Investor Updates: 18 October 2022

Airtel expends $29m on spectrum for 5G rollout in Zambia

Highlights

• Airtel Zambia has purchased 60MHz of additional spectrum spread across the 800MHz and 2600MHz bands from the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA), for a gross consideration of $29 million.
• The additional spectrum will support the expansion of the telco’s capability in providing mobile data and fixed wireless home broadband services and help accelerate the 5G rollout.
• In August, ZICTA said it had revised the 5G Spectrum Roadmap for the release of spectrum in the 700MHz and 2600MHz bands, due to high demand, reflecting the country might soon see its first commercial 5G rollout. 

Source: TechCabal

Our Takeaway

The rollout of the 5G network is accelerating in Africa. Recently, Nigeria joined South Africa and Kenya as the three African nations to have launched commercial 5G services. South Africa received the network in 2019 through provider Rain, while Kenya saw Safaricom launch its first 5G services in 2021. In the rest of the continent, Ghana and Egypt are hot on the heels of these three nations, expecting a rollout sooner rather than later. For the African tech industry, 5G could potentially unlock a broad range of opportunities, including optimizing service delivery, decision-making, and end-user experience.

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Egyptian e-commerce Kenzz closes $3.5m seed round

Highlights

• Kenzz, an e-commerce platform bringing shopping to the mass market in Egypt and MENA, is announcing that it has raised $3.5 million in seed funding. 
• U.S.-based and MENA-focused venture capital firm Outliers Ventures led the round. Other participating investors include HOF Capital, Foundation Ventures, and Samurai Incubate.
• The company, founded this February by Ahmed Atef, Mahmoud Al Silk, and Moataz Sami, said it would use the seed round to grow its product categories, widen the product categories on its platform, hire talent and invest in tech as it launches its app.

Source: TechCrunch

Our Takeaway

E-commerce in Egypt is as massive as fintech in the rest of Africa. Available data suggest that up to 20% of tech startups in the country are in the e-commerce and retail sectors, and about 40% of Egyptians purchase consumer goods online weekly. But most of these shoppers patronize big e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Jumia, and Noon, which primarily focus on Egypt’s largest cities Cairo, Alexandria, and Giza. It’s the neglected mass market in untapped cities Kenzz was launched to address and the optics are favorable, given a projected boom in e-commerce adoption in the region. 

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Lagos state government to launch a venture capital fund

Highlights

• The government of Lagos State, where Nigeria’s commercial and startup capital city is located, is planning to launch its own venture capital fund that would “write bigger equity cheques for Nigerian startups than most privately-owned VC.”
• TechCabal reported this, citing the special advisor to the state governor on innovation and technology, Olatunbosun Alake, who was speaking on the sideline of the GITEX event in Dubai.
• Alake revealed the cross-sectoral fund would be launched “a few weeks from now” and the state is already in conversations with some local and foreign investors that would join as limited partners (LP).

Source: TechCabal

Our Takeaway

Lagos is Nigeria’s, and very much, Africa’s startup capital. The state hosts most of the country’s startups; attracts the majority of venture capital investment, and is home to the bulk of Africa’s seven unicorns. The intent to launch a state-backed VC fund thus represents an attempt by the government to both join and support the state’s tech startup boom, especially at a challenging time for global VC funding. But it’s not unusual, the governments of Dubai and Senegal for example have recently set up respective funds to catalyze entrepreneurship in their jurisdictions through equity and debt funding.