I have made my prediction that Uber will buy Lyft within three years. Someone did note also, on LinkedIn, that car companies can band together and take it off the public market. Largely, it will be hard for Lyft to thrive in a world of Uber. Alliance of car companies buying Lyft to deepen their ridesharing future is a better possibility since Uber buying can hit antitrust challenges.

On July 14 2017 (see video), I made a case that Uber will merge/acquire Lyft. As Lyft loses steam, post-IPO, and Uber coming to party, the pressure will heat up on Lyft. Then Lyft will surrender, and Uber will buy it within three years. Similar rivalries have ended together: Elance/Odesk (now UpWork),  Groupon / LivingSocial,  Sirius / XM and  Rover / DogVacay.

These numbers below are from Uber and Lyft respective Securities and Exchange Commission Form S-1s.

2018 Revenue

Uber: $11.3 billion

Lyft: $2.2 billion

2018 Loss

Uber: $1.85 billion (Adjusted EBITDA loss)

Lyft: $911 million

Total Cities

Uber: 700+ (globally)

Lyft: 300+ (across U.S. and Canada)

2018 Booking revenue from ride-hailing service

Uber: $41.5 billion

Lyft: $8.1 billion

Users in 2018

Uber: 91 million (including other services like Uber Eats)

Lyft: 30.7 million

Drivers in 2018

Uber: 3.9 million

Lyft: 1.9 million

Rides in 2018

Uber: 5.2 billion (includes scooter and bike rides, Uber Eats deliveries)

Lyft: 619 million

After Jumia Day 2, I declare for Andela and Interswitch to abandon any alternative plan that is not New York (NYSE or NASDAQ) listing. Forget London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and hit the land of Yankees. Nonetheless, I remain convinced that Alibaba Group through Ant Financial will buy Interswitch in order to have presence in Africa since it has picked properties in other global regions as it pursues payment system unification.

I have been tracking acquisitions by Ant Financial, an affiliate company of Alibaba Group. The Chinese company which is already bigger than Goldman Sachs is on spending spree, buying the world. London-based FT reported , few weeks ago, that it was in talks to buy WorldFirst, the UK-based international payments group, for about $700 million. The U.S. government had blocked its love-songs to MoneyGram, rejecting the proposed acquisition.

Did you see that 12,857,332 volume on Jumia Day 2? That is a solid whet of appetite from investors.

Andela identifies and develops software developers. The company launched operations in Nigeria in 2014, to help global companies overcome the severe shortage of skilled software developers and has offices in Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and the United States. It has raised millions of dollars as it pursues its mission – a really great one in this age where “software is eating” the world!

Interswitch is an Africa-focused integrated digital payments and commerce company that facilitates the electronic circulation of money as well as the exchange of value between individuals and organisations on a timely and consistent basis. The company started operations in 2002 as a transaction switching and electronic payments processing company that builds and manages payment infrastructure as well as deliver innovative payment products and transactional services throughout the African continent.

Recently, JD.com or JingDong has been making headlines in the international scene. This could be partly because of the arrest of its CEO and founder Richard Liu or Liu Qiangdong last August 2018. However, the latest news about JingDong is a breath of fresh air amidst the controversies. The company’s shares dramatically surged after it uploaded online its earning during the fourth quarter. JingDong’s revenue surged 22 percent annually reflecting $19.6 million and pounding estimates by $210 million.

It is worth noting that over the years, the annual growth of JingDong in terms of gross merchandise volume has been slowing down steadily. In the past couple of quarters, the growth of the company’s active user acquisition fell. According to its previous report, its yearly active customer accounts are at 305.5 million at the end of 2018. This indicates a huge drop from its 313.8 million active users at the end of June 2018.

JigDong has nonetheless shown some progress in enticing more big names to be in their platform in the fourth quarter. For instance, in October 2018, JingDong allied with the Xinyu Group, China’s largest global watch retailer. This lead to the debut of several stores for luxury brands like Certina, Rado, and Hamilton. In addition, Sulwhasoo, the top luxury beauty brand in Korea and DKNY, also forged alliances with JingDong and opened stores within the company.

So far, JD is stabilizing and its profitability is slowly improving. In December 2018, the company debuted a $1 billion buyback plan. Its equivalents and cash propelled by investments increased by 33 percent annually to $5 billion despite its cash flow stay in the negative region.

Earlier today, JingDong disclosed that it sold its luxury platform TopLife to Farfetch. According to reports, the sale amounted to $50 million. Farfetch will now incorporate TopLife to its business in China. The transition will be supervised by Farfetch’s managing director in China, Judy Liu. This tactical move is most likely one of the significant moves to combat the difficult economic landscape JingDong is currently experiencing in China.

The latest deal will provide Farfetch Level 1 entry to the app of JingDong. On the other hand, JD will have access to its partner’s network of more than a thousand luxury brand and store partners. This impressive shift in the business direction of JingDong happens at a very opportune time. it can be recalled that in the past months, several luxury groups like Kering and Hermes have shown resilience to the decelerating economic condition. This indicates a strong demand for the luxury brand from Chinese consumers.

The extended alliance of JingDong with Farfetch will boost the company’s operation in China and offer its customers a wide array of brands that would usually take years before a fresh player could get noticed in the demanding and highly competitive luxury fashion industry. JD.com’s primary competitor, Alibaba has recently entered into the luxury business. Aside from setting up its very own special platform for luxury brands called Luxury pavilion, has also formed a partnership with net=a-Porter last October 2018.

This recent shift in JingDong’s focus is because of the vision of its CEO Richard Liu. After he was arrested in August 2018 in Minneapolis because of alleged sexual misconduct and was released the next day, said that he will take JingDong to new heights by going to a new direction. Liu, who also goes by his Chinese name Liu Qiangdong founded a retail store in 1998 and closed it after six years to transform it into an online store.

JingDong has also formed a partnership with Walmart and Tencent. Lately, the Chinese online retailer concentrates on delivery and has made several drone models to transport the packages to its clients located in rural areas.

The Fasmicro Group team just arrived in Dakar (Senegal) for the Malabo Montpellier Panel. Over the last few months, we have worked with Imperial College London as Africa’s leader in precision farming on a new document it will unveil to the world.

To give you some background, the Malabo Montpellier Panel convenes 17 leading experts in agriculture, ecology, nutrition and food security to guide policy choices by African governments to accelerate progress toward food security and improved nutrition in Africa. The Panel identifies areas of progress and positive change across the continent and assesses what successful countries have done differently. It then identifies the most important institutional innovations and policy and program interventions that can be replicated and scaled up by other countries. Since January 2017, the Malabo Montpellier Panel has published three reports: Nourished: How Africa Can Build a Future Free from Hunger and Malnutrition (September 2017); Mechanized: Transforming Africa’s agriculture value chains (July 2018); and Water-Wise: Smart Irrigation Strategies for Africa(December 2018).

Eminent strategist and business leader, Mr. Gbenga Bamiji, FCA, will deliver a vision on that promise where hunger will disappear in the community of farmers.

What Is Zenvus?

MEST Africa, the Pan-African entrepreneurial training program, seed fund and incubator, has officially announced its fourth annual MEST Africa Summit, in collaboration with Microsoft. The 3-day event will take place in Nairobi, Kenya from June 10 – 12, 2019, at the Radisson Blu Hotel as well as the home of MEST Africa’s Nairobi incubator – the Nairobi Garage.

The Pan-African tech conference, the MEST Africa Summit brings together leading entrepreneurs, investors, ecosystem players and executives from across Africa and globally to explore the latest innovations and rising stars in the African tech ecosystem. In addition to panel discussions driven by the continent’s top thought leaders, this year’s event will feature an engaging second day including interactive workshops designed for entrepreneurs, a look inside the MEST training program and incubator, and more.

The Summit will culminate with the finals of the 2019 MEST Africa Challenge, where attendees see regional winners AMPZ.TV, OZÉ, Snode Technologies, WayaWaya and Seekewa pitch for a chance at up to $50,000 in equity investment, a place in a MEST Africa incubator of their choice and full support to help their company scale.

MEST Africa has been training, supporting and investing in tech entrepreneurs on the continent for more than 10 years. Over 330 individual entrepreneurs have been trained at MEST, and nearly 60 tech companies have been launched via seed funding and mentorship.

Five companies have exited, including Amplify Payments Ltd. (Amplify) who was recently acquired by leading Nigerian fintech player, One Finance Limited (OneFi), to further develop the payments ecosystem in Nigeria.