MASSIVE PARTNERSHIP ANNOUCEMENT BETWEEN STANBIC BANK BOTSWANA AND NGWANA AFRICA- “TECH STARTUPS ARE THE NEW STOCK MARKET IN BOTSWANA”
This is no ordinary partnership- it is driven at highest level of the leadership of stanbic bank Botswana through Mr Samuel Minta- Chief Executive of Stanbic Bank Botswana. This partnership is a result of a futuristic leader and world-class intelligence on how to pioneer the financing of tech industry in Botswana.
To spotlight the whats in it for them and why supporting the future- lets dive into why startups building in Africa need to look into B2B collaborations with corporates;
1. Cooperative Venture Capital is on the rise in Africa — Start-ups in Africa have already raised close to $3bn this year 2021 through 500+ deals, and with almost 600 unique investors involved… And there’s still many more quarters to go! The startup future is now and every economy in Africa should be part of the new tech startup world.
2. The “PreSeries A” is the first significant investment by a venture capitalist or very large investor.
3. Research indicates that corporate venture capital (CVC) is becoming a well-established corporate development activity — one that is continually and increasingly funIn Africa, South Africa has registered some CVC activity from their leading corporates. Naspers, Standard Bank, and Nedbank have each in the past decade set up a CVC arm.ded alongside R&D and M&A.
4. In 2020, CVC-backed funding soared to an all-time high of $73.1 billion according to a CB Insights report, increasing 24% from 2019. GV (formerly Google Ventures), Salesforce Ventures, and Intel Capital topped the list of most active CVCs. Some of these CVCs have already made investments into African startups or those operating across Africa. For example, GV has previously backed Zipline and Tala while Salesforce Ventures counts Andela and Samasource as portfolio companies.
5. In Africa, South Africa has registered some CVC activity from their leading corporates. Naspers, Standard Bank, and Nedbank have each in the past decade set up a CVC arm. Egypt’s Commercial International Bank also launched a CVC in 2018 called CVentures while EFG Hermes set up a joint venture with Egypt Ventures to invest in 10 startups every year. Safaricom Spark Fund, set up in 2014, was Kenya’s first CVC followed by Chandaria Group’s Chandaria Capital in 2017. The latter has investments into Sokowatch, Mobius, TradeDepot, Lynk, Ilara Health, Carry1st, and Kobo360.
6. Despite these efforts, most of Africa’s large corporates still have a vague appreciation of the value that can come from investing in younger and innovative companies. They cannot get themselves to the point where they pull the trigger, even after having internally initiated the conversations. Partly because they are wedded to their traditional performance metrics and lines of business and therefore find it hard to appreciate the strategic value of investing in startups.
7. Assessing the digital startup ecosystem overview for countries in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU proves there is a need to accelerate ongoing initiatives to harmonise regulations for an integrated digital economy in the region by creating a number of regional initiatives to realise an integrated digital economy and facilitate the digital transformation.
8. In countries of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) − Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa that are witnessing a two-speed digital transformation — the SACU digital startup community project can support aspirations in Botswana for a thriving startup ecosystem to develop founder-entrepreneur centric programmes.Supporting such aspirations in Botswana will lead to a thriving startup ecosystem which could potentially lower persistently high unemployment rates.
9. Pionering a startup industry is all about three(3) 3Cs pillars- capital, coaching, community.
10. Startups are the new stock market and futuristic leaders are joining the bandwagon…and this answers the why…Tech is the future. Tech is a new industry. Tech is the new dividend for Botswana.
Copyright- Mooketsi Bennedict Tekere
