Started from the dorm now we're here

Welcome to Tech Safari!

Your tour guide on African Tech 🧭

Hello to the new folks who have joined the Safari since the last edition.

If you haven't subscribed, join thousands of smart folks curious about tech in Africa.

Hey 👋🏽 Caleb here!

Let’s get into this week’s edition.

Every minute, more than 6 million people around the world Google something.

There is no internet if we can’t ‘Google it’.

But 30 years ago Google was a Stanford student’s university project.

That student was Larry Page.

He met Sergey Brin, and for a computer engineering project, they worked together on a better way to surf the web.

They turned their dorm room into a programming centre.

Two years later, they ended up with Google, a company name that would later become a verb.

Google is a classic university startup story.

But it’s one of many:

• Matt Mullenweg started WordPress in 2003 at the University of Houston. Today, WordPress powers 40% of websites

• Mark Zuckerberg and his friends launched a social network for Harvard students from their dorm in 2004. Now, Facebook has over 3 billion monthly users

• At MIT in 2007, Drew Houston kept forgetting his USB stick for class, so he came up with online file storage. Today, Dropbox has 700 million+ users

Uni is where ideas come to life

Students go there to get degrees.

But uni is also where students are free to solve problems without the pressure of a job.

Where friends, working on problems together, become co-founders.

And where classmates can test your product for free using campus Wi-Fi.

Get the formula right, and universities can shape tech ecosystems like Stanford did in Silicon Valley.

And now…

African universities are becoming tech hubs

The University of Cape Town (UCT), Africa’s top-ranked university, is not just an academic giant.

Their alumni network is stacked with startup founders too.

They’ve minted 74 tech CEOs in Africa, including Katlego Maphali from Yoco and  Thando Hlongwane of Lipa Payments.

It's the highest number of tech CEOs from any university, even beating the Ivy Leagues.

But it didn’t happen by chance - UCT is a tech giant by design.

South Africa is one of Africa’s biggest tech ecosystems.

And Cape Town is its startup capital - hosting 60% of all its startups.

UCT actively gets its students ready for Cape Town’s startup scene.

Students have access to tech labs with 3D printers, virtual reality machines, and more, to brainstorm and create.

And they also help these ideas get funding.

For example, UCT hosts annual pitching competitions where students win funding for their ideas.

UCT nails the model for transforming a university into a startup hub, which is

1. Support student research

2. Then link them up with the funding scene to turn ideas into real companies.

And that playbook is being used in other African universities too.

Like Nigeria's Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU).

In 2003, they built a new ICT centre.

They also started hosting MIT's iLab - remote science labs modelled after MIT.

Spread across five African universities, they’re kitted out for everything science - from robotics to software development.

And OAU has spawned some exciting startups since then - like Jobberman.

In 2009, university lecturers in Nigeria went on strike.

So to kill time, three students started working on an online job search engine from their dorm room.

By 2011, less than three years later, Tiger Global became an investor.

Their little experiment turned into Jobberman - West Africa’s largest job site.

And just like that, Ayodeji Adewunmi, Olalekan Olude, and Ope Awoyemi became the OG student founders in Nigeria.

What have we learnt?

Universities can become Africa's biggest pipeline for tech.

Students have time, energy, and each other, making it easier to experiment.

Students who grew their tech curiosity in university have created a ripple effect throughout the ecosystem.

Like Peace Itimi, who swapped her medicine dreams for tech.

While studying Medical Biochemistry at Nigeria’s Delta State University in 2014, a friend told her about The Google Student Ambassador program.

These are tech communities for students interested in Google or tech in general.

Peace applied, got in, and became her uni's first Google Student Ambassador.

Today, she’s doing a lot for African tech:

• She leads growth and marketing over at Smile ID

• She produced Innovating Africa - the first film documenting the rise of tech in Nigeria

• And she’s the brain behind Founders Connect - a global community of African founders, investors, and operators; and a media platform that has spotlighted over 80 African tech builders.

So the ball’s in African universities’ court.

We need more stories like UCT, Jobberman, and Peace.

And with intention, our universities can help develop the next batch of founders, investors, and operators.

Which African universities are stepping up their tech game?

Hit reply and let us know.

And that's a wrap!

Did we miss anything? Or just want to say hey? I'd love to hear from you! You can:

• 💸 Invest with the Tech Safari Syndicate

• 🐦 Find me on Twitter

• 💬 Holler on Linkedin

• 💌 Reply to this email

• 🚀 Partner with Tech Safari

• 👨🏾‍💻 Hire with Tech Safari Talent

And if you don't already, make sure to sign up to get this in your inbox next week.

And remember - it just takes just five referrals to join our WhatsApp community 👇🏾

Catch you soon!