Cassava Technologies, an African integrated technology corporation, said today that it has received a $50 million investment from C5 Capital (C5), a specialist venture capital firm that invests in cyber security, space security, and energy security. The investment is part of a larger funding round to help Cassava grow faster.
C5’s investment will help to accelerate Cassava’s efforts to improve digital connectivity and inclusivity on the African continent.
Strive Masiyiwa, Founder and Executive Chairman of Cassava Technologies
Cassava will serve as the go-to-market partner in Africa for C5’s cutting-edge portfolio firms, delivering best-in-class cyber security, satellite and space technologies, and renewable energy.
C5 and Cassava have already announced a collaboration in which Haven Cyber, a C5 portfolio business, and Cassava will scale Microsoft’s range of cybersecurity technologies across Africa to assist battle cybercrime.
“This investment from C5 is part of our plan to raise additional growth capital whilst diversifying our investor base. We are delighted that C5 has joined us to help realise our vision of a digitally connected future that leaves no African behind,” says Strive Masiyiwa, Founder and Executive Chairman of Cassava Technologies.
Cassava Technologies operates in over 20 African countries and is at the forefront of offering new technological solutions to local businesses and individuals.
The company offers digital solutions (in fibre networks, renewable energy, cloud, cyber-security, fintech, and digital platforms) to over 1 million businesses and internet connectivity to over 500 million Africans.
“We are delighted to partner with Cassava Technologies, to bring the most innovative cyber security, space and energy security products and services to African markets,” said André Pienaar, Chief Executive and Founder of C5 Capital.
C5 and Cassava want to provide expertise in cyber security to Africa by building a network of state-of-the-art Cyber Security Operations Centres (CSOCs) across Africa through a partnership between Haven Cyber (a C5 portfolio firm) and Liquid Cloud & Cybersecurity (a Cassava business).
The CSOC network will enable the continent to receive cyber security services and operations more quickly. The first CSOC is scheduled to open in South Africa later this year.
“Recent industry reports highlight that cyber security threats cost Africa close to $4.1 billion in lost GDP in 2021. This is primarily due to the massive increase in the adoption of technology in businesses and governments across Africa and increased vulnerabilities as cyber-attack technologies evolve,” said Hardy Pemhiwa, the President and CEO of Cassava.
“Today’s investment from C5 and our pan-continental partnership will enhance our ability to enable our customers to build secure and stable cloud-based digital services critical to transforming lives on the continent.”
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert. As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh
The World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) has announced a new partnership with South African tech group Liquid Intelligent Technologies (Liquid) to expand data center capacity and the rollout of fiber-optic cable across the continent. IFC’s equity and debt investments in Liquid, which to date total approximately $250-million, will support the company to grow its hyperscale data center capacity in Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa through its subsidiary, Africa Data Centres.
The partnership with Liquid, one of Africa’s leading independent fiber and digital services providers, aims “to increase digital connectivity and inclusion in Africa and to support the region’s growing digital ecosystem,” according to a statement from IFC.
Strive Masiyiwa, Liquid Intelligent Technologies Executive Chairman and Founder
The investments will also support Liquid in the continued rollout of its fiber broadband network, which today covers more than 100,000 kilometers of sub-Saharan Africa. The continued build out of its network will help to connect businesses and individuals to the Internet across the continent, something that Liquid hopes will position it at the forefront of Africa’s digital transformation with the provision of complementary digital services.
“We are very pleased that IFC continues to support Liquid. The investments in our data centers and fiber broadband network will directly support our growth plans over the coming years by encouraging the adoption of new services such as Cloud and other digital services, services that are critical in driving sustainable development across Africa,” said Strive Masiyiwa, Liquid Intelligent Technologies Executive Chairman and Founder.
“Digital technologies are rapidly transforming how people, businesses, and governments communicate, transact, and access information and services. By working with Liquid Intelligent Technologies, we can help expand access to infrastructure and digital services that power Africa’s digital economy, creating new opportunities for growth and jobs. This is an essential element for Africa’s economic transformation and building back better,” said Makhtar Diop, IFC’s MD.
According to the statement, IFC’s digital strategy in Africa is aimed at enabling ubiquitous, reliable, and affordable connectivity. This includes investing in the growth of independent tower operators, data centers and broadband, as well as support to mobile operators primarily in fragile and conflict situations (FCS) and low-Income International Development Association countries (LIC-IDA).
IFC’s latest investment in Liquid follows its investment in the company in February 2021 through Liquid’s bond placement on Euronext Dublin, Ireland’s main stock exchange. The issuance raised $620-million.
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 African Union through the Africa Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP) has entered into a partnership with global pharmaceutical giant, Norvatis for an integrated vetted medical supplier to ensure rapid access to affordable COVID-19 related supplies. The collaboration aims to help alleviate supply and logistical constraints in the African Union member states; Portfolio of 15 generic and over-the-counter (OTC) medicines from Sandoz division will be sold at zero-profit to governments through Africa Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP) to 55 African and 15 Caricom eligible countries; the African Union through the AMSP has integrated vetted medical suppliers to ensure rapid access to affordable COVID-19 related supplies. This collaboration will equally facilitate the supply of medicines from the Novartis Pandemic Response Portfolio to the AU member states and Caricom countries.
AU Special Envoy, Strive Masiyiwa
The AMSP portal is an online marketplace that enables the supply of covid-19 related critical medical equipment in Africa. It was developed under the leadership of the AU Special Envoy, Strive Masiyiwa and powered by Janngo, on behalf of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). The platform was also developed in partnership with African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
This collaboration aims to help alleviate supply and logistical constraints by ensuring efficient and rapid access to the Pandemic Portfolio medicines to African and Caricom governments. The AU comprises 55 Member States, representing all the countries on the African continent, while 15 Caricom countries are eligible for the Pandemic Portfolio.
“Our collaboration with AMSP is a continuation of our efforts at Novartis to combat COVID-19 across the world,” said Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis. “Together, we are aiming to accelerate and expand access to affordable essential medicines in Africa to meet the very urgent patient needs across the continent as it continues battling this pandemic.”
AMSP was developed to ease the difficulties and open up the medical supplies market to Africa, and as part of the Partnership to Accelerate COVID-19 Testing (PACT) of Africa CDC. It integrates African and globally vetted medical suppliers to ensure cost-effectiveness and transparency in the procurement and distribution of COVID-19 related supplies.
“Following the successful listing of test kits, personal protective equipment, and clinical management devices, the African Union Chairperson has expanded our mandate to include groundbreaking medicines to treat COVID-19 patients in Africa,” said African Union Special Envoy, Strive Masiyiwa. “As a global pharmaceutical leader, Novartis is a strategic partner for AMSP to unlock access to the latest and best-performing medicines for Africans in an affordable way.”
Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and its spread worldwide, there was a shortage of diagnostics, medical supplies and essential medical equipment such as personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, face masks, ventilators, and many others. Many African governments had severe challenges with the procurement of essential supplies to support their response activities and face stiff competition with the more industrialized countries for the limited available supplies.
Dr John Nkengasong, Director of Africa CDC
“As a continental body, we are working with several partners to ensure smooth and predictable access to essential medical supplies,” said Dr John Nkengasong, Director of Africa CDC. “We found that during the Ebola outbreak in 2014, many people died because of Ebola but not due to Ebola. This is because they did not have access to essential medicines needed for treatment. With AMSP, countries don’t have to search the market for supplies. The prices are negotiated and fixed to unlock the supply space.”
The Novartis Pandemic Response Portfolio from Sandoz, the generics and biosimilar division of Novartis, comprises 15 medicines: Amoxicillin, Ceftriaxone, Clarithromycin, Colchicine, Dexamethasone, Dobutamine, Fluconazole, Heparin, Levofloxacin, Loperamide, Pantoprazole, Prednisone, Prednisolone, Salbutamol, Vancomycin. The portfolio was launched in July 2020 and sells medicines at zero-profit to governments, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and other institutional customers in up to 79 eligible countries to address the urgent unmet needs of low-and lower-middle-income countries for medicines to be used for symptomatic treatment at various stages of COVID-19. Eligible countries must be included on the World Bank’s list of LICs & LMICs .
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
Zimbabwe’s richest man, Strive Masiyiwa just announced his company, Econet Wireless of Zimbabwe would be spearheading the first IPO for the largest telecom company in Botswana, Mascom. This is after it acquired 60% of Mascom’s stocks, in what was a landmark deal for the businessman.
It does not seem any other African businessmen have been able to complete this feat, owning two largest telecom companies in two different countries at the same time. While focus is mostly pinned on Masiyiwa whenever he makes his next big moves, little attention goes to the other side of a man who would not have amounted to much in life. Here, we focus on a few things you may not have previously known about the man.
The Environment Shapes How People’s Stories End, Even More Powerful When People Choose How They Allow The Environment To Influence Them
Strive could not understand why a war against the British should not be the most important point to make in his young life. That is, he could easily find the weapons and sign up for Zimbabwe’s guerrilla war for independence, barely a few years after coming back to Zimbabwe from Kitwe, Zambia where his family had gone, in 1968, to find life in a local copper mining factory. The war could have meant one thing, for certain: Zimbabwe’s Independence, which still came, after all. And Strive could have been killed, fighting for a cause, which has already been won. But then his environment meant he had to take a different course, in two significant ways:
1. The Irony of Racism:
In Zambia where his parents had fled to when he was barely four, following a series of local war (one for independence and another against the rule of the white minority over the black majority) that broke out in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Little Strive’s family shared a fence with some Scottish neighbors. He would, perhaps, occasionally stick his face over the Scottish’s fence in playfulness. This brought Strive’s family closer to their Scottish neighbors, and this would later see Strive enrolling in a boarding school in Edinburgh, Scotland.
And now to the war, which Strive did not end up fighting because there was no need for it. A Zimbabwean freedom fighter gave him some encouraging words that Zimbabwe was almost, almost an independent country and that the country did not need more soldiers, but people who would help rebuild the country. The advice seemed a deep one because Strive had to abandon the glory of fighting in a war and secured a scholarship for further studies in Wales. He returned in 1984, four years after Zimbabwe’s Independence, a qualified electrical and electronics engineer.
Entrepreneurs Who Can Take Risk and Break The First Entry Barrier Have A Higher Chance of Succeeding
Mr. Strive Masiyiwa’s first venture into business would be in 1988, when at the age of 27, he quit Posts and Telecommunications Corporation of Zimbabwe –Zimbabwe’s state-owned telecom company–after rising through the ranks to become Principal Engineer at the Corporation. He quit because he felt muffled by the bureaucracy of the institution, and a construction business, Retrofit Engineering, which he started with a 75-dollar-loan, was what he was willing to accept. His strategy was to invade the electrical and construction engineering businesses in Zimbabwe on time, win major contracts and become the best in the country within the shortest time possible. Retrofit Engineering did just that, and in time. The company once ranked one of the top in Zimbabwe.
Nothing was heard of an African continent with many telephones in the 1990’s. Mr. Strive went after Dr. Nkosana Moyo, the then CEO of Standard Merchant Bank. Masiyiwa, who proceeded to sanction the largest loan his bank had ever made –Zim$120 million (approximately US$40 million) for him to a launch his way into the telecommunication industry.
Again, the idea was to get key allies from the government-controlled PTC to launch a mobile telecom company that will make cellphone networks available to all Zimbabweans. The Partnership would see the PTC owning a majority of the stakes in the new company. PTC unfortunately rejected the joint venture proposal, claiming no demand for it existed. With this, Masiyiwa went out alone.
Mr. Masiyiwa wrote of his decision to start Econet:
“You must be honest in assessing your own capability, as well as weaknesses”… When I started Econet in 1993, I had already been in business for six years. I was running a successful engineering construction company, then I had this brilliant idea after learning about a new technology called GSM…
Every day after hours, I would read sometimes until 3am, doing research on this new industry. There was no Internet at the time so I could not do a “Google search”. I also travelled to trade shows to learn more. I was convinced this was the future.
Expect The Government to Lash Its Big Whip Once It Is A Big Hairy Goal
Telecommunication in Africa until recent deregulation of the sector has seen governments battling to save their faces, in efforts to hold onto the sector and monopolize it to raise revenue, even when they are proving incompetent. They came after Mr. Masiyiwa, through the PTC, which was Zimbabwe’s body responsible for granting new licenses to new cellular companies, blocking him from acquiring a licence to operate a telecom company in Zimbabwe. Mr. Masiyiwa filed a suit against the refusal in 1994, and as expected, the country’s High Court ruled against him.
Defeated but not destroyed, he further appealed the judgement in the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe, and in a landmark judgement, after a legal battle that dragged on for five years, he won! The court ruled that anybody could be granted a license to operate a mobile telecom service in Zimbabwe, provided they fulfilled the requirements of the law. The implications of the judgement meant that today:
There is no longer government monopoly in telecommunications in Zimbabwe.
Strive Masiyiwa could own Econet Wireless, Zimbabwe, proving the Zimbabwean state-owned PTC wrong, and shutting them out of business.
Econet Wireless is the leading mobile Telecoms Company in Zimbabwe, with over 1.7 million users and operations in up to 15 countries.
Econet introduced the country to the mobile banking system and according to Masiyiwa, it took only 18 months before its networks began to handle some 20 percent of Zimbabwe’s GDP.
Further government whips would come later in 2002, when Masiyiwa himself had to flee Zimbabwe for South Africa when government’s attacks on him became overwhelming. The government was still groaning for the loss of its right to monopoly in the Zimbabwean telecom sector.
More government whips came in 2014 when the Zimbabwean government threw all of Econet Wireless’ executives and directors behind bars for gross misconduct. Mr. Strive was fortunate to be away in Singapore. The company’s stocks headed for an all-time low, until their release.
Mr. Strive Masiyiwa Once Admitted A Co-Founder Helped Him In His First Years of Business.
“Yes, I had six years of experience. Yes, I had 700 employees in my existing business, and had already won both “Businessman of The Year,” and “Industrialist of the Year” awards (the country’s highest awards for business), but I knew, listening to the advisors, that I did not have the capability, YET, to raise this kind of money.
I approached the only banker I knew with this type of international exposure. He worked for one of the international banks. I was excited when my research showed me he had a degree in physics. That is how detailed I was in my research!
I made a very technical pitch to him, and he was excited.
“We will act as your advisors,” he agreed.
They were not cheap, but I knew it would add to my credibility, so I signed their mandate.”
“Then I heard that there was a banker who had just returned to the country and was looking to start his own bank…,” he said in a long Facebook post on his Facebook Page that has more than 3.7 million followers. “(This reminds me of a conversation I heard between PayPal co-founder, Peter Thiel and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman on one of his “Masters of Scale” podcasts. I really urge you to look up!)
This is what I said to Jeff Mzwimbi:
“Come and work with me for a few years. I will teach you how to be an entrepreneur, and you can teach me how to raise Project Finance.”
“I don’t really want to work for someone,” he protested.
“It’s not a job. You can be my partner,” I said. “Free equity, 10%. You can leave as soon as the business is up and running.”
Initially, he agreed to come as my advisor to meetings with the banks. But after a few weeks, he was hooked!
Soon he took over all discussions with banks and financing partners. I returned to being an engineer, and Chief Entrepreneur!
We would be together for several years, and true to our agreement, when the company listed in 1998, he left to go and start his own business. I headed to South Africa for the next stage in my journey: Continental expansion!
Lessons:
Notice how I addressed the problem of raising capital: I focused on getting knowledge. My own capability was being the “ideas guy” who had an engineering background. But I had a weakness: I did not know how to raise the kind of money needed to build a business.
How about you?
What weaknesses do you have that needs to be addressed before you can move to the next level, and what are you willing to pay to deal with it?
Despite his extraordinary genius, Bill Gates needed co-founder Paul Allen and CEO Steve Balmer; Mark Zuckerberg needed COO Sheryl Sandberg; Larry Page needed co-founder Sergey Brin, and soon they both realized they needed CEO Eric Schmidt. The list is endless!
They are called “co-founders”! Some venture capital investors will not even consider investing in you, if they don’t see your co-founder. The co-founder is there to take risk with you, share your vision and also to plug a gap in one of the 3Ps! The best co-founder is not an employee, but an entrepreneur themselves.
Sometimes they are looking to launch their own ventures but also recognize their own weaknesses which can only be solved by becoming someone else’s co-founder.
Some of you are trying to find some big company or established Big Man, when what you need right now is a co-founder!!
Let me close with this secret:
Some of you have been on this platform for as long as five years. By now you should already have used this platform to reach out to potential co-founders of your venture.”
Expansion Helped Econet to Survive
Econet Wireless Group, a vision of Masiyiwa has today holdings and investments in the U.K, China, South America, UAE, Europe, and Africa as well as assets in the U.S and New Zealand.
Masiyiwa has also expanded his vision to Burundi, Lesotho, Rwanda, Botswana, Nigeria, and South Africa. He has also launched the Liquid Telecom, a fibre-optic/satellite service company, a privately-held telecom company which is today one of Africa’s leading satellite and fibre-optic companies.
“Several weeks ago, I attended one of the most important business conferences that take place anywhere in the world. It is the only place I know where you have investors in the room who collectively manage more than $22Tn. That is more than the GDP (2017) of the United States ($19,39 Tn), and almost twice that of China ($12.24Tn).
This serves to remind you that, contrary to what many believe, the largest amount of money in the world is not in the hands of governments, but in the hands of the private sector! The guy who founded this conference is one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time, Michael Milken of the Milken Institute. For the global entrepreneurs, this forum is bigger than Davos.”
Mr. Strive Masiyiwa is a symbol of hope for entrepreneurs in an aggressively oppressive regime.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh 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 organisations 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.
