SECTOR ANALYSIS OF AFRICA’S INTERNET ECONOMY
FINTECH
The fintech sector is growing in Africa, in part, to serve the population that is currently unbanked and financially excluded. However, the rise of these solutions and access to mobile technology are driving demand and growth in this sector. The opportunities arising from the vertical broadening beyond traditional banking services are also contributing factors. These fintech startups address different categories of the banking and finance sector such as lending, payment processing, personal finance, money management and transfers, and consumer banking. Fintech is enabling African countries to leapfrog from physical retail banking to online payments, remittances, microloans, and insurance. Paired with rising mobile connectivity, individuals living in rural areas with poor physical banking infrastructure and limited access to fixed-line Internet access are increasingly able to use mobile devices for financial transactions.
E-COMMERCE
Africa’s e-Commerce industry has shown incredible growth in the past decade, resulting from an improved payment-processing landscape, a rise in mobile technology, and mobile money tech adoption. In prior years, the industry faced some skepticism as consumers raised logistical concerns; more recently, however, the industry has seen substantial growth with its first round of venture capital (VC) funding and the entrance of multiple startups. In 2019, $134 million in funding across 30 deals was attributed to e-Commerce, indicating a 2% YoY increase in funding and a 36% YoY increase in the number of deals. Kenyan e-Commerce startup Copia raised $26 million in a Series B funding round in 2019, allowing the business to expand operations. Other substantial e-Commerce companies include Nigeria-founded startup Jumia, and South African startup Takealot. Jumia went public in 2019 with its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, while Takealot secured another $70 million in funding from Naspers in 2017.
HEALTHTECH
In the past few years, healthtech has alternated between being the second and the fifth most funded vertical in Africa. This sector received $189 million across 13 deals in 2019—a 969% YoY increase in funding from $18 million in 2018. While a significant number of deals in healthtech were in the form of prizes and grants, the growing interest in and funding of the vertical, coupled with improving mobile connectivity, could result in widespread reform and innovations in healthcare to rural and resource-deprived areas. The African healthcare market was valued at over $85 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach over $100 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 7.9%. Moreover, healthtech funding provides a substantial opportunity to transform traditional health facilities to better meet global standards and more efficiently address social needs.
SECTOR ANALYSIS OF AFRICA’S INTERNET ECONOMY (CONTINUED)
MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT
The media and entertainment (M&E) industry has grown steadily over the past few years and is expected to continue growing for the next four years. The five largest M&E markets across the continent—South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and Tanzania (Egypt was not included in the cited study)—showed a CAGR of 11.9% with total revenue of over $17 billion in 2018. The combined M&E market consists of various categories with a range of performance in recent years. Categories such as virtual reality (VR) and e-Sports have seen significant growth; in South Africa from 2018 to 2023 both have forecasted CAGRs of 44% and 26%, respectively.90 While most categories show growth, print categories such as magazines and newspapers are the lone trouble spot, reporting negative growth figures across the continent. This is largely attributed to the rise of the Internet, shifting consumers away from print and toward online options.
E-MOBILITY AND FOOD DELIVERY
In Africa, there are 44 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants, compared to 180 globally—one of the lowest car to person ratios in the world. Owning a personal vehicle is prohibitively expensive, an order of magnitude higher than other forms of public or non-motorized transport. Consistent with the continent’s low rates of car ownership, communal taxis and moto-taxis account for 75- 80% of Africa’s total motorized trips. E-mobility solutions have taken off in Africa, in particular, global ride-hailing companies, such as Uber and Bolt, have entered the market in the past seven years, in addition to local players, such as Little, Gokada, Gozem, MaxNG, Safeboda, Yassir. While food delivery services are not new in Africa, the sector began to gain considerable interest and growth in 2019. This is due largely to ride-hailing startups that have begun to expand by offering their services to the food delivery sector. Many are able to do this by leveraging their already operational fleet of drivers and folding this new service into their existing digital platform.
B2B E-LOGISTICS
B2B platforms are solving logistical challenges for informal retailers. For example, on-demand fastmoving consumer goods (FMCG) delivery services provide 24/7 marketplaces for retailers to use when ordering products. They also consolidate a highly fragmented supply chain and allow retailers to pay as they go, providing higher profit margins for micro- and small retailers. By aggregating informal retailers and connecting them directly with large FMCG manufacturers and distribution supply bases, these companies allow access to opportunities that were previously unavailable, cost-prohibitive, or otherwise inaccessible to informal retailers. This helps to increase revenues for low-income retailers, particularly those focused on everyday staples. There is a shortfall in African infrastructure investment of between $67 billion and $107 billion annually, hampering development in the logistics sector as it imposes a 40-60% surcharge on the cost of goods. For this reason, the importance of logistics startups cannot be overstated. Investments in the private logistics sector are enabling an increase in the movement of goods and services; more investments and interest in the sector could catalyze even broader development across the entire ecosystem.