Tech Safari's Third Birthday 🎉 🎂

Plus, This Week in African Tech

Author

Caleb Maru
April 01, 2023

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Happy Saturday.

Today, Tech Safari turns three!

Not three years - three months old. Yeah, given how much has happened I would have been April-fooled too.

This morning I started writing about the last three months - thinking it would be a short summary on what's happened so far.

But I couldn't stop, and before I knew it I had an article on my hands.

For the tech roundup, scroll to the end. For all the good stuff keep reading 😉

Let's get to it.

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Tech Safari turns 3! 🎉

The first edition of Tech Safari came out three months ago today.

I'm going to dive into what happened since we started Tech Safari three months ago, specifically:

  • The Numbers and how we grew

  • The Writing and how that evolved

  • Tech Safari's incredible community

  • Our Partners and how we monetise

  • Some of the impact our stories have had

  • And I’m going to keep it real and share some of the challenges along the way

Let’s start at the start.

I had been writing a newsletter called Prox Weekly to summarise what I was learning as I invested in African startups.

I wish my friends called me out on how bad that name was earlier. I realised eventually..

The gap I noticed: African Tech media is focused on raises, what happened this month at Flutterwave or how much money was raised by African startups this month.

Here is Tech Crunch's coverage of Africa in March

None of this is bad. But it results in two things:

  1. Africa’s technology growth story stays in our tech bubble. How engaging is African tech if all you hear about are Flutterwave’s troubles (and you dont even know what a Flutterwave is)?

  2. We miss the incredible stories of people and companies using tech to change Africa for the better. And if you’ve read Tech Safari, you would know we have an abundance of those stories.

So, I turned Prox Weekly to Tech Safari.

The idea was simple: start telling stories on African tech - but in a way that anyone can understand and engage with.

The stress test: can my 16 year old brother read and enjoy my articles?

If not, I would re-write them.

My brother’s Gen Z brain is wired in a way that demanded that my content was straight to the point and kind of funny while teaching him something.

He became the coach. And while I almost killed him a couple of times, it really helped the writing.

That’s how we started. Here’s how it’s going:

The Numbers

We started on 1,600 readers three months ago - which took me 7 months of writing to reach.

Today we are at ~6,900 subscribers, growing 40% month on month.

I haven’t spent a dollar on marketing.

Most readers found me on LinkedIn from our content, or have been referred by their friends (if this is you, thank you 🙏🏾).

I think we can keep the 40% month on month growth up, and I’m shooting for the 5-figure club (10,000) by mid-May.

The Writing

For the first two months I wrote original stories twice a week.

It was a tough cadence and important to building the habit. But it sucked the joy out of writing

After burning out a few times I changed it to once a week which drastically helped content quality.

You know the writing is getting better when you cringe at what you wrote last month 😅

One thing I realised - we only have a handful of loud voices on African Tech. Many of them aren’t coming from the continent, and even less of them are women’s voices.

I’m always on the lookout for great writing talent from the continent who I can share my platform with and support on their writing journey.

If you’re a writer, please reach out. And if you're a reader, look out - I already have some amazing guest writers on the way 👀

The Community

Tech Safari isn’t just a newsletter, it’s community. Yes I know that's so cliche - but it’s true!

I wrote an edition on whether Buy Now Pay Later worked in Africa - and got 134 perspectives from leading investors, experts and BNPL founders.

Whenever I write an edition my inbox is always flooded with readers adding their opinions to the ideas put out there.

I also launched a private community called the Safari Club which has ~50 experts, founders and investors on African tech.

It’s like a brains-trust for news and perspectives on the continent.

And some very cool things have happened at The Safari Club - like free conference passes being handed out and in-person catch ups being organised between members.

You can join our community by sharing the referral link below (your code is at the bottom of the edition).

Partnerships

We have partnered with a few incredible companies who have grown by working with Tech Safari.

Tech Safari monetises by running online events and placing ads on the newsletter.

While the ‘easy’ (and probably more lucrative) option is to partner with a bigger US tech company with established newsletter programs, I’ve focused on startups on the continent.

And we have worked with some of the best like: Raise, Fleri, Vesti, Flance, Legalese, Yazi, Awabah and EntryLevel.

We’re fortunate to be booked out for April already but if you want to grow with us then shoot me a message - I’d love to work with you!

Stories

Easily is the best part.

One of my concerns going all in on Tech Safari was: will anyone even care about stories on Tech in Africa?

The numbers don’t lie. The stories I have told from Tech Safari have been seen by over 4 million people on LinkedIn and have been shared over 1,500 times.

I repeat: African Tech stories are making people turn their heads and pay attention to our ecosystem.

No crypto or GPT-4 band-wagoning. No mention of Flutterwave. Just straight stories.

And it helps the ecosystem.

Dacod and Tayo building Foondamate, managed to get domain specific AI investors reaching out to them, filled roles they had been trying to fill for months and got more product traction after this post.

Storytelling is making people with limited exposure to Africa have their minds blown and tune in. African founders are getting their stories out there and getting value.

It's exactly why Tech Safari exists 💌

The Challenges

But while it seems easy sailing, there have been challenges

First and foremost is the context switching. Going from writing to growth to sales to thinking about investments (for the fund) is brutal.

We’re still learning here but it’s getting easier with systems, routines and bringing on a team.

Second is the inbound. I (try to) respond to every email and message. It’s exhausting and I feel like I’m behind all the time, but it’s also the best part of writing Tech Safari. So keep them coming!

And third is balancing my fund - Proximity Ventures. While Tech Safari really improves and grows the fund, balancing both has been a challenge as we're in the early days.

If anyone here is wondering whether to get into Venture Capital, be ready for the tedious admin work.

PS - I’m always on the look out for VC talent to help support the fund. If you have skills and/or experience and want to help, give me a wave.

PPS- I invest $15k into founders across Africa at the earliest stages. If this is you or you know anyone raising then get in touch - we can provide a heap of value.

From doggy paddling to swimming

I am so grateful for everyone who has been on the journey with us - reading along and sharing with friends.

I'm also very grateful for everyone who has helped with advice, time and thoughts and ideas on Tech Safari.

I'm proud of what we have achieved so far. Last quarter feels like we've been doggy paddling around and figured out how to swim.

This quarter, it's time to grow! Expect a few announcements soon.

I’m excited to see where we land (literally and figuratively) in the next three months.

And the last thing - I get super excited every time I read an email from readers.

If you've enjoyed Tech Safari so far, I'd love to hear from you.

What has your favourite edition been? What are you up to? Why the interested in Tech in Africa? And why do you read along?

That's a wrap! Now for some cake 🍰

With gratitude! 🙏🏾

Caleb

Tech Roundup

  • DFS Lab, an early-stage investor, has launched DFS Lab Stellar Africa Fund I, which will back high-potential startups that work to transform the digital payments landscape in Africa.

  • The Ivorian government unveiled its Startup Act, a framework designed to support the country’s most talented entrepreneurs. Construction projects are also being developed to create infrastructure to support startups, such as technology parks and startup campuses. The Act is still awaiting parliamentary approval.

  • Kalon Venture Partners, a South African VC firm that invests in post-revenue disruptive technologies, is to raise a $50 million fund. The firm has already backed 11 South African startups, but this funding will allow Kalon Ventures to invest outside of South Africa for the first time.

  • Goodwell Investments and Oxfam Novib, have set up a $21.7 million fund, Pepea, to provide mezzanine finance to early-stage revenue-generating startups in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia. The fund will invest in tech-enabled businesses in sustainable agriculture, energy, clean mobility and others.

Deal Roundup

  • Payday, a leading pan-African neobank, secured a $3m seed round to power expansion into Europe and North America. The round was led by Moniepoint with participation from HoaQ, DFS Lab’s Stellar Africa Fund and angel investors.

  • Fez Delivery, a Nigerian logistics and delivery company, has raised a $1m seed funding round, led by Ventures Platform with participation from Voltron Capital, Acacia Ventures and others.

  • HouseAfrica, a prop-tech startup providing real estate digitalisation and transparency tools to property developers, has raised $400,000 in funding. Backers include Future Africa, SSEAN, ARM Labs and others. HouseAfrica’s flagship product, enables firms to become digital realtors through its proprietary blockchain technology.

Events and Opportunities

  • The Green Changemakers Challenge, run by Ashoka and HSBC, invites African startups with solutions that contribute to building a sustainable and equitable world. The challenge will award up to 12 winners with up to $25,000 in grant funding and the chance to learn with HSBC and Ashoka. Apply here by April 26.

  • Are you running a start up that has a social positive impact on Africa and the Middle East? Applications for the 13th Orange Social Venture prize are now open, with the top prize being $27000. Must be from one of 17 select countries. Deadline on May 21.

And that's a wrap! We will be back with a feature story next week.

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Catch you soon!

👋🏾 Caleb