Pulaspace.com Year End Memo 2024
Year End Memo 2024
Hello all. As is customary for us at Pulaspace, we are reviewing the year ended and looking forward to next year with renewed conviction. Our year-end memo is an opportunity to update our community and the public on developments and activities undertaken by Pulaspace within the year and peeking into the new year.
Who we are and what we do
Pulaspace is a holding entity comprising Pulaspace Capital, Ngwana Africa, Spaghetti Valley Startup House and Pulaspace.com, dedicated to supporting African startups on their growth journey by providing access to funding, investment readiness training, mentorship, and access to markets through our partnerships with governments and regulators, among others.
Pulaspace Capital is a proposed seed-stage micro-venture capital fund focused on African tech startups. Ngwana Africa is a startup incubator program focused on supporting early-stage startups in Southern Africa, Spaghetti Valley Startup House is our venture studio, while Pulaspace.com is a digital platform that connects African startups looking to raise funds with investors.
2024 In Retrospect
We continued efforts towards raising a US$10 million fund to invest directly in African startups from underserved ecosystems solving hard problems in growing markets. Some of these startups are mostly from different cohorts, we have incubated through Ngwana Africa, some from applications on Pulaspace.com and others inbound from VCs at later stages who believed we were in a better position to support such early-stage startups. In a down market, this has been a herculean task for would be first time fund managers.
However, engaging with potential LPs has been insightful. Conversations with potential LPs has validated our conviction on the need to reevaluate the fundamental bargains African VCs make with LPs on the size and timeline of returns. While the lack of success has been discouraging, the performance of startups we spotted early and supported across the continent has been invigorating. Some of these startups like Plexilife, O Hospital, Ipachi Capital, Apexloads, Mpost, etc. have gone on to raise funding, get into global accelerator programmes like Baobab and Techstars and expand into new jurisdictions. Hence, we are still in the market looking to raise and have been encouraged by some very positive engagements with potential LPs, especially development finance institutions. If you are an LP with funds to deploy, kindly reach out.
As part of our strategic vision to leverage programmes in supporting startups within our network, we organized and participated in some programmes within the year.
Most significantly, we organised the Global Entrepreneurship Week 2024 in partnership with Okavango Diamond Companyand the National Development Bank (NDB) as headline sponsors. The programme brought together about 6,750 investors, start-ups, corporates, policymakers, Government officials, academics, innovators, and entrepreneurs in Botswana to exchange ideas, validate proposals and collaborate on critical areas such as renewable energy, artificial intelligence (AI), Agritech, and tech-entrepreneurship.
The event had active participation from the U.S. Embassy Gaborone, Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic in Botswana, Angola Embassy in Botswana, Algeria Embassy in Botswana, Zambian Embassy in Botswana and India in Botswana Embassy (High commission of India, Botswana).
We also had support from a host of key stakeholders including Botho University, University of Botswana, Yarona FM, and African Impact Initiative, YTV, Botswana Trade & Investment Center, Brand Botswana, Social Capital Group (Stage works Africa), African Impact Initiative, Smash Vision, Farhanas Brainstation, Know the Ledge BW, The Aga MotseCenter, Axis-Tech, and The Freelancers.
These stakeholders contributed their time, resources and networks in various ways to make the week-long event impactful.
We had several partners and supporters serve as panelists for the different sector sessions including Dr. Lorraine Koobokile, Ambassador Howard A. Van Vranken, Jonathan Raheem Hosseini, Ruchir Punjabi, Thomo Lekagame, Bakang Raditedu, Karen Giffard, Dan Evan for Renewable Energy. We are looking forward to collaborating with the mining sector to incubate some renewable energy startups identified during the programme.
Dr. Tomisin Fashina, Dr. Shiko Gitau, Mmetla Masire, Arifuzzaman Raihan, Kagiso Earl Mpa, Ephraim Rwamwenge, Lesego Matlhware and Prof. Dimakatso Polokelo for artificial intelligence. Prof. Cliff Dlamini, Mr. Gothusang Cobra Molatlhegi (BITC), Kabelo Moroka (Brastorne), Dr. Murty Indrakanti, Kesego Mokgosi (AntonTech) for Agritech.
Prof. Doreen Masire and the University of Botswana as gracious hosts of an ecosystem tour of the University of Botswana.
Jeff Hoffman and Khan Farhana for the global entrepreneurship masterclasses to our startups and talent in the Pulaspace community across Sub-Saharan Africa.
The Africa Early-Stage Investor Summit (#AESIS 2024) was held during the year and as active members, we organised the Gaborone Investor Meet-up and attended the Summit in Cape Town. Given the current funding landscape, active early-stageinvestments from investors with deep local knowledge and networks is critical to support the continued growth of the ecosystem. Hence, at AESIS2024 we engaged investors on the continent towards developing partnerships that would provide value for Pulaspace, our affiliates, investors and startups.
Our participation at the AfDB 60th anniversary event in Kenya provided a platform to share insights on how Pulaspace can support the AfDB’s development work in innovation ecosystem especially in Southern Africa. From conversations at the we have received guidance and support from Dr. Tomision Fashina(Senior director for Information Technology and Chief Information Technology Officer) and Mmapula Thema (Botswana citizen technology professional with AFDB) as we look to continue engagements with the Bank and partner on initiatives on AI in Botswana. While introductions at the event have led to our burgeoning partnerships with Qhala and MPost.
In 2024, we worked with partners like Cresta President Hotels, BOCRA, Yarona FM, Abaricom, Voice of America, and other partners to give back to the community in 2024. Through the Hands-on Code programme, we delivered introductory courses on Artificial Intelligence, cloud computing, AI/ML, Data Analytics and basic coding to students in several 31primary and secondary schools across Botswana (Gaborone (31), Francistown (12), and Selibe Phikwe (14).
We further signed partnership to setup coding and AI academies across 31 primary schools in Gaborone and this partnership was endorsed by UNICEF Botswana.
Our believe in the power of collaboration and partnerships as a tool for achieving mutually beneficial outcomes continued to inform our activities in 2024. In this respect, we established some strategic engagements and partnerships within the yearincluding with Qhala to deliver AI skill development training on the continent. Orange Botswana signed an MoU with Pulaspace to co-develop startup programmes leveraging their infrastructure. Ripple Capital for investment structuring services for startups incubated by Ngwana Africa, Women in Energy Botswana Trust to co-create renewable energy programmes for startups, among others. We continue to enjoy the support of our host governments and partners in Rwanda and South Africa where our fund domiciles and operations are based respectively.
Appreciation to the team and our supporters.
Our team added a few members and saw others move on to new adventures in 2024. Victor Gitonga came, saw and conquered, delivering excellent work in Operations. Bakang Raditedu joined as Software Engineer and has been wonderful in coordinating our Hands on Code and Pulaspace Tech Talent programme with successfully curation of 411+ software engineers ready for remote placements across the continent and globally- a major achievement that was coordinated under the leadership of Mr. Bakang Raditedu. Botlhe Khumo now manages the people of Pulaspace. Farhana Akter Khan joined as Head of Programmes assisted by Nahid Akter; both from Bangladesh as pulaspace remote team. Both successfully delivering a $30,000 dollar Global Entrepreneurship Week Botswana project fundraise and execution.
General Partner, Mooketsi Bennedict Tekere, Partner/Lead Analyst Ernest Bosha, and our the Product development team lead by Iyke Augustine, Simba Mswika and Varaidzo Majadawho heads the Remote Incubation initiatives continued to exemplify excellence.
We are most grateful to our wonderful partners and supporters without whom we are not worthy of executing this noble mission to support innovation on the continent. Special appreciation to Tomi Davies, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Neo Nwako, and Samuel Minta who continue to provide invaluable guidance in all we do.
Looking Forward
The venture capital space in Africa continues to evolve with questions asked about the validity of the Silicon Valley model, the nature of patient capital and the rationale for several expected outcomes for the different players in the ecosystem.
This has brought to emphasis the need for clear value propositions from all participants in the market and a deep understanding of the markets within which investors back startups. This environment suits Pulaspace and validates the foundational framework for Pulaspace’s thesis on venture funding which remains unchanged; smart, patient capital (beyond cash) deployed to outstanding founders solving hard problems with innovative solutions in scalable markets is most likely to triumph.
Going forward, we shall continue to leverage our networks, relationships, and expertise, to support African founders. We encourage investors ready to bet on African startups via Pulaspace.com and Pulaspace Capital, to join us in funding the future.
