the 300+ bikes available for public use through the Medinabike program run by the Ministry of Environment. 

Baddel, headquarted in Cairo, Egypt, was the first to set up such a venture in North Africa with 101 electric and 15 dock stations. A partnership with the UN Human Settlements program has also launched hundreds more vehicles throughout the capital since 2018.

Launched in 2017, Guraride, a Rwanda-based green e-mobility company, enables customers to choose their favourite ride by combining in an app the accessibility to electric scooters, bikesharing, and smart bikes. The charging stations are solar-powered and a bike can go up to 70km in a single charge. The government has supported the improvement of infrastructure to accommodate more cycling lanes in Kigali’s centre. Compared to other African countries, Rwanda has more easily implemented the concept of public bike share as cycling is a national pride. 

In 2018, the UN Environment Program partnered with Mobike to begin bike-sharing operations for the UN’s Nairobi compound and featured during the Africa Clean mobility Week, in an attempt to showcase the positive impact of such shifts on the environment. Nairobi has also seen an overhaul in its CBD setting in view of its vision for a green e-mobility by 2030.

Pan-African company Asambe offer for e-biking perfectly fits the demand for a fun, affordable mode of transport given the fact that Zimbabwe has the highest fuel cost and is very often afflicted by petrol shortages.

In communities where all the odds are against the startups, companies like Cycles are sometimes left with no choice than to cater for Universities and residential estates where appropriate framework already exists. Smoove also launched an armada of shared bicycles in Lagos, Nigeria in 2018 but it has not seen any surge in development due to a ban on bike-hailing services imposed by the government

What Lies Ahead

There has been a renewed focus on micromobility, especially following the Covid-19 pandemic need for social distancing, solo rides rather than sharing buses, taxis or trains. This will have in prospect more single riders, fewer points of shared contacts and open-air transit options as we transition out of lockdowns.

Micromobility obviously seems as the best way to reduce congestion and pollution but it is often not considered as a political priority. We can only hope for a switch in both users and the government and that hurdles such as theft, city bans and limited infrastructure will be resolved to ensure complete adoption and that mobility-as-a-service will become the future mode of transport. 

Forecast 

Based on market research insights, the micromobility market is reported to grow at a rate of 13.20% over the period of 2020 to 2027 given the factors anticipated to be prevalent in the coming years.

Photos : shared-micromobility.com and cbinsights.com

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