{"id":47994,"date":"2019-11-30T00:05:18","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T23:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/?p=47994"},"modified":"2019-11-30T00:05:29","modified_gmt":"2019-11-29T23:05:29","slug":"telecel-mest-and-the-ifc-look-to-give-african-startups-a-leg-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/2019\/11\/telecel-mest-and-the-ifc-look-to-give-african-startups-a-leg-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Telecel, MEST, and the IFC look to give African startups a leg up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There\u2019s no doubt that Africa\u2019s startup sector has been booming. Last year saw a four-fold increase<\/a> in funding raised for African startups, with the total number of deals doubling. Startups across the continent raised over $725 million, soaring nearly 40 percent<\/a> from $528 million the year before. There were also more large funding rounds over $5 million, with the top ten largest deals accounting for 61 percent of the total funding. Analysts suggest that these larger deals reflect growing investor confidence in Africa\u2019s startups.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet the continent\u2019s growing startup ecosystem is still underdeveloped, limited by available infrastructure. At the AfricaCom 2019 tech and telecom event, held in Capetown earlier this month, the demand for infrastructure to support this \u201cdigital transformation\u201d emerged as a major theme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview at the event<\/a>, Telecel CEO Mohamad Damush and Group Managing Partner Nicolas Bourg explained why telecoms like their company should play a role in building this infrastructure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Damush says that \u201cstartups will be the main customer of telecom operators in the future\u201d and operators \u201cneed to be driven by the requirements of startups, like digital platforms, data centers, better connectivity, and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Damush, telecom operators have a shared interest in providing a better environment for startups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe believe it\u2019s about creating an ecosystem in the digital environment between startups, between [Mobile Network Operators], and the investor needs to acknowledge that,\u201d Bourg says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Africa, while agritech and fintech have been at the heart of recent growth, Bourg points out: \u201cIt\u2019s just the beginning. We don\u2019t know where it\u2019s going to be, and the way to keep track of it is to be close to the startups.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Damush says Telecel is focusing on developing data centers, incubators and workspaces, and high-speed connectivity, to support startups. For now, they\u2019re focused on larger cities, but in the future, they\u2019re aiming to expand this infrastructure to rural areas\u2014particularly to support agritech startups.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to infrastructure, Telecel helped launch the African Startup Initiative Program (ASIP)<\/a> earlier this year, a project to help bring attention to Africa\u2019s fledgling startups. The group works to connect startups<\/a> with international VCs, funds, and angel investors. At AfricaCom, ASIP sponsored 16 startups<\/a> for its exhibition in a key location at the conference, as well as a panel discussion in which startups presented their ideas to global investors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019re not alone. In August, the pan-African incubator MEST announced 11 new investments in startups<\/a>, totaling $1.1 million, its largest investment to date. MEST provides training and seed funding for Africa\u2019s entrepreneurs. This year, recipients included startups in agritech, fintech, beauty, and entertainment, based in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa\u2014all hubs for Africa\u2019s startup scene. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Startups are drawing support from the public sector as well. Last year, the International Finance Corporation and Egypt\u2019s Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation launched the Next African Startups Program<\/a>, to connect promising startups to investors, financial institutions, and policymakers. They selected over 100 startups, including agritech platforms like Esoko<\/a> and Twiga Foods<\/a>, both of which offer digital marketplaces to connect farmers, vendors, and buyers more efficiently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa\u2019s burgeoning startup environment could bring the continent new opportunities and an improved quality of life. And it\u2019s showing exciting signs of growth\u2014but that growth is limited by how quickly infrastructure can keep up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Bourg said at AfricaCom, their effort to support startups \u201cfocuses on the needs of the population, and by discovering and selecting startups that make a difference, we are helping fill the gaps and unmet needs of the society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo by Nmandinika [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0)]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s no doubt that Africa\u2019s startup sector has been booming. Last year saw a four-fold increase in funding raised for African startups, with the total number of deals doubling. Startups across the continent raised over $725 million, soaring nearly 40 percent from $528 million the year before. There were also more large funding rounds over $5 million, with the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":47995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[305,502,7569],"class_list":["post-47994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-finance","tag-startup","tag-startups","tag-telecommunications"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}