Discover more from Africa Notes: Updates on Africa & EM startups + investments
Note #3: Sept 19 - Oct 2 2016
context and thoughts
this issue i saw a number of interesting region-wide ecosystem moves occurring, with new investment coming from Capria and Merck, and new relevant tech released from Facebook, Google, and Microsoft.
South Africa has been extremely active on the internet access front in the last 2 weeks, with public hearings over the high price of mobile data, a major ICT white paper released covering spectrum licensing and net neutrality (and much more), continued fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) growth, a planned upcoming 5G rollout in 2016, while a major planned 4G/LTE spectrum auction may be canceled.
pan-africa
invest Capria Accelerator Fund (based in San Francisco) raises new round to expand into Sub-Saharan Africa link
startups African online education marketplace eLearnAfrica launched link
startups Nairobi-based e-health accelerator program Merck Accelerate Africa (run by Nest Nairobi) launches second cohort with startups from Kenya, Ghana, and USA link
startups online classifieds startup Afrimalin.com launches with free classifieds for Francophone Africa link
ecosystem Facebook launches Messenger Lite, focused on emerging markets with slower connections and basic Android phones, 1st SSA launch country is Kenya link
ecosystem Google announces Chrome mobile improvements: video compression and slow connections support for Chrome Data Saver, and downloading web content for offline viewing link
ecosystem Microsoft’s online intellectual property registration system expanded to 17 countries and being released as open source link
ecosystem Facebook’s Internet.org awards $500k across the winning 6 African startups from their Innovation Challenge in Africa link
nigeria
invest property classifieds startup ToLet.com.ng raises $1.2mm Series A round led by Malaysia-based Frontier Digital Ventures link link2
invest Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel and COO Qasar Younis finish their week-long Nigeria developer tour link link2
startups Nigerian job-hunting startup MyJobMag expands into Kenya with MyJobMag.co.ke link
startups Nigerian local artistian e-commerce marketplace MadeInAba.Com.Ng launched link
startups food delivery and B2B delivery startup Metro Africa Express (MAX) acquires food delivery startup Easyappetite link
startups on-demand cooking gas (a $1.26b market) delivery startup QuickGas announces the results from their first 8 month pilot link
ecosystem African developer network DevCenter releases results from their Nigerian developer ecosystem survey link
ecosystem IDC announces that smartphone shipments to Nigeria dropped 6.8% in Q2 2016 link
ecosystem Microsoft launches WINsiders4Good Nigerian startup mentorship and support initiative with ccHub in Lagos link
access MTN Nigeria’s credit rating cut to junk status by S&P Global link
kenya
startups off-grid solar startup d.light raises $22.5mm for Series D round for further growth from current 1.6mm Kenyan household install base link link2
startups Strathmore University’s iLab releases WILD app to aid Kenya’s Sh87b elephant eco-tourism market by reducing elephant poaching and crop damage link
payments payments processor Direct Pay Online Group acquires ZA’s PayGate for $7.3mm link
access US gov’t OPIC finance institution loans $4.1mm to solar-powered wireless Internet access startup Mawingu Networks link
south africa
invest parking fintech startup WizzPass receives investment from Barclays Seeker Fund link
startups fintech startup Stokfella aims to move South Africa’s USD$1.8b stokvels over to mobile link1 link2
startups UberEATS launches in Johannesburg (their first African city) link
payments Gauteng province to launch cashless “e-ticket” payments for minibus taxi fares link
access Vodacom announces their FTTH consumer pricing link
access Wireless Business Solutions (WBS) to launch LTE-A (5G) network in 2016 link link1
access FTTH connections increased 89.6% in 2015, while ADSL connections dropped 16.4% link
access PwC projects that South Africa’s total Internet revenue will grow to R68.5b in 2020 (11.7% annual growth rate) link link2
access Parliament continued hearings on #DataMustFall as consumers, gov’t and business protest the high cost of mobile data link link2 link3
govt + access ICASA may be canceling planned LTE and 4G spectrum licensing auction due to court interdict from Dept of Communications link link2 link3
govt + access Minister of Telecoms releases the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Policy white paper, including “Open Access” and net neutrality policies for existing and future networks link link2 link3
space Successful “first light” images are released from the MeerKAT radio telescope array (which will become part of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) link
other sub-saharan africa countries