Ethiopia Finally Opens up Telecoms Market

Flat6Labs (https://flat6labs.com), a seed VC firm akin to an accelerator that has been used to perform its seed investments since establishing both Cairo and Tunis offices in 2011 and 2016.

Sawari says 10% of the now-closed investments will be earmarked for seed-stage companies as investments through Flat6Labs Cairo and Tunis. Flat6Labs Cairo will seed between 80 to 100 companies and offer follow-on investments to between 30 and 40. Flat6Labs Tunisia will seed 60 to 70 companies and offer follow-on investments for 30 to 40. The remaining 90% will be used to invest in 20 to 25 growth-stage companies across Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, with a median investment range of $2 million to $3 million.

The investment range is a continuation of how Sawari typically cut checks for portfolio startups since closing the first tranche three years ago. The firm said it has invested between $1 million and $4 million in Elves, Brantu, ExpandCart, Almentor, SWVL and MoneyFellows, among others.

“The Egypt-based fund is a privately held fund regulated by the Financial Regulatory Authority of Egypt (FRA), which allowed us to attract capital from top-tier local financial institutions to co-invest with foreign capital from international development financial institutions, doubling our allocation to invest in Egyptian high-growth companies to $68 million,” El Alfi said in a statement.

“Our aim is to create exceptional returns through investing in knowledge-driven companies, which have the potential of bringing transformational changes to the Egyptian economy. The fund will support local companies with dedicated capital, in addition to quality expertise from our seasoned and specialized team, and the value-add of our investors.” https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/05/sawariventures-fi nally-closes-71m-fund-for-northafrican-startups

By REUTERS

IT'S ONE OF THE world's last closed markets f for mobile communications.

But now Ethiopia is finally set to allow competition in the telecoms sector.

The country's finance ministry said Monday (April 26) that it had received two bids for operating licenses.

One is from South Africa's MTN.

The other from a consortium including Kenya's Safaricom and UK giant Vodafone.

A senior adviser at the ministry told Reuters it shouldn't take more than a week for a decision on awarding the licenses.

It's all part of moves to free up the country's economy.

The liberalisation will also see the sale of a 45% stake in Ethio Telecom.

France's Orange is thought to be among companies interested in taking a part of that.

Back in 2019, when liberalisation plans were set out, local traders seemed pleased.

Competition should improve service, said this broker in Addis Ababa.

The winning bidders will get full operating licenses.

But officials said last year they would be expected to build their own infrastructure, and would not be allowed to operate mobile-phone based financial services. https://in.news.yahoo.com/ethiopia-fi nallyopens-telecoms-market-131347018.html Image credit: ethio.news