Amb. Bande Takes Over As The New President of The United Nations, photos.
NEW PRESIDENT OF THE UN BANDE A. L-R’ The UN Secretary General of the United Nation, António Guterres, The New President of United Nations General Assembly, Amb Tijjani Mohammed Bande, The out-gone President of the United Nations General Assembly, Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés after the handle over in New York, USA PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. SEPT 16 2019
NEW PRESIDENT OF THE UN BANDE 1. L-R’ The New President of United Nations General Assembly, Amb Tijjani Mohammd Bande (M) flanked The Secertary General of the United Nation, Antonio Guterres and The out-gone President of the United Nations General Assembly, Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés after the handle over in New York, USA PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. SEPT 16 2019
NEW PRESIDENT OF THE UN BANDE 1A. L-R’ The New President of United Nations General Assembly, Amb Tijjani Mohammd Bande and The out-gone President of the United Nations General Assembly, Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés after the handle over in New York, USA PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. SEPT 16 2019
NEW PRESIDENT OF THE UN BANDE 2A. L-R’ The New President of United Nations General Assembly, Amb Tijjani Mohammed Bande (M) flanked The Secretary-General of the United Nation, Antonio Guterres and The immediate Past President of the United Nations General Assembly, Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés during the handle over in New York, USA PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. SEPT 16 2019.
NEW PRESIDENT OF THE UN BANDE 7. L-R’ The New President of United Nations General Assembly, Amb Tijjani Mohammed Bande Deputy Secertary General f the United Nations, Hajiya Amina Mohammed and African Union to the United Nations, Ms. Fatima Kyari Mohammed during the handle over in New York, USA PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. SEPT 16 2019
NEW PRESIDENT OF THE UN BANDE 3. L-R’ The New President of United Nations General Assembly, Amb Tijjani Mohammed Bande, The out-gone President of the United Nations General Assembly, Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés and SSAP Mallam Garba Shehu after the handle over in New York, USA PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. SEPT 16 2019
NEW PRESIDENT OF THE UN BANDE 4 The New President of United Nations General Assembly, Amb Tijjani Mohammd Bande (M) flanked prominent Nigerians after the handle over in New York, USA PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. SEPT 16 2019
NEW PRESIDENT OF THE UN BANDE 4 The New President of United Nations General Assembly, Amb Tijjani Mohammd Bande (M) flanked prominent Nigerians after the handle over in New York, USA PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. SEPT 16 2019
NEW PRESIDENT OF THE UN BANDE 5 The New President of United Nations General Assembly, Amb Tijjani Mohammd Bande (M) flanked prominent Nigerians after the handle over in New York, USA PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. SEPT 16 2019
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
South African startups now have access to more VC funds as the country’s SME Fund and the government’s Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) has announced a public-private partnership to co-invest R350 million across three venture capital funds.
Here Is All You Need To Know
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between TIA and SME Fund at the Innovation Summit in Cape Town on Friday 13 September, 2019.
The partnership sees over R350 (over $23 million) invested in three venture capital funds.
These fund managers will invest in a portfolio of early stage businesses and provide capital, as well as other support, to the entrepreneurs, to help them commercialise technologies and grow their businesses.
The South Africa’s SME Fund’s mandate to the three fund managers includes a requirement that they invest at least 50 percent of the fund into businesses owned by black entrepreneurs.
The SA SME Fund and TIA also signed the legal agreements for the OneBio Seed Investment Fund, officially launching the only biotech dedicated investment fund in South Africa.
Which Fund Managers Get The Funds
The fund will go to:
OneBio Seed Investment Fund, a biotechnology dedicated fund. R83.5 million has already been given to the OneBio Seed Investment Fund.
Savant Venture Fund, a hardware technology incubator and Fund Manager (in which two deals have already been pre-funded by TIA’s Seed Fund. Savant Venture Fund has received R111.5 million so far. Savant Venture Fund recently ZAR9.5 million (US$635,000) in E-healthstartup, SmartBlade’s.
The fund will also be made to South Africa’s newly established University Technology Fund (UTF). An anticipated commitment of R152.5m million will be made into the University Technology Fund (UTF) (for which the SA SME Fund anticipates receiving formal approval by the end of September).
Why Investment Was Made Into The Funds And What Startups Will Expect
According to Ketso Gordhan, Chief Executive of the SA SME Fund:
“We are hugely excited and energised by this partnership to support and invest in innovation, especially in black-owned start-ups and scale-ups in this space. This forms part of our commitment to support government, together with TIA, in stimulating and intensifying technological innovation to improve economic growth, create jobs and impact on the quality of life of all South Africans”.
Fuzlin Levy-Hassen, Interim Chief Executive of the TIA, said:
“This new investment partnership is the result of the synergies and commitment that exist between Government and the private sector. We are aligned in our vision of turning bright young minds into viable and sustainable business founders whose successes will create jobs and drive economic growth. The sophistication and creativity already evident in these businesses should make us proud as a country, and encourage us to further support innovation”.
The SA SME has invested in these three VC funds because they are trying to support innovation and the creation of entrepreneurs in South Africa. They also seem to be supporting underdeveloped sectors. For instance:
OneBio is a fund that focuses on biotechnology, which historically has been the purview of Big Pharma, but technology and declining costs in the research and development mean that our engineers can develop great solutions using local resources for global needs.
Savant a first time Fund Manager focused on hardware technology Fund. This Fund is plugging the shortage of investment into hardware technology within the South African VC environment. The team has over a decade of experience in commercialising hardware tech.
The UTF is a University Technology Fund that aims to leverage and commercialise the IP originating from SA universities, where the focus has typically been at very early stage research with no follow-on capital.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world
Leaders of all categories from across the African continent have converged in Accra, Ghana under the aegis of the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) for the maiden edition of the Kofi Annan Peace and Security (KAPS) Forum aimed at facilitating discussions on evolving trends in peace and security in Africa. The forum was organized to honour the sterling achievements of H.E. the late Kofi Annan and to immortalize his memory.
Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Centre (KAIPTC)
Themed ‘Peace Operations in the Context of Violent Extremism in Africa’, the forum was held under the Distinguished patronage of H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana and the Chairmanship of H.E. Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the UN Office for West Africa and Sahel (UNOWAS).
Those attending the event are seven former African Heads of State namely; H.E. Pierre Buyoya, Former President of Burundi and AU High Representative to Mali and Sahel (MISAHEL), H.E Catharine Samba-Panza, Former President of Central African Republic, H.E. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Former President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, H.E. Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, Former President of Sierra Leone, Professor Amos Claudius Sawyer, Former President of Liberia, H.E. Olusegun Obasanjo, Former President of Nigeria and H.E. John Dramani Mahama, Former President of Ghana.
Addressing the delegates at the opening ceremony, the Commandant of KAIPTC, Air Vice Marshall Griffiths S. Evans who sharing the rationale behind the forum said that it seeks to provide a platform for robust engagement on critical peace and security issues affecting the African continent. “Our actions are guided by our mission to foster peace and stability through the provision of a globally-recognized capacity and policy support for all actors on African peace and security issues”, he stated. In his address, the President of the Republic of Ghana, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, identified key interventions which can be implemented to tackle violent extremism. According to him, “it is important that we promote and develop, on the continent, a system and culture of accountable governance, free of corruption, whereby our people are governed in accordance with the rule of law, respect for individual liberties and human rights, and the principles of democratic accountability”, he stressed.
Throwing more light on Ghana’s counter terrorism policy to combat violent extremism, he pointed out that “our Counter Terrorism Policy seeks to prevent acts of terrorism in the country. The Counter Terrorism Policy has led to the setting up of a Counter Terrorism Unit, within the National Security Council Secretariat, to lead and co-ordinate our efforts in the fight. Ghana has adopted a well-coordinated Inter Agency Approach, which encourages the timely sharing of information and intelligence, operational coordination and joint strategy formulation, and has proved essential towards ensuring the efficient execution of the country’s Counter Terrorism Policy”, he explained.
The Kofi Annan Forum brought together over two hundred high-level delegates and diplomats from governmental and intergovernmental organizations (including the African Union and its Regional Economic Communities, United Nations and European Union). Security professionals and representatives from policy and research think tanks, development partners, training institutions and civil society groups were all present to participate in the dialogues.
The forum also seeks to deepen the collaboration between KAIPTC and international organisations such as the United Nations, African Union, Regional Economic Communities, Governments, development partners, civil society organisations and the business community.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
The stage is already set for a revolution in internet banking in Nigeria. After Kuda, Nigeria’s first digital-only bank to be licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria succeeded in raising $1.6 million pre-seed funding investment led by investor Haresh Aswani with Ragnar Meitern and other angel investors joining, FairMoney, a Paris-based fintech startup, has closed a $10 million-euro to enable the startup to reshape what banking used to be in Nigeria.
“Our vision is to build a holistic financial platform for underserved customers in emerging markets. We want to do that by offering an easy-to-use product to our customers and become a financial one-stop-shop for them,” said Laurin Hainy, CEO of FairMoney. “We started with credit for small business owners and individuals, and we are expanding our services rapidly. Think digital bank for emerging market consumers.”
Here Is The Deal
The Series A round of investment was led by Flourish, a venture of The Omidyar Group, the partners of DST Global, and existing seed investors Newfund, Speedinvest, and Le Studio VC
Funds raised in this round will be used to scale the company’s engineering team in order to develop a fully-fledged mobile banking offering in Nigeria and beyond.
Why The Investor Invested
According to the World Bank, more than 2 billion people globally have limited access to financial services and working capital. Access to loans for this segment is extremely limited given that they do not have a credit score. FairMoney’s approach to underwriting credit is based on a proprietary algorithm that applies machine learning techniques to smartphone data. The average loans are 30 Euros and customers can grow their loan limits up to 400 Euros over time by showing good repayment habits.
For decades, incumbent banks have only lent to large enterprise clients and left a big part of the population underserved. New technologies have created the opportunity to include these consumers into the formal financial system for the first time. Use cases for the FairMoney loan product are diverse–more than 60 percent of customers use the loans as working capital to run small- and micro-businesses. The automatic underwriting process enables FairMoney to score clients and disburse funds within 5 minutes.
“After backing digital banks in the US, UK, Latin America and South Asia, we are excited to support one of the first companies to bring this model to Africa. We believe that customers will ask a lot more of their banks–to be relevant, banks will have to move from service providers to become financial mentors for their customers,” said Ameya Upadhyay, principal at Flourish and FairMoney’s new board member. “That’s where we see a massive global opportunity for FairMoney, which combines a top-notch banking infrastructure with a culture of obsessive customer focus.”
What FairMoney Does
FairMoney was founded in 2017 by CEO Laurin Hainy, former CEO of Venture Builder and VC fund Le Studio VC, alongside CTO Matthieu Gendreau, ex-lead developer of PriceMatch and CPO Nicolas Berthozat.
FairMoney started as a mobile app that uses alternative smartphone data to underwrite microcredit in Nigeria. Today, more than 200,000 customers use FairMoney, with a majority using the platform to finance their small business needs. Alongside the investment round, FairMoney has also introduced the in-app payment function to its users, which allows them to top up their phone subscriptions, buy mobile data, pay electricity or internet bills, among others, already facilitating more than 400 payments daily. Other features, such as digital wallet and saving account are scheduled to launch soon.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world
Ant, shark, sloth and instant return-seeker. Each of these investor types could kill your startup if you are not careful.
I’ve been involved with 12 startups across Europe, the US and even Tunisia, and dealt with a lot of investors. I’ve learned that a lot of things can go wrong. You need to profile your investors to find the ones that best suit you. This is a long term relationship, not unlike a marriage.
Let me give you a few examples of investors you don’t want to ‘marry’:
1) Ant investors
These are the investors who will only put in tiny sums. They seem helpful, but the sheer numbers of them can sap your energy and kill your startup.
There is one biotech company I know, for example, with an incredible breakthrough treatment in vascular health, which can help patients avoid diabetic limb amputations and cardiovascular operations.
It wasn’t taken seriously to begin with, however, or else pharmaceutical companies saw it as a threat. So, after the first positive clinical results, the management opted to raise capital from retail investors, with small investments. This was fine at first, but now the company is raising a $15m series-D round, and has a problem with managing its 1900 individual investors.
So think about not spreading yourself too thin, to not block strategic investors. Have a minimum ticket size, and stick to it. Or at least, if you do crowdsourcing, give people nonvoting shares.
2) Greedy sharks
Another early sector startup got an offer from a principal investor in the food industry. It turned into a nightmare, because it turned out that the investor’s aim was to take over the whole company as cheaply as possible.
The investor demanded to have the chair position and bullied management in a way that every decision approved would go in its favour. I was on the board, as an investor and advisor to the two founders and in the end I had to take over as chairman in order to stop the company from being pushed in a direction it did not want to go.
Be wary of investors’ motivations, particularly of those from your field of operations. And careful with those who push to take control of the boardroom as a prerogative to the investment. Ask yourself, what are they looking for and why would they invest to start with?
When I began work on two startups in Tunisia, I was advised to take influential local partners as shareholders: “Go with them, they will guarantee your business will succeed.” They were supposed to help us make local connections and navigate through the business culture.
These kinds of investors always tell you all the great things they will do for you. But then they don’t do them. In the end, I would never do that again. It was very clear that they expected us to do all the heavy lifting while they sat back waiting for the big returns.
Yes, you may need experts going into an unfamiliar market, but look closely at their track record. Ideally, you should vet your investors are closely as they vet you.
4) Instant return seekers
When you create a startup, you think you have a clear idea of the problem you are solving and how to get there. But things always take unexpected turns.
One hydrodynamics startup I invested in had underestimated how long it would take to make a return. It was taking longer to get ‘normal users’ to adopt the solution than they had expected.
This is pretty common, but unluckily the investors included a number of quick buck people who quickly became frustrated and made the atmosphere very toxic. Every meeting became a struggle between the investors and the leadership team.
It killed new ideas — and very nearly the company. The marriage with these investors turned so bad that they wanted to exit at crazy low valuations destroying the fundraising path, just as milestones were achieved.
Recently, there has been a breakthrough for the company and the wind has turned in its favour. But you need outstanding cardiovascular health to survive such fights and keep the team motivation.
Startups need to look for smart money that gives you the time to rethink and adjust when unexpected things happen. The more breakthrough the tech, the more uncharted is the water. You don’t know what you don’t know.
Stefan Laux has been a startup founder, a corporate executive, an investor, a board member and an advisor over the course of a more than 30-year career. He is currently getting ready to launch a drinktech company, NobleAB.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world
The 20th Trade and Finance Seminar and Workshop hosted by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) will take place in Durban, South Africa, from 4 to 7 November 2019. This was made known today during a briefing at the Bank’s headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. The seminar and workshop series, formerly known as the Structured Trade Finance Seminar and Workshop will be organized this year in collaboration with the South African Province of Kwazulu-Natal. The Series aims to equip African financial institutions, bankers and professionals from regulatory agencies, corporates and legal firms with skills for dealing with the challenges of financing transactions in times of economic uncertainty.Afreximbank isAfrica’s foremost pan-African multilateral financial institution devoted to financing and promoting intra- and extra-African trade.
Prof. Benedict Oramah, President Afreximbank
Announcing details of this year’s event, the Bank said said that the 2019 seminar will focus on global topical issues affecting trade and on technical aspects of structuring trade finance transactions, thus enabling participants to properly identify the risks in trade finance transactions and to structure bankable trade and trade-related finance deals of varying levels of complexity.
According to the President of the Bank, Prof. Benedict Oramah, the event has not only become an important platform for African bankers and other trade finance practitioners to meet, network and share knowledge with their counterparts, but would also bring substantial benefits to Kwazulu-Natal from a tourism perspective. This year’s speakers are drawn from among highly-rated experts from leading financial institutions and firms as well as key financial service regulators from Africa and beyond.
The more than 250 expected participants will be senior executives from African banks and financial institutions, regulatory institutions, hedge funds, Africa country funds, venture capital institutions, corporate entities engaged in trade, manufacturing and privatized infrastructure projects, Afreximbank’s trade finance and project finance intermediaries, African law firms and insurance firms.
About 1,800 African trade finance professionals have taken part in the seminar and workshop series since it was introduced 20 years ago. The 2018 seminar and workshop took place in Casablanca, Morocco, following the 2017 event in Cape Verde.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
Preliminary results from the Tunisian general elections seem to favour outsiders in the lead as the first round of the presidential elections from the country’s 24 counties trickle in. The elections which hundreds of observers have declared as free and devoid of violence is coming at a time many Tunisians want to push forward with political reforms.
Prime Minister Youssef Chahed
An election seen as a major test of the only democracy to emerge from the 2011 Arab spring has 26 candidates, many of whom are political heavy weights will be vying for presidency including Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, Defence Minister Abdelkarim Zbidi, media mogul Nabil Karoui, and Abir Moussi, one of the two female candidates.
According to the electoral authority, Kais Saied is leading with 19 percent of the votes cast. Also the jailed presidential candidate and media mogul, Nabil Karoui is said to be among the top contestants from the results so far released. Speaking on the preliminary results, Mr. Kais Said said that his party is waiting for the official results, “but from what has been an announced so far show that I am first and foremost. It is a huge responsibility to this country and this people”.
Similarly, supporters of Nabil Karoui who was imprisoned since last month say he has qualified for the second round of elections. His wife, Salwa Smaoui noted that “being in the top two of the presidential election, among 26 candidates, means that you were clear, insisting that “no to oppression, no to poverty and no to marginalization. You said yes to the rule of law”, she added. This was as the Islamist party Ennahdha say they will wait till the results are officially released before commenting on the development.
“First, the only party responsible for announcing the official preliminary results is ISIE. We, at the head of Abdelfattah Mourou’s campaign, received the first results, whether from leaving the polling stations or from the results we receive as we go along, and we did not want to anticipate events,” said Samir Dilou, Abdelfattah Mourou’s campaign.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
The Prime Minister of Ethiopia Mr Abiy Ahmed has urged ethnic groups in in the country demanding for secession to be patient and join him to build the country into a great nation. He made the plea yesterday during a visit to leaders of the Kafficho ethnic group who requested for a new federal state to break away from the Ethiopian federation. Observers say that the growing number of ethnic groups asking for full independence has created an atmosphere of uncertainty further heightening the destabilization of the very diverse southern region. Addressing the people, the Prime Minister said that “you think that there will be many problems in your problems, there are many interrelated and systemic issues that need to be considered.”
Prime Minister of Ethiopia Mr Abiy Ahmed.
It could be recalled that the country’s southern region was rocked by violence two months ago following a similar campaign by the Sidama ethnic group. These ethnic nationalities are keying into the constitutional requirements in Ethiopia’s Constitution mandating the government to organise a referendum for any ethnic group that wants to form a new entity. As at the last count, about 11 groups have submitted such bids in the south.
In another development, opposition political parties in the country have threatened to boycott national elections scheduled for next year if changes to an electoral law they view as biased towards the ruling party are not made. There have been regular parliamentary elections since the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) took power in 1991 but, with one exception, none were competitive. One of the key changes the opposition parties pointed out is that one of the amendments raised the number of signatures to register a national party to 10,000, up from 1,500. Regional parties will need 4,000 signatures, up from 750. Aside that, they also complained about the new rule requiring civil servants running for office to take leave without pay.
The current Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed was appointed last year by the EPRDF after three years of anti-government protests, promising reforms including a credible multi-party poll in 2020. The new reforms some of the political parties say were approved in a rush without addressing their demands being met. They however, say that last month’s changes to the election law in parliament, where the ruling party holds all the seats, made it more difficult for them to actively participate.
Observers say that Ethiopia’s political reforms have been threatened by ethnic rivalries. It could be recalled that violence which erupted in some of the regions could lead to serious delays of the elections as many people were forced to relocate from their communities. Inspite of the political and ethnic tensions, the Prime Minister was quoted as saying that his government will continue to engage the people even as political reforms and freedom for journalists and activists will be a continuous process.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.
Barring any last minute changes, Egyptian transport technology startup Swvl will expand into two cities in Pakistan in the next two weeks and begin operations in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos before the end of the year, its chief executive.
Co-founder and CEO Mostafa Kandil.
“We will enter Lagos before the end of the year, and our eyes are on Dar es Salaam and Abidjan,” co-founder and CEO Mostafa Kandil told Reuters. ‘‘The firm is also planning to launch in other South East Asian markets, he added.’’
Here Is All You Need To Know
The firm, which operates buses along fixed routes and allows customers to reserve and pay for them using an app, will also expand into Manila in the first half of next year, Kandil added.
Kandil said the company is seeking to raise more than $100 million in a financing round in the first half of next year, and is targeting a $1 billion valuation in the next five years.
Since its launch in April 2017 Swvl has secured the biggest round of funding for a tech start-up in Egypt.
“We were a company worth about $2 million two years ago and our paid-up capital is now $80 million,” he said.
Kandil said he hoped Swvl would eventually go public, but did not say on which stock exchange. He said he would in the longer term also consider a buyout offer from the likes of ride-hailing giant Uber (N:UBER).
Kandil, 25, said the company has been losing money, but expects to turn a profit in two to three years.
“This year we have entered about seven new cities and next year we are targeting another 10 to 20 new big cities,” Kandil said.
The Cairo-based firm, which is due to move its headquarters to Dubai in November, launched in Nairobi about six months ago and began operations in Lahore in July.
“We aim to reach one million trips a day in Egypt over the next five years,” said Kandil.
He and two other young Egyptian co-founders, Mahmoud Nouh and Ahmed Sabbah, own more than 30% of the company, he said.
The rest is held by 17 investment funds, including U.S.-based Autotech Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Oman’s sovereign wealth fund, the UAE’s BECO Capital and China’s MSA Capital.
The Swvl app, which has fixed bus routes, uses the passenger’s location and destination to determine the shortest possible trip time based on the nearest bus stop.
Uber and regional competitor Careem began operating their own bus services in Egypt in late 2018, competing directly with Swvl.
About Swvl
Founded in 2017, Swvl connects commuters with private buses, allowing them to reserve seats on these buses and pay the fare through company’s mobile app. The buses available on Swvl operate on fixed routes (or lines).
The report by Vostok New Ventures, notes,”Swvl offers a premium on-demand bus service with third party supply. The algorithm plans the most efficient routes and the most efficient bus stops for peak hours, and more flexibility is possible during off peak hours. Network effects arise through the snowball of the more users that are attracted to the service, the more bus owners will want to offer their supply, the more bus supply the more routes etc., the more customers etc.”
It won’t be a fair comparison but to give you some context, Careem had raised its $60 million round (Series C) at a valuation less than $200 million in November 2015, over three and half years after the company was founded.
Swvl is now in the same territory both in terms of total investment they’ve raised so far and the valuation, in almost two years.
The VC landscape in MENA is entirely different today with a lot more options when it comes to raising Series A/+ rounds so the funding is relatively easier to come by (than it was when Careem raised money) but what Swvl has achieved is still a very big feat.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world
Egypt is set to host an international investment and entrepreneurship event code named Techne Summit 2019 which will see the launch of the Mediterranean Business Angels Network, the event’s organisers, Egyptian marketing agency Markade have revealed.
Here Is All You Need To Know
The Mediterranean Business Angels Network (Med Angels) launch — will be held on 30 September at Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
The agency said the angels network aims to bring together a large number of business angel networks, groups, funds as well as individual angel investors from across the region.
The angels network aim to co-ordinate with relevant funds from the EU, Africa and Middle East and North Africa regions, while helping other angel networks in the region to add more members and close more deals. The network also aims to launch an accelerator programme.
Techne Summit will be held in Alexandria, Egypt between 28 September and 30 September
Confirmed speakers include Egypt’s ICT Minister Amr Talaat, AUC Venture Lab director Ayman Ismail, Hivos impact investment portfolio manager Keith Wallace, Sawari Ventures chairman Ahmed Alfi and Algebra Ventures managing partner Ziad Mokhtar.
The Techne Summit was first held in Alexandria, Egypt in 2015. Last year, it attracted about 130 speakers, over 6000 attendees, 230 startups and 80 investors from more than 25 countries.
This year’s edition will be held at Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria from 28 September to 30 September.
Egypt has over the past few years scaled up its entrepreneurial activity, becoming the fastest-growing startup ecosystem in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region according to a report by Magnitt.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world
