Raised $912m at $5.6B valuation. Why won't you be smiling.
Over my last decade building and investing in African companies, I have come to one simple conclusion.
African companies are at a fundamental structural disadvantage to their global peers. And to further that. The disadvantage will unlikely ever be bridged. Me
That fundamental truth should determine your strategy and how, where and when you focus on customer, business and market development. Afterwhich, fundraising simply becomes an optionality. I actually wrote about this in 2016 (4 years ago) in my Spark 2.0 manifesto update where I summarised
Lagos firstWe still focus on linear revenue modelsLocal championsCapital efficiency
At the time, we were just about to experience the massive 30% devaluation, and inflation has largely been double digit since then. I'm not too sure that most of the investors who are pricing rounds today understand what happens every five years to Nigeria or Ghana. What happens when B...