This Week in African Tech 🌍

Welcome to Tech Safari!

Your tour guide on African Tech 🧭

Hello to the 249 new folks who have joined the Safari since the last edition.

If you haven't subscribed, join 16,515 smart folks curious about Tech in Africa.

Last week we hosted our very fun Tech Safari Nairobi Mixer. We had a blast, bringing 180+ people together across Nairobi.

I asked a few founders and CEOs what their biggest challenges were over the last week (and at the event). One thing that came up consistently was finding talent.

But, we have a lot of great recruiters in our community.

So we’re running an experiment.

If you’re a founder or someone looking for talent, we’re launching Tech Safari Talent - connecting you to the best tech recruiters and talent on the continent.

Let me know about you and what you’re looking for here and we’ll connect you to someone who can help 🙂

Alright, let’s dive into the edition!

Tech Roundup

• Airtel launches affordable 4G smartphones in Rwanda. They’re offering a $16.50 device with a 1GB data plan and unlimited daily calls for $0.80. The Connect Rwanda Initiative aims to bring high-speed internet to one million Rwandans by 2024.

• Ghana's Kofa, a pioneer in battery network solutions, teams up with China's TAILG Group to introduce the Jidi electric motorcycle. Together, they plan to roll out 200,000 electric vehicles and 5,000+ battery swap stations across Africa by 2030.

• South African mobility startup WhereIsMyTransport, founded by David De Fries in 2016, is closing down after raising more than $27 million since launch.

• Not news, but Declan Walsh (the Chief Africa correspondent for The Times), published a great article: The World is becoming more African.

  • Takeaway: Africa’s population is set to double to 2.5 billion in the next 25 years, which will reshape the African narrative and Africa’s global relationships.

Deal Roundup

• Kenyan social commerce startup Sukhiba Connect secures $1.5 million in funding for international expansion. The round was led by CRE Venture Capital and featured participation from Antler, EQ2 Ventures, Goodwater Capital, Chandaria Capital, and angel investors.

• Husk Power Systems, a US cleantech startup, secures $103 million in Series D funding ($43M in equity and $60M in debt) to build AI-enabled renewable energy in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

• OBM Education, an Egyptian ed-tech startup that helps pre-university students select courses and gives career advice, raises undisclosed funding to expand further into Saudi Arabia, after its prior six-figure round from EdVentures in August last year.

Events + Opportunities

• We had a blast with 180+ amazing founders, investors, and techies at our Tech Safari Mixer last Thursday. Thanks to our partners, Paystack, Infobip, Founders Factory Africa, and Latitude59 for making it happen!

  

  And we have a bunch more coming. Our next events will be:
  

• 🇷🇼 Kigali, Rwanda on Nov 8th

• 🇿🇦 Cape Town, South Africa on Nov 23rd

• 🇰🇪 Nairobi, Kenya with Latitude59 on Dec 6th
  

  
  Stay tuned for when registrations open, and email me back if you’d like to partner :)

• Startupbootcamp AfriTech picks ten African startups for its fourth ASIP Accelerator Programme in Dakar, Senegal. They'll get $18,000, three months of mentorship, and access to resources, with a demo day on February 8, 2024.

• Calling all agri-food startups in Africa! Apply for the THRIVE Global Accelerator program that prepares seed to Series A startups for growth and scalability. Apply here before November 10th.

• Startups in Kenya! Latitude59 and Startup Wise Guys are calling for early-stage startups for the Latitude Pitch Competition on December 6th. Finalists will have the chance to pitch live at Latitude59. See more below and apply here.

And that's a wrap for this week!

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