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It's a country of opportunity, and there's a thriving startup industry in numerous countries vying for a piece of the pie.
FREMONT, CA: Africa is a fascinating continent, with over 1.2 billion people distributed across 54 countries speaking 1,500 to 2,000 different languages. Visiting a Moroccan souq, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, swimming with great white sharks, or resting next to an active volcano are all excellent adventures, but doing business there maybe even better.
It's a country of opportunity, and there's a thriving startup industry in numerous countries vying for a piece of the pie.
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Accurate statistics on the budding startup ecosystem sweeping Africa can be brutal to come by. But, even if the numbers differ, the pattern appears to be the same. There seems to be a surge of venture capital (VC) funding going into entrepreneurs attempting to solve some of Africa's most pressing problems.
VC funding in Africa has increased from 277 million dollars in 2015 to 560 million dollars in 2017, according to Partech Ventures. On the other hand, disruptive Africa claims that the total for 2017 was just 195 million dollars, but that this was a 51 percent growth over 2016 and the most successful year for tech entrepreneurs in Africa.
In 2017, there were 128 rounds of fundraising. The majority of funding originated from the United States or Europe, but local venture firms have also emerged. According to TechCrunch, 43 percent of the funds investing in Africa are based on the continent and managed there. Nigerian funds accounted for a 41percent of these locally-based and ran funds.
A rising number of startup competitions, challenges, and incubators are available to assist these businesses in raising visibility and, ultimately, financing. TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield, Johnson & Johnson's Africa Innovation Challenge, World Health Organization's Africa Innovation Challenge, USAID's Development Innovation Ventures, and Startupbootcamp AfriTech are just a few of the well-known programs.
Fintech was one of the first startup trends to develop in several African countries, as entrepreneurs attempted to use the potential of mobile phones to provide financial services to a hitherto unbanked populace. As a result, mobile money has aided in the expansion of financial inclusion.
In Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, more than 20percent of adults utilize solely mobile money accounts. Thus, there is still a huge chance to reach out to the significant percentage of the population in the agriculture sector who are still virtually untapped by credit and mobile-based financial services.
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