Friday, March 29

Entrepreneurship

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  • Analysts have termed Central Africa as a sleeping Giant, yet to awaken as the region recorded the least funding for startups in 2022. 
  • In 2022, Central Africa was by far the region where start-ups raised the least funding through deals worth $100,000 and over with a total of $51 million according to the latest report by The Big Deal. 
  • While the region represented only 1.1 percent of the funding raised on the continent, Year on Year growth was commendable, as start-ups raised more than double the amount that had been raised in 2021 ($24 million). 

Analysts have termed Central Africa a sleeping giant, yet to awaken as the region recorded the least funding for startups in 2022. 

Max Cuvellier from The Big Deal says there is a huge potential in the region despite the depressed numbers. 

“This is not to say that there isn’t talent or potential in the DRC,

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The Harambeans are young entrepreneurs transforming the innovative African ecosystem. www.theexchange.africa

In the latest fundraising led by B Capital Group, Flutterwave raised US$250 million, with participation from Alta Park Capital LP, Whale Rock Capital and Lux Capital.

Flutterwave said in an emailed statement on Wednesday. “The investment has enabled the company to become the highest valued African startup,” a Flutterwave email read.

Flutterwave has processed transactions worth more than US$16 million in over 50 million transactions across dozens of countries in Africa, facilitating cross-border transactions in multiple currencies for companies, including Uber Technologies Inc., Booking.com and Alibaba’s Alipay. It has evolved beyond payments products to an online marketplace and a lending channel to small and medium businesses.

With operations from the Nigerian commercial hub of Lagos to Nairobi, Kenya, the San Francisco-based company will continue to grow in East Africa. According to Flutterwave’s software engineer, the company also plans to expand its Francophone African nations such as Senegal and Cameroon.…

Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF),announces the three top winners of the Africa AgTech and Inclusive Insurance Challenge 2022 in Africa. www.theexchange.africa

Rural Farmers Hub will receive financial support worth US$15,000. It is a precision management solution for crop health and soil quality assessment created for small farmers, extensive plantations, and industrial out-growers.

Rural Farmers Hub provides intelligent maps to plan precise fixation of defects in soil and crops and develop various AI algorithms for agricultural application in Africa, showing how data can significantly impact the agriculture sector.

The company works with an extension worker network of over 200 members and have since reached over 25,000 smallholder farmers. They target ten vital corporate customers and an estimated 250,000 smallholder farmers within 24 months.…

A total of 29 entrepreneurs from 11 countries in Africa travel to China to participate in an intensive eFounders Fellowship course and become catalysts for digital transformation

Alibaba Group, Dalberg, A. T. Kearney, Export Trading Group, U.S. African Development Foundation and the Zenith Bank have partnered with the World Economic Forum to launch the Africa Growth Platform. The platform was launched with the goal of helping Africa’s community of start-up enterprises grow and compete in international markets.

The Africa Growth Platform will firstly, secure commitments from governments to implement policy reforms aimed at stimulating and accelerating business growth. Secondly, it aims to build a community of investors, whether private investors, foundations, multilateral institutions or corporate intrapreneurs to enable better coordination and pooling of resources that could facilitate larger subsequent rounds of funding.

Third, the platform will create and sustain a community of start-up businesses themselves, promoting collaboration and sharing best practices.

The need for an innovative approach to helping Africa’s start-ups reach the scale where they become sustainable is backed up by data. Two-thirds of Africa’s 420

Africa Fashionomics: Business of Fashion in Africa led by Ethiopia

Hawassa Industrial park sits 140 miles south of Addis Ababa. The park was built by China Civil Engineering Corporation in 2016 and has so far attracted several international companies. The park is part of a long-term vision to grow Ethiopia into a production hub. It houses factories including textile and agro-processing and has 25,000 employees producing garments.

In the last 5 to 6 years, the textile, and apparel industry have grown at an average of 51% and more than 65 international textile investment projects have been licensed for foreign investors, during this period.

According to the World Investment Report, Ethiopia is one of the top-performing African countries in FDI flow, especially in the textile sector. The government of Ethiopia believes that textile would help the nation to join middle-income status in 2025. As the way forward, the Ethiopian government has been building industrial parks at different cities of the country …

Kenyan publisher Longhorn benefits from both digital and African expansion

Longhorn Publishers PLC, the Kenyan book publishers with strong presence in East and Central Africa has announced its financial results, with group profit after tax for the year ended 30 June 2019 rising by 1%, to Kshs 185 million, from Kshs 183 million in 2018.

The Company attributes this performance to commendable growth in Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania, as well as the positive response to the rollout of Kenya’s new competency-based curriculum (CBC), in which Longhorn has played a significant role in its implementation by having distributed 2 million textbooks to 23,000 public primary schools in Kenya.

Mr. Maxwell Wahome, the Group Managing Director of Longhorn Publishers, said,  “The strategic focus on regional expansion has begun to bear fruit, with our investment in market-specific content, particularly for Uganda and Tanzania, realising a 41% revenue growth in these markets.  In an increasingly digital world, we need to ensure all our children …

Palladium rolls out new impact investment fund for African small businesses

Global consultancy Palladium has announced its first impact investment fund to bridge the financing gap for small businesses in sub-Saharan Africa.

The “Palladium Impact Fund I” is expected to raise USD 40 million to provide much-needed capital for SMEs in emerging markets. The fund, which will focus on agribusiness value chains and off-grid clean energy in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya, aims to alleviate poverty and economically empower over 500,000 rural households. It intends to create at least 3,500 full-time jobs, of which 60 percent will be for women.

Investors will include foundations, family offices, pension funds, and institutional investors. Palladium will manage the fund, anchored by a $5 million investment of its own capital. The new fund will make debt and mezzanine investments of between $250,000 and $2 million into small companies.

Andrew Tillery, Head of Impact Investments at Palladium, said, “Fifty-four years of experience has taught Palladium that for …

Silafrica first African company to join the Pledge 1% movement

Silafrica, a leading packaging supplier to East Africa and surrounding regions and trusted supplier to some of the largest food and beverage brands like Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Diageo, Heineken, Unilever, and others, has become the first African-based company in the packaging industry to join the Pledge 1% movement.

Pledge 1% is a global movement that encourages and empowers companies of all sizes and stages of growth to give one percent of either their profit, equity, staff time or product to any charity of their choosing.

This global campaign is dedicated to creating a new normal, whereby giving back is integrated into the DNA of companies, regardless of their size. Comprised of more than 8,500 companies in over 100 countries, it encourages and challenges these companies to pledge one percent of equity, profit, product and employee time to their communities.

With headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya it has manufacturing hubs in Kenya, Tanzania, …

Nairobi's Metta plays incubation for Kenya's fashion creators
Mettā, the entreprenurship meeting place in Nairobi has announced its third fashion product lab cohort powered by HIVOS East Africa. The designers accepted into the program were selected after a rigorous multi-phase selection process which focused on the viability of their fashion businesses, creative designs and portfolio, and their potential to scale across the continent and globally.

Mettā Nairobi, in partnership with HIVOS East Africa, is set to bring five fashion startups to Nairobi for its third bootcamp programme – Fashion Product Lab 3.0. Selected from 300 applications all over the country, the 5 startups will kick off the programme in August.

Fashion Product Lab 3.0 is an 8-week intensive program helping entrepreneurs in the fashion industry launch their brands into local & international markets and develop new & diverse product lines. As part of the programme, the 2019 cohort will have the opportunity to engage with high-profile speakers, experts,

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