The Africa B2B Tech Report
Issue No. 94. Africa-Middle East B2B tech news & insights for 14 July 2025.
The Africa B2B Tech Report offers regular news and insights on the development of B2B technology in Africa and the Middle East. We cover the ecosystem of partners, builders, and developers that make emerging tech work for African businesses.
The Report is written by Charles Laughlin, Co-founder & Editor-in-Chief for BigFive Digital. Charles is an independent media entrepreneur, journalist, podcaster, and conference producer.
New Temu Warehouse Raises Stakes
on South Africa’s E-Comm Battlefield
Takealot, South Africa’s leading e-commerce platform, may have thought it had its hands full when Amazon launched in South Africa last May. While the “everything store” has gained some ground, Takealot has been holding its own. And it recently demonstrated this with some solid numbers.
Takealot Group (wholly owned by Naspers) has been investing in logistics and customer service. And the group has launched a subscription offering (echoes of Amazon Prime?). These investments and initiatives seem to have paid off. Thus far at least.
Takealot Group reported a 15% rise in revenue in rand for the year ending 31 March.
But “so far so good” may not be good enough for Takealot as more e-commerce competitors not just arrive but gain footing in South Africa.
For example, the Chinese e-commerce platform Temu (operated by PDD Holdings) also launched in South Africa last year. For good measure, Chinese platform Shein also put its fast-fashion boots on the ground in SA in 2024.
Temu just significantly upped its game in South Africa by opening a new warehouse (partnering with a 3rd party logistics hub) that promises to dramatically reduce the amount of time required to fulfill orders. Speed of delivery and selection variety are always key e-commerce competitive differentiators.
Now, certain Temu listings will carry a “local warehouse” label and can arrive in days or less. At least initially, Temu will focus on locally warehousing only heavier and bulkier (and thus more expensive to ship) items like furniture.
Amazon currently operates two fulfillment centers in SA (Cape Town and Johannesburg). Temu is partnering with local fulfillment operators (including the click-and-collect platform Pargo) to complete the last mile.
Another combatant in South Africa’s e-commerce war is Massmart. Walmart acquired a 51% stake in Massmart in 2013 and bought up the remaining shares in 2022. While Massmart is South Africa’s second-largest retail group, as of 2021, it had only a 2.2% share of South Africa’s online retail market.
Walmart is Amazon’s top competitor in the United States.
Sponsored Message
Network International-Odoo Integration to Ease
SME Payments in Southern, Eastern Africa
UAE-based digital payments firm Network International and Belgian business software firm Odoo have joined forces to enable an all-in-one, omnichannel payments (cards, mobile money, online checkout) within Odoo’s business management suite.
The two companies say their deal aims to make digital payments “simpler, smarter, and scalable”. The integration targets merchants across Eastern and Southern Africa.
According to McKinsey, the African continent has an estimated 244.4 million businesses, the vast majority of which are sole proprietorships. Of this total, roughly 12.7 million are businesses with at least one employee (about 5% of all African businesses). And of this 12.7 million, about 10.7 million are classified as micro businesses, with another 1.5 million classified as small businesses, 603,000 as medium-sized businesses, and 102,000 as large companies.
The partners say this integration will make life easier for SMEs in a variety of ways, including the ability to accept secure payments faster, both online and in-store, and Integrate finance, sales, and inventory on a single cloud-based platform.
With this integration, Network and Odoo have set out to fix a set of payment challenges they say are holding back African SMEs. These include disconnected systems, unreliable payment options, and limited access to financial data.
The companies assert the partnership will support SME participation in intra-African cross-border trade, which totaled $192.2 billion in 2023 (according to the 2024 Africa Trade Report).
Sponsored Message
Each issue of The Report features a chart or graphic (or two) that was shared with us, or that we found online, that we believe is relevant to the continent’s B2B tech ecosystem.
Africa’s Rapid Urbanization
This week’s Data Dump shares a chart we found via Anthony William Catt (Ventures 54 and the London Africa Network) that shows how Africa is rapidly urbanizing.
According to Catt’s post, “Africa is the world’s fastest urbanizing region, with cities growing at an average rate of 3.5% per year. By 2050, the continent is expected to add nearly 1 billion people, rising from 1.5B to 2.5B, and 80% of this population growth will occur in cities.”
Africa’s Powerful Demographics
The following chart (which we found on LinkedIn courtesy of Axel Peyriere) vividly makes the point that we (and many others) believe holds the key to the Africa-Middle East region’s future success — its overwhelmingly youthful population. Or, as this chart tells it, the lack of a large population of senior citizens across the region.
If you look around the world to see who is vibe-coding startups into existence over a weekend, it’s generally not senior citizens.
Qatar leads the region with the fewest seniors by percentage of population at 1.7%. Meanwhile, Liberia brings up the rear with 3.3%.
Yet it must be noted that Liberia’s senior citizen president, Joseph Nyuma Boaka, speaks impeccable English.
New from the BIG5D Podcast
Episode 55 of the BIG5D Podcast again turns to the May 2025 BigFive Summit in Cape Town for another great conversation about tech and business in Africa.
This episode shares the panel discussion (recorded in May) “Go to Market Strategies for SMEs: Harnessing the Power of Technology”, led by BigFive Summit Co-host Amanda Louw-Bester. The panelists were Bernadene Appalsamy (Ledger Leap), Timukudze Shoko (Umlilo Energy), and Remi du Preez (Polygon).
Watch Episode 55 on YouTube
Coming Tuesday: Episode 56 with Keshni Morar, Founder Institute SA
Tune in Tuesday for a great conversation on venture building in Africa in Episode 56 of the BIG5D Podcast, featuring a conversation with Keshni Morar, the managing director for the Founder Institute in South Africa.
Keshni has that trait shared by our best guests — the willingness to say what she thinks. We could see this quality in her ongoing series of #Startuptruth posts on LinkedIn.
One post in particular grabbed our attention.
In the post, Keshni shares the lamentable example of an unnamed startup from her recent past that squandered nearly $1 million in venture funding on extravagances ranging from premium office space to abundant swag to — wait for it — a “wellness trip” to Bali.
Keshni had us at Bali. But this line from her post is where the message lies.
Here's what every founder needs to tattoo on their forearm:
Funding isn't revenue.
It's borrowed time.
We could not imagine a better jumping-off point for a fun conversation about founder capital management. And if you don’t believe a conversation about capital management can be fun, give us a chance to change your mind.
Enjoy this brief preview of our episode with Keshni. And be sure to tune in for the full episode on Tuesday.