This Week in African Tech 🌍

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Hey hey! Happy Monday.

Before we kick off the week with what’s happening in African Tech, we have an exciting event and resource from our buddies at Raise.

I've teamed up with Raise to give you the Valuations 101 Guide: a 15-page guide to valuing your startup.

Valuations are one of the trickiest concepts founders (and investors) have to navigate. They often don’t agree on what a company is worth.

Undervaluing a startup can mean that founders lose hard-earned equity in their company.

Overvaluing a startup means that founders need to live with unrealistic valuations.

And across Africa, we play by a different set of market realities and multiples to Silicon Valley.

So, how do you value your startup?

The Valuations 101 Guide will show you how to value your company. It comes with

1️⃣ Valuations 101: an overview of how startups are valued.
➕ Five different methodologies and guides to valuing your startup
👩🏾‍💻 Expert advice from the Raise's team

And, to top it off, we’re hosting an event - Valuations 101 - on Wednesday with Marvin Coleby (CEO) and Lisa Illingworth (Commercial Director) of Raise, to show us the methods they use to value companies.

Alright, let’s dive into the edition!

Tech Roundup

• Patricia, the retail trading app, urges customers to convert their balance into Patricia shares after customers have been unable to withdraw funds for six months. This comes after the company fell victim to a hack in 2022, losing over $2 million USD.

• Crypto trading app VIBRA has shut down its Nigerian operation. VIBRA was built by the African Blockchain Lab, a Nigeria-based Web 3 platform that raised $6 million in funding in 2021.

• E-commerce giant Amazon is finally coming to South Africa. They plan to launch their South African operations in 2024, making it their second African market after Egypt.

• Kippa, a finance management startup is saying goodbye to its agency banking service, Kippa Pay, resulting in the layoff of 40 employees. This decision comes after Kippa raised $8.4 million in funding in September 2022.

• Cape Town's digital identity startup, iiDENTIFii, is teaming up with Zanaco, a Zambian bank, to introduce its identity solution to Zambian consumers. The company raised $15 million last year to expand across Africa.

Deal Roundup

• Cue, a South African startup and a leader in AI-driven customer service solutions has raised $500,000 USD in funding to enhance its mission of improving customer service.

• Sony Group launches Sony Venture Corporation - a global fund with $10 million earmarked for Africa’s creator economy and entertainment-focused companies.

• Egyptian ed-tech startup, Crafty Workshop that features online craft-focused workshops, has secured a $400,000 seed funding round led by Ed Ventures to power its growth.

• LeapFrog Investments is to close its Emerging Consumer Fund IV: a new $1 billion impact fund, that will invest in scaling financial services and healthcare businesses across Africa and Asia.

• Outsized, a platform for top-tier independent talent, is excited to announce the close of its Series A funding round, led by South African venture capital firm Knife Capital.

Events + Opportunities

• CatalyzU, a company building the next generation of African Startup and VC Talent, has launched three fresh fellowships in Venture Capital and Business Development after the success of their first cohort. They kick off in November. Check out the courses and apply here before 29th Oct.

• Shortlist, the top African advisory firm linking talent with impact careers, launches the Africa Climate Careers Network (ACCN). This portal connects young professionals to 1,000+ climate-focused jobs across Africa from 100+ companies on the continent. Check out the platform here.

• The GITEX GLOBAL Largest Tech and startup show this week in Dubai saw Gifty Nigeria a digital Shop Maker, become the Africa Fast Award Winner.

  Shout out to Akpan Victor - we’ve been lucky to watch Akpan’s progress this year in The Safari Club and are excited to celebrate him today 👏🏾 .

• Want to catch up with African tech? DevFest Lagos is happening in Lagos Nigeria, on November 24-25th. The annual event brings together developers, technology enthusiasts, and industry experts from Lagos and beyond. RSVP here.

• Are you an investor passionate about Africa’s startups? Join the Africa Early Stage Investor Summit 2023 that is happening in Cape Town South Africa on the 30th of November. RSVP here.

And that's a wrap for this week!

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