CRYPTO MARKET

Bitcoin	$20,575	– 1.57%
Ether	$1,568	– 0.34%
BNB	$337	– 0.84%
Solana	$29.57	– 9.62%
Cardano	$0.40	+ 0.30%
Name of the coin Price of the coin 24-hour percentage change		Source: CoinMarketCap

* Data as of 01:00 AM WAT, November 8, 2022.

KLOUD COMMERCE INVESTORS DENY BOARD’S REBUTTAL

Kloud Commerce founder Olumide Olusanya

Investors at the recently-shutdown D2C startup, Kloud Commerce, have disputed a rebuttal made by the company’s board of directors.

ICYMI: In October, the founder of Kloud Commerce Olumide Olusanya was accused of misappropriation of funds and fraud which had led to the company’s shutdown in September. A week after the accusations were published, the board of directors at Kloud denied the allegations against Olusanya, claiming the accusations were “unfounded rumours” levied by a single investor.

Old vs new investors 

Investors of the now-defunct company claim that the board’s statement was made by Olusanya. 

In a legal document seen by TechCabal, the investors—represented by Odion Daniel and Associates—state that the present board of directors at Kloud Commerce consists of Olusanya, his wife Oluwaseyin Olusanya and “others”. According to public records on Company House, a board member called Adenkunle Omilani resigned on 29 August, a day before Oluwaseyin was appointed. 

The investors, who say that they are former board members of Kloud Commerce, claim to have invested close to $1 million in the company and “they are yet to see a functional product or any customer.”

In a legal letter shared with TechCabal, the investors claimed to have evidence of financial impropriety, wasteful spending, and inappropriate behaviour from Olusanya.

Zoom out: The letter is the latest update in a game of shadow tag between investors and board members at Kloud Commerce. 

Editor’s Note (November 9, 7:30 PM): TechCabal has confirmed that Adedayo Amzat is no longer a board member at Kloud Commerce but is still an investor in the company. Amzat resigned from the board in September 2022.

JUMIA’S CEOS STEP DOWN

Co-founders and former co-CEOs Jeremy Hodara and Sacha Poignonnec

Jumia, Africa’s largest e-commerce company, has appointed Francis Dufay as its new acting CEO, a move that the company says will allow it to focus on its e-commerce fundamentals and a path to profitability. 

The move comes right after Jeremy Hodara and Sacha Poignonnec, both co-founders and co-CEOs, stepped down from their roles after 10 years. 

The duo oversaw Jumia’s rise from a startup to one of Africa’s largest companies with a presence in 11 countries and helped African consumers access goods and services through its marketplaces, payment platform, and logistic platform. 

Jumia’s Supervisory Board also appointed Antoine Maillet-Mezeray as the executive vice president, finance and operations. Previously Jumia’s CFO for 6 years, Maillet-Mezeray will also join Dufay as a member of the company’s management board. 

The newly appointed executives and the broader leadership team will work closely together to drive the company’s strategic priorities and operations, with a clear focus on building stronger fundamentals for its e-commerce businesses. 

Jumia will also focus on reducing operating losses and setting the business on a clear path to profitability through stronger cost discipline, targeted monetization initiatives, and a more simplified and efficient organisation. The company is searching for a permanent CEO.

Big picture: Jumia has been making losses since its inception, reporting $57.2 million in its 2022 second-quarter report.The company has long shared its ambition to become profitable but it’s not been clear how soon that will happen, even as the company steadily decreases its losses. Will the new CEO pave the way?

STEARS LAUNCHES NEW ELECTIONS DATA SITE FOR NIGERIANS

Stears, a Nigerian data and intelligence company, has launched a new elections data site product that will organise all of Nigeria’s election data.

Elections are coming up in West Africa’s largest nation, and February 2023 will see Nigeria elect a new president into a four-year tenure. Twenty-seven of the country’s 36 states will also conduct gubernatorial elections within the same period.

In addition to elections to state and national houses of assembly, 94 million Nigerian voters will participate in 1,477 elections between 14,822 candidates in 2023.

Stears’ new product, Stears Elections, will help Nigerians track these races and its components with a visual map.

Image source: Stears

On Stears Elections, users will be able to view constituency boundaries for the House of Representatives and State Houses of Assembly and biographies of election candidates, and receive personalised election updates.

“If all politics is local, then the granularity of Stears Elections matters when filling the information gap. As an organisation with rich data expertise and familiarity visualising large data sets, Stears is uniquely placed to organise election data in a useful, easy-to-consume format,” said Stears CEO Preston Ideh. 

Stears Elections is the company’s second election project following its 2019 real-time election database. The news also comes one month after Stears announced a $3.3 million raise to help its mission of solving Africa’s data dearth.

KATAPULT AFRICA LAUNCHES ACCELERATOR WITH 9 AFRICAN STARTUPS

Katapult Africa, an Africa-focused investment firm, has launched its accelerator programme in Rwanda, accepting nine out of 800 startups to participate in its first cohort.

This programme—one of the not-so-many African accelerators giving fintech startups a back seat—focuses on businesses leveraging tech to solve problems surrounding climate, agriculture, and food security. 

The selected startups will get $150,000 in funding. 

Rwanda at the centre

Last week, selected startups from across the continent converged at Kigali for the launch where the Rwandan minister of technology and innovation, Paula Ingabire, congratulated the startups and described the accelerator as a much-needed milestone for the startup ecosystem. 

The fantastic 9

The selected startups include Kenya’s GrowAgric and Aquarech; Ghana’s Legendary Foods and Spark; Nigeria’s Vetsak Cleva and Gricd; Senegal’s Afrikamart, Morocco’s Sand to Green; and Madagascar and Ghana-based Elucid.

Zoom Out: Katapult’s fund is an innovative intersection of impact and profitablity. All its accepted startups, despite being impact-focused, are on their way to making $1 million in revenue within the next 12 to 18 months. With this strategy, Katapult has minted unicorns, so it’s safe to say these 9 hold significant promise for Africa. 

EVENT: AFRICA TECH FESTIVAL

TechCabal is at the Africa Tech Festival in Cape Town, South Africa. Attendees and speakers include Big Cabal Media CEO Tomiwa Aladekomo, TechCabal’s Head of Newsroom Morris Kiruga, and several members of the TechCabal team. 

The five-day in-person event will cover the topics shaping Africa’s present and future, including our awards ceremony and famous Afest, “Africa’s best party.” 

Register for free here.

IN OTHER NEWS FROM TECHCABAL

The Next Wave: Africa’s power deficit is at odds with its digital economy goals.

Yassir raises $150 million Series B to ramp up Africa and global expansion.

Egypt is set to launch its first satellite for climate monitoring.

OPPORTUNITIES

• Applications are open for the UK Research and Innovation African Research Leaders’ Programme. Talented researchers in sub-Saharan Africa leading quality health research in the region can apply to get up to £750,000 in funding. Apply by December 1.

• The Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme and the Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique of Nairobi are offering a three-month-long fellowship in France for postdoc researchers from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and Eastern Congo (Kivu) who have presented their thesis from 2017. Laureates will receive a monthly stipend of €1,600 at the start of each month. Apply by December 9.

• If your startup or innovation is focused on climate-smart agriculture practices, apply to the THRIVE|Shell Climate-Smart Agriculture Challenge for a chance to win $100,000, a spot in a prestigious accelerator, publicity and more. Apply by December 11.

• Telecel Group’s African Startup Initiative Program is now open for applications. The 10 selected startups will receive €15,000 in cash each and benefits valued at more than €500,000, including credits from AWS, Google Cloud Services, Hubspot, and more. Apply by November 11.

• Applications are now open for Apple’s Entrepreneur Camp. The immersive virtual camp will give founders and developers from underrepresented communities mentorship, technical support and access to the alumni network. Apply by December 5.

• Applications are open for the Association of Commonwealth Universities Emerging Career Conference Grants. There are about 25-40 grants available to emerging researchers and university teachers who need funding to attend virtual or physical conferences. Apply by November 28.

• African Research Leaders 2023 is calling for funding applications from African medical researchers who have completed a PhD and need the support of £750,000 over the course of five years. Apply by December 1.

What else is happening in tech?

• Layoffs: Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is planning to notify employees of large-scale layoffs.

• A hacking group stole $11 million from 12 African countries.

• After laying off half of its staff, Twitter might be asking some employees to come back. 

SHARE THIS EDITION

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

CRYPTO MARKET

Bitcoin	$20,575	– 1.57%
Ether	$1,568	– 0.34%
BNB	$337	– 0.84%
Solana	$29.57	– 9.62%
Cardano	$0.40	+ 0.30%
Name of the coin Price of the coin 24-hour percentage change		Source: CoinMarketCap

* Data as of 01:00 AM WAT, November 8, 2022.

KLOUD COMMERCE INVESTORS DENY BOARD’S REBUTTAL

Kloud Commerce founder Olumide Olusanya

Investors at the recently-shutdown D2C startup, Kloud Commerce, have disputed a rebuttal made by the company’s board of directors.

ICYMI: In October, the founder of Kloud Commerce Olumide Olusanya was accused of misappropriation of funds and fraud which had led to the company’s shutdown in September. A week after the accusations were published, the board of directors at Kloud denied the allegations against Olusanya, claiming the accusations were “unfounded rumours” levied by a single investor.

Old vs new investors 

Investors of the now-defunct company claim that the board’s statement was made by Olusanya. 

In a legal document seen by TechCabal, the investors—represented by Odion Daniel and Associates—state that the present board of directors at Kloud Commerce consists of Olusanya, his wife Oluwaseyin Olusanya and “others”. The only other known current board member is Adedayo Amzat, according to the company’s records on Company House. According to the same public records, a board member called Adenkunle Omilani resigned on 29 August, a day before Oluwaseyin was appointed. 

The investors, who say that they are former board members of Kloud Commerce, claim to have invested close to $1 million in the company and “they are yet to see a functional product or any customer.”

In a legal letter shared with TechCabal, the investors claimed to have evidence of financial impropriety, wasteful spending, and inappropriate behaviour from Olusanya.

Zoom out: The letter is the latest update in a game of shadow tag between investors and board members at Kloud Commerce. 

JUMIA’S CEOS STEP DOWN

Co-founders and former co-CEOs Jeremy Hodara and Sacha Poignonnec

Jumia, Africa’s largest e-commerce company, has appointed Francis Dufay as its new acting CEO, a move that the company says will allow it to focus on its e-commerce fundamentals and a path to profitability. 

The move comes right after Jeremy Hodara and Sacha Poignonnec, both co-founders and co-CEOs, stepped down from their roles after 10 years. 

The duo oversaw Jumia’s rise from a startup to one of Africa’s largest companies with a presence in 11 countries and helped African consumers access goods and services through its marketplaces, payment platform, and logistic platform. 

Jumia’s Supervisory Board also appointed Antoine Maillet-Mezeray as the executive vice president, finance and operations. Previously Jumia’s CFO for 6 years, Maillet-Mezeray will also join Dufay as a member of the company’s management board. 

The newly appointed executives and the broader leadership team will work closely together to drive the company’s strategic priorities and operations, with a clear focus on building stronger fundamentals for its e-commerce businesses. 

Jumia will also focus on reducing operating losses and setting the business on a clear path to profitability through stronger cost discipline, targeted monetization initiatives, and a more simplified and efficient organisation. The company is searching for a permanent CEO.

Big picture: Jumia has been making losses since its inception, reporting $57.2 million in its 2022 second-quarter report.The company has long shared its ambition to become profitable but it’s not been clear how soon that will happen, even as the company steadily decreases its losses. Will the new CEO pave the way?

STEARS LAUNCHES NEW ELECTIONS DATA SITE FOR NIGERIANS

Stears, a Nigerian data and intelligence company, has launched a new elections data site product that will organise all of Nigeria’s election data.

Elections are coming up in West Africa’s largest nation, and February 2023 will see Nigeria elect a new president into a four-year tenure. Twenty-seven of the country’s 36 states will also conduct gubernatorial elections within the same period.

In addition to elections to state and national houses of assembly, 94 million Nigerian voters will participate in 1,477 elections between 14,822 candidates in 2023.

Stears’ new product, Stears Elections, will help Nigerians track these races and its components with a visual map.

Image source: Stears

On Stears Elections, users will be able to view constituency boundaries for the House of Representatives and State Houses of Assembly and biographies of election candidates, and receive personalised election updates.

“If all politics is local, then the granularity of Stears Elections matters when filling the information gap. As an organisation with rich data expertise and familiarity visualising large data sets, Stears is uniquely placed to organise election data in a useful, easy-to-consume format,” said Stears CEO Preston Ideh. 

Stears Elections is the company’s second election project following its 2019 real-time election database. The news also comes one month after Stears announced a $3.3 million raise to help its mission of solving Africa’s data dearth.

KATAPULT AFRICA LAUNCHES ACCELERATOR WITH 9 AFRICAN STARTUPS

Katapult Africa, an Africa-focused investment firm, has launched its accelerator programme in Rwanda, accepting nine out of 800 startups to participate in its first cohort.

This programme—one of the not-so-many African accelerators giving fintech startups a back seat—focuses on businesses leveraging tech to solve problems surrounding climate, agriculture, and food security. 

The selected startups will get $150,000 in funding. 

Rwanda at the centre

Last week, selected startups from across the continent converged at Kigali for the launch where the Rwandan minister of technology and innovation, Paula Ingabire, congratulated the startups and described the accelerator as a much-needed milestone for the startup ecosystem. 

The fantastic 9

The selected startups include Kenya’s GrowAgric and Aquarech; Ghana’s Legendary Foods and Spark; Nigeria’s Vetsak Cleva and Gricd; Senegal’s Afrikamart, Morocco’s Sand to Green; and Madagascar and Ghana-based Elucid.

Zoom Out: Katapult’s fund is an innovative intersection of impact and profitablity. All its accepted startups, despite being impact-focused, are on their way to making $1 million in revenue within the next 12 to 18 months. With this strategy, Katapult has minted unicorns, so it’s safe to say these 9 hold significant promise for Africa. 

EVENT: AFRICA TECH FESTIVAL

TechCabal is at the Africa Tech Festival in Cape Town, South Africa. Attendees and speakers include Big Cabal Media CEO Tomiwa Aladekomo, TechCabal’s Head of Newsroom Morris Kiruga, and several members of the TechCabal team. 

The five-day in-person event will cover the topics shaping Africa’s present and future, including our awards ceremony and famous Afest, “Africa’s best party.” 

Register for free here.

IN OTHER NEWS FROM TECHCABAL

The Next Wave: Africa’s power deficit is at odds with its digital economy goals.

Yassir raises $150 million Series B to ramp up Africa and global expansion.

Egypt is set to launch its first satellite for climate monitoring.

OPPORTUNITIES

• Applications are open for the UK Research and Innovation African Research Leaders’ Programme. Talented researchers in sub-Saharan Africa leading quality health research in the region can apply to get up to £750,000 in funding. Apply by December 1.

• The Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme and the Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique of Nairobi are offering a three-month-long fellowship in France for postdoc researchers from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and Eastern Congo (Kivu) who have presented their thesis from 2017. Laureates will receive a monthly stipend of €1,600 at the start of each month. Apply by December 9.

• If your startup or innovation is focused on climate-smart agriculture practices, apply to the THRIVE|Shell Climate-Smart Agriculture Challenge for a chance to win $100,000, a spot in a prestigious accelerator, publicity and more. Apply by December 11.

• Telecel Group’s African Startup Initiative Program is now open for applications. The 10 selected startups will receive €15,000 in cash each and benefits valued at more than €500,000, including credits from AWS, Google Cloud Services, Hubspot, and more. Apply by November 11.

• Applications are now open for Apple’s Entrepreneur Camp. The immersive virtual camp will give founders and developers from underrepresented communities mentorship, technical support and access to the alumni network. Apply by December 5.

• Applications are open for the Association of Commonwealth Universities Emerging Career Conference Grants. There are about 25-40 grants available to emerging researchers and university teachers who need funding to attend virtual or physical conferences. Apply by November 28.

• African Research Leaders 2023 is calling for funding applications from African medical researchers who have completed a PhD and need the support of £750,000 over the course of five years. Apply by December 1.

What else is happening in tech?

• Layoffs: Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is planning to notify employees of large-scale layoffs.

• A hacking group stole $11 million from 12 African countries.

• After laying off half of its staff, Twitter might be asking some employees to come back. 

SHARE THIS EDITION

• 
• 
• 
• 
•