10,000 readers later, the US tour ends 🇺🇸

Welcome to Tech Safari!

Your tour guide on African Tech 🧭

Hello to the 40 new folks who have joined the Safari since the last edition.

If you haven't subscribed, join 10,468 smart folks curious about Tech in Africa.

Morning from New York!

It’s my last day in the country, and I’m reflecting on the month that’s been.

Last month I left Australia to ‘tour’ the US.

The idea: turn Tech Safari from a ‘newsletter’ into something real - a living, breathing community. I think we did that.

In San Francisco, I was taken aback by how many people were excited about Tech in Africa.

We had people in the room who had built billion-dollar companies in Africa, through to diaspora looking to get involved in the continent.

But once wasn’t enough. We did it again - in Washington DC. Then in New York, twice.

And, we partnered with some incredible companies to bring these to life - like Chipper Cash, Waya, Endeavor Global, Fleri, Africa Fintech Summit, Benue Capital, Termii, HoaQ Club, and AfricaTech NYC

The US Tour has been very special. If you came along, thanks. It was awesome to meet you. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you let me know here!

A big milestone. But in the action of in person events, we hit another big milestone: 10,000 readers.

10,000 is a nice, solid, arbitrary number. A good target to aim for.

But something happened last week that helped me put 10,000 in perspective.

Basketball Africa League held its finals last week in Rwanda. Al Ahly (Egypt) won against Senegal’s AS Douanes. They played in Rwanda’s BK Stadium.

The capacity? 10,000 people. When you look at it, that’s a lot of people..

(Now, not everyone reads every email. To torture the analogy a bit, half of the people in the stadium would be asleep, but still… damn.)

It’s pretty humbling. I’m grateful for you smart, curious people who want to learn and explore African Tech with me. Thank you!

And it’s just the start of our Safari. There are so many more stories to uncover.

So, where next from here?

More stories, memes, events, and insights on the world’s most exciting continent.

But here is where I’ll be:

• I’m heading to Cote D’Ivoire 🇨🇮 today where I’ll be speaking at the Africa CEO Forum, rubbing shoulders with some of my tech heroes, and hosting a panel with a few of them too.

  

  • If you’re in town, come along to our Afterparty with MStudio (no Africa CEO Forum ticket needed)

• Next, I’ll be in London 🇬🇧 in a week's time. If you’re in London, I’ve got some exciting stuff happening. RSVP here to stay in the loop about events.

• And finally, I’ll be taking my last flight on the tour to… Nairobi, Kenya 🇰🇪 where I will be settling down and calling home 🏡
  

Alright. That’s everything in the Tech Safari world.

On to the edition (it’s been a slow week) …

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1) Tech Roundup

• E3 Capital’s Low Carbon Economy Fund for Africa, has hit a first close of $48.1 million. The target fund size is $100 million, to invest in African climate tech startups.

• The African Startup Awards announced their winners this week - take a look here

2) Deal Roundup

• Play Sense, a South African independent pre-school with an online platform, secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Grindstone Ventures

• Tyme, a South African digital banking group, has raised $77.8m in pre-Series C funding, for expansion in South Africa and Southeast Asia

• PrestaFreedom, a Moroccan cleaning and home-services platform, has raised $1.1million from Azur Innovation Fund.

• Zofi Cash, a Ugandan salary advance platform, has raised $1million in pre-seed funding from Advancly

• Axis, an Egyptian fintech previously operating in stealth, has launched its digital payments platform for North African SMEs, following a $8.25m seed investment led by Tiger Global. Congrats to Nada, Axis Co-Founder and Tech Safari reader - and the team!

3) Events + Opportunities

• The ygap South Africa Accelerator, a 12 month program of customised support for startups, is now accepting applications. Apply here before June 30.

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

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

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Catch you soon!

👋🏾 Caleb