Private equity and media giants from the U.S. are starting to pay attention to Africa’s burgeoning online media and culture scene. TPG Growth, the middle market and growth equity investment arm of private equity giant TPG, and Evolution Media, the investment and advisory services firm created by Creative Artists Agency and TPG, have acquired a majority stake in the South African… Read More
Category: africa
Snow falls on the usually quite hot Sahara Desert
Africa’s Sahara Desert isn’t the place you’d expect to see snow.
Yet a rare winter storm powdered the arid sand dunes of northwestern Algeria with white snow on Sunday, the third time an event like this has happened in 40 years.
SEE ALSO: How the ‘bo…
A look back at the year that the Sub-Saharan African startup scene found its stride
African tech in 2017 was about the normalization of market events mostly absent even a decade ago. There were acquisitions, multiple investment rounds, lots of expansion, big strategic partnerships, and some surprise failures. Africa is fast becoming home to a dynamic tech sector. Here’s a snapshot of the news that shaped that transition over the last year. Investment Andela’s… Read More
Startup incubator Nailab invests $25K in East African startups
When Nailab (Nairobi Incubation Lab) opened its doors seven years ago in Kenya, it wanted to be the Y Combinator for Kenya, Nailab CEO Sam Gichuru told me. In order to accomplish that goal, Gichuru realized Nailab would need a lot of money, which it did not have at the time. That’s why it initially began as a co-working space. Read More
Will Interswitch still be the company that brings Sub-Saharan Africa its big tech windfall?
Nearly two years later, neither Interswitch nor any other VC backed African tech company that began in startup phase gone public.
What happened? Read More
Internet of Elephants uses AR to get up close to endangered species, turns their migrations into a game
Wildlife conservation groups have made a lot of strides in raising awareness of animals whose populations or natural habitats are endangered, and what we can do to help. Now a startup out of Kenya is tapping into advances made in augmented realit…
View More Internet of Elephants uses AR to get up close to endangered species, turns their migrations into a gameLGBTI activists are reclaiming Rwanda, one neighborhood at a time
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Mailly walks into every room like she’s auditioning for Next Top Model, even when it’s just her own kitchen.
She passes by the oven like she’s stepping onto the runway. Applies her make-up like she’s about to step onto a TV set for the last damn interview of the week
Mailly wants a bigger, more glamorous world than the one she’s been given. But as a trans woman in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, her stage is limited: kitchen, bedroom, the occasional bar. She can’t go to work because she can’t apply for employment without producing identification and revealing the sex she was assigned at birth. She can’t escape to America, even for a brief trip, because the country doesn’t readily grant visas to Rwandans like her, and likely won’t for a long time. Read more…
More about Features, Gender, Africa, Social Good, and Lgbtq
View More LGBTI activists are reclaiming Rwanda, one neighborhood at a timeAfrica Roundup: Lori Systems wins BFX Africa, Andela raises $40M, Jumia lends to SMEs, Safaricom launches incubator
Logistics transportation company Lori Systems won best of show at TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield Africa after gaining majority votes of the event’s 15 judges. The Kenyan based venture pitched its platform to optimize all points of the cargo delivery supply chain―from the trucks, to the suppliers, to invoicing and costs. Co-founded by South African Josh Sandler and Kenyan… Read More