Max Cuvellier Giacomelli’s Post

April 2024...🐌 was a bit of a slow month in terms of funding for the start-up ecosystem in #Africa But it's not all doom and gloom: 🚪 There were two exits in April alone: Rivia x Waffle (health tech) & BuuPass x Quickbus (transport tech) 🅱️ There were also 2 Series B in April (after only one in the whole of Q1): SunCulture & PULA 🌍 This year so far, #climatetech-tagged investments represent a third of both the number of deals and the amount raised in Africa 💰 The number of $1m+ deals has actually gone up compared to the same period last year! 👩💻 10% of the funding in 2024 so far has gone to start-ups with a female CEO. It might not seem much but it was only 6% in the same period last year and 3% in 2022... ... For more, check out my latest post for our Africa: The Big Deal newsletter: https://lnkd.in/eEnWEr69 --- #startups #startupfunding #vcfunding #africatech #africarising

Our little Africa: The Big Deal newsletter just got its 10,000th subscriber ☺️ Beyond the numbers, I am thankful for the opportunity to support the start-up and VC ecosystem in #Africa with data and insights, to help bring attention to its great potential, and of course to work with my long-time friend Maxime, Elodie, and all of you who have been supporting us on this journey. 10,000 Thank Yous!

⏰ Only 3 days left to apply for a chance to receive up to $1,500,000 from the Women in the Digital Economy Fund to scale your solution to help close the gender digital divide As a reminder, through this first call for applications we are inviting applications from local entities that are rooted in the communities in which they seek to affect change, and have demonstrated successful approaches advancing #genderequality and/or #digitalinclusion for women, girls, and other marginalised populations. The funding aims to scale proven solutions that have demonstrated they 1️⃣ Drive digital inclusion for women, e.g. through access to smartphones and the internet 2️⃣ Significantly close the #gender digital divide in their context 3️⃣ Are economically sustainable and scalable 🌍 Eligible geographies are countries where USAID operates; at least 50% of award funding will support entities in SS Africa. The deadline is 📆 May 6, 11.59pm Eastern US time 📆 May 7, 3.59am Abidjan 📆 May 7, 6.59am Addis Ababa 📆 May 7, 8.59am Islamabad 📆 May 7, 10.59am Jakarta But don't wait until the last minute! --- About the Women in the Digital Economy Fund: #WiDEF is a joint effort between USAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to accelerate progress on closing the gender digital divide. Established as a consortium, it is managed by CARE, the Global Digital Inclusion Partnership and the GSMA Foundation. If you are not eligible for this round, stay tuned as we will be announcing two additional rounds later in the year: one offering technical support to large private sector actors 🏢, and a dedicated WiDEF India round 🇮🇳

🧊 No end to the funding winter for start-ups in #Africa: While the number of US$1m+ deals continued to pick up, investments on the continent were at a 3-year low in Q1 2024... For a summary of the latest start-up investment trends in Africa, check out my latest column for Nanyang Technological University Singapore's NTU-SBF Centre for African Studies (CAS): https://lnkd.in/eBmfscmz --- #startups #startupfunding #vcfunding #africatech #africarising

Last week I came across a little gem that helped me put things into perspective: ITU's #Africa 2004 Special Report. Not 2024... #2004. If anyone needs to be reminded of how much things have changed on the continent in the past two decades, this is a must-read, especially if we compare ITU's 2004 numbers to GSMA - Mobile for Development's latest reports: 🤳🏻 Mobile subscribers: 50 million ⏩ over 500 million MTN subscribers: 9 million ⏩ ~300 million Orange subscribers: 5.6 million ⏩ ~150 million Beyond what is included in the report, it's what's missing that's the most striking: back in 2004, neither the mobile internet (there is a 'mobile data (2G)' section, which speaks exclusively about... SMS) nor the mobile money saga had started on the continent. And yet: 🤳🏻 #MobileInternet: 📵⏩ ~300 million users, with 85% of the population covered by a mobile internet network 3G & above 🤳🏻 #MobileMoney: : 📵⏩ ~900 million accounts, ~250 million of which are active on a monthly basis, across 150+ deployments Of course, there is more to be done: closing both the coverage gap and the usage gap when it comes to mobile internet, increasing activity rates for mobile money, bridging gender gaps across the board... But sometimes it is worth looking in the rearview mirror for a minute, and appreciate the strong foundations that have been laid by more than two decades of investments and commitments from the industry. This is the encouragement we need to continue our collective work to get mobile internet coverage and usage as well as financial inclusion numbers as close as possible to 100%, while aiming for 0 gender gap.

eFishery’s story and Gibran’s leadership have been nothing short of extraordinary, and it’s fantastic to see such a strong endorsement by Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella. eFishery’s tech allows fish farmers to better « listen to the plop-plops and the niam-niams of the fish » as Gibran puts it, and allows them to grow healthier fish, improve yields, reduce waste and pollution. Back in early 2018, when they were still quite early on their journey, our very own GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator - funded by #UKaid and Australian Aid - awarded a grant to help them improve their fish feeder technology. It’s been fantastic to see them grow from strength to strength ever since, raising 100s of millions of dollars and recently becoming the first aquaculture unicorn! (which I guess technically is a narval?)

🤴The 100 Million Dollar Club🤴: 26 ventures have raised at least $100m+ in #Africa since 2019, attracting almost half of all the funding raised on the continent in the past 5 years More than half of the money invested in this exclusive group went to #fintech and #energy start-ups, and over 80% to start-ups headquartered in one of the 'Big Four'. Only four of the 26 have at least a female founder, and every single one of them has a male CEO... For more, check out my weekly post for Africa: The Big Deal here: https://lnkd.in/eDzhd4q5 --- #startups #startupfunding #vcfunding #africatech #africarising

Last year, 281 million people around the world required urgent food and livelihood assistance. Here are 5 statistics/trends in particular that I think were particularly shocking after going through the GRFC report: 1️⃣ In 10 countries, this number of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity in 2023 was above 10 million: DRC (26m), Nigeria (25m), Sudan (20m), Afghanistan (20m), Ethiopia (20m), Yemen (18m), Syria (13m), Bangladesh (12m), Pakistan (12m), Myanmar (11m) Pre-pandemic in 2019, only 3 countries made this list: Yemen (16m), DRC (16m) and Afghanistan (14m) 2️⃣ There are 3 main drivers of food insecurity: Conflict/insecurity (48%), Economic shocks (27%) and Weather extremes (26%). Weather extremes seem on track to surpass Economic shocks as the second driver of food insecurity in 2023. As Gemma Connell of UN OCHA pointed out during the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster plenary meeting we at GSMA hosted earlier this week, factors are compounding, with weather extremes making response in conflict/insecurity settings harder in harder (e.g. with the earthquake in Syria and the floods in Libya last year) 3️⃣ 700k lived in 5 countries lived in 'Catastrophe' conditions in 2023, meaning 'starvation, death, destitution and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels are evident'. Back in 2020 this number was 'only' 28k. 82% of those living in 'Catastrophe' conditions in 2023 lived in Palestine. 4️⃣ 10 million children suffered from severe acute malnutrition in 2023, with 27% of them living in Nigeria and Ethiopia (1.6m and 1.1m respectively). An additional 36m+ were acutely malnourished, and 27m more suffered from moderate acute malnutrition. 5️⃣ 90 million of the 281 million people suffering from food insecurity are away from their homes and communities. 26 million of them have left their home countries and are refugees or asylum seekers; the remaining 64 million are internally displaced due to escalating and protracted conflicts, extreme climatic events and/or economic hardship. The 2024 Global Report on Food Crisis published earlier this week is a sobering yet unmissable report for those involved in #foodsecurity or #humanitarian response of course, but really also for anyone who cares about the state of the world.

🌍 In Q1 2024, #Africa (+Jordan) was responsible for 92% of the YoY revenue growth recorded by the Orange group The region recorded +11% YoY growth in revenue, with 9 out of 16 countries showing double-digit growth There was growth in every revenue stream: moderate for voice (+4% YoY), double-digit for data (+16%) and Orange Money (+24%) Orange is now serving more than 153 million customers in the region, 67 million of which are using 4G, and 35m Orange Money

Avert's bold new strategy aims to transition its flagship assets to African-led organisations: After nearly four decades focused on ensuring people have access to information they can trust that supports informed health decisions, the organisation - under Sarah Hand's great leadership, and in close collaboration with the Board of Trustees (on which I've had the privilege to serve since early 2022) - believe the best way to achieve this aim, protect our legacy and be proactive in the #localisation agenda moving forward is to find new homes for our key assets in organisations based in #Africa, for whom these products clearly help achieve their strategy, add value, and offer new opportunity. This approach will not only maximise the impact of Avert’s work and secure a long-term legacy for the products, but also foster true local ownership and leadership. Over the next year, Sarah and the team will continue to provide regular updates as we further develop and implement this strategy. They will also document our journey and the learning we gather along the way, to share across the sector as we know we are not alone as a focused, successful organisation that nevertheless needs to make big decisions in a changing world. You can read Sarah's full blog here: https://lnkd.in/eDp862g9 To deliver on this ambitious strategy, we also need to ensure that the new host organisations will have access to the funding and technical assistance they need to onboard and sustain the assets. If you are active in the HIV prevention or broader health space and think you can support, don't hesitate to get in touch!