Microsoft Kenya announces that over two thousand three hundred Kenyan graduates and interns will receive Microsoft training and certification by the end of this month.
The initiative by the company is aimed at closing the skills gap. As well as prepare the students for the world of work after college.
The program which started in December 2019 has seen 800 Kenyan graduates and interns trained so far. It is expected to see 1500 more students trained on Soft skills and Microsoft technologies by September 2020.
Martin Ndlovu, Head of Skills Development at Microsoft 4Afrika, notes that ensuring workplace readiness for our young graduates is important in Africa.
“What’s even more important in Africa, given the youth bulge and widening skills gap, is ensuring workplace readiness for our young graduates who are finding that their degree doesn’t quite fit the requirements of 4IR and the digital economy.”
Maurice Oduor, a participant in the programme shares, “the initiative has prepared me to venture into the world of cloud. From here, I plan to invest in my career towards cloud computing and maybe be an evangelist in the future.”
Microsoft is currently running a campaign to recruit graduates to its Student2Business programme in South Africa.
The programme is opened to graduates who have completed a 3yr qualification in IT and Marketing.
Selected persons will be paired with participating organizations, usually, Microsoft Partners to gain workplace exposure. They will also receive training on the latest Microsoft technologies and get certified.
Mulaedza Mathoho is a beneficiary of the programme. He was paired with a Johannesburg-based consulting company as a Junior Data Scientist. Through the programme, he completed two Microsoft certifications, earning globally recognized certificates. Mulaedza shares that he gained invaluable experience in database development, data management and analytics that he can use to further his career.
Click to visit the Microsoft Student2Business programme to apply.
Nokwary Technologies are winners of the 2020 Ecobank Fintech Challenge hosted by the Ecobank Group. The finals of the Ecobank Fintech Challenge took place virtually and streamed live from Accra, Ghana.
Nokwary Technologies, edged out the rest of the finalists to emerge the winner of the competition. The first and second runner-up spots were taken by Ukheshe Payment and Solutions Growth Factor Technologies respectively. The 1st to 3rd place winners will receive cash prizes worth US$10,0000, $7,000, and US$5,000 respectively.
Nokwary Technologies
Nokwary, from Ghana, is a fintech that uses AI to promote financial inclusion. Its AI-Powered banking solution offers an opportunity for users to carry out transactions in a familiar language. They also use popular social media channels like Whatsapp.
Ukheshe
South Africa-based Ukheshe, which came in second, provides a bridge between the card and the cash economy. It has created the world’s first card acceptance platform that allows unbanked merchants/traders to accept and make digital payments.
Growth Factor
Third place, Growth Factor provides trade financing solutions designed for Micro-Small/Medium Entities (MSMEs) to encourage financial inclusion and growth. Its Nvoicia solution solves cash flow issues caused by delayed payments for SMEs. By enabling them to get paid in 24hrs when dealing with credit clients.
Ade Ayeyemi, Ecobank Group CEO, congratulated the winners for their innovation and welcomed all the 2020 fellows. “The quality of the products and pitches we saw in the final this year were amazing. Clearly it is evident that Banking in Africa is moving onto a new dimension with these Fintechs leading the way. That is why we are so proud to have had them in this year’s competition and are excited to engage further with them over the next year. It is our expectation that we will build a few lasting partnerships which will help improve the lives of Africans all over the continent.”
Winning the 2020 Ecobank Fintech Challenge
Dennis Asamoah Owusu, CEO, and Co-founder of Nokwary Technologies commented on his victory: “I was beyond excited. Our company is rather young and to be recognized like this on such a stage was really exciting as well as a validation for our focus on creating inclusive technology right from the start. It is also very encouraging to note that a major bank like Ecobank places such a premium on inclusion and is willing to back and promote innovative and cutting-edge technologies towards that purpose. We are looking to work together with Ecobank to bring an AI-first digital banking platform over WhatsApp, as well as other innovative solutions to Ecobank’s customers.”
This year’s Finalists made it through an extremely competitive pool of over 600 applicants across Africa, Europe, North America, and Asia. All ten (10) finalists have officially been inducted into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship, a one-year program that will give them the opportunity to explore opportunities for commercial partnerships with the Ecobank Group, and to possibly launch and scale products across Ecobank’s 33 country markets in the continent.
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Startup entrepreneurs are working to harness Africa’s potential. Together they represent a critical pipeline of innovation that is driving high growth high impact solutions on the continent. A critical juncture for any startup comes at the seed stage, a financing segment that has experienced significant changes these past months. In this article, we delve into the changing dynamics of seed-stage investing and as VC4A works to recruit startups for the 2020 VC4A Venture Showcase – Seed.
At the pre-seed stage, entrepreneurs are going after their first third party investment, raising $50K to $150K. Often Friends, Family, and Fools (FFF) + public funds in some African countries (for example DER in Senegal, Entrepreneurs of Tunisia, and the Technology Innovation Agency in South Africa), are the only investors at this stage.
Going on to the seed round, entrepreneurs are expected to be selling the product on the market and testing customer response. This is the moment the company needs to raise their first significant ticket and are looking for professional investors to help grow and scale the business. Overcoming these initial fundraises is a challenging test for any entrepreneur.
Tomi Davies, President of ABAN, explains, “Seed stage investment is when a startup has proven its Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and is in the process of finding product-market fit. In Africa, they will typically have revenues in the tens if not hundreds of thousands of USD.”
Overall, seed stage investment on the continent is still growing (see Partech figures) and expanding across more ecosystems in Africa. All active players on the continent see a better quality of startup/entrepreneurs due to A) better mentoring programs in most countries B) an increase of Business Angel networks and C) a new generation of entrepreneurs very open to technologies, with a pan African vision and a willingness to scale fast. That said, seed funding is still insufficient on the continent and concentrated on just a few ecosystems (predominantly Anglophone).
In Africa, the maturity of a startup raising seed funds is arguably higher than in other continents due to the scarcity of capital. For example, a team fundraising pre-seed would be expected to have already built a prototype or even have launched a product or service. Grégoire de Padirac from Orange Ventures adds, “It is nearly impossible to raise with only PowerPoint presentations in emerging countries.” And for all right and wrong, most seed-stage startups on the continent have to demonstrate their resilience (low cash burn), show clear traction, and be generating revenues. Tomi expands, “The expected revenue levels continue to increase and it is unlikely for a startup with less than $100K in revenues to get seed investment nowadays.”
These realities result in a higher threshold for the continent’s entrepreneurs and might also be contributing to the local vs. foreign founder dynamic, where management teams do better when they have their own resources and better access to networks at the earliest stages of venture building. At the same time, incubators and accelerators that have the mandate to prepare startups for their first pre-seed investment, the single most significant KPI, are too often concerned with their own financial sustainability. In reality, many of the incubators and accelerators are playing a numbers game focused on the number of cohorts and the number of companies graduated vs. the quality of support delivered and resources secured. Khaled Ismail of HiM Angels explains, ‘Too many incubators and accelerators fail to provide the mentorship and guidance the startups need at such early stages of formation and when they need it the most’. These are additional pressures on the startups when the road to funding is in actuality longer and more difficult to attain.
Grégoire expands, “the more mature the ecosystems are, the sooner the startup receives funding. In more advanced sectors such as Fintech, startups scale fast and so the valuation and level of maturity are getting close to the European standards.”
Khaled adds, “I still believe that the amount of money available for investment at Seed stage on the Continent is very low in absolute terms and as a % of the money invested in Series A and B. That is causing a distortion to the market and is depriving some good potential startups from growing at an early stage.”
These constraints need to be addressed, given that in every country, there is a growing pipeline with a clearly improving quality year on year. 2019 was by all accounts impressive, where in many ecosystems we saw a wave of new startups and entrepreneurs. For example, the Orange Ventures seed challenge received more than 600 applications from 7 target countries (Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt Jordan). The good quality of the applications was a testament to the tenacity of the continent’s entrepreneurs and their continued efforts to build world-class companies.
The good quality of the applications was a testament to the tenacity of the continent’s entrepreneurs and their continued efforts to build world-class companies.
With this mind, to harness this entrepreneurial talent more can be done:
More Government/DFI support to invest in seed capital instruments and programs (like the DER in Senegal and Entrepreneurs of Tunisia (EOT)) or as investment backing for local seed funds managed by local investors;
Better regulation such as Startup Acts to support local entrepreneurs and investors, where regulation needs to be open and conducive to innovation. Specifically to adjust legislation for startups when looking at issues like Company Registration, Employment Law, Taxation, Intellectual Property Protection and Capital Import/Export rules;
Review government procurement policies to see if they are friendly to startups. Encourage local institutions and corporations to be more active locally (with funding, programs, partnerships, and supply/sourcing contracts) and to open the markets for local startups;
Strengthen local accelerators and incubators, and further train and capacitate the teams in charge of startup programs. Support these programs with a stronger community of mentors and angel investors that can engage with their network, expertise and capital.
At the same time, competition for Series A & B is growing on the continent among VCs. It is key for African focused funds to be more active in Seed or Pre Series A investments to secure their access to the best deals and to maximize their financial return. This is good news for the ecosystem as we continue to see a growing number of investors moving downstream.
In this context, true to its mission to connect entrepreneurs with the knowledge, network, and funding they require to succeed, VC4A adds Seed as a category to the 2020 Venture Showcase. We are calling for 10 African startups looking to raise between $150K and $1M in collaboration with technical partner AWS Activate and network partners Afrilabs and ABAN. The funding/investment range may seem large to many, but reflects the variety of definitions being used across the continent, the growing diversity oft investors themselves, and the ever-growing range in ticket sizes. As a consequence, and to be fair with the applicants, the Seed ventures, assessed by an independent jury of investors, will be put into two different buckets: those seeking to raise less than $350K and those looking to raise more than $350K.
The 10 selected startups will get:
To participate in the VC4A Venture Showcase deal room, including 150+ early-stage investment firms
Professional edited 3-minute virtual pitch videos
30-minute deep-dive sessions with investors in a private room
Mentorship and pitch training by early-stage investor organizations
Amazon Web Services credits from AWS Activate worth $10,000, as well as tools, resources, and more to get started quickly on AWS
To join the Showcase alumni network and gain exclusive access to fundraising opportunities
With this Seed track, VC4A rallies resources and funding for a new generation of startups coming up across the continent. We encourage entrepreneurs to apply before 11 September and investors to refer innovative ventures to Thomas van Halen thomas[at]vc4a[dot]com.
Social media giants Facebook finally launches its Avatars in Africa to give people new ways to express themselves online. The feature was launched last year with global release expected in late 2019 or early 2020.
Avatars are digital personas that allow people to engage across Facebook and Messenger in a more personal and dynamic way. You can use your personalized Facebook avatar to share a range of emotions and expressions via a digital persona that is unique to you.
There are many ways you can use your avatar including in comments, Stories, Messenger and soon, text posts with backgrounds too. With so many emotions and expressions to choose from, avatars let you share your authentic reactions and feelings with family and friends across the app. You can customise your avatar with hairstyles, complexions, outfits, COVID-19 support stickers and more.
To create your avatar, go to the Facebook or Messenger comment composer, click on the “smiley” button, and then the sticker tab. Click “Create Your Avatar”.
“Facebook is home to some of your most personal content and we want to allow people to share and react to that content in the most personalised way possible,” says Nunu Ntshingila, Regional Director, Facebook Africa. “We’re excited to give people more options to convey their identity on Facebook, allowing them to share in a more personal, light-hearted way.”
Avatars include hundreds of global sticker packs and integrations with GIF providers and can also be shared across Facebook and Messenger by:
At the Microsoft Surface Duo press event, Panos Panay, Microsoft Chief Product Officer talks about the device. He also shares in-depth demos, product design and engineering behind the Surface Duo.
A few days ago Microsoft held a private press event to finally outdoor its android powered Surface Duo mobile device. The company announced it last year and invited the developer community to realize its potential with it. The dual-screen mobile device is currently available for preorder.
Speaking about the device, a very pumped and teary Panos shared it has come to life in so many ways. We built it for Surface fans. For people who love Microsoft Office, Teams, Outlook and more critically those who use Android and mobile apps in general.
I can’t stress the number of times he said i love this product [Surface Duo]. Ultimately, in building it, it was about productivity and creativity he shared. Another important thing was, it was designed to fit in the pocket he explains.
I love this product, it’s thin, it’s sleek, … it is probably one of the sexiest devices we’ve built, … it does things single screen devices can’t do period, we know that …
Panos Panay
Microsoft has released the full press event, watch it below.
Let’s know what you think about Microsoft’s re-entry into the Mobile device ecosystem. Do you think dual screens will become a thing?
