#Africa African startups invited to apply for Bulgaria-based blockchain accelerator

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African startups have been invited to apply for the Bulgaria-based blockchain accelerator run by æternity Ventures, which offers funding of up to US$100,000 in AE tokens.

æternity Ventures, the investment arm of decentralised smart contracts platform æternity, runs the Starfleet Accelerator programme each year, with Kenyan startups UTU Technologies and RideSafe among those to secure funding from last year’s edition.

The Starfleet Accelerator supports seed-stage projects utilising blockchain technology, with participating startups given access to mentorship and support from leading blockchain and business experts. As part of the program, æternity Ventures will provide selected teams with funding of up to US$100,000 in AE tokens or services.

Applications are open until February 17 for the programme, which commences on March 11 in Sofia. Selected startups will undergo mentoring in areas such as business models, token economics, æternity apps architecture, blockchain infrastructure and tooling, pitching to investors, and media relations from recognised experts.

The most promising startups will be invited to proceed to the Acceleration Stage, a four-week programme of mentorship and further rigorous training. At the culmination of the programme, on Starfleet Demo Day, selected teams will have the opportunity to present their projects to an audience of investors, thought leaders, media, and the global community of æternity, and compete for the funding and the opportunity to build their products on the æternity blockchain.

“Last year, we were delighted to select nine cutting-edge projects for investment, who we believe have the potential to revolutionise a variety of sectors. As these projects continue to flourish this year, Starfleet Accelerator welcomes a new wave of participants from all over the world that share our vision for a future built on powerful, user-friendly decentralised applications,” said Nikola Stojanow, æternity Ventures’ chief executive officer (CEO).

“The blockchain sector is still in its infancy and ripe for development but, without the right support, brilliant ideas may never come to life. By opening the application process for Starfleet Accelerator 2019, we’re calling on the next-generation of blockchain innovators to step forward.”

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#Africa How Nigeria’s Natterbase connects African software developers with global clients

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Nigerian startup Natterbase is connecting African software developers with clients from all over the world, and helping those clients track the progress made on their outsourced tasks.

Founded in 2017 by Prince Isaac, Natterbase, like illustrious competitor Andela, describes itself as a talent accelerator, connecting companies with software developers.

“We do this using a proprietary product management tool that helps us track the speed, accuracy, working hours and work rate of a software developer, giving companies full visibility into our developer’s activities,” Isaac told Disrupt Africa.

“In order to ensure quality, our platform integrates into our software developers working environments to track their activities, and we use the data to provide detailed analysis for our clients managing these developers.”

Natterbase was formed in response to what Isaac considered a “stretching gap” between talented developers and companies looking for them. The startup solves this problem by creating a global, value-based marketplace of software developers.

“The scarcity of software developer is not because software developers are not available, it is because there is a geographic limitation that separates talents from remote areas with little or no tech hubs from companies in tech hubs,” said Isaac.

This is already a busy space, Andela aside, but Natterbase is competing strongly. It has secured angel funding, worked with over 50 companies, and already generated revenues of over US$130,000 by taking a percentage of payments secured by developers through its platform. It has big plans for the next year.

“We are currently operating in the African tech ecosystem, but we intend on expanding in 2019. We currently have some clients from London and Berlin,” Isaac said.

The major challenge the startup has faced so far, he said was creating world-class software developers.

“Developers can be good, but there are certain standards required to work with top tech companies,” he said.

“What we have done is to work with online training platforms such as Treehouse and Udacity in training our developers and making them well equipped to work with companies from anywhere and of various sizes.”

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#Africa Kenyan co-working space Nairobi Garage opens 3rd premises in Karen

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Co-working space Nairobi Garage has launched its new premises in Karen, meaning it now has three hubs creating an interlinking network spanning the whole of Nairobi.

Nairobi Garage has been busy over the last few years, opening a new facility in Westlands, relocated its original Ngong Road space, and rolling out business services for startups

With two spaces covering 50,000 square feet in the Kenyan capital, it already described itself as the largest co-working space provider in Africa, and it has now added another 14,000 square feet to that with the launch of Nairobi Garage // Karen.

The new space has been bespoke-designed to maximise functionality for resident companies. Featuring 18 private offices and 150 desks, it includes high-speed internet, and is set in the Watermark Business Park, home to global companies such as Unilever and GE.

It completes a triangular network spanning Nairobi, with members able to move freely between the three hubs as their business schedules require.

“We’re pleased to open the doors of Nairobi Garage // Karen to the city’s business community.  Our three locations now mean that members can work from any side of town, and quickly set up operations and a presence all across the city. Over and above the handpicked locations, Nairobi Garage has been deliberate about ensuring every square inch of our space is optimised for productivity giving members a world-class creative home to scale and innovate,” said Hannah Clifford, director of Nairobi Garage.

Nairobi Garage // Karen has a number of luxury features, including four state-of-the-art meeting rooms, AC throughout the space, sound-proofed boardrooms and call booths, male and female showering facilities, and an on-site bistro, “Brioche”.

Members have the ability to drop in and work from any premises at no extra cost, and can use the meeting rooms and facilities in any location.

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#Africa 8 Kenyan innovations secure iHub incubation in Marsabit, Garissa

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Eight innovative solutions in the Kenyan counties of Marsabit and Garissa have been selected to undergo incubation to develop their businesses at local hubs run by the iHub.

Disrupt Africa reported in February of last year the Nairobi iHub had partnered Adeso and Mastercard Labs to set up innovation labs in Marsabit and Garissa, known as the Maarifa Kona Innovation Labs.

Funded through UKAid and managed collaboratively by the Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities (CDAC) and Start Network, the programme has been accepting applications for support from local businesses.

After selecting 40, 20 from each Lab, to take part in a selection process, 22 were selected to take part in a programme that featured training, mentoring, coaching and support in three phases – Idea Generation and Selection, Research and Concepts, and Development.

The fourth stage is the six-month incubation programme, with the 22 finalists taking part in a county demo day to secure places. Entrepreneurs pitched to a jury and an audience of stakeholders, with four innovations from each lab selected to proceed to the next stage.

The four from Garissa are milk safety solution Frontier Camel Milk Enterprise, flour manufacturing company Mathenge Maisha, greenhouse tech solution Smart GreenHouse, and the Maisha Dada Women Empowerment Centre.

Representing Marsabit are the Mt. Marsabit Women Dairy Group, climate advisory service Climate Information Pastoral Unit, warehouse rental solution When The Sun Shines, and feeds manufacturer Drought Cure.

In the incubation phase, the eight innovations will refine their business and financial models, get their legal structures in place, and receive training in things like investment readiness, theory of change, ethics, leadership, sales and marketing.

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#Africa New $37.4m fund for South African SMEs announced

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South African firms Newtown Partners and LionPride Investment Holdings have announced plans to raise ZAR500 million (US$37.4 million) for a co-managed Section 12J technology investment fund.

Newtown Partners, founded by Vinny Lingham and Llew Claasen, and Lion Pride Investment Holdings said the LionPride Agility fund will focus on impact investing and emerging technologies.

This structure enables investors to invest capital into one of two capital pools co-managed by LionPride and Newtown Partners, as well as gain balanced exposure to early-stage South African technology businesses or concentrated exposure into a selected theme according to their desired risk allocation.

A major benefit of a section 12J investment fund is that investors can deduct 100 per cent of their investment from their taxable incomes in the tax year in which the investments are made.

“We believe that we’re taking a bold approach that will catapult economic transformation in South Africa. The tax deductible ‘discount’ that a section 12J Fund provides is a great incentive for investors to invest in projects of a developmental nature that can positively impact employment in South Africa,” said Deven Govender, LionPride’s chief executive officer (CEO).

SMEs that fall within fintech, agri-tech, on-demand services, business process outsourcing, renewables, healthcare, 4IR and ed-Ttch will be the focus of the LionPride Agility VCC Fund. Lingham said it had enormous potential to build globally successful technology businesses from South Africa.  

“I’m looking forward to giving many more South Africans the opportunity to really make a dent in the global technology markets through this Fund. We’re also excited about the opportunity to positively impact economic empowerment in South Africa and the LionPride Agility fund is an important tool to achieve that,” said Lingham.

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#Africa SA’s Kingson Capital launches high-growth tech SME fund

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South African Section 12J venture capital company Kingson Capital has launched its second fund, which will invest in high-growth tech and black-owned small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

Founded in 2015, Kingson Capital supports SMEs in a bid to enable them to accelerate their growth potential. As a Section 12 J firm, all investments with Kingson are fully tax deductible in the tax year that they are made.  

The company invests in entrepreneurs with unique and scalable business concepts, whose products change the current landscape and existing business models. Its new fund pairs investment with business support through its investment structure, allowing investors to score B-BBEE points under both Enterprise and Supplier Development scorecards, whilst acting as a minority shareholder in the black-owned business in which it has invested.

Kingson believes pairing investment with business support facilitates meaningful economic transformation, driving stable and sustainable black-owned business.

“Although we see a substantial rise in South African startups, it is unfortunate that when it comes to them sustaining that startup momentum, many fall by the wayside due to lack of support,” said says Gavin Reardon, founder of Kingson.

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#Africa SA’s Open Kasi launches business management platform

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South African startup Open Kasi has launched its platform that allows small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) to manage their financial activities in an affordable and easy manner via big data, automation and machine learning.

Formed in October of last year, Open Kasi allows businesses to keep records of their financial transactions for accountability purposes, allowing them to provide immediate financial statements that can be exported from the platform and used for compliance.

“We looked at the SMME ecosystem and discovered that many businesses fail to start or scale because they do not have tools that make it easy,” said co-founder Khabubu Phathutshedzo.

Open Kasi is touting itself as that platform, with the self-funded startup pleased with initial uptake.

“We have attracted quite a number of clients, and we sometimes struggle to meet the demand. But like every journey we expect ups and downs, and hope to learn from every little experience that we come across,” Phathutshedzo said.

Currently operating only in South Africa, Open Kasi plans to expand to at least two other Southern African countries in the next two years, and hopes to have a continental footprint in the next five years. It makes money from subscriptions.

“We treat features like LEGO blocks so that our clients and users can customise and subscribe to features they want, and pay for what they use,” said Phathutshedzo.

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#Africa Kenyan agri-tech startup FarmDrive secures latest funding round

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Kenyan agri-tech startup FarmDrive has accessed further financing as it expands operations to provide access to credit for three million smallholder farmers.

Founded by Peris Bosire and Rita Kimani, FarmDrive delivers productive digital loans and lay away savings products to smallholder farmers in Kenya, helping them grow their incomes and resilience.

Using a combination of agriculturally relevant data, Know Your Customer (KYC) data, and advanced behavioral analytics, the startup has developed a proprietary lending engine to extend loans to these farmers.

Having previously raised funding from the likes of Safaricom and EWB Canada, FarmDrive has now secured further investment. EWB Canada is again involved in the round, which also includes AK Impact Investors, 1 to 4 Foundation, ADAP Seed Fund 2 and The Lakes Charitable Foundation.

The follow-on investment will allow FarmDrive to scale to US$13 million of loan originations in 2019 with minimal losses and exceptional returns using RiPe, a customisable lending engine that will allow lenders to plug in and access low-cost loan origination channels such as USSD, credit scoring, identity verification, and a portfolio management suite that includes recovery and collections, payments, customer support and advanced real time data analytics.

“We are delighted for this investment from strategic investors to enable us to build financial identities for more smallholder businesses and scale our low cost distribution model. We are going where banks haven’t reached and are creating a trust ecosystem in the most unstructured sector in sub Saharan Africa – Agriculture,” said Bosire.

Elena Haba, acting director of investments at EWB Canada said FarmDrive has the potential to shift market attention and fill the credit gap between creditors and underserved small business owners like smallholder farmers.

“We believe that addressing this credit accessibility issue is a seminal first step towards building more inclusive and sustainable economies,” she said.

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#Africa Partech Africa Fund achieves $143.5m final close

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The Partech Africa Fund has achieved a final closing at EUR125 million (US$143.5 million), more than double the size of its first closing a year ago.

The fund is run by Partech Ventures, which was founded in 1982 in Silicon Valley and now has a team spread across offices in Paris, Berlin, San Francisco and Dakar.

It launched in January of last year, claiming it was the first technology fund of its size to be exclusively dedicated to the fast-growing tech ecosystem in Africa, with an initial close of EUR57 million (US$70 million).

With investments already made in the likes of South Africa’s Yoco and Nigeria’s TradeDepot, Partech has now announced a final close at EUR125 million (US$143.5 million) after gaining support from more than 40 different investors across the spectrum and from all over the world.

These include the European Investment Bank (EIB), IFC, and Averroès Finance III, a fund of funds managed by Bpifrance and co-sponsored with Proparco). Other investors include KfW, the German Development Bank, FMO, the Dutch Development Bank and the African Development Bank Group.

On the corporate side, Partech Africa was backed from the start by major global mobile operator Orange and leading emerging market actors such as Edenred and JCDecaux Holding. These investors have been joined by the likes of Bertelsmann, L’Oréal,  Axian Group and TEXAF.

“We are really proud to see major global investors rally around our vision and ambition to support extraordinary entrepreneurs building digital champions for Africa and emerging markets” said Cyril Collon, general partner at Partech. “Our first investments in Yoco and TradeDepot provide strong showcases of how these champions can transform whole sectors such as retail and payments in this region.”

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#Africa SA’s SkillUp Tutors launches online teaching product

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South African ed-tech startup SkillUp Tutors has continued to expand its product offering with the launch of Lessonspace, a collaborative whiteboard for teaching online.

The Cape Town-based SkillUp offers parents and students across South Africa access to thousands of highly skilled and vetted tutors based on grades, subject, location, and budget.

The startup – which in secured a Series A funding round from Knife Capital in April of last year – launched its own coding course in August, and has now followed that up with the launch of Lessonspace. Though it rolled out a similar product for its existing clients last year, this latest release is its international growth venture.

“We’ve been working non-stop trying to find a way to have a large-scale impact in the ed-tech industry. While SkillUp Tutors continues to grow from strength to strength, we knew we needed to focus on Software-as-a-Service if we wanted to scale internationally,” said chief executive officer (CEO) Matthew Henshall.

The Lessonspace is software that makes it easy to teach students one-on-one online.

“At SkillUp Tutors we found that more and more of our students and tutors were asking to have online lessons, we tried some third-party software that just didn’t quite cut it for our clients, so we decided to build our own,” said Henshall.

“We created Lessonspace to meet the needs of tutors and teachers around the world. We’re really focusing on producing the gold standard here, we want to show that South African engineers can compete, and have an impact, on a global scale.”

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