TechCabal Daily, 641 – Partech Africa Fund gets boost from AfDB

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Despite competition from Transsion Holdings, Samsung is aiming to grow its Africa revenue by 10% over the next decade. According to Africa CEO, Sung Yoon, the company will concentrate on key markets like South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal. The company expects televisions to continue to be a top selling product for the next two decades, as a result of young people using over-the-top services.

Somalia is seeing a rise in digital businesses despite low internet penetration and weak regulatory policies. Entrepreneurs are taking advantage of an increased ownership of mobile phones and a successful mobile money market to build tech-enabled services.  Quartz has the rest of the story here.

The African Development Bank has invested €7m in the Partech Africa Fund under its Boost Africa program. AfDB’s investment brings the total investment the Partech Africa Fund has raised so far to €78m out of a €100m target. The bank will take a seat on the fund’s advisory board. The Partech Africa Fund was launched in January and has so far invested in TradeDepot and Yoco.

Liquid Telecom has appointed Wellington Makamure as its first Regional CEO of Southern Africa. Wellington will be in charge of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Botswana. He joined the company in 2009 and was instrumental in building the Liquid Telecom network and business in Zimbabwe.

Senegal’s CoinAfrique and Kenya’s African Management Initiative have received undisclosed amounts from Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P). The investments were from I&P’s $59m IPAE 2 fund. It is looking to invest in at least 30 African startups over the next five years with a special interest in West, Central and East Africa as well as Madagascar.

Eight South African fintech startups have been selected to participate in the AlphaCode Incubate programme. They include Akiba Digital, iSpani, Jamii, Nisa Finance, Pago, Prospa, SELFsure and Yalu. Each startup will receive $75k in funding and other support services in addition to taking part in a 12 month programme.

Egypt’s HitchHiker has raised $200k for its international P2P shipping platform. The money was raised from Dubai-based angel investors. Since it launched last year, HitchHiker has processed more than 20k orders helping travellers earn over $300k.

Teleology Holdings has acquired Uganda Telecoms Limited for $71m. Although there was some controversy as some cabinet members favored other bidders, Teleology beat Mauritius Telecoms to win the bid. Teleology also won a similar controversial bid to acquire Nigeria’s 9Mobile in February after the latter’s former entity, Etisalat Nigeria defaulted on a loan.

SA hardware tech incubator, Savant is looking to set up a fund in Q1 2019. The firm says private sector investors have expressed interest to invest in hardware solutions. However, it had identified that founders faced difficulty in getting investment from VCs and PE firms because their businesses were pre-revenue ones at very early stages.

Quickteller has launched Quickteller Global Mall to enable users to shop in over 100 international stores in naira. Delivery will be handled by DHL. Quickteller will be going after the business of platforms like Mall for Africa which signed a strategic partnership with eBay in 2016. Mall for Africa is backed by Helios Investment Partners and ships to more than 17 countries.

The Ghanaian government has given out $10m in debt funding to 1,350 SMEs through its National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan Initiative (NEIP). The government has also trained over 7,000 entrepreneurs and announced tax holidays for entrepreneurs under age 35.

Pan-African developer community, forLoopAfrica has announced forLoopMentors, a new program to connect new developers and designers with experienced ones. The program will span across its existing chapters and pairings won’t be limited to geographic locations.

Sanofi has launched an e-health challenge and is seeking South African startups with solutions to increase patient treatment adherence for TB. See requirements and apply here before Oct. 26.

Join Funke Opeke (Founder & CEO, MainOne) at MEST Lagos’ Journey to Founder Masterclass. The event holds tomorrow by 6pm. More details here. There will also be an information session at MEST Lagos on Oct. 25 for those looking to join the incubator. Register here.

Design company, Senpai has announced the second edition of its Design 101 course. The company has so far trained about 300 students. Register for the latest edition here.

The 2018 Digital Marketing Conference holds on November 24 at the LCCI Conference Centre, Ikeja, Lagos. Speakers & panelists include Fuad Lawal, Editor-in-Chief at our sister publication Zikoko, Bada Akintunde-Johnson (Country Manager, Viacom), Leonard Steigler (GM, Ringier Africa), Fiona Uwagwu (Managing Partner, OglivyOne), among others. Register here.

Paystack’s Celestine Omin is looking to hire female Senior Engineers. Apply here.

Have a great week ahead. We’ll be back tomorrow.
 
– Olanrewaju

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