Growths in Africa’s tech industry: Between 2016 and 2018, Africa’s tech industry grew by 50% while countries like Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, and a few others are listed as the most thriving in Africa’s tech industry.
From 2018 to date, a lot has happened!
Gone are those days when Africa was viewed as a continent of ‘potential scammers’ and a hub of poor people. Of course, we still have a lot to do in making African countries meet up with the world’s giants and that’s what technology has been doing for us.
Africa’s tech industry has been making waves in recent times and the world has come to realize these improvements. making them invest in our business ideas and innovations.
According to Briter Bridges, “Technology is the next big thing in Africa”.
Let’s talk about the top 10 growths we have seen in Africa’s tech industry over the last 10 years;
The Unicorns
A unicorn is any startup that is valued at or more than One Billion US Dollars ($1Bn).
About ten years ago Africa had no single unicorn. But, in recent times the continent could account for more than seven great unicorns. This does not only signify growth, but it also spells a prosperous future for upcoming startups.
The 9 unicorns operating in Africa are as follows:
- Jumia: A eCommerce giant across Africa, launched in 2012 and is valued at $1bn
- Fawry: The first unicorn in Egypt, currently valued at $2bn
- Esusu: A wealth tech startup from Nigeria operating in the US is currently valued at $1bn
- Interswitch: Nigeria’s digital payments king, currently valued at $1bn
- Flutterwave: Founded in 2016 by Olugbenga Agboola (“GB”) and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Flutterwave is valued at $1bn
- Andela: A startup that connects talents with companies founded in 2014 is valued at $1.5bn
- Wave: Wave not “Flutterwave” is a mobile money provider from Senegal, valued at $1.7bn
- Opay: A Nigerian-owned fintech company currently valued at $2bn
- Chipper cash: Another Fintech startup founded by Ugandan and Ghanian tech guys is valued at $2bn
It happened so fast, right? Well, expect more Unicorns from Africa as the continent is massively utilizing technology to solve problems.
Silicon Savannah
The world respects Silicon Valley as a tech city where ideas and innovations are brought to life.
Well, in the last decade, Africa has had its own tech cities. Almost all tech giants like Google, Facebook, Netflix, Twitter, Microsoft, and Apple have all opened offices in Africa.
This is a strong signal that the world is seeing growth in Africa’s tech industry and economy.
It is notable that silicon savannah is but one corner of Africa’s tech movement. Oh, Silicon Valley is still a renowned tech city we still don’t have yet in Africa.
But let me gist you;
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji of Future Africa, and the co-founder of two of the unicorns listed above (Flutterwave and Andela), is currently building one! Yes, he is building Africa’s first tech city, just like Silicon valley.
It’s just day 1, expect more growth in Africa’s tech industry.
Teledensity
Teledensity simply means telephone density. It is a measurement of the percentage of people with telephones in a country.
I remember when I was in secondary school (about 8 years ago), few of us had mobile phones and mobile phones then were 98% “button phones or Java phones” as they were called.
But recently, the story has changed! The continual increase in teledensity in Africa shows how Africans are fast embracing technology.
Teledensity in Africa has increased from 63% – 107% in the last decade. This is equivalent to over 43 million new users. The Trend is replicated across the continent.
The Mobile Ecosystem
Do you remember when you had to take valuable stuff to the post office because you wanted to send it to someone in another city? Well, I don’t know.
But I remember we used to write letters and send them to a family member through someone traveling. The increase in teledensity solves this as you can email or send messages to anybody anytime via messengers like WhatsApp.
Aside from the fact that people are using mobile phones to communicate, it is affecting every area of our life. The continent has seen growth in the adoption of tech-enabled mobile applications in areas like money transfers (Fintechs), e-commerce, agriculture, entertainment, and many more.
You don’t need to waste your money and time just in the bank just because you want to send or withdraw money, you don’t need to visit a theater or buy discs before you see a movie and many other things that technology has made possible in the continent.
Africa now rivals any other part of the world in the adoption of enterprises and innovations being created on mobile.
Tech Talent and Potential
Africa relied majorly on industrialization, education, and the “grace of God” before someone could make it. But with the growth in Africa’s tech industry, we have many other options!
An article published in The Wall Street Journal by Gary Beach says by 2025, every Chief Information Officer will hire talents from Africa.
Africa has grown a lot in the availability of talents in the continent. African developers can compete even at the global level. Africa is emerging as a significant source of software engineering talent.
Africa is a continent of over one billion people, but the most impressive fact is that Africa is the third world’s youngest continent in the world with more people falling in the age range of 16 to 24 years old. And these GenZs are adopting one or more technical skills.
Tiffany Nash calls Africa India 2.0 and this is true. She says “the talent potential of Africa 2015 is similar to the talent potential of India in 1995”.
Quick reminder: India was the world’s capital of poverty, but no longer. Nigeria is now the capital poverty of the world.
But what helped India scale through, and become one of the countries with the biggest economy in the world? Tech!
With the increase in tech talents in Africa building and shipping products, Kenya, an African country is able to make it to the top list of Global competitive report 2015-2016 topping India!
Jeremy Johnson, the co-founder of Andela (an African unicorn startup that connects talents with companies) said “There are a staggering number of extraordinarily bright people (in Africa) who just don’t have a path to the global economy”.
Yes, talents and potentials are fast increasing in Africa over the last decade, thanks to startups like Andela, Turing, Tunga, TalentQL, and many others connecting them to the world.
This, of course, shows growth in the African tech industry because a few years ago, how many people know about writing code in Africa? Very few.
Growth of talent accelerators
With the increase of talents in Africa, we need to connect them to the “global economy” according to Jeremy of Andela. But who is going to help us?
The good news, is we don’t need to rely on a “foreign” freelancing marketplace where getting jobs is like gambling, you can win or not.
Talent accelerators like Andela, Decagon, AltSchool, Univelcity, and more aim to create pathways for careers in tech in Africa. These programs are helping to turn Africa into a source of global talent in tech.
If you are a total beginner and want to get into tech, we have accelerators for starters too. We have the likes of Zuri.team (Start.ng and HNG internship), Kodecamp, SideHustle, and many others.
African Women in Tech
Do you remember when they used to say “(African) women belong in the kitchen”…?
Well, the story has changed as we have more African women disrupting the tech ecosystem in Africa. Among them, we have CEOs, Co-founders, and executives of Startups. For instance, we have Ire Aderinokun of Buycoins Africa (Helicarrier Studio), Jumoke Dada of Taiello, Miishe Andy of JetStream Africa, and many more women doing amazing things in Africa’s tech industry. (Check this article on Benjamindada.com about 40 outstanding African women in tech)
According to UNESCO, the percentage of African women in tech is 30% which is more than the global percentage of 28%. This growth comes from a coordinated action to involve women and girls in tech on the continent.
Gen Z in Africa’s Tech
Generation Z (Gen Z) is classified as those born between 1997- 2012. This generation unlike other generations before them are digital natives i.e first generation does not live a life without technological devices. Technology has afforded Gen Zers different learning styles and tools.
In a continent like Africa where 60% of the population are Gen Zs, they have been able to use tech to do things that no other generation before them could; thereby putting Africa in the limelight regarding technology.
Few African Gen Zs disrupting the tech industry includes but are not limited to:
- @njokuscript – CEO of Lazarpay (19 years old)
- @eni4sure – GenZ techies and Frelapay (18 years old)
- @heypleasant – CEO of Zeddpay and Aeroseeds Africa (17 years old)
- @Nathan – CEO of Klas (18 years old)
We have a lot of Gen Zs who are building low-key while some others are working with big companies across the world.
Building a product in this age requires at least considering these GenZs.
Tech in Africa’s Education
Covid-19 hits the world, and we are still feeling the impact to date. Countries like the USA, China, and other big countries in the world had little to no fear about how their education will be affected because they have a working system.
Most African countries also have made advanced progress in education with the help of technology. We have ed-Tech startups like Edukoya, uLession, and some others who focus on teaching students online on various levels, just download the app and you are good to go!
Technology has made a great deal in modern education in Africa and still breaking great walls and making headways.
Tech in Africa’s business
In Africa where 80% of the career opportunities are informal, tech has helped in digitizing informal trade with tools to support logistics, management, and operations for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises.
These Growths and many more will serve as a guide to project into Africa’s future. Among the 30 fastest growing cities in technology, 21 of them are in Africa. The International Finance Corporation estimates that by 2030 there will be 230 million jobs that require a reasonable level of digital skill.
BONUS
The health sector has seen improvement with the rate at which med-Tech startups are increasing. If you need assistance in the area of health or health insurance, you don’t really need to start looking for doctors or medical professionals who are busy in their hospitals, just take your mobile phone and visit platforms like Healthtracka, Famasi, Cassava, Reliance HMO and many other MedTech startups in Africa.
Conclusion: 10 Growth in Africa’s Tech Industry
Imagine what the growth in Africa’s tech industry in the next 10 years will be… It’s going to be massive right?
Yeah, technology is fast growing in Africa today. If you are an African, this is a call for you to get into tech to be part of those making impacts and driving our continents to the world. You don’t need to quit whatever you are doing right now, you can use tech to make it more note-worthy.
If you are thinking of learning a skill that would catapult you into tech, check these digital skills mentioned here.
If you are not an African, bet on African talents and you will not regret it.
Cheers to the next 10 years of us celebrating more growth in Africa’s tech industry ?
Building a successful startup requires a lot of steps but a major one is finding the right co-founder or co-founders. Compared to marketing, financing and other particular factors in creating a successful business, finding the right co-founder is quite a herculean task.
If you are not lucky to find the right co-founder, then your startup is dead already unless you get the perfect one as soon as possible.
Some people are so selfish that they don’t want anybody to join hands with them as executives in building a business, they want to have 100% ownership of the startup. If you have this kind of mentality, you should rethink or start a small business and take full control of it.
But if you are thinking of building the next unicorn, then you need people to work with you.
In this blog post, you will learn how to can find the right co-founder that will help you build that idea in your head. But before we dive into the nitty-gritty of finding the perfect co-founder, let’s answer these 3 important questions:
- Who is a co-founder?
- Why do I need a co-founder?
- What are the qualities of the right co-founder?
Who is a Co-Founder?
According to Indeed.com, a co-founder is a member of the executive team who played a role in the founding of a company. This person typically works with other founders to create and launch a business.
You know that a founder is someone with the idea of a business. But due to the fact that no one is an island of knowledge, oftentimes a founder may not have enough funds to finance the idea, or the human resources required to bring the idea to reality. That’s when the idea of having a co-founder comes in.
A co-founder works hand-in-hand with the founder to establish the business and make it successful.
This means that it is possible for a company to have both a founder and co-founder(s) if the business idea came from one person and the other just came later to implement it. In another light, if two or more people put their heads together to formulate the business idea, then they are all co-founders.
A co-founder Vs a CEO
A co-founder may or may not be the CEO. A CEO is the Chief Executive Officer, which means that a CEO is the acting leader of the organization. Most times a founder/co-founder is also the CEO but sometimes a more experienced CEO is hired. Also, a hired CEO does not necessarily take the title of the co-founder since they may not actually take part in building the platform.
The job of a CEO is to coordinate and lead the team, create goals and targets, communicate with other entities, and shareholders, access risks, and so on. So basically the roles of a co-founder and CEO matter but one person can still hold the same title.
Why Do I Need a Co-Founder?
In founding a startup, you can decide to do it solo but it is much better to have a helping hand. The following are a few reasons why you may need to consider having a co-founder:
Being a solo founder is stressful
Starting a business is not an easy task. You will experience a reasonable amount of pressure In trying to put everything in place. The process; ranging from writing code, down to marketing, is not going to be a piece of cake. Sure you might have other employees to share the workload with you but there is a limit to where employees can help you that’s why you need a partner.
Brainstorming
“Two heads are better than one.” There will come a time when you might get stuck and need someone to help you up. Note that there is a difference between an advisor and a partner. You might get external advice, fine but you can’t expect someone that is not in it with you to actually know exactly what you need.
Emotional support
In starting up a business you’re in some kind of emotional roller-coaster due to the ups and downs. In this situation, you need someone to share the burden.
In this situation, a close friend or family member will not give you the kind of support you need at that time and to your employees, well you’re their boss and there’s a limit. So, you need a partner.
Think about finances and VCs
Building a startup can be pretty expensive and chances of raising funds or getting donations when you don’t have your product or the prototype ready yet are pretty low. The opportunity of working with a co-founder allows you to share the early costs of the business.
Recommended: YCombinator startup application guide
Besides, it’s very rare to find investors investing in a one-man business. If you’re concerned about your equity, think of this. Would you rather have 100% equity in a company worth $30,000 or 50% equity in a company worth $100,000?
The record of successful companies
Looking at a list of the most successful unicorns in the history of startups like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook, to mention a few. They all had co-founders when they first started. Although, many people forget this point because as time goes on the company gets associated with one particular person, especially the CEO who usually becomes prominent and famous.
For example when we think of Microsoft – Bill Gates, Facebook – Mark Zuckerberg. But, when we look into the earliest stages we would realize that they were co-founders. This should give a kind of insight into what pattern to follow as to choosing a co-founder or not.
What are the qualities of a good co-founder?
Now that you’re convinced you really need a co-founder, don’t stand jumping into the river without knowing how deep it is. I mean, you don’t select just anybody to be your co-founder.
Bill Gates and his co-founder, Paul Allen
There are some important criteria that the person you would want to consider as a co-founder must possess. Remember that you’re not aiming at a short-term relationship. Let’s take a look at some of them.
The skill
One of the mistakes people make in choosing a co-founder is choosing someone with the same skills they have. You should be looking for someone who is skilled in the areas you are not very skilled in.
If you’re good at building the product and writing the codes then ideally you should have a co-founder who is good at marketing, talking to users, and getting customers.
If you are going to have a team of co-founders you should be looking for varied skill sets not a group of duplicates.
Similar core values and vision
Your co-founder should be of a like mindset. If your vision is to take your business to the global stage then your co-founder has to understand and believe in it. If you have a can-do attitude and an always-ready spirit you most likely wouldn’t want someone who believes in taking things slowly and one at a time.
Although people have different ways of doing things that work differently for different people, you need a co-founder whose views go alongside yours or are at least very similar.
Realistic
Your co-founder should be someone who understands how businesses work. Not someone who thinks you will start making profits immediately after you start the business. An unrealistic co-founder will lose interest quite easily when their fantasies are not met.
Other qualities the right co-founder should include:
- A co-founder should be trustworthy
- S/he should be committed to the goal as you
- The co-founder should always be ready to adapt to new changes
- Ability to handle conflict and stress
- Such co-founders should be creative with ideas
Now to the bigger question, “How can I find the right co-founder?”.
When looking for the right co-founder, the best place to start looking is among people you already know, your co-worker or your course-mate or close friends. That is of course if you can find someone with the skills you are looking for.
And even if you can’t find a suitable person in your social circle, it’s okay. Just check the steps align below to know how you can get the right partner for you.
5 Ways to Find the Right Co-founder for your Startup
Explore your social circle
If you don’t have someone who has the skills you are looking for in your social circle then why don’t you try expanding your circle? Who knows, someone you know might actually know someone, who probably knows someone with the skillset or experience you’re looking for.
You could make a list of your tech friends then ask each one of them if they know someone with some particular set of skills and then make a list of those people they tell you. If you still can’t find someone suitable ask those new people you’ve been introduced to if they know someone.
That way, if you only have ten people on your lists and each of them tells you about ten persons each, bingo you have one hundred people you can ask to be your co-founder. Gradually, you have a lot of choices of people to choose from.
You can also use social networks like Twitter and LinkedIn to check for the type of co-founder you need and reach out to them.
Attend & Network at tech events
Another cool and popular way of finding co-founders is by attending events, meetups, and hackathons. Go out and actually meet people. You can look up these events where you think you’ll find a lot of relevant people that can have what you need.
This tech event includes the famous Google developer events, Open source communities like OSCA Fest, the tech seminars going on around you or you can look up Meetup.com. They have a website where you can find meetups all over the world and you can find the one close or relevant to you.
The essence of having a meetup or tech event is to learn together and network, but most time, people go to these events to snap pictures and have fun, and maybe you have been one of those people too. Well, the next tech event you will be attending should be to find a potential co-founder for your startup.
I know it’s not easy to network with a stranger especially if you are an introvert like me, but then, if you can’t talk or strike up a conversation with a person, how are you going to tell people about what you are building or build and why they need to use it?
So you have to start practicing now, imagine yourself pitching your startup idea to an investor, swallow the shyness and get that right co-founder!
Use co-founder matching platforms
There are quite a number of matchmaking platforms for startups out there. These platforms have nobody than those with ideas but looking for a co-founder, or someone without an idea but would like to become a co-founder to someone with a startup idea.
Some co-founder matching platforms to consider
- YC Cofounder Matching
- StartupAgents
- Techstars Startup Weekend
- CoFoundersLab
- Founders-Nation
- Founders2Be
- etc.
These platforms can be really helpful because they are majorly for finding co-founders so if you are looking for that perfect co-founder, then you should definitely check them out.
Online forums
Forums may not actually be created for finding co-founders, but you can make use of ones that have a lot of traffic. For example, Reddit, Quora, and Discord have groups dedicated to finding co-founders and they are loaded with people which means you definitely should check them out.
Also, these forums are international and you tend to meet people from different geographical locations so if you are interested in finding a co-founder with a different background to probably expand your horizon or your business then you should definitely use these forums.
Universities (or colleges)
Maybe you’ve probably read online that Bill Gates met his co-founder, Paul Allen in the late 1960s at Seattle’s Lakeside School when he was in eighth grade, Mark Zuckerberg met Eduardo Saverin at Harvard university and they both launched Facebook in 2004.
If we come to Nigeria, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi who founded Paystack met in school. The three founders of Jobberman.com, the largest job listing website in Africa met each other at Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU
Another very helpful way of finding a co-founder is going to a college or university. This is actually very helpful in finding the perfect set of skills you need. For example, you need someone with business and marketing skills; go to a business school, attend their entrepreneur events and get to know people with the exact skill you need.
A piece of advice on finding the right co-founder
Watch before you leap, and not “surface watching”
In finding a co-founder it is important to note that you probably shouldn’t walk up to someone and say let’s start a company together. It is more advisable that if your potential co-founder isn’t someone you’re not sure you can work with, start by building probably a simple project together.
This way you get to see how devoted they are to work if you’re okay working with them and other basic stuff. It is also important not to rule out someone as a potential co-founder if they are only lacking simple learnable skills.
If you get someone who is ready to learn and open to improvement but lacks maybe that skill that can be learned easily, it is better to consider that person than someone who has all the skills but is not open to improvement or corrections.
Avoid future problems, agree on equity spilt immediately
Another important thing to do is the agree beforehand on the equity split. You both should agree on how the profit is going to be shared. Most times it’s 50:50 but you and your co-founder may have other plans.
Although sometimes you may have been working on the business idea before your co-founder comes on board but it’s still okay to make it 50:50 or something very close to that. But then, you guys must agree on it, either it should be 50/50 or 60/40 but a co-founder must have over 10% equity.
Agree on the titles
You should agree on who’s going to be the CEO of the company. The CEO title should be given to the person who would most likely be talking to customers and investors.
If you would like to be the CEO, then you absolutely shouldn’t co-found with someone who also wants to be the boss to definitely avoid future conflicts… Two captains can’t sail a ship unless you want to subscribe for an accident.
But wait…
You might also be thinking, “if I have a nice business idea, should I wait till I find a co-founder or should I just really go for it?” The answer is yes. If you have the idea and you’re really confident about it then go ahead. You should start building and also be on the lookout for a co-founder while in the process.
Sometimes you might not even get anyone to be a co-founder if they don’t believe in your idea but the fact that you’re already building and they can actually see your plan in action is a good way of attracting the perfect co-founder.
Conclusion: Finding the right co-founder
Once you find the right person and you have both agreed on the important things that have been mentioned above, It is also important to legalize things. You definitely won’t do that at the start of your company but when things start becoming big, then you should definitely have a legal agreement.
With the helpful suggestions above, you have everything you need to know about finding the right co-founder, and good luck in building the next unicorn, we can’t wait to see what solution you’re bridging to the world.
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