👨🏿‍🚀 TechCabal Daily – Investing $6 billion in Africa

CRYPTO MARKET: COINBASE FACES HEAT IN THE US

Bitcoin	$23,145	+ 9.58%
Ethereum	$1,643	+ 14.75%
BNB	$268	+ 6.63%
Solana	$39.84	+ 10.86%
Cardano	$0.50	+ 10.04%
Name of the coin Price of the coin 24-hour percentage change		Source: CoinMarketCap

* Data as of 05:40 AM WAT, July 28, 2022.

Crypto is down, and the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) is going down hard on crypto exchange platforms. 

Over the past few days, the SEC has launched 2 investigations against the platform. First, it’s investigating Coinbase product manager Ishan Wahi, his brother Nikhil Wahi, and his friend Sameer Ramani for insider trading. Basically, the SEC says Wahi alerted his brother and friend with updates on which cryptocurrencies were going live on Coinbase. These tips reportedly led to gains of over $1.1 million. 

More recently, the SEC appears to be launching another investigation into how the platform is listing digital assets that aren’t registered with the SEC. 

So far, Coinbase has denied any wrongdoings with chief legal officer Paul Grewal stating, “We are confident that our rigorous diligence process—a process the SEC has already reviewed—keeps securities off our platform, and we look forward to engaging with the SEC on the matter.”

NIGERIA’S HOUSE OF REPS PASSES STARTUP BILL

Yesterday, the Nigeria Startup Bill (NSB) passed the third reading at the House of Representatives. 

This news comes exactly a week after the bill was passed by the Senate and passed to the House of Reps. With the passing of the third reading at the House of Reps, the bill has now completed its round at the National Assembly. A concurrence has been reached on the bill, and all that’s left for the bill to become law is President Muhammadu Buhari’s nod. 

Of the 3 objectives of the bill, the most critical is bridging the engagement gap between startups and regulators and ensuring that harmful regulations that harm Nigeria’s tech ecosystem are shut down. 

Is a Presidential Assent possible?

A year after its creation, the bill may be nearing its end as the only step remaining for the bill to become law is the presidential assent, which must occur within 30 days. 

It is likely that Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari will assent to the bill given the bill’s history. The Nigerian presidency created the bill, in collaboration with 30 tech leaders including Ventures Platform founder Kola Aina and Future Africa founder Iyin Aboyeji, NITDA officials, and the minister of digital economy Isa Pantami.

President Muhammadu Buhari passed the bill to the National Assembly earlier this year. In an instance where the president vetoes the bill and refuses to give his assent, the two legislative houses—the Senate and House of Reps—can recall the bill and pass it into law, even without the president’s assent. 

Nigeria’s tech ecosystem may have an even brighter future ahead of it. 

THE UK’S BII TO INVEST $6 BILLION IN AFRICA

Despite the global economic downturn, investors are still making big bets on Africa, even government investors.

The UK’s development finance arm British International Investment (BII) plans to invest $6 billion in Africa over the next 5 years. The funding will be invested in various forms including debt and equity financing.

Where will the investments go?

The BII is interested in climate technology.

CEO of BII, Nick O’Donohoe, specifically noted that over the next 5 years, at least 30% of the value of BII’s total new commitments will be in climate finance. This is great news for South Africa as the country has been making significant efforts to attract funding for its clean energy transition. BII will also invest in renewable energy, digital infrastructure and women-owned businesses. The BII investment will be determined by the size and development needs of the economy. Aside from South Africa, countries that are in strong consideration include Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Kenya. 

In addition, BII plans to invest in funds. It will contribute $76 million to the $500 million African Infrastructure Investment Fund being backed by South African equity fund Old Mutual. 

No slice for African governments

Curiously, government-owned BII’s $6 billion dollar funding is unavailable to government-owned businesses or projects. The funding is limited to the private sector and there are no comments about why from the BII.

Prior to this, the BII has made significant equity investments in African companies like fibre company Liquid Intelligent Technologies and power producer Globeleq. 

THE FASHION KINGDOM IS NOW $2.6M RICHER

The Fashion Kingdom sounds like an interesting city where everyone is highly fashionable and suave. In reality, however, it’s trademarked as an e-commerce startup focused on digitising Egypt’s fashion business.

Fashion-only e-commerce? 

The Fashion Kingdom (TFK) has narrowed its e-commerce play to the fashion industry, where it claims to be solving systemic problems in the way fashion brands have been selling online. 

What problems? Well, TFK is helping brands on its platform with digital services like marketing, photography, content creation, and efficient customer support. 

It also helps brands to know details about their customers’ sizes and preferences, so they can help customers choose the right fits for occasions. Think of it as a standby virtual wardrobe support. 

TFK to the moon

TFK’s $2.6 million investment is the company’s first round of raising money since its inception in 2020. However, investors have expressed confidence in TFK’s numbers, which have exceeded average industry standards. 

For example, the startup tripled its sales volume between April 2021 and April 2022, and it has maintained 150,000 monthly sales with a customer repeat rate of 40%.

The bling picture: The e-commerce market in Africa is going through the roof. In the past 3 years, we’ve seen tech unicorns, logistics companies, and even fintechs enter the e-commerce space. What we have not seen so much of, though, are niche-specific e-commerce players. Statista projects the global fashion e-commerce market valuewill reach $1.2 trillion by 2025. While there aren’t many notable niche-specific e-commerce players in Africa, we can argue that TFK is tapping into a global e-commerce trend that could see a proper explosion of e-commerce on the continent.

PAYGATE MERCHANTS GET SAMSUNG PAY

Africans aren’t running out of payment options anytime soon. South African payment gateway PayGate, is partnering with Samsung Pay to offer its online merchants another payment option.

How it works

To use this new shiny payment method to make purchases online from a PayGate-supported merchant, you need to add a bank card to your PayGate account on your Samsung Galaxy device. 

You will only have to input your real financial information once instead of resharing it for new in-app or web transactions. For security, the actual card information is never stored on the Samsung phone or on Samsung Pay servers. Instead of the card number, a unique token is generated for each transaction. The transactions will be authenticated and authorised by your fingerprint or PIN on your Samsung device. 

So kinda like Apple Pay?

 Yes, like Apple Pay.

Which banks support this partnership with Samsung Pay?

Currently, Samsung Pay supports 1,000+ banks and credit unions globally. In South Africa, it is integrated with a number of banks, including Absa Bank, Capitec Bank, Discovery Bank, FNB, Investec, Nedbank, RMB Private Bank and Standard Bank. They all support this partnership PayGate has with Samsung Pay.

IN OTHER NEWS FROM TECHCABAL

MetroFibre Networx has secured R5 billion (~$297 million) in debt financing from Standard Bank to expand its fibre-optic data network rollout across the country.

Here’s how you can use Twitter’s new Umention feature to untag yourself from any tweet. 

OPPORTUNITIES

• The Founder Institute Lagos Accelerator is now open to applications. The three-month accelerator programme is perfect for early-stage founders who want to learn how to get traction and funding. Apply by July 31.

• Snapchat’s Snap 523 Accelerator Programme is now open to applications from black content creators. Twenty-five selected creators will receive $10,000 per month for 12 months and a Google Pixel 7 Pro. Apply by August 12.

• The Future Rural Africa’s Female Researchers Grant 2022 is now open to applications to female African researchers who want to gain more visibility and expand their network. Up to €5,000 ($5,300) will be awarded to select participants. Apply by July 31. 

What else is happening in tech?

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