by Ian Ian No Comments

Good Lessons from a VC on “COVID-Beneficiaries” and Our Take on How This May Catalyse eCommerce and Online Payments Across Africa

Notes for video:  Kalon Venture Partners . . introduced to me to the term COVID-beneficiaries. 

Platforms and marketplaces, particularly related to core growth opportunities, like historically tourism and travel, and into the future SME’s moving their services online, and the consequent demand for transport and logistics systems 

Opportunity –  Incoming platforms moving from mature markets to underserved markets across Africa is a sweet spot.  They need all the help they can get and they have better margins and investment capability to tackle the market en masse to gain market share right now with smooth payment services taken care of.  This is particularly relevant when it comes to COVID-beneficiary businesses who are significantly benefitting from the new way of being.

These verticals will be on a growth curve into the future:  Retail and particularly essential services; tourism and travel will come back on stream but it will take some time – and Africa is most likely down the list when it comes to international tourism and travel operators looking for places to book and pay.  

Home entertainment like Netflix, Amazon Prime, PayTV, betting, gambling and gaming are high growth markets.  To facilitate eCommerce deliveries and to bridge the gap between people, logistics and delivery companies are thriving.

Think about your business and who it is serving and which of those or potentially new ones are onto a good growth curve.

eCommerce was on a strong growth curve before, and COVID has been rocketfuel for existing and effectively all businesses who are woke enough to move their services online.

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by Ian Ian No Comments

Vertical potentials & opportunities across Sub-Saharan Africa for Multinational eCommerce Companies

Vertical potentials & opportunities across Sub-Saharan Africa for Multinational eCommerce Companies

Vertical potentials and opportunities?  

  • Retail – giant size eCommerce (for eg Takealot, Jumia, Safaricom’s Masoko) are mostly well advanced when it comes to their own payments systems.  The silver lining is that this is paving the way for international eCommerce companies to leverage the improved consumer education, logistics and payment systems
  • Tourism and Travel – Tourism and travel are a key contributor to GDP in many SSA countries and booking engines through aggregation provide good payment opportunities
  • Betting and Gambling – digital and accessible, not affected by lack of infrastructure, and popular for entertainment
  • Deliveries and Ridesharing – transport is a base layer for all economies across SSA and the relatively underdeveloped transport infrastructures provide ample opportunities for private service provision off aggregator platforms
  • PayTV – the growth in PayTV has been significant, with Multichoice paving the way for other providers and runner up Netflix
  • DHL – their coverage of SSA is a key component in catalysing eCommerce
  • Insurance – insurance is finding new markets across Africa and cushioning Africans against shocks that come with the territory.  This could need online payment and particularly digital and smart contract based insurance platforms

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