Technology
African Tech Startups to Enjoy $1b VC Investment
By Dipo Olowookere
The value of venture capital investment is fuelling Africa’s emerging technology landscape. Whilst Kenya’s Silicon Savannah ecosystem has been at the forefront of the narrative over the past decade, the rise of infrastructure development opportunities within Northern Africa has become an increasingly attractive proposition to the Silicon Valley investment community. More tellingly, global technology entrepreneurs, the African Disapora, are starting to head home, or become dual-homed, hoping to find fruitful opportunities to launch new technology ventures in their native countries.
The drive for innovation is to support both economic and socio-economic development. Companies across the continent are developing new tech applications, adopting existing leapfrog technologies from other countries or modifying existing technologies to make them commercially viable in African markets. It’s about helping the local ecosystem thrive and fuelling job growth to foster innovation.
Algiers has been leading this drive, with several of Silicon Valley’s leading VCs heading to the upcoming Smart Cities Global Technology and Investment Summit on June 27-28 2018.
Paddy Ramanathan, Managing Director of IValley Innovation Centre is heading to the event with high hopes on building the next technology champions in Algiers, ‘Africa can adopt the Silicon Valley mantra of “learn fast” by working with start-ups to fast-track innovation and infrastructure development. Algiers is emerging as a truly viable market that is rewriting the rules of entrepreneurship. It’s enabling a new generation of investors to nurture a truly unique ecosystem.’
The growth in VC funding
Analysis by Crunchbase and TNA Analysis have shown that there was more than $400 million in VC funding for African startups in 2014, with the projection that there would be at least $1 billion in VC investment in Africa’s tech startups for the period 2012–2018.
All indications seem to point to a sustained growth over the foreseeable future. Companies across the continent are betting on leapfrog technologies utilising Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence to develop new tech applications to make them commercially viable in African markets.
Mehdi Sif, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur highlighted, ‘in this digitisation era, we have the opportunity to modernise, automate and transform and that entails tackling challenges at the crossroads of communications, information and operation technologies, spanning previously separate administrative domains, organizations and supply chains. The large number of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs converging on Algiers, is in a way, an illustration of that.’
Tailoring innovation models
However African countries have a different financial and entrepreneurial ecosystem than the US, particularly different from Silicon Valley’s. Adapting the innovation ecosystem to the specific context of African countries is of paramount importance.
A 2017 report by World Bank’s Vice President for Africa, Makhtar Diop, outlined that ‘to increase innovation capacity, African countries can invest in three aspects of innovation policy needs. The first include managerial and organisation capabilities. These come first because they allow organisations to adopt existing innovations and start collaborating and piggybacking on the advances of other countries. The second step involves building technological capabilities, so that countries may adapt and create more of their own innovations. And the third step involves investing longer term in technological programs.’
Kiran Inampudi from Alchemist Accelerator, stated, ‘it’s important for trade deals to invest within the local ecosystem, to allow knowledge and technology transfer, to improve skills and to provide jobs, to really get the benefit of the investment.’
Leveraging talent and the African diaspora
With over 30 million Africans living outside of their home countries the continent’s diaspora has the potential to be a major source of development financing and partnerships African investors are likely to be more socially conscious than their foreign counterparts due to social and cultural connections and their in-depth understanding of local contexts. They are also able to transfer of their technical expertise to bridge the skill gap in math, science, technology and engineering fields.
‘Silicon Valley is first and foremost about talent and everything runs around that’ said Dr. Riad Hartani, from Smart City Algiers. ‘As such, effective talent mobilisation is key to ensure success in fostering innovation. Algiers has set that as a goal and it demonstrates the opportunity that ambitious investors can take their knowledge and adapt this into the local ecosystem. This is one of the most crucial areas being debated at the Algiers Summit.’
The Algiers Smart City Project has also started to innovate from within. The Summit will be showcasing newly launched start-ups incubated by the Smart City Project. Ursiniaa, founded by Abderrahman Aitsaid, is in the process of developing IoT solutions for Smart City applications and believes that the project will be the start of a new Algeria. ‘Africa’s tech hubs are taking on many different characteristics. They’re a place where young students, engineers and entrepreneurs come together to uncover skill, energy, and innovating spirit. The key is to work together to make it happen.’ Dr. Amine Bouabdallah, CEO of Isiniaa, is in agreement. ‘Algiers Smart City is the first time that people across all horizons are coming together to ‘discuss the cities issues and how to connect with the global ecosystem to leapfrog the technology gap.’
The head of Smart City Algiers, Fatiha Slimani said, ‘to best leverage out Diaspora, policy makers have a prime role in identifying diaspora talent that have the prerequisites and be proactive in defining projects optimal for them to lead and develop. The Diaspora dimension is key and they shall be welcome to contribute to the development of their country.’
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
An additional $200,000 will be invested in Artificial Intelligence (AI) media literacy initiatives across Sub-Saharan Africa, TikTok announced during its third annual Sub-Saharan Africa Safer Internet Summit in Nairobi, Kenya.
The platform hosted government officials, regulators, online safety partners and industry leaders for the event, reinforcing its commitment to collaborative approaches to online safety.
The funds will be provided in ad credits to help support local organisations in the region to expand AI media literacy.
This investment builds on the company’s initial $2 million AI Literacy Fund, launched in November 2025, which awarded 20 global non-profits to create content that boosts public understanding of AI.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, TikTok initially supported three organisations to advance digital literacy and combat misinformation.
“With the rapid advancement of AI, we are committed to educating our community online, so they feel empowered to have responsible experiences with AI, whether that’s as viewers or creators.
“We are partnering with trusted local organisations that communities already know and rely on, because their expertise and deep local connections are essential to making AI literacy programs truly impactful,” the Global Head of Partnerships, Elections and Market Integrity at TikTok, Mr Valiant Richey, stated.
Earlier, the Head of Government Relations and Public Policy for Sub-Saharan Africa at TikTok, Ms Tokunbo Ibrahim, said, “As we host the 3rd Annual Safer Internet Summit here in Kenya, our mission is clear: to share learnings, insights, tackle common challenges and collaboratively advance actionable solutions that protect citizens online.
“By bringing together a diverse coalition of policymakers, tech innovators, and creators, we are ensuring that the conversations we have at this Summit are all-inclusive and lead to a more resilient digital landscape.”
The summit featured expert panels and discussions on critical topics, including TikTok’s Trust and Safety efforts, protecting young people online, and policy frameworks for responsible AI governance.
A key highlight of the event was showcasing how TikTok uses AI to transform how people share their creativity and discover new passions, while ensuring the community remains safe through transparent and responsible AI practices.
The platform also shared more about how recent advancements in AI are helping the platform moderate content faster and more consistently at scale, by improving automated moderation and empowering human teams with better moderation tools.
With over 100 million pieces of content uploaded daily to TikTok, these advances, which work alongside human moderation teams, are helping get violative content down faster, reducing the likelihood of the community seeing it.
According to the latest Community Guidelines Enforcement Q3 2025, TikTok removed over 14 million videos across Sub-Saharan Africa, with 96.7 per cent detected and removed proactively using automated technology, underscoring TikTok’s commitment to proactive moderation and swift action.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The winners of the Technovation 4.0 Hackathon, themed The Wicked Hackathon, organised by Interswitch, have been given N10 million in cash prizes for their efforts.
At the one-day finale event, which took place on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, at the Interswitch Innovation Lab and Co-Working Space, the money was shared among the top teams whose innovative solutions stood out during the rigorous multiple phases of the competition.
Team Quickteller Fashion emerged as the overall winner, securing the grand prize of N4 million for a solution that impressed judges with its originality, practicality, and strong strategic relevance. Team Kampe claimed second position with N2.5 million, while Team Stable placed third, receiving N1.5 million. Up to N300,000 worth of cash prizes were also awarded to the fourth, fifth and sixth qualifying teams.
For nine months, cross-functional teams from across the organisation collaborated to conceptualise, validate, develop, and refine solutions, moving from raw ideas to minimum viable products (MVPs) with ready-to-market potential and deployment across the business.
The atmosphere at the grand finale reflected that of preparation and anticipation as the top 9 teams presented their innovations through live demonstrations and detailed pitches, fielding questions from a distinguished panel of judges before the top three winners were selected. Each presentation highlighted rigorous validation processes, thoughtful market considerations, and a strong emphasis on measurable impact.
While many of the solutions remain confidential due to their strategic relevance, the diversity and depth of ideas showcased during the hackathon’s final underscored the organisation’s growing culture of intrapreneurship and structured innovation. The projects illustrated how technology-driven thinking can unlock efficiencies, strengthen operational capabilities, and open new pathways for growth across the digital payments and commerce ecosystem.
“Technovation continues to reflect who we are as an organisation, bold, forward-thinking, and deeply committed to building impactful solutions from within. Over the years, we have seen ideas conceived during this programme evolve into meaningful capabilities that strengthen our ecosystem.
“The passion, discipline, and ingenuity demonstrated by our teams this year reinforce our belief in the power of African innovation to solve complex challenges and shape the future of technology on the continent,” the Chief Innovation Officer for Interswitch, Ms Adaobi Okerekeocha, stated.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The language support for its AI Search features has been expanded by Google, with the inclusion of Yoruba and Hausa in Nigeria.
This is part of a broader effort to make AI more inclusive across the continent, with support now extending to a total of 13 African languages.
Under the AI Overviews and AI Mode, speakers of both Nigerian languages can utilise AI-powered Search experiences in their mother tongue for quick summaries and conversational exploration.
This means existing AI features in Google Search are now accessible to people like the student in Kano asking a question in Hausa, and the trader in Ibadan seeking advice in Yorùbá.
By addressing language barriers, this update ensures that technology reflects the identity and culture of the people it serves. With this expansion, more people can now use AI Mode to ask complex questions in their preferred language, while exploring the web more deeply and naturally through text or voice.
The 13 languages now supported across Africa include Afrikaans, Akan, Amharic, Hausa, Kinyarwanda, Afaan Oromoo, Somali, Sesotho, Kiswahili, Setswana, Wolof, Yorùbá, and isiZulu.
These languages were chosen based on the vibrant search activity across the continent, ensuring that our AI experiences reach the communities that need them most.
Commenting on the development, the Communications and Public Affairs Manager for Google in West Africa, Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, said, “Building a truly global Search goes far beyond translation — it requires a nuanced understanding of local information.
“With the advanced multimodal and reasoning capabilities of our custom version of Gemini in Search, we’ve made huge strides in language understanding, so our most advanced AI search capabilities are locally relevant and useful in each new language we support.
“This is about ensuring Nigerians can converse with Search in their mother tongues, making information more helpful for everyone.”
To use AI Overviews and AI Mode in the local language, users must open the Google app on an Android or iOS device, or via the Web. They are required to tap on AI Mode within the Search experience. Thereafter, they can type or speak the question in their preferred language, such as Hausa or Yorùbá, and let the AI guide the journey.
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