Browsing: Venture Capital In Africa

• Financing by Venture Capital Firms (VC) is the leading source for injecting capital into startups, accounting for 29 percent of the deals.
• Findings show that venture debt is becoming a crucial funding tool, especially for climate tech startups with limited access to traditional equity financing.
• The survey notes that to support this growth, investments in digital and energy infrastructure are essential.

Kenya is emerging as a leader in sourcing capital for its agricultural technology and food startups across the African continent. A large portion of capital for African startups still comes from foreign countries, with approximately 60 per cent, coming from international sources, primarily the United States and the United Kingdom.

On the continent, however, most investors are concentrated in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, where innovation and funding activity are most prominent. Large-scale investments in solar energy solutions and precision agriculture partly drive Kenya’s dominance in the sector.

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The application for this programme went live on March 8 and will be processed on a rolling basis until the deadline on May 1, 2022, at 11:59 GMT.

The rigorous and immersive Investor accelerator programme will launch in June 2022, running for 20 weeks until late October.

Participants in this programme will be taught actively, with multiple live sessions every week, occurring on evenings and weekends to engage them. Investor accelerator guarantees over 800 hours of content, distributed across strategic block-based learning and complemented by a team of panels with leading industry professionals like GPs and Executives in many Venture Capital firms actively investing in or based out of Africa markets.…

I ended my May 2021 essay with the hypothesis “…leading fintechs might turn around and start acquiring the banks” and, sure enough, on the 12^th of May 2021, the Competition Authority of Kenya in a gazette notice approved the acquisition of 84.89% stake in Century Microfinance Bank by Branch International Limited – a leading global fintech with operations in Kenya[1]. One of the signs of a maturing ecosystem is home grown ventures mature into unicorns[2], gazelles and zebras[3], increased mergers and acquisitions[4] and the entry of global tech giants hungry for a piece of the action – the subject of this essay. So, whilst the Branch acquisition was unexpected, it was unsurprising when Twitter announced on 14^th April 2021 that they are setting up their Africa HQ in Ghana[5]. On the very same day Amazon announced an investment of …

On 1^st of April, as I was publishing my Uniconization of African Fintech piece[1], Mastercard was busy announcing their $100 million investment into Airtel Money (Airtel Africa’s mobile money subsidiary) to acquire a minority position – half what TPG Capital did[2]. Even though I had gotten wind of the transaction knowing that Mastercard was already in bed with Airtel Money[3] – some part of me thought of it as an April fools joke…. On the 12^th of April 2021, Mobile Telecom Network (MTN) announced the valuation of their mobile money business at $5 billion making it the 7^th African fintech unicorn with plans to bring in minority shareholders before going public[4]. Given that Visa is already in bed with MPESA (Vodacom and Safaricom’s mobile money business)[5], it is a matter of time before Visa also invests. The unicornization …

Africa has boasted promising prospects for investors looking to invest in the continent’s untapped sectors and industries, attractive growth opportunities and an improving business environment.

Venture Capital in Africa has seen significant growth in recent years and as the entrepreneurial space on the continent matures it remains optimistic. In addition, once the African Continental Free Trade Area is fully implemented it will significantly shape the path of Venture Capital and Private Equity.

According to a report by the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA), the trends that will drive Private Equity and Venture Capital in Africa are in sectors such as Health Care, renewable energy, Agriculture and ICT and Digitalisation.

Health Care Sector

In the years leading to 2020, the health care sector in Africa was already experiencing significant growth and attracting private equity investments.

In 2020 H1, the health care sector accounted for the largest share …

Africa is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies with the continent expected to be home to nearly 1.7 billion people by 2030 and have a combined business and consumer spending of $6.7 trillion according to the Brookings Institute.

This potential in the economy has made Africa attractive for investors seeking high growth businesses with long-term impact. Because of this, Venture Capital (VC) and Private Equity (PE) have emerged as important drivers for directing capital into these businesses hence stimulating capacity building and economic growth across Africa.

According to a report from the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA), African companies which are backed by PE and VC firms are among the most innovative and pioneering firms in the world and attract more international and local investments.

According to the report, despite the effect of the pandemic on businesses, many businesses backed by the PE and VC firms especially …