Hi, Quartz Africa readers!
Look east
When it comes to tech ecosystems across Africa most of them look west to Silicon Valley for inspiration. After all this is the world’s leading hub with multi-generational layers of technology, entrepreneurs and investors going back to the 1950s.
More recently when young African entrepreneurs and investors have looked in the other direction, eastwards, there has been more of a focus on China. With the increasing presence of Chinese businesses on the ground, the rise of Chinese education and trade opportunities and more recently tech giants like Alibaba and WeChat making their presence felt, this has seemed a natural secondary alternative.
What’s notable is how little discussion there is about looking to India’s tech ecosystem for partnerships, investment or market opportunities for African startups. The Indian subcontinent has had trading links that pre-date colonial times, particularly on the eastern coast of Africa.
While it has become the world’s fastest growing large economy, India still faces some of the same challenges of tackling poverty and urban development that are seen across Africa.
But when it comes to technology, the rise of India’s Institute of Technology colleges have seen it become the world’s leading producer of software developers and engineering talent. At home the country’s startup ecosystem took in some $10.5 billion in 2018 compared with around $725 million for African startups that year.
Now some investors from India and African tech hubs see opportunities in each others markets. “I strongly believe Indian entrepreneurs can share their learnings—dealing in inefficient, developing markets and building products and services to meet them—to the benefit of African entrepreneurs,” says Baljinder Sharma, a Mauritius-based veteran Indian investor. Sharma, along with a group of Indian and African investors organized an India-Africa entrepreneurship forum for around 300 entrepreneurs and early stage investors in the island country this month.
While “still nascent” there’s a particular opportunity for African startups to learn from Indian investors and entrepreneurs about scaling the growth of local startups in a regulatory and economic environment that has more in common with African countries than Silicon Valley or London, says Tomi Davies of African Business Angel Network.
However it’s also important to note that while there isn’t yet a pipeline of startup investment and tech talent going both ways right now, one of India’s biggest single tech investors is South Africa’s Naspers. In fiscal year 2019 (which ended Mar. 31) it invested $3.1 billion in mid to late stage startups in sectors from fintech to food tech companies.
The sheer size of Naspers’ moves in India relative to what’s possible in Africa’s markets highlight why investors like Davies and Sharma are focused on developing the early stage investor angel networks. It’s key to support and build out the startup pipeline across the continent for billion-dollar deals to become the norm in Africa too.
— Yinka Adegoke, Quartz Africa editor
Stories from this week
Kenyan female politicians are fighting for their seat at the table. The harsh reality of being a female lawmaker in Kenya was highlighted last week when a Kenyan representative was forced out of parliament for bringing her baby to work. In theory, the country has systems meant to be supportive to female leadership, but as Ciku Kimeria explains fears of violence and morality policing make politics an uneven playing field for the country’s women.
Why a small oil-rich African country is building a Trump-style wall. US president Trump’s southern border wall may not even be reality yet, but it seems to be the inspiration for at least one African country. Equatorial Guinea is set to build a physical border wall with Cameroon where economic migrants from there and Nigeria come into the country, reports Amindeh Blaise Atabong from Yaoundé.
Will the first human milk bank in Kenya save infants’ lives? Every year, over 13,000 kids under five die as a result of preterm births in Kenya. Reporting from Nairobi, Annabelle Timsit explains the potential impact of Kenya’s first human milk bank on neonatal mortality rates.
Facebook is going after fake news in local African languages, but it has a bigger problem. Facebook is adding checks to African languages on its platform with support for languages including Afrikaans, isiZulu and Wolof among others, writes Yomi Kazeem. But Facebook’s challenge with fake news in Africa is on its WhatsApp platform.
How DJ Arafat took the Coupé Décalé sound to the world. The untimely death of DJ Arafat this week shocked music fans beyond Côte d’Ivoire as his sound and pan-African collaborations captured the aspirations and hopes of young Africans around the world. The late 33-year old’s ambition took his beats from Abidjan’s nightclubs to inking a deal with the world’s largest music company.
Ugandan mothers want justice for their children who died in care of an unlicensed American health worker. Between 2010 and 2015, 105 children died after being admitted into the care of a religious NGO health center in rural Uganda founded by Renee Bach, a young American welfare worker. Parents of two of the late children are fighting for justice claiming Bach passed herself off as a doctor and was involved in medical procedures on children, Rosebell Kagumire reports from Kampala.
Chart of the Week
“From now on, we will no longer say that Ebola is incurable.” Ebola is no longer an incurable disease after successful trials of two new drug candidates in DR Congo which significantly improved the chances of survival for infected patients. While this its 10th significant outbreak of the disease since 1976 this has been by far its worst—claiming more than 1,800 lives since Aug. 6, according to WHO.
The Dealmaker
Nigerian logistics startup Kobo360 raised $20 million this week in a Series A round led by Goldman Sachs. Notably, the startup also secured an additional $10 million in working capital from Nigerian commercial banks. Already operational in Nigeria, Togo, Ghana and Kenya, the startup is now targeting further expansion…Kobo360’s big-ticket deal counts as the 11th in which an African startup has raised over $10 million in venture funding rounds this year…Amid struggles by South Africa’s national power company and regular blackouts across the country, off-grid power developer SOLA Group has signed a $26 million deal to build solar photovoltaic facilities across several cities in Africa’s most advanced economy.
Other Things We Liked
What happened in the Boeing 737 Max cockpit of Ethiopia Airlines’ fateful Flight 302. A team of reporters from the Wall Street Journal ($) pieced together how the pilots of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on a Boeing 737 Max struggled with the malfunctioning automated flight-control system called MCAS. The investigation shows just how “Boeing repeatedly minimized the risks posed by MCAS, without detailed scrutiny or pushback from US regulators.”
The real story of Rwanda’s poverty data depends on who you ask. Despite long-running claims of authoritarian tactics in the treatment of critics and opponents, Rwanda’s president Kagame is lauded globally for the economic transformation of the country under his watch. But as Tom Wilson and David Blood report ($) for the Financial Times, government data may have been misrepresented to cover up increased poverty rates in the country.
Huawei technicians are helping African governments spy on their political opponents. In the Wall Street Journal, Joe Parkinson, Nicholas Bariyo, and Josh Chin report ($) Huawei technicians intercepted encrypted communications, social media, and used cell phone data to track political opposition figures, including Uganda’s Bobi Wine, and a team of political bloggers in Zambia, to help the governments of both countries.
ICYMI
World Bank/IFC Young Professional Program. Current graduate degree students or recent graduates can apply for a chance to be chosen for the Young Professional Program in Washington DC with the IFC. (Oct. 1)
Becoming a Chevening scholar. The UK government is offering scholarships to emerging leaders to pursue one-year master’s degrees in Britain as part of its Chevening Scholarship program. (Nov. 5)
Keep Your Eye On
State visit by Zambia’s president Lungu to India (Aug. 20-22). Zambia’s president Edgar Lungu will visit India to discuss bilateral corporations in defense, mineral resources, health, investment, and much more.
Jumia will releases earnings results (Aug. 21). Jumia, which has seen its market cap drop below its billion-dollar “unicorn” status this month, will release its results for the quarter which ended on June 30th, with the African e-commerce company’s management slated to host a conference call at 8:30 am ET.
*This brief was produced while listening to Gbobolor by DJ Arafat (Côte d’Ivoire).
**Thanks and good luck to Quartz Africa‘s outgoing intern, Haleluya Hadero!
Our best wishes for a productive and ideas-filled week ahead. Please send any news, comments, suggestions to africa@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter at @qzafrica for updates throughout the day.
If you received this email from a friend or colleague, you can sign up here to receive the Quartz Africa Weekly Brief in your inbox every week. You can also follow Quartz Africa on Facebook.