| Get rewarded for saving!. Join the Backup Cash 21 Day Savings Challenge to win amazing cash prizes of N250,000 and more. For details on how to join, follow @mybackupcash on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter (T & C’s Apply). Backup Cash is backed by SFS Capital and powered by Paystack.
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| Jumia and Transsion, two of Africa’s largest tech businesses had their IPOs in 2019. But their fortunes have largely gone in opposite directions since. While Jumia has seen an 80% fall in share prices since it attained its post-IPO peak of $46.99, Transsion has relatively fared well on China’s STAR market. For TechCabal, Muyiwa places both listings side by side and analyses what the future of these public companies hold on the backdrop of fiercer competition and economic dynamics. |
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| Dangote Cement has signed a deal with General Electric to digitize its plants. General Electric will install an Asset Performance Management (APM) solution at its plants in Obajana (North-central Nigeria) and Ibese (South-west Nigeria) to improve power supply efficiency and help extend the life span of the plants. Director, Operations, Dangote Cement, Ravi Sood said the deal was necessary because power supply is a key input and a major cost in the company’s manufacturing process. APM will monitor the performance of Dangote Cement’s power generation assets to reduce downtime, avoid turbines damage and remotely predict and resolve issues. |
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| Last week, TechCabal got the scoop that virtual reality lab, Imisi 3D, will begin piloting maths lessons with virtual reality at a public school in Lagos, Nigeria. For the current phase of the project, about twenty-five Oculus Go VR headsets will be available for students to learn the mathematics module. The VR lessons have been created to lighten the burden of teachers so that their presence won’t be required while students use the devices to learn. Alex has the full gist here. |
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| Jumia Kenya has renewed its partnership with the Postal Corporation of Kenya. Under the partnership, Jumia’s customers will be able to pick their deliveries from different postal outlets across the country. The E-commerce company renewed the deal ahead of its annual Black Friday promo where it typically sees a surge in order transactions. The Postal Corporation of Kenya currently operates 625 postal outlets and serves about 70,000 people per outlet according to Postmaster General, Dan Kagwe. |
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| On Wednesday, October 30 at #StartupSouth5, the largest startup and tech conference in South-South and South-East Nigeria, TechCabal will hold a media and PR workshop for early-stage startups and SME. The workshop which holds in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State will teach founders and entrepreneurs practical ways to approach media and publicity endeavours, especially on a lean budget. The workshop is for entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs, communications and media managers, entrepreneurship support companies and anyone curious about tech publications. To attend, register here. |
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| Also at #StartupSouth5, on the 31st of October, TechCabal will hold a fireside chat with Funke Opeke, CEO of MainOne. Join the TechCabal team at the chat to learn about deepening broadband penetration within Nigeria’s South-South/South-East region and beyond as well as MainOne’s recent projects regarding this in the country. Join the conversation and send us questions for Ms Opeke here. |
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| Nigeria’s National Automotive Design and Development Council is calling for applications into its 2019 Automotive Design Challenge. Participants are required to submit design entries for an Intra-city Mini Taxi and/or Cost-effective Mini Tractor. Learn more and apply here before December 5 if you are a Nigerian citizen residing in the country. |
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The next edition of the TechCabal Townhall is here! TC Townhall: Edtech & the Future of Work will hold on November 29, 2019, we are bringing together regulators, government agencies, investors, entrepreneurs, NGOs, social enterprises and schools to set a strong agenda about how to use technology to leapfrog Africa’s education challenges and prepare our citizens for future jobs. If you would like to attend the townhall, please fill this form and we’ll keep you updated with the agenda.
We are also putting together a map of the African edtech industry. If you have an edtech startup or you are a technology company doing significant work in the industry we would like to hear from you. Please fill this form. |
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| According to a TechPoint report, IrokoTV has begun the process for a 2021 IPO. Quoting a source, the report says the video-on-demand company is planning to list on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). While founder, Jason Njoku’s recent tweets and this June Medium post suggest that he’s been researching IPO and exit opportunities, it is difficult to say whether the company is now at the stage where it can go public. In another Medium post about the next step after it sold its ROK Studio assets, Jason wrote that the company will explore an IPO on the LSE when it reaches 1 million+ subscribers with a target valuation north of $100m+. “This will most likely be in 2022, where our revenue would be $20m+ with operating margins of <$1m (or possibly negative)”, Jason wrote. The company had 65,000 subscribers as of 2016 when it raised $19 million from Canal Plus and other investors.
The pre-float preparation for admission to the LSE can take a few years, about 36 months before admission, while the listing process itself is about 6 months. It generally makes sense to begin pre-float preparation from now if one is targeting a 2022 IPO but given Jason’s growth targets and his admission that the road to 1 million subscribers is tough, is IrokoTV now ready for an IPO? Or is this just a continuation of his inquiry into exit opportunities? |
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| Orange has launched its innovation hub in Dakar, Senegal, the company’s second digital centre in Africa and the Middle East. The hub will house Orange’s strategic programmes including coding school, Solidarity FabLab, Orange Fab and Orange Digital Ventures Africa, its investment fund. It will focus on helping young people acquire digital skills and will also support entrepreneurs, |
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| A bottle of coke (50cl) costs 6,000 leones in Sierra Leone. The country’s exchange rate is about $1 to 9,800 leones. Fuad thinks the easiest way to become a millionaire is to find your way there after he spent 618,000 per night for a hotel room. The #JollofRoad team is currently in its 6th country and on day 35 of the journey. Visit jollofroad.com every day to catch up on all the stories from the road! |
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| Airtel Africa has partnered with Finablr, a global payments & foreign exchange solutions platform to allow customers to send money from over 100 countries into Airtel Money mobile wallets across Africa. The services are expected to be launched market-by-market in a phased manner, with the first country to go live by year-end. |
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| Early-stage fintech accelerator DFS Lab and The Subtext are organising a 5-part course about the opportunities in African Fintech. Learn more about the course and sign up here. |
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| Uber and Bolt drivers in South Africa have accused a new ride-hailing platform, Yo! Taxi of intimidation. The drivers staged a protest saying that Yo! drivers tried to buy them off, an allegation the latter has denied. Yo! has partnered with a number of taxi associations across the country and it aims to allow metered taxi drivers to compete with Uber and Bolt. Traditional, metered taxis remain a threat to ride-hailing platforms in South Africa and beyond. |
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Thanks for reading,
Have a great week. See you tomorrow.
– Olanrewaju
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