TechCabal Daily – Nigerian private equity firms are now targeting startups

Private equity firms in Nigeria rarely invest in startups. It’s not that they don’t want to, but the private equity model makes it challenging to do so. When these firms close a fund they commit to an investment strategy that is rarely reviewed until the fund is used up. This restricts them from investing in enterprising startups at the early stage. However, over the last few years, a couple of private equity firms have launched dedicated funds to back tech startups and other small and medium enterprises. In this article, I write about how this growing trend and what it means for African upstarts.

For the last 17 years, Nigerian inventor Oshiorenoya Agabi has been developing a new technology that uses data from human smell to detect diseases. He founded his company, Koniku, in 2017 based on the technology. His thesis is that every disease carries organic substances that serve as its biomarkers; making it detectable. Beyond healthcare, Agabi’s technology has use cases across many industries including the military. The device can detect explosive material like TATP which was used for the Paris Bombing in 2015. TechCabal’s Alexander Onukwue spoke with Agabi to understand how his invention could transform disease detection globally.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Nigeria is quickly running out of control. Over 40 cases have been confirmed in the last two weeks and the count is still growing. Governments at different levels have asked civil servants to work from home. But is that really possible? Writing for Business Day, Frank Eleanya says technology adoption is very low in the Nigerian civil service. Most workers across the country rarely use a laptop at work. Most of their activities are paper-based and rarely is information digitised or housed in a database. As civil servants work from home, this low use of tech would affect service delivery at different government agencies.

The value of mobile money transactions in Kenya may be growing

Last week, Kenyan companies including Safaricom removed transaction charges for mobile money transactions below KES 1,000 ($9.40). The plan was to encourage people to use digital payments to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19. This plan may be working. According to analytics firm, Caribou Data, the number of people doing transactions below KES 100 ($0.94) has increased. The value of transactions is now roughly KES 350 ($3.29), Weetracker reported.

Other things we’re reading:

+ Garlic, heat cures and conspiracies: in Africa and globally, misinformation is spreading as fast COVID-19

+ Distilleries and breweries are pivoting to producing hand sanitizers as demand continues to increase.

+ Africave eyes $2m in revenue by targeting companies that cannot afford big developer shops

+ As Africa’s healthcare and public services get tested against the pandemic, African Business Magazine writes that the urban poor must be shielded from coronavirus

+ Behind the scenes at Nigeria’s real-time coronavirus emergency response