👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – Acquiring access to Kenya

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* Data as of 10:15 PM WAT, June 9, 2022.

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BOOMPLAY EXPANDS TO COTE D’IVOIRE

Boomplay, a Chinese-owned music streaming platform for African artists and songs, has launched in Côte d’Ivoire. 

Yesterday the platform opened the doors of its Ivorian offices in Abidjan to enhance music streaming, and help Ivorian artists reach a broader audience within and outside the continent.

Côte d’Ivoire marks the 6th African country with Boomplay’s presence after Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana and Cameroon. 

Speaking about the launch, Boomplay Côte d’Ivoire General Manager, Paola Audrey Ndengue, said, “We’re particularly proud to establish a presence in Abidjan, a creative and cultural hub in the region. The warm welcome our team has received from artists, local partners and stakeholders is a strong indicator for us moving forward. Boomplay is committed to contributing to the dynamism of the Ivorian music industry’.”

While there is no available data on the growth of Côte d’Ivoire’s music streaming industry, several of its artists have risen to prominence in the past few years due to an increase in streaming services. For example, French singer-songwriter Kikimoteleba rose in Spotify’s ranks when his hit single Tigini exceeded 15 million streams. Others have also been thrust into the spotlight on social media; the Nigerian remix of Aboutou Roots La Blessure, for instance, have been used in thousands of videos across the internet. 

With the launch of Boomplay, Ivorian artists now have access to 70 million active users on a platform where they’ll be paid per stream/purchase. 

The company has a freemium model similar to YouTube where users can play music for free but with ad intermissions, or pay for an ad-free version. 

According to Director of Artist and Media Relations, Tosin Sorinola, “This physical presence extends Boomplay’s mission to promote local talent by providing them with a platform and resources within and outside of the service, which enables them to reach a wider audience of music lovers across the continent. We are delighted to provide a transparent service which ensures that artists get due revenue from their music streaming.”

ACCESS BANK TO ACQUIRE SIDIAN BANK FOR $36.4 MILLION

Access Bank, a Nigerian-based commercial bank, is reportedly set to acquire Kenyan Sidian Bank by buying out the entire stake of Centum Investment in the bank for Ksh 4.3 billion($36.7 million).

If the deal goes through, this will be the Nigerian bank’s second acquisition in the Kenyan market following it’s acquisition of Kenya’s Transnational Bank earlier this year. 

The pending deal will see Access Bank take over the 83.4% shares currently belonging to Centum and its subsidiary Bakki Holdco Ltd. 

According to CEO Roosevelt Ogbonna, the deal will help Access to continue strengthening its presence in Kenya, a market the bank regards as key to its diversification strategy. 

The deal is said to still be subject to regulatory approvals in Nigeria and Kenya and will add to the acquisition deals in Kenya’s banking sector.

Sidian has been keen on small and medium enterprises and trade finance and grew its balance sheet from Ksh 19 billion ($162.2 million) in 2012 to Ksh 30 billion ($256.2 million) at the end of March 2022. Access Bank plans to consolidate Sidian with Access Bank Kenya to create a stronger banking institution—a process they believe will push Access Bank Kenya into becoming a Tier 2 bank in Kenya.

TC INSIGHTS: FUNDING TRACKER

This week, Tunisian edtech, GoMyCode closed an $8 million Series A round. AfricInvest, through its Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund (CAIF), and French-based development finance institution Proparco, co-led the round with participation from a previous investor- Wamda Capital.

Here are the other deals for the week:

• Nigerian fintech startup Indicina, announced a $3 million funding round led by Target Global with participation from Greycroft and RV Ventures. 

• Klasha, a cross-border payments startup based in Lagos received an additional $2.1 million to complete its $4.5 million seed round. Investors in the round include Amex Ventures and Global Ventures.

• Rentoza, a rental marketplace based in South Africa raised $1.3 million from Khulisani Ventures, the early-stage investment vehicle of the Mineworkers Investment Company (MIC).

• Nigeria’s ShopEX, a teleshopping startup, raised a $635,000 pre-seed round from Cape Town-based venture capital firm HAVAÍC.

• Egyptian on-demand delivery startup Gooo Delivery closed an undisclosed pre-seed round to power its expansion across the country and the wider Middle East region.

That’s it for this week!

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EVENT: TC LIVE

Creators across the globe are making millions of dollars annually. But is this the reality for African creators?

There’s been a lot of growth in the African creator economy, from independent creators and social media influencers to videographers and podcasters. However, only a few African creators make money from their creativity. Many of them struggle to earn from their audience compared to creators globally.

One significant factor behind this is the limited presence of efficient payment networks to connect African creators with global audiences, although a few platforms are working to change this.

So, how can African creators make more money?

Find out on Friday, June 24th on the next edition of TechCabal Live.

Register here.

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What else we’re reading

• Tunisia’s edtech GOMYCODE raises $8 million series A to fuel global expansion.

• Hostel.ng wants to help Nigerian undergraduates find quality and affordable accommodation.

• UnbugQA is bridging the quality assurance gap in Nigeria’s tech space.

• The freelance artist behind a million-dollar NFT collection.

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