Ringing In The Festive Season With Dr Solomon Assefa of IBM

As far as tech and innovation news goes, the past ten days have been pretty eventful– what with the George Soros-backed Leapfrog raising $800 million to invest in Africa, Yahoo admitting to yet another massive data breach, and the Egyptian VC, Algebra Capital, launching a $50 million fund.

However, the team at the African Tech Round-up is technically on break, so we’ve had to reign in the desire to cover the week’s headlines. We reckon that there’ll be plenty of time to get into of all that in 2017, and we hope you’ll stay listening because while we’re away over the next four weeks, the show will go on!

In place of our regular programming, we’ll share sneak-previews of episodes from the brand-spanking new season of the African Tech Conversations series which starts on Friday, December 16th, 2016. The series features the likes of Eline Blauboer, Managing Partner at TBL Mirror Fund and Safaricom Spark Venture Fund, Chad Larson, Co-founder and Chief Credit Officer at M-KOPA, Simon Carpenter, Chief Technology Advisor at SAP Africa, and more.

This week, though, we’re ringing in the Festive Season by sharing moments from my in-depth conversation with the Ethiopian-born, Solomon Assefa— an MIT PhD who is the Director of IBM Research in Africa.

First published on AfricanTechRoundup.com.

 

Poetic Investments With Tomi Davies

Tomi Davies is a Nigerian investor, author and tech evangelist who is widely considered the God-father of Africa’s angel investment scene.

He is also the founder of the Lagos Angel Network (LAN), as well as the founding President of the African Business Angel Network (ABAN).

He lives and works mostly in the UK, and he’s spent much of the last decade investing, mentoring, and advising start-up founders, angel investors, venture capitalists and a good number of public and private institutions. As an angel investor, he continues to manage a growing portfolio of tech-enabled businesses that originate from Africa.

In this candid conversation, Tomi shares thoughtful insights, and reflects on his colourful professional career which began in the 1980s– back when he worked in technology systems management roles for FTSE 100-level companies like Elf Aquitaine (now TOTAL), Marks & Spencer, and Ernst & Young.

First published in African Tech Conversations.

Naspers Wilting In The Heat + DEMO Africa 2016 Highlights

The gravy train may well be over at Africa’s largest tech company (by market value)— Naspers.

Naspers CEO, Koos Bekker, told investors last Friday that the coming year is going to be a trying one. At this point, the company has only one card up its sleeve, and it’s called Tencent Holdings. After all, Naspers’ 33 percent stake in Chinese technology company currently accounts for almost half its revenue, and its internet and pay-tv businesses are stalling at a time when they desperately need growth to keep competitors like Google, Facebook and Amazon at bay.

Bekker’s cautionary statements led to a .3% decline in the firm’s share price, which seems like a tame reaction considering that S&P Global Ratings had already changing its outlook on Naspers’ credit rating to BBB-, which is only one step up from junk status. In short, it’s rough in these streets.

Last week saw DEMO Africa hosted in Southern Africa for the first time in its five year history. DEMO Africa 2016 went down in Sandton, Johannesburg late last week, and I’m pleased to say that it exceeded my expectations in almost every way. The conference brought together 27 startups from across Africa, angel investors, VCs, enterprise representatives and public officials all under one roof fto engage in dialogue and to witness adjudicated pitching sessions.

What was most impressive, though, was the Pan-African crowd and the quality of the engagement I saw taking place. In this episode of the African Tech Round-up I share snippets of great conversations I had with power players who are intricately involved with the continent’s tech ecosystem.

Tune in for insights from Angel Investor and Founding President of the African Business Angels Network, Tomi Davies, Microsoft’s Director for Venture Capital & Start-ups, Africa Initiatives, Amrote Abdella, the City of Joburg’s Director of Economic Development Facilitation, Tsholo Mogotsi, Angel Investor, Farouk Jivani, and Managing Partner of the Lions @frica initiative, Stephen Ozoigbo.

First published in AfricanTechRoundup.com.

Safeguarding Digital Assets With Riaan Badenhorst

Riaan Badenhorst’s worst disappointment as a young man has led to a fairly successful career in IT security. There’s no doubt that the folks at Kaspersky Lab— currently the world’s fourth largest antivirus vendor, are rather pleased that Riaan’s childhood dreams didn’t come true.

Today, Riaan heads up operations for Kaspersky Lab’s Africa Business— a position he’s occupied since late 2012. In his executive role, Riaan oversees Kaspersky Lab’s operations in more than 40 countries across the sub-Saharan region.

In this conversation, Riaan speaks to me about the increasingly complex challenges of ensuring the safety of internet users. Riaan also gives his take on the growing trend towards the internet of things, and offers advice around the precautions we all ought to be taking to avoid succumbing to the dangers that lurk in the digital realm.

 

Staying Secure With Brendan Horan

Brendan Horan is a chartered accountant who has served as Managing Director of MiX Telematics Africa since June 2014, when the firm’s fleet and consumer businesses on the continent were merged into one business.

Founded in 1996, MiX Telematics has grown into a leading global provider of fleet and mobile asset management solutions, and is listed on both the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange.

Using a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery model, MiX Telematics delivers solutions to customers in more than 120 countries, across 6 continents— with offices in South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uganda, Brazil, Australia and the United Arab Emirates.

 

Telkom South Africa In The Lead With Game Changing Mobile Packages

Data costs need to come down significantly if Africa is ever going to realise the dream of making access to the internet available to every single person living on the continent.

As things stand, according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, an estimated 590 million Africans still do not have access to electricity, to say nothing of reliable web access.

However, South Africa’s largest telecoms operator, the government-owned Telkom, has announced some game-changing 4G/LTE data-led mobile packages that may signal the beginning of the end of exorbitantly high data prices in that country.

Aside from throwing down the gauntlet towards its rivals, Telkom seems to be committing to a business model that seeks to sign up the masses and incentivise them to consume ever increasing amounts of data, as opposed to attempting to profiteer in the short to medium term. What’s not to love about that?

Also in this week’s African Tech Round-up, I speak to Frank Schutte, the former Retail Product & Marketing Managing Director of South Africa’s largest life insurer— Liberty, to found a startup called MobiLife, which is “Africa’s first 100% mobile insurance offering” that aims to transform micro-insurance in South Africa.

Listen in to find out what would possess Frank to take on the well-heeled incumbents who currently dominate South Africa’s highly-competitive multi-billion dollar life insurance industry.

UnRadio With Gareth Cliff

Gareth Cliff is not only a controversial South African Radio DJ and a judge on DSTV’s  hugely popular Idols South Africa, but also the Co-founder & President of Africa’s largest podcast producer, CliffCentral.com.

His colourful journey within broadcasting led him to quit one of South Africa’s most lucrative radio gigs to launch a platform that now boasts over 40 podcast titles and garners over 100,000 downloads per week.

In this conversation, Gareth unpacks the values that motivated his evolution from broadcaster to startup founder, and shares insights on what its like to be a pathfinder in Africa’s untamed new media landscape.

Being Delusional With Toro Orero

It’s fair to say that the Nigerian-born Toro Orero is a live wire that’s all the way lit. He serves as Managing Partner at DraperDarkFlow— a Silicon Valley VC Fund backed by the illustrious Tim Draper, who’s investment portfolio at DFJ features everything from Tesla and Solarcity to Skype and Twitter.

DraperDarkFlow is dedicated to investing in African startups run by “delusional” founders intent on changing the world. Toro also curates SpeedUPAfrica, which is one of the continent’s leading startup bootcamps.

In this conversation, Toro talks about how being underestimated is his superpower, what he and Tim Draper look for in startups they hope to invest in, and dishes on the pros and cons of running an Africa-focussed VC firm that’s headquartered in Silicon Valley.

 

Investor Whispering With Maya Horgan Famodu

Maya Horgan Famodu is a consummate eclectic who wears the beautiful complexity of her Nigerian-Swedish-American heritage with pride.

Maya is the Founder and Managing Director of Ingressive, a firm dedicated to guiding global capital to African entrepreneurs through a 2,000 member angel database, and semi-annual investor tours.

Alongside her serious commitment to promoting entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa, Maya takes time out to write for Inc., the Huffington Post, and several other leading publications. She also organises panels for the likes of SXSW, dances hip-hop, and takes long rides on her motorcycle.

In this conversation, Maya shares the challenges of building a bullet-proof professional reputation within the global VC community, and chats about the risks and rewards of building bridges between Silicon Valley and various growth hubs within Africa’s tech ecosystem.

 

Maintaining Legacies With Oliver Fortuin

Oliver Fortuin heads up BT’s (formerly British Telecoms) operations in Sub-Saharan Africa— where he is tasked with leading the charge for a legacy ICT institution (that is over a century old) in some of the world’s most promising developing markets.

 

Prior to joining BT, Oliver held executive positions at i1 Solutions, HP and IBM and earned an MBA from the Open University, UK. In addition to chatting about his upbringing and his journey up the corporate ladder, the conversation touches on everything from macroeconomics to business challenges that keep Oliver and his team on their toes.

Be sure to listen in if only to hear Oliver’s answer when asked (rather unfairly) what disruptive trend could potentially render BT redundant in the next decade.