Afridigest Week in Review: Africa to the world
Afridigest is your intelligent guide to Africa’s tech ecosystem. This Afridigest Week in Review helps you stay in the know about what happened in Africa Tech last week.
📌 Welcome to Q4, friends. Wishing you all a productive last quarter. 💪🏽
If you’re new here: welcome — this Week in Review is sent on Mondays, the Fintech Review goes out on Sundays, and additional essays or other content goes out on (some but not all) Wednesdays/Saturdays. For past essays and digests, visit the archive & Afridigest.com.
And with that said, let’s get into it.
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Week 39 2023: Sep 24-30
🧭 Fundraising Tracker
Ten deals were announced for a total of ~$20M in disclosed funding this week.
Become a paid subscriber for access to comprehensive tracking of Africa Tech deals every week.
💰 Investor Activity
Africa-focused VC firm P1 Ventures announced the $25M first close of its $50M-target second fund. Investments from its first fund include Algerian super app Yassir, Moroccan B2B e-commerce platform Chari, and Ivorian digital bank Djamo.
Southern Africa-focused SME/private equity investor Secha Capital announced the $15.7M first close of a $34M-target second fund. The firm which said in the past that it “[doesn’t] invest in technology because [it’s] interested in sectors that have a solid, basic consumer portfolio,” now invests in “traditional companies across sectors that are making the tech-enabled transition into the green economy.” Its portfolio includes South African farm management ERP platform FarmTrace.
Africa-focused VC firm Enza Capital launched a Founder-Partner program. The firm is setting aside 10% of its carry pool for founders and leadership teams of companies it invests in. Enza also announced that it raised $58M across its first two funds.
Pre-seed climatetech investor Catalyst Fund announced reaching an $8.6M first close of a targeted $40M in Week 36. And here’s an analysis from CPI of the Catalyst Climate Resilience Fund (CCRF).
🕵️♀️ In case you missed it
NEWS
Kenyan logistics platform Sendy went into administration after failing to find a buyer. Read Week 32’s Week in Review below for our coverage of Sendy’s shutdown:
Nigerian genomics startup 54gene quietly began winding down operations in July.
Meet the 30 EMEA startups joining the Google for Startups: AI for Health program. Six of them are from Africa: Eden Care, iZola, mDoc, Pharmacy Marts, Pharmarun, Zuri Health.
OTHER ARTICLES, OP-EDS, & RESOURCES
Accelerating the adoption of solar energy in Nigeria: A market-creation strategy (Christensen Institute - PDF)
The rise of surveillance tech in Africa: What you need to know (Context)
African nations join global war for tech talent (TechCentral)
Amazon in Cape Town’s murky waters (Africa is a country)
Simon Sharp and Said Murad, partners at Global Ventures, write ‘Transforming access to finance in agriculture’ (Wamda)
Q&A with Juliet Ehimuan: ‘More African-sourced funds are needed for African-based businesses’ (Al Jazeera)
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👀 Visual of the Week
AFRICA’S BODA BODA BELT
Here's a look at cities across the continent where motorcycle taxis are present.
🐤 Tweets of the Week
QED's Frank Rotman pens a thread on one of the best-kept secrets in venture capital: proof
Voltron Capital’s Olumide Soyombo shares a word of advice for investors:
Firas Ahmad shares some quality thoughts in response to a recent story on Jumia:
Bonus:
🗣️ Community Corner and Opportunities (Send to submissions@afridigest.com)
🎰 OPPORTUNITIES
Women founders of early-stage tech startups in Nigeria that have received less than $500K in funding are invited to apply before October 6th to the Female Founders Growth Program. Participants will receive training on a variety of topics, culminating in a demo day with a chance to win a grant of $10K.
Women founders of tech startups in Africa are invited to apply for the Aurora Tech award before December 1st. The first-place winner will be awarded a $30K cash prize, while the 2nd and 3rd place winners will receive $20K and $10K, respectively.
The last word
💭 Just my thoughts
AFRICA TO THE WORLD
The news of the week is that Nollywood movie The Black Book is a huge hit on Netflix.
Backed by African startup founders and investors like Venture Platform’s Kola Aina, Flutterwave’s GB Agboola, Eden Life’s Nadayar Enegesi, Voltron’s Olumide Soyombo, Paystack’s Ezra Olubi, Piggyvest’s Odun Eweniyi, and others, the movie is the latest proof point of the opportunity in taking African culture to the world.
And there’s another tech angle too.
The movie’s director, Editi Effiong, recently highlighted computer programming as preparing him for his directorial debut:
Akwagyiram: You’ve had an unusual route to filmmaking, how have your experiences fed into your creative process?
Effiong: The skill that prepared me the most for directing is computer programming. When I was a full time programmer I would build an entire app, with dependencies and folders. I could remember where every line of code was. If I change one line here, I would remember how it affects all the different lines of code inside that app. Directing works in the same way. You have to be able to carry your story in your head all the time. If there is any little change — for example, a prop on set shifts one foot to the right — you think about how it affects the conflict in our story three pages down. You have to remember every word, every line, everything. That prepared me.
Many congrats to Editi, his team, and his supporters. 💪🏽
But while music, movies, minerals, and migrants have taken the early lead in the ‘Africa to the world’ movement, we’re on the cusp of a new era that sees startups built from Africa increasingly find success in global markets.
Here’s a 1-minute clip of Tosin Eniolorunda, Founder & CEO of Nigerian business & personal banking platform Moniepoint talking about the company’s global ambitions:
➤ Be sure to subscribe to the new Afridigest Youtube channel. (Watch the full discussion with Tosin here.)
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