In October, Google launched the Africa Investment Fund, to help the African tech ecosystem, especially startups, with funding and digital amenities needed to accelerate growth.

Two months after, the $1 billion “tech-led initiatives”, which is billed to run for over the next five years and includes a $50 million Africa Investment Fund targeted at early- and growth-stage startups on the continent, has found its first startup – SafeBoda.

The ride-hailing motorbike startup has gained popularity in Uganda since it was founded in 2014. Google says that the investment will help drive SafeBoda’s growth in Uganda and Nigeria, scaling its transportation-led app to offer new payment and financial services solutions for its expanding set of customers: passengers, drivers, and merchants.

Google has been passionate about Africa’s tech development. Before launching the fund, the tech giant proved helpful in startups’ journeys via its Google for Startups Accelerator Africa program. The accelerator program has supported more than 80 startups in seed to Series A stages with equity-free mentorship and resources. Collectively, they have raised over $100 million in venture capital, and also recently launched Black Founders Fund, a non-dilutive $3 million fund allocated to 50 startups yearly.

SafeBoda becomes Google’s first choice due to its impact in Uganda, which has evolved from solving a last-mile transport friction with a huge growth potential, to being a super app offering other services.

SafeBoda app was launched in 2017 to connect passengers to their community of safer and trusted drivers and since then, the motorbike company has grown to serve over 1 million customers, expanding its transportation-led super app offering rides, parcel delivery, food, and shop, payments, savings, and other financial services. The Uganda & Nigeria venture-backed company has investors that include GoVentures (GoJek), Allianz X, Unbound, Beenext, and Justin Kan.

Co-founder, Ricky Rapa Thomson, said African cities have economic development opportunities that will continue to be powered by SafeBoda.

“SafeBoda welcomes Google to their community and are excited to continue to drive innovation in informal transportation and payments in the boda boda (motorcycle taxi driver in East Africa) or okada (West Africa) industry. As a former boda driver in Kampala, I know that we are the lifeblood of Africa’s cities and we power economic development. SafeBoda is thrilled that leading global companies such as Google see the importance of backing start-ups working towards these goals,” he said.

Besides providing US$50M to support early tech ideas, Google will provide them with access to Google’s employees, network, and technologies to help them build impactful products for their communities.

Africa’s investment volume has risen more than ever before in 2021, with a record $4 billion in equity funding raised, according to Partech Ventures Africa. There is also a growing army of vibrant tech-based workforce, made up of 700,000 developers in the continent. Digital startups in Africa are driving innovation in fast-growing sectors, including fintech, healthtech, media and entertainment, e-commerce, e-mobility, and e-logistics, contributing to Africa’s growing Internet gross domestic product (iGDP) — defined as the Internet’s contribution to the GDP.

Nitin Gajria, Managing Director for Google in Africa said the fund will help Africa’s developers and entrepreneurs to solve the continent’s problems.

“I am thrilled about our first investment from the $50M Africa Investment Fund that we announced two months ago. This is part of our ongoing commitment to tech startups in Africa. I am of the firm belief that no one is better placed to solve Africa’s biggest problems than Africa’s young developers and entrepreneurs. We look forward to announcing subsequent investments in other startups,” Gajria said.

It is expected that more startups and entrepreneurs will emerge as beneficiaries of the Google fund in early 2022.

A federal minister in Nigeria prefers regulation of crypto over outright ban in Nigeria: 

Clem Agba, minister of state for budget and national planning, said uncertainty in regulating cryptocurrencies risks denying government and citizens the chance to maximize opportunities from the technology. 

Agba’s comments come after Central Bank of Nigeria in February ordered commercial banks to stop transactions or operations in cryptocurrencies, citing a threat to the financial system which it regulates. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission, which views cryptocurrencies as exchangeable securities, said it’s seeking clarity on regulation of the asset.

There is a challenge of who regulates cryptocurrencies because of its different classifications as securities or currencies, Agba said at a conference on Thursday. “Since our existing laws cannot explicitly stipulate who holds the power to regulate cryptocurrencies, there may be a need for an additional body to play that role,” he said. 

Regulatory uncertainty, however, hasn’t kept Nigerians away from digital currencies — individuals in the country hold the world’s highest proportion of such assets per capita, according to a survey by Statista. In October, Nigeria’s central bank joined a growing list of emerging markets in introducing its own digital currency, the eNaira, to help cut transaction costs and boost participation in the formal financial system.

You have successfully taken your business from stage zero to the first stage. Now you have a product live in the market, you have some customers, maybe a couple of partners and even a financier. What next? It is now time to move the business to the next stage – thousands of customers, millions of dollars in revenue, a larger team, maybe more financiers, and so on.

Note first that there is no saying how long the startup stage would or should last. It can be a year, two years, five years, or even more. When it is time to move on to the growth stage, it is quite obvious to everyone on the team.

Here are three skills you need when you want to grow your business from the launch stage to become a successful company.

Sales

Naturally, if you are looking to grow revenue from hundreds of thousands into millions, you need to work on sales. Get more customers on board, increase your market share, expand into new areas perhaps, and generally grow sales. You will need the skills to execute all of these at the growth stage.

Customer service

This is closely linked to the former. As you onboard new customers, you have to develop a customer service culture that will keep your customers glued to you. There will be constant competition with other brands upping their game to give as much or even more than you do. It may require you to upgrade your solution to keep up. If you can keep your customers happy and satisfied, they become your evangelists.

Team building and people management

You are going to be working with a larger team than you did at the beginning. Depending on your model, this may be completely remote, physical, or a hybrid of both. It will take more from you to manage a team of 100 people than it did to manage a team of 10. That is why I mentioned in a previous post that one person may not have all the skills but in some cases they do. You may be good at building and working very well with a team of 10 people, but not a team of 100.

One thing you should keep in mind is creating a sense of mission that brings them together. A lot at this stage will depend on the culture you built with a smaller team. How you develop and treat your team members is very important.

There are other skills you will need as you gradually grow your business from the launch stage to become a successful company. Things like risk management, resource management, and so on. For most of them, you may have team members who have that expertise, but when it comes to sales and people management, you have to be directly involved. You should know what is going on with your sales team at every point because if there are no sales, the business is going nowhere.

No excuses….

Develop a habit of not making a lot of excuses because those who do struggle to thrive. They argue a new city, a new job, a new school, a new boss, more funds in the startup, more staff in the team, etc will do the magic and transform everything. Instead of making excuses, focus on getting that thing or simply work around to eliminate the need for that thing!

Feel the challenge but quickly rise to find a solution. He gets things done; no excuses. More will recommend you at your absence.