African Diaspora Starter Pack

Hey 👋 

Today’s article is about one of Africa’s biggest economies.

It’s made up of 150 million people, and they contributed $100 billion to the continent last year. The wild part, it’s not even a real country.

But before we dig in, we have a little announcement.

Now, on to this week’s story….

Africa’s diaspora is a force to be reckoned with.

At 150 million people, they sent nearly $100 billion in remittances back home in 2024. They are the continent’s largest financiers, holding up the economies of countries.

In Gambia, remittances made up 28% of GDP.

A quick definition: African diaspora is a catch-all term for people of African origin living outside the continent.

Africa’s diaspora is so big, it is a country in itself. And just like any country..

Africa’s diaspora have their problems, too

And not just my problems as a second-generation migrant (like strict parents, high expectations and getting the belt).

There are sticky problems moving overseas and then settling in.

Moving abroad starts with a long, complicated migration process. Getting a visa as an African overseas is hard and expensive.

When you do manage to move, financial services (like banking and credit) are hard to access in your new home country.

Then once you get home and settle in, a new set of challenges emerge.

• How do you send money back home to friends and family (without spending half of it on transfer fees)?

• How do you care for your family’s health from abroad?

• Whats the best way to tap into your culture and community in your home country.

Africa’s diaspora face unique problems.

But where there are problems, there is opportunity.

And where there is opportunity, there are startups.

So it’s no surprise that a set of startups are now building specifically for Africa’s diaspora.

Introducing.. the African Diaspora Starter Pack

In what I dub the (real) African Diaspora Starter pack, I’ve categorised companies building for Africa’s diaspora into six categories:

1. Migration 🛩️

2. Financial Services and Banking 🏦

3. Remittances 💸

4. Care ❤️‍🩹

5. Community 🫂

6. Entertainment 🍿

Let’s dive in.

Migration 🛫

A few weeks back we explored Africa’s ‘Japa’ wave - the mass migration of young people outside of the continent.

Startups like Vesti are letting Africans become diaspora - helping them move seamlessly to countries like the United States and the United Kingdom. I call this category migration-as-a-service.

Financial Services + Banking 🏦

Financial services for recent migrants. The two biggest problems in this camp are banking and credit.

Moneco is answering the banking question in Europe - building a bank around Africa’s diaspora with features like mobile money, low-cost remittances and saving circles which are common across Africa (and known as SACCOs).

Betascore is a startup addressing the credit question - helping Africans build credit history before they move overseas. This lets them access rental services, student loans and mortgages abroad.

Remittances 💸

Moving money to emerging markets is expensive - and most expensive in Africa. While this is older data (2016), about ~10% of the money sent to Africa will be eaten up by transaction costs.

The remittance problem has become one of the most sought-after opportunities across the continent and is the most developed category of Africa’s Diaspora Starter Pack.

Fintech startups are making it cheaper and faster to send money to family and friends back in Africa.

The bigger players are Chipper Cash, Sendwave and NALA. But there are dozens (if not hundreds) of players who want a piece of the $86.39 billion dollar pie.

The real question is how many winners can there be? But that’s for another time..

Care ❤️‍🩹

Taking care of family back home. While sending money (remittances) home can cover this, some startups are letting diaspora take better, specialised care for their family back home.

Susu is helping the Ivorian diaspora buy healthcare plans for their families back home.

This helps them direct where their money is spent (rather than just sending money back to family).

And in 2023, they raised $4.9 million to expand their health services outside of Cote d’Ivoire.

Awabah also helps diaspora save pensions for their family back home.

Community 🫂

African diaspora have shared experiences, and moving abroad (or being born abroad) can be an alienating experience.

Communities like Afropolitan connect Africa’s diaspora on the internet and through community meetups across the world.

Other communities are more professional in nature - like Movemeback, which connects Africa’s diaspora with career and investment opportunities back on the continent.

And there’s Talk360, which lets them make cheap international calls to keep in touch with relatives back home.

Entertainment 🍿

While content streaming services like Netflix and Showmax are starting to grow their African catalogues, platforms that provide specifically African content are on the rise.

Avetol is an example of this - a newly launched video streaming service that caters to Ethiopia’s diaspora (of 2.5 million people).

IrokoTV is an older take on a localised streaming platform, launching in 2011 in Nigeria.

Rather than just targeting viewers in Africa, they target Africa’s diaspora - who have deeper pockets and want to engage with their culture back home.

A friend of the newsletter and great writer, Emeka, wrote a great article IrokoTV’s transition to servicing the diaspora (which you can check out here).

Africa’s diaspora goldmine

African diaspora’s problems are a goldmine of opportunity for startups.

The African Diaspora Starter Pack is a guide to the African diaspora’s problems and the startups trying to solve them.

What do you think of the African Diaspora Starter Pack? Let me know here.

PS — the next edition I want to dive into is how governments and institutions are supporting Africa’s diaspora.

Do you know anyone I should talk to? Shoot me an email 💌 

That’s it for this week. See you on Sunday for a breakdown on This Week in African Tech.

Cheers,

The Tech Safari Team

PS. refer five readers and you’ll get access to our private community. 👇🏾

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