The Africa SMME Tech Report
Issue No. 73. Africa-Middle East SME tech news and insights for 8 April 2024.
This edition of the Africa SMME Tech Report newsletter is presented by Realm Digital
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The Africa-Middle East News Digest
SMME Tech News for 8th April 2024
Editor’s note: We will devote the next several editions of this newsletter to sharing some of the best content from the recent BigFive Summit in Cape Town. In this edition, We recap the key messages shared by Standard Bank Group CIO Khomotso Molabe during his engaging headline talk at the Summit.
Standard Bank’s Molable Talks Disruption at Big5 Summit
Standard Bank Group CIO Khomotso Molabe took delegates at the recent BigFive Summit in Cape Town on a journey that explains what happens when big challenges collide with disruptive technologies.
Early in his talk designed around a series of images (some generated by AI), Molabe noted that we are still in the very early stages of a highly disruptive technology shift.
“The technology will evolve over a period of time,” Khomotso said. “But we must give it a chance.”
A key bottom-line message of Molable’s talk was that there may never have been a better time for innovative startups to partner with large corporates. As long as they offer disruptive solutions to big problems.
He summarizes this point well in this excerpt from his talk.
Watch Khomotso’s full presentation on YouTube here:
MTN Chenossis Taps into No Code Movement
MTN's Chenosis API marketplace has launched a no-code front end, which aims to make it easier for young entrepreneurs to access the marketplace to build and scale their businesses.
Chenosis is a cross-industry API marketplace that allows developers and entrepreneurs to integrate into a library of open APIs.
Rolling out no-code front-end lines up with the broader trend (often called low code/no code) of creating tools that allow non-technical entrepreneurs to build and scale products. While this movement is not exclusive to Africa, it is certainly well-suited to helping young, keen founders transform great ideas into products that can be built and taken to market without coding skills.
“Africa is going to power the world. We can equip the younger generations to build apps and solutions. Not just to solve our problems but for the rest of the world,” Chenosis CEO Saad Syed said at the recent MTN CTIO Forum in Ghana.
Found on LinkedIn
According to Africa: The Big Deal, African startups raised $466 million in Q1 2024. This is about half what was raised a year earlier, yet it is still a significant amount of funding. Most of the funds (71%) came in the form of equity, with the balance being debt financing.
Nigerian mobility tech Moove’s Uber-led $100 million+ Series B round was the single biggest deal of the quarter.
Please check out the panel discussion on this topic held during the opening networking event at Innovation City Cape Town for the recent 2024 BigFive Summit. The panel explored what it will take for Africa to return to a healthy pattern of startup investing. The panel featured Janade Du Plessis from Launch Africa Ventures, Thaheer Mullins from Savant Venture Fund, and startup founder Meghan McCormick, the CEO of the Ghanaian SME fintech Oze.
The panel’s consensus was that the environment has improved this year. This is driven, in part at least, by many funds sitting on capital that needs to be deployed within a prescribed period. Over the longer term, the panelists hope to see more Africans investing in African startups (some of which will be spurred on by founder exits) and less reliance on international “tourist” capital.
You can watch the panel on YouTube here.
Recommended Reading
The following is a curation of content from around the world relevant to trends in big tech, digital marketing, small business, startup life, venture funding, M&A, and more. Vote with your clicks to tell us what we should curate for you moving forward.
Mauritius PE Adenia Partners Raises $470M to Invest in Africa
How Will AI Transform Print Media in Africa?
MarketForce and Pezesha Mend Fences
Is TikTok an Economic Engine for SMEs?
Fintech Representation is Down in YC Demo Days
Will Stripe Be Among 2024’s Biggest IPOs?
Future of Work Startup Read.AI Raises $21M Series A
Will Google Start Paywalling AI Search?
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