The Covid-19 health crisis drags out, and the African startups could lack investments to develop their activities. An issue Digital Africa and BPIFrance want to solve by creating Africa Next, a community gathering financial stakeholder coming from Africa and Europe, engaged to co-invest into innovative and growing companies.
We had to find new ways to regain this quality, and this community is here for that.
Through this community, investors and accelerators exchange with young African continent's companies to improve their fundraises, broaden co-investment possibilities and share investors' experiences in other markets. "I think we need new methods to keep the investment pipeline toward Africa, Khaled BEN JILANI, senior partner at AfricInvest and co-founder of Africa Next explained. Usually, we have conferences and events happening all over the world. But everything has been canceled. And transforming those events into digital ones seems simple, but it is actually challenging to offer quality during those digital experiences. We had to find new ways to regain this quality, and this community is here for that."
E-commerce, logistic, natural beverages, all of the African inventiveness was there
On the 3rd of November, one of Africa Next's e-pitch occurs. The principle: numerous startups, proposed by community members, present their solutions to international investors. Organized several times per year, those sessions will evolve according to the needs of the community. For now, they are intended to high development potential companies in numerous African countries and internationally, fundraising between 1 and 10 million euros. Those criteria are due to Digital Africa's will to highlight promising projects which need to manage scale-up.
Seven startups were planned for this day. Every one of them was already implanted for numerous years and looking for fundings to grow. First, Lynk, a company based in Nairobi, proposes linking professionals with private individuals or companies.
Then, AIFluence, a company using artificial intelligence to develop solutions optimizing and scaling global influencer marketing strategies, presented its project. The Egyptian company Brimore specialized in social commerce, also uses influencers but focuses on e-commerce and logistics.
And the e-commerce is still trendy in Africa since the Tunisian clothes selling platform, Dabchy, was also looking for investors. Such as Brantu, which develops the ready-made clothes Egyptian market. A proof of the multiplication of e-commerce startups, but with their own specific characteristics. Another Kenyan startup, Amitruck, was presented. It focuses on cost and security issues in the trucking and logistics industry in Kenya.
Finally, Pura, a startup producing healthy beverages from natural products, reminds us that even during this time, there is not only technology and digital in African innovation.
A way to provide links and ideas to the young community. Take your calendar; the next e-pitch will occur at the beginning of 2021.
