News (1494)
The online library YouScribe unveiled plans to strengthen its presence in Africa. Yesterday February 8, it announced it has secured €5 million from the French Banque des Territoires.
The startup will use the money to accelerate its expansion on the continent, especially in the ten countries (Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Morocco, Mali, South Africa, Cameroon, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, DRC, and Madagascar) where it already operates. YouScribe also eyes seven new markets on the continent and plans to expand its collection with new books, and diversify payment methods.
According to Maud Franca, deputy director of the Program of Investments for the Future at the Banque des Territoires, the investment aims to support the profound changes that the French-language book and publishing sectors are experiencing with digital technology.
"YouScribe is a response to the challenges that must be met collectively to provide alternative offers to the large online library platforms, often foreign, and to support publishers and authors in the French-speaking world, while also thinking of the younger generations, who are fans of social media and mobile applications,” she said.
The number of French speakers in the world is expected to increase from more than 300 million currently to 750 million in 2050, making French the second most spoken language after Mandarin, according to the Observatoire démographique et statistique de l'espace francophone (ODSEF). The latter estimates that more than 70% of French speakers will be Africans and Africa will have more than 90% of young French speakers aged 15-29. However, the lack of distribution infrastructure and the high cost of paper books could accentuate the low access to reading for Africans.
The relevance of the project earned YouScribe the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Award in 2013. In 2015, the initiative received the 2017 Digital Africa Challenge Award, organized by AFD, French Tech, and Bpifrance. In 2018, Orange Africa chose the startup to promote access to reading in countries where books are poorly distributed.
By the end of 2021, YouScribe was already claiming nearly 700,000 subscribers, up 100% from 2020. By 2025, the online library with more than one million books, audiobooks, and educational digital documents targets several million subscribers, 80% of which will be in Africa.
Over the past decade, ICT has been touted as an asset for the modernization of several business sectors. In the security sector, there are many applications for law enforcement.
On Thursday, February 3, the Gabonese technical and scientific police received, in Libreville, a batch of technical equipment from France. The equipment was handed over by the French ambassador to Gabon, Alexis Mikhaël Lamek, and received by the Minister of State, Minister of the Interior, Lambert-Noël Matha. It will help Gabonese authorities better fight crime, document fraud, or child and women abuse by contributing to the establishment of a digital criminal database.
Among the equipment received are scanners, an episcope for the coding and reading of analytical characters of fingerprints, various equipment for the biometric signaling of persons in custody. "This new equipment will especially help to boost the functioning of the Directorate of Technical and Scientific Police, making it more efficient when searching for objective proof of guilt or innocence," said the Minister of the Interior.
Last year also it should be recalled, France gave similar equipment to the Gabonese police, notably as part of the French-Gabon internal security partnership.
The digital criminal file will enable the Gabonese police to link criminals to their crimes more easily. It will do so by helping them rapidly identify matches and differences between prints, marks, and clues secured on crime scenes or from the victim(s) during a police investigation.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Already operational in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya, the mobile app’s founders now prospect in Europe, India, and Australia. They want to make the app a reference in the car industry.
On Feb 4, 2022, the South African start-up secured $1.3 million in a follow-on round that recorded the participation of Kalon Venture Partners, Launch Africa Ventures, IDF Capital, Allan Gray E2 Ventures, and AlphaCode. The first three investors had already contributed an undisclosed amount during Carscan’s seed round in October 2020.
Carscan is an augmented reality (AI) mobile application with integrated artificial intelligence (AI). It creates an accurate, reliable, complete, and traceable exterior or interior scan of a car. Launched in 2019 by Obins Choudhary and Chander Prakash, it helps actors of the car market buy, sell, lease, maintain, insure, finance, and auction cars with confidence.
With a database of over two million pictures of cars in different conditions, the app's technical inspection of cars helps detect modifications, dents, scratches, etc., estimate the overall condition of a car and estimate the extent of repairs needed in real-time. The app is also useful for insurers and individuals.
Chander Prakash, the co-founder of Carscan, said the company “is working with some local and international clients and has been developed in conjunction with one of the largest players in the automotive sector in South Africa.”
Explaining their interest in Carscan, Clive Butkow, CEO of Kalon Venture Partners, said the startup has demonstrated exceptional talent and its solution solves a large problem across industries. He said the new round is “testimony to the growth of the company and the Carscan’s team’s ability to deliver a solution solving a large problem across industries.”
Within three years only, Carscan has grown considerably. The App is already available in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya. This, its founders hope to expand to the European, Indian and Australian markets.
Ruben Tchounyabe
Under the digitalization process it initiated in recent years, the Ghanaian government announced the launch of an electronic travel card for public officials and envoys.
According to Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, who introduced it last February 4 at the closing ceremony of the Annual Conference of the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) in Cape Coast, the new instrument aims to bring further transparency and accountability in the use of public funds.
“Since independence, public officials were provided cash for their impress when they travel. This system had many associated problems, including the risks of carrying cash and fraud in the disbursement of impress […] Today, that era is coming to an end with my launch of the e-Travel Card to facilitate the cashless disbursement of travel allowance and other payments for local and foreign trips of public officials,” he said.
The Vice President said the solution will eliminate the risk of carrying cash, enable the timely retirement of accountable impress, and ease improved monitoring and control of budgetary allocations for all official travel to avoid overspending. The e-travel card was developed in partnership with Fidelity Bank. It aligns with the government strategy in place since 2006 to improve governance and development through ICTs.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Several African countries have taken on extra debt last year to improve their digital migration readiness. Investing in the right sectors is now the next important step to hit the target. To help the countries better identify the priority sectors and make the best choices in terms of investments, Sundar Pichai (pictured), Head of the US tech giant Google, suggests four steps to follow.
In an op-ed published yesterday February 7, he reported that Africa, like India a few years ago, has the potential to boost its development by investing smartly in ICTs. He says the continent is already on the right path as it enjoys a large, full-of-energy, and ICT-savvy youth.
The very first step, according to him, is to expand affordable and reliable connectivity across the continent. He believes that many Africans will be left out if they do not have access to connectivity. “We have seen during the pandemic that digital connectivity is a lifeline, helping people find essential information and connect to critical services,” he said.
He secondly suggests that governments and relevant authorities support businesses of all sizes in their digital migration processes so that the digital divide is closed. “Closing that gap means enabling businesses to move online, training more people to pursue careers that depend on technology, and ensuring that companies take advantage of cloud computing,” Sundar Pichai added, stressing that “companies should invest in products and solutions that are fit for Africa, and African governments need to adapt regulatory environments and their own development strategies to be digital-first. Small businesses need to be at the center of digitization and training efforts, as they employ around two-thirds of the continent’s formal workforce.”
A third step will be to invest in African entrepreneurs to stimulate innovation and growth. He finally called on African governments to support nonprofits and institutions striving to address communities’ challenges through technologies.
In 2021, Google made a $1 billion investment in Africa to back the continent's digital transformation. This comes in addition to several other investments made on the continent over the past four years by the company.
In its joint report with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), "e-Conomy Africa 2020 - Africa's $180 Billion Internet Economy Future," Google points out that Africa's Internet economy has the potential to grow to $180 billion, or about 5.2% of the continent's GDP, by 2025 with an economic potential of $712 billion by 2050.
Muriel Edjo
National health systems must adapt to technological developments. This is something every country around the world realized with the COVID-19 pandemic. Sierra Leone, which has been making efforts in this regard since 2019, now explores international partnerships to quickly bridge the mismatch between its health system and technological developments.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is offering Sierra Leone its digital health expertise. The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention revealed this on Monday 7 February after the two countries' respective health ministers, Mohammad Salim Al Olama (UAE) and Austin Demby (Sierra Leone) discussed the matter while recently meeting in Dubai.
During the meeting, Mohammad Salim Al Olama briefed the Sierra Leonean minister and his delegation on the UAE's achievements in digital health services and health innovation, in line with efforts to fight diseases, improve health education, promote healthy nutrition, etc. The official also spoke about the UAE government's progress in health data management and health information systems development.
Sierra Leone has one of the worst health systems in the world, according to the 2021 Global Health Security (GHS) Index. Produced by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), the John Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, working with Economist Impact, the GHS Index assesses 195 countries across six categories, 37 indicators, and 171 questions. Using publicly available data, the index compares health security in featured countries, based on their capabilities to prevent diseases, the number of doctors, the number and quality of health facilities, etc. In last year's rankings, Sierra Leone was 116th with a score of 32.7 out of 100.
Leveraging digital technologies to improve its public health system, Sierra Leone will have to invest heavily in its internet infrastructure. The country's internet penetration rate currently stands at 25% only, according to the Hootsuit and We Are Social Digital Report.
In 2019, Sierra Leone became the first African member state of the World Health Organization (WHO) African region to fully digitize its disease monitoring system. The project was started with the WHO's support and was successfully deployed in all 14 districts of the country as well as in all its public health facilities.
Muriel Edjo
Nine (9) months after raising $1.8 million in seed funding, Lami has acquired Bluewave Insurance Agency. This acquisition will open the doors to 7 African markets, including the DRC, where Bluewave offers its insurance services.
Kenyan insurtech, Lami Technologies, announced the acquisition of competitor Bluewave Insurance Agency for an undisclosed amount. “I am very enthusiastic about this acquisition and believe it will bring exponential growth for both companies. With increased resources, enhanced technology and innovation, expertise, and market expansion, this acquisition will help us create a more competitive environment for insurtech in Africa as we continue to work on providing insurance products that are affordable and convenient for all Africans,” said Roy Perlot, CFO, Lami Technologies.
The announcement comes 9 months after Lami Technologies raised $1.8 million in seed funding. This new acquisition “aims to drive rapid growth for Lami and expand its presence to new African markets with an expected business growth of 65,000 current policies and potential growth of hundreds of thousands expected in 2022 across Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, Gambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),” the company said.
The deal will also expand Lami's customer/product segment in Malawi where Bluewave reaches more than 60,000 smallholder farmers with access to policies. Between 2018, when it was founded, and May 2021, Lami says it sold more than 5,000 policies and partnered with more than 25 active underwriters, including Britam, Pioneer, and Madison Insurance.
In a note published in May 2021, the company estimated that the African insurance market, which stands at a 3% penetration rate, South Africa excluded, faces challenges in modernization and innovation. These challenges include traditional policy administration, lack of knowledge of insurance products, inflexible offerings.
Chamberline Moko
Tunisia’s first fashion marketplace for women Dabchy has gained popularity in the country. The online platform was launched in 2016 by the eponymous startup founded by Ameni Mansouri, a biomedical engineer with a passion for fashion, Ghazi Ketata, a computer security engineer, and Oussema Mahjoub, a web developer.
The platform, which claims $550,000 invested so far in its development in Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria now plans to expand in the Middle East. The service connects thousands of women who want to sell, buy and trade second-hand clothes.
"Dabchy is a community of hundreds of thousands of women who love fashion. They share not only their wardrobes but also all their worlds with great looks," explains Ameni Mansouri, president, and CEO of Dabchy. To date,1.1 million items are available on the platform. An article is posted every 40 seconds and more than 500,000 users are registered, according to the co-founders. Customer service is handled 100% in-house using technology. The site has several features. It offers the user the ability to view the latest items posted, sorted by category, color, brand, and condition (new with tags, new without tags, very good condition, good condition, satisfactory). All seller is required to provide pictures, descriptions, and the price of the article to be sold. The platform has also integrated a children’s session since 2018.
Dabchy has reached a partnership with the logistics service provider Aramex and the Tunisian Post Office to ensure fast delivery of goods via Rapid-Poste. Payments are either made online via bank account or e-Dinar card, or in cash. When payment is made in cash, the buyer pays the amount to the delivery agent, who in turn deposits it into a Dabchy account.
The platform administrators can then verify the transaction and quickly send the amount to the seller. The latter receives the money 24 hours after delivery.
In 2019, Dabchy raised $300,000 in a round led by the incubator 500 Startups, with the participation of Flat6labs Tunisia, Vision Venture Capital, Daal Venture Capital, as well as a group of Business Angels. The following year, the platform won the MEA Seed Challenge of Orange Ventures, the investment fund of Orange, and shared €670,000 with winning startups from other countries. To date, Dabchy has received $550,000 in funding. The startup, which plans to open in the Middle East, also plans to launch a "VIP service" to authenticate luxury clothing or accessories worth more than TND300 ($104.80).
"We want to offer a service that allows us to become a platform for luxury second-hand clothing, so we can target markets such as Dubai, for example," says Ameni Mansouri.
Ruben Tchounyabe
The e-commerce sector has experienced a recent boom in Africa with the emergence of new solutions. To stand out from the growing competition, Jumia Ghana has adopted a strategic technological plan.
The Ghanaian dealer of Jumia, an e-commerce company present in a dozen African countries, unveiled today its partnership with the local smart locker company LocQar. Jumia wants to provide secure lockers to its customers in Accra, where they can easily take possession of their online orders.
“The experience of our customers is very important to us and that is why we have established this partnership with LocQar. It takes only 7 seconds from when customers arrive at the smart locker to when they pick up their orders. Also, it is highly convenient because these lockers are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This makes it possible for customers to pick up at any time of the day to retrieve their parcels,” said Samuel Esiri, Country Manager of Jumia Services Ghana.
LocQar provides smart lockers in strategic locations such as Kotoka Airport, Accra Mall, and West Hills Mall. These lockers are managed by a digital platform and once a parcel is dropped off, the recipient is immediately notified (via SMS or email). They automatically receive an access code and only need to enter it on the locker controller's touch screen to access their package.
LocQar's smart lockers are secure and safe and are equipped with alarms. They are located in areas under video surveillance and accessible 24/7.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Casava, which offers a 100% digital insurance service, has secured pre-seed funding of $4 million to support its business expansion. The company is touted as the first-ever to offer 100% digital insurance services in Nigeria.
“Our mission is to provide affordable insurance for Nigerians and other Africans and we are happy to have raised these funds from an exciting group of investors,” said Bode Pedro (pictured), founder and CEO of the company.
These funds are the first the company has received since its founding in 2016. Casava is taking advantage of the expense savings offered by the digital, allowing potential or confirmed customers to purchase work or health insurance premiums online. “The Casava team has developed a unique and disruptive product that we believe has the potential to transform Africa’s insurance market,” said Avi Eyal, General Partner at Entrée Capital, one of the venture capital firms that contributed to the fundraising.
In the risk coverage segments in which Casava operates, there is an opportunity in terms of digitization of services, as many workers are often underemployed, with no protection against the risks of business interruption and thus technical unemployment, and the risks of illness. According to the Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics, 20% of workers have lost their jobs due to Covid-19 and many of them in small trades have not received compensation.
The digitalization of insurance services in Nigeria has been growing in recent years. The potential size of the market in terms of subscribers (95% of the 33% of social network subscribers) is an opportunity, but technological solutions will have to go beyond technical issues and address substantive challenges such as the lack of trust between insurers and policyholders, ease of premium payments, but also reimbursements in case of claims. These are all issues that will need to be monitored.
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Barely two years after launching, Amitruck already has over 8,000 vehicles registered in its database, completed 100,000 deliveries, for more than 300 corporate clients.
Amitruck is a digital trucking logistics service launched in 2019 by the eponymous Kenyan startup. On February 2, 2022, the firm raised $4 million in seed funding. Led by Better Tomorrow Ventures (BTV), with participation from Dynamo Ventures, Rackhouse Venture Capital, Flexport Inc, Knuru Capital, Launch Africa Ventures, Uncovered Fund, and strategic angel investors, the round will allow Amitruck to speed up its expansion in Africa and hire new talent.
Founded by Mark Mwangi (picture), Amitruck connects businesses and individuals, who need to move their goods, with truck owners and logistics companies. Mwangi came up with the idea after realizing that the informal logistics sector, which uses archaic manual systems, was fragmenting and unnecessarily increasing operating costs.
By integrating new technologies in transit operations, the Kenyan founder aimed to modernize and make the sector safer in Kenya. Plus, the service dealt with the issue of middlemen who raise costs of services, enabling customers to deal directly with the selected carrier. All drivers and vehicles are checked, and goods in transit are insured against loss and damage to ensure safe operations.
Barely two years after launching, Amitruck already has over 8,000 vehicles registered in its database, completed 100,000 deliveries, for more than 300 corporate clients. To access the service, customers must first log in to the platform's web address or download the app from Play Store. Once that is done, they must create their account, which will be approved. With this account, users can book a truck, van, motorcycle, bicycle, among others, to transport their goods. Once validated and initiated, users can track their goods as they move. Payment is made only after goods are delivered and the client is satisfied.
The startup - which joined, in 2021, the Ninja Accelerator program of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Google’s Black Founders Fund Accelerator, and AbInbev's Budstart Accelerator program - wants to "attract more carriers and shippers" in 2022.
Muriel Edjo
Egyptian startup Yalla Fel Sekka (YFS), which specializes in logistics and on-demand delivery, has completed a $7 million Series A financing round. The funding, announced this week, will support the company’s business in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
As part of this expansion plan, YFS says it will build 20 to 40 dark stores in several cities by next year. Dark stores are retail shops, closed to the public, that serve as warehouses for other businesses
“What’s important to say is anything that has to do with quick commerce or instant delivery requires a new form of infrastructure on the ground to be close to your customers, technology, operations. All of that is radically different from the type of infrastructure we saw when we were not dealing with quick commerce. But now this is what it is all about for YFS, to become the main player and the leader of offering these logistics services for commerce,” said Khashayar Mahdavi, YFS co-founder.
Yalla Fel Sekka operates on a Business-to-Business-to-Customer model. When a customer places an order online, the startup picks it up from one of its dark stores built to hold products for customers from various industries, including grocery, pharmacy, and e-commerce, and makes the delivery. The service, which can be accessed via web or mobile, offers users the ability to track the delivery of their order online. Yalla Fel Sekka already claims a fleet of nearly 1,000 active motorcycle and van drivers and 3,000 on the waiting list.
According to Yasmine Abdel Karim, co-founder of the company, nearly 10,000 orders are recorded per day and the gross volume of goods is increasing at a monthly rate of 20% with a customer retention rate above 90%.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
They are among the 19 finalists picked, out of 300 applications, for the 10th edition of the Les Margaret Awards by JFD (Journée de la femme digitale), a movement that promotes innovation by women. There are eight of them listed in the Entrepreneur, Intrapreneur, and Junior categories for Africa.
JFD will reveal the laureates of its 10th Les Margaret Awards on February 10, 2022, at La Sorbonne, Paris. The African finalists include an Egyptian, a Ugandan, a Senegalese, an Ivorian, two Gabonese, a Kenyan, and a South African in the three categories mentioned above.
Entrepreneur
- Farah Emara, from Egypt, runs for the awards with FreshSource, an agricultural platform that connects farms to businesses and provides last-mile solutions. With it, she wants to rationalize the fresh produce value, empower farmers, and cut food waste.
- Shamim Nabuuma Kaliisa, from Uganda, founded Chil AI Lab, a startup that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to expand essential health services to the poor and marginalized, women especially, in her country.
- Ariane Akeret, from Gabon, runs as a finalist with her CaPay project. CaPay is an App that facilitates the payment of salaries, amongst other financial transactions, via mobile money. This digital payment solution targets employees, retirees, workers with no bank account, social security funds, organizations, associations, and public administrations.
Intrapreneur
- Adjaratou Wakha Aidara, from Senegal, is executive director at Partners West Africa-Senegal. She has developed a clean, safe, sustainable, and connected mobility project with motorbike taxis.
- Patricia Ndikumana, from Kenya, head of partnerships at Sokowatch, an e-commerce platform whose goal is to help informal retailers easily secure essential goods, without relying on wholesalers or banks.
- Ivoirian Cleo Ngokoudi is the CFO of Anka, a platform that provides local merchants with integrated digital management solutions, and facilitates international financial transactions.
Junior
- Maylis Kouakoua, 13, is from Gabon. She developed Scratch, a quiz-based game to raise teenagers' awareness about the internet’s dangers, cyber-bullying notably.
- Malebina Tsotsotso, 15, is from South Africa. She built MTutor, an e-learning platform designed to provide an adaptable, scalable, safe, and secure learning tool.
According to Delphine Remy-Boutang, CEO of the Bureau & JFD, the projects selected were the best out of hundreds. “We received over 300 applications. This is a unique opportunity to bring out our future European and African tech champions. All their projects address major societal issues.”
She then stressed the need to “direct more investment towards female entrepreneurship, which also provides solutions to digital transformation by putting it at the service of our societies and the environment.”
For this year’s edition, the vote of the general public will count for one. Launched in 2013 by JFD, Les Margaret Awards rewards female entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, in Europe and Africa, every year. The laureates’ projects are innovative and address major social issues. The Awards is named after Margaret Hamilton, former director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo program.
Brice Gotoa
The technology sector in Africa has been booming in recent years, with the emergence of innovative startups. To support this dynamic, the US tech giant Oracle announced an investment of $1 million in the sector.
Oracle says it aims to give African startups access to the latest cloud technologies through "cloud credits" to implement their digital projects. Cloud credits could go up to $10,000 for 100 startups, the investor explained.
The investment is part of Oracle for Startups, which is an initiative to support technology for young companies in their development. It follows the announcement by Oracle of the opening of its first cloud region in Africa.
“Africa is a hotbed for tech entrepreneurs, and we have witnessed a 91 percent growth in enrolments from South African startups, and 39 percent growth from over 13 other African countries within the last year. The USD one million investment will further boost the efforts of tech entrepreneurs in Africa to utilize the latest digital technologies for the success of their startups," said Jason Williamson, Vice President of Oracle for Startups.
With broadband connectivity growing on the continent, driven by telecom operators' and ISPs' investment in undersea optical fiber cables, the use of cloud technologies is gradually growing. Secure and reliable, the service is the guarantee of a globally risk-free activity.
Adoni Conrad Quenum