MOONSHOT START-UPS TO SCALE-UPS ARE HARD TO FIRST FIND IN AFRICA BUT FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY BOTSWANA STARTUP FEATURES ON THE GOOGLE FOR AFRICA FUND
- Yesterday I caught up with Brastorne Enterprises co-founders over lunch . These two guys are what Simon Sinek speaks about…in a geography where disruptive innovation startups are unfounded you need at least one start-up that sets the tone for what winning looks like so that everyone else follows.Sinek suggests that the law of diffusion of innovation tells us that you have to have between 15 and 18% of a population to accept an idea before you hit the tipping point. So if you cannot get past the first wave of innovators and early adopters, then you will never get to the tipping point.
- Martin Stimela has always been at the pillar of disruptive innovation in Botswana. His co-founder Naledi Magowe similarly. They deserve to be front page of all newspapers in Botswana and to be congratulated directly by the entire startup ecosystem. Them getting into Google is far much to the benefit of Botswana than we all would know. So very key that those who have mandate do it…here is ours to them champagne
.
3. Brastorne (Botswana): Brastorne connects the unconnected in Africa, enabling rural villagers to have access to the digital world without smartphones or data. The Brastorne innovation mAgri . What is mAgri?Connecting the unconnected. mAgri is a USSD mobile application that will help transform the way the farming community interacts. It allows all farmers (including the mostly underserved in remote villages) to market their products and services across the country. This powerful tool will allow service providers, and other users to create their own mobile stores, and allow farmers to search for and compare prices on hundreds of products and services. Using any phone (including simple phones eg sedilame) and from anywhere, these farmers will be connected to updates (news and announcements) from ministry of Agriculture, merchants (BMC, BAMB, Agri Shop etc) other farmers, buyers and sellers both nationally and Internationally. They will also be able to trade between other farmers and merchants and request short term loans from financial institutions, all from the comfort of their homes, creating a comprehensive eco-system within the Agricultural community. To access mAgri, Farmers simply dial *118# on any mobile phone (including a basic phone or sedilame). The service is currently live on Orange. http://www.magri.co.bw/
4. Over $4 billion was invested in African companies in 2021, a 2.5-fold increase over 2020, and the upward trend of hundreds of millions in funding bodes well for 2022. More than $3 billion has been raised by African companies in 2022 despite the economic slump, proving that investors have faith in the vital work being done by African startups and that far more might be accomplished with the right support.
5. Google in Africa is quoted saying they are pleased to announce that 60 additional startups have been selected as beneficiaries of the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund in Africa 2022! This cohort represents 10 African countries , with Botswana joining the program for the first time. Selected startups will receive $100,000 in non-dilutive cash awards, paired with up to $200,000 in Google Cloud credits per startup. The startups will also receive ongoing hands-on business and technical mentorship from Google’s network of mentors and facilitators, learning the best practices on a range of topics from artificial intelligence, organizational culture, people management, to growth strategies and more.
6. Google CEO is also quoted recently announcing their first @googlecloud region in Africa to help businesses accelerate their digital transformation. Plus an update on our $1B investment in Africa, including landing Equiano, our subsea cable, and supporting tech talent + nonprofits. Last year their CEO, Sundar Pichai, announced that Google would invest $1 billion in Africa over the next five years to support a range of initiatives, from improved connectivity to investment in startups, to help boost Africa’s digital transformation.
7. Africa’s internet economy has the potential to grow to $180 billion by 2025–5.2% of the continent’s GDP. To support this growth, over the last year we’ve made progress on helping to enable affordable access and on building products for every African user — helping businesses build their online presence, supporting entrepreneurs spur next-generation technologies, and helping nonprofits to improve lives across the continent.
8. Building more helpful products for Africa: Google also announced plans to open the first African product development centre in Nairobi. The centre will develop and build better products for Africans and the world. Today, we’re launching voice typing support for nine more African languages (isiNdebele, isiXhosa, Kinyarwanda, Northern Sotho, Swati, Sesotho, Tswana, Tshivenda and Xitsonga) in Gboard, the Google keyboard — while 24 new languages are now supported on Google Translate, including Lingala, which is spoken by more than 45 million people across Central Africa. To make Maps more useful, Street View imagery in Kenya, South Africa, Senegal and Nigeria has had a refresh with nearly 300,000 more kilometres of imagery now helping people virtually explore and navigate neighbourhoods. We’re also extending the service to Rwanda, meaning that Street View is now available in 11 African countries.
9. Delivering on their promise: Google has remained committed to working with our partners in building for Africa together, and helping to unlock the benefits of the digital economy for more people by providing useful products, programmes and investments. We’re doing this by partnering with African organisations, businesses and entrepreneurs. “It’s the talent and drive of the individuals in the countries, communities and businesses of Africa that will power Africa’s economic growth”.
We at NGWANA AFRICA and PULA SPACE celebrate this big achievement by one of our own. We remain committed to continue to engage in this space through such model saas startups and their success is our success.
Keep building!
