Tech accelerator 88mph has announced that it will invest US1.5 million in a selection of start-ups in Nigeria and will open an accelerator in Lagos. Interestingly they are also looking at raising what they call “baby series A funding” to help more of their start-ups to get out of the starting blocks. I spoke this week to Dan Bowyer, Programme Director at 88mph in Cape Town.
88mph has created two accelerators in Africa: one in Nairobi and the other in Cape Town. The idea was to carefully select 10 new start-ups and provide them with enough expertise and support to get them ready for series A funding. The idea was to give each start-up US$100,000, making a round sum of US$1 million. In fact Nairobi had only 8 start-ups.
But a number of factors make this new move into Nigeria different. The country is huge and already has a relatively large start-up culture that has attracted external investment. Also the country has investors that are interested and look willing to get involved with this 88mph initiative. So it’s raising US$1.5 million and is both looking at a start-up short list and trying to nail down physical premises in Nigeria.
Half of the funding has been raised internationally and half locally and it’s all been privately sourced:”It’s been an easy fund to start, easier than the other two. With the accelerators in Nairobi and Cape Town and we’ve had a bit of traction with some of our start-ups. That’s helped our profile and demonstrated that there’s a hunger and passion for technology on the continent.”
Bowyer says that there are many interesting start-ups on the short-list but the following have already hooked his attention: a new sort of messaging client, a sort of pictorial chat room; a tech-agnostic Wi-Fi platform; a micro-lending platform; “a lovely South African focused tourism app that we’d like to see rolled out elsewhere”; “a very cute and simple and smart event app; and there are several nice plays converting text to audio and transmitting via cellphones to support teachers.”
“Nigeria has a lot more people than Kenya and South Africa and they are more commercially focused. There are some interesting micro-lending and payment platforms. Currently there’s no trust in these kind of payment platforms. Everything is cash on delivery. There’s applications around traffic and congestion so things that tackle people and product movement.”
The “baby series A funding” is to be able to take the start-ups beyond the initial seed funding:”It makes both financial and commercial sense to stay involved longer.”
To hear Nikolai Barnwell who runs 88mph’s Nairobi accelerator talking, click on the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhFBzDkH8og
One of 88mph’s Cape Town start-ups on the link below:
Simbarashe Mabashe on South African online film platform Wabona.com and its expansion plans
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdUdXM9Hsgs
One of 88mph’s Nairobi start-ups on the link below:
Martin Nielsen on Mdundo, a mobile music platform for Kenya and East Africa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM_uUb6nDII
East Africa’s GamersNights installs donated server to spread multi-player gaming to more African countries
Uganda’s multi-player computer gaming group GamersNights has just installed a US$20,000 server donated by Liquid Telecom. It has also donated an uncapped link to its international backbone network and will announce GamersNights server IP address range at every IXP Liquid Telecom reaches in Africa.
Liquid Africa has a presence in many African countries including Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. GamersNights Kyle Spencer told us:” They donated all of this on the condition that we migrate our gaming servers to their network and do a white-paper study on the impact of multi-player gaming on networks (e.g. regional routing). If this goes well, we plan to install a second $20,000 server in Zambia in order to better serve the South African region
In Brief
- Nairobi’s Njeri Rionge is seeking crowdsourced funding for Business Incubation East Africa'. Here is the link with all the details... http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/business-incubation-east-africa/a1c1/5996133
- ICTs can incrementally improve health service outcomes in developing countries. IICD's latest publication, 'ICT for health: five years of learning' showcases the role of ICTs in increasing efficiency and effectiveness in healthcare delivery, strengthening health systems, improving access to health services and increasing health awareness.
http://www.iicd.org/about/publications/ict-for-health-five-years-of-learning/
Solving the continent’s energy shortfall – Round-up
- Emerging markets investment firm Actis announced on 9 December that it had closed its third energy fund, Actis Energy 3. The fund was heavily oversubscribed, raising a total of $1.15bn from an investor base including public pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and high-net-worth families, exceeding its original target of $750m by 50%. Looking to spread the fund across emerging markets, Actis has committed $560m to four deals in South America and Africa. This includes a 56% share in Cameroonian power utility Société Nationale d’Electricité from AES for $220m, and an agreement to acquire Morocco’s water, waste water and electricity services from Veolia Environment.
- EnergyNet’s Powering Africa: Tanzania executive meeting, to be held from 29th-31st January in Dar Es Salaam, will explore the importance of international partnerships in more detail, bringing together leading international players such as Symbion Power, Schneider Electric, Aldwych International as well as local stakeholders including the Ministry for Mines and Energy, TANESCO and EWURA, to create a credible platform to discuss the opportunities for investors in the country’s power sector.
- The African Development Bank (http://www.afdb.org) as host of the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) Africa Hub organized a two-day workshop in Tunis with representatives of partner institutions. Since its launch, more than 80 Governments from around the world have formally engaged with the initiative, with 42 African countries “opted-in”.
This is the week that Digital Content Africa goes from being a pilot e-letter to becoming a regular publication. On a fortnightly basis, it will cover online film, music, publishing and services and applications. We have already produced 5 pilot issues and these can be viewed on this link: http://www.smartmonkeytv.com/channel/newsletters
Essential reading for those involved in producing content to anyone just interested in what African and relevant international content they can now get online.
If you would like to subscribe, just send an email to info@smartmonkeytv.com with Digital Content Africa in the title line.
Yours sincerely
Russell Southwood
Smart Monkey TV
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PS For anyone interested in the future of publishing on the continent, you should take a look at Tarryn Anne Anderson of Paperight’s interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M3wNTEuyFM
https://theblacklist.net/
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