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DIGITAL REALTY BUYS TERACO FOR $3 BILLION

Digital Realty, a US-based real estate investment trust which also owns cloud and carrier-neutral data centres, announced on Monday that it is on its way to acquiring a majority stake in South Africa’s Teraco Data Environments, for $3 billion.

Founded in 2008, Teraco is Africa’s largest data centre operator and provider of interconnection solutions. It offers colocation and other data services in secure data centres.

This deal will establish Digital Realty as the leading colocation provider in Africa and provide Teraco with more capital to grow. “Our combined platform will be uniquely positioned to serve the full customer spectrum, with the ability to support their growth around the world. We look forward to working with the Digital Realty team to extend our state-of-the-art data centre and connectivity solutions to capitalise on the favourable industry trends and tremendous market opportunity,” said Teraco’s CEO, Jan Hnizdo.

Digital Realty is set to acquire 55% of Teraco’s total equity interest when this deal is finalised, and this move values Teraco at $3 billion, overshadowing West Africa’s MainOne’s recent acquisition for $320 million by Equinix Inc.

The other 45% stake will be held by a consortium of existing shareholders which include Berkshire Partners, Permira, Van Rooyen Group, Columbia Capital, Stepstone Ventures and the Teraco Connect Trust.

NITDA PARTNERS WITH UNIVERSITIES FOR DIGITAL FARMING

Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has partnered with 3 universities in the country to advance research and application of digital technology to farming.

Agriculture makes up 24% of Nigeria’s GDP, but despite this contribution, it faces issues of “low technology, high production cost and poor distribution of inputs, limited financing, high post-harvest losses, and poor access to markets”. Using technology in farming will help the country optimise this sector, “improve production, reduce waste, facilitate access to markets, and thereby put Nigeria on the path of food security and substantial income generation” while also reducing labour costs. 

With this move, the agency hopes to attract a younger population to farming and boost the country’s National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy through which it hopes to become a leading player in the global digital economy.

“Deploying digital technology into agriculture will make farming a fanciful and attractive business for the youth, which will also culminate in providing more job opportunities and strengthen the country’s food security,” Kashifu Abdullahi, Director-General of NITDA said.

The three schools are the Federal University of Technology Akure, Federal University Dutse, and the University of Abuja. According to NITDA, it is creating IT centres and providing training in these institutions for the pilot scheme.

TC INSIGHTS: FUNDING TRACKER

After a record-breaking year of raising nearly $5 billion in VC funding, African startups have picked up steam from where they left off. 

This week, Ghanaian health startup mPharma secured $35 million in a Series D round led by Citigroup. Other investors that participated in the round include JAM Fund, a venture capital firm founded by Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen; Unbound, a growth investment firm by Shravin Mittal, the managing director of Bharti Global Limited (Bharti family investment arm); Lux Capital; Northstar; Social Capital; Novastar; and TO Ventures.

Here are the other deals for the week:

• Kenyan fintech startup Alvin, received $740,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by Ingressive Capital, with support from Zephyr Acorn, Voltron Capital, Future Africa, and Tahseen Consulting. Other notable investors in the round included Paystack CEO Shola Akinlade, and Tony Nicalo, former CEO of marketing company Dondé. 

• Egyptian e-commerce startup Gahez raised $2 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Disruptech Ventures, with participation from Egypt Ventures, Tanmeyah, Afropreneur Fund, and other angel investors.

• Namibian e-commerce startup JABU raised a $3.2 million financing round from Afore Capital, Y Combinator, FJ Labs, Quiet Capital, Kli Capital, Pareto Capital, and unnamed angels.

• FedayPay, a Benin-based payment aggregator received an undisclosed amount in a seed round from Benin Business Angel Network (BBAN). 

That’s all we’ve got this week.

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more updates on funding deals.

EVENT: BUILDING FROM GROUND UP

We’re kicking off our events this year with the second episode of the Building From Ground Up series!

On this episode, Koromone Koroye, TechCabal’s Managing Editor, will be speaking with Vivian Nwakah, CEO and co-founder of Medsaf, an online pharmacy that helps individuals and healthcare facilities access cost-effective medications. Vivian is a serial entrepreneur and strategist that has created and innovated around execution in the healthcare, pharmaceutical, and energy space.

Vivian will discuss what it takes to build and grow a successful startup with limited funding. We’ll also learn the story of how Medsaf grew from its first fundraise to transforming access to healthcare in developing markets today.

Register to attend: 

The #BFGU series is powered by the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub.

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

Every week, we share job opportunities in the African ecosystem

• FinTechNGR – Research and Development Manager – Lagos, Nigeria

• Stars From All Nations (SFAN) – Full Stack Engineer – Accra, Ghana

• betPawa – Senior Software Engineer – Estonia (Remote)

• Instabug – Product Designer, Product Manager – Giza, Egypt

• Eden Life Inc – Delivery Experience Coordinator – Lagos, Nigeria

There are more opportunities here. If you’d like to share a job opening or an opportunity, please fill this form.

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