The diaspora rides the wave of African startups

Claudia Makadristo, founder of TNXT10, a Kenya-based digital environment consultancy, was born in Angola to a Dutch father and an Angolan mother. A few months later, she moved to Amsterdam with her family and, at 21, decided to return. She had studied international business administration and wanted to help Africa take off by leveraging technology, but her beginnings were not easy. "I was guilty of unconscious arrogance," she confessed to this newspaper during GITEX Africa , the largest technology fair south of the Mediterranean, held in April in Marrakech, where technology strategists and entrepreneurs gathered, many of them, like this Angolan woman, who had returned to the continent to create startups .

“I assumed companies would fight over me because I studied in Europe, but I sent out a ton of resumes and no one responded,” added Makadristo, who has since made a living in 30 African countries.

It's been a success, and this entrepreneur is proud to be part of an African-style technological revolution today. "It's incredible what we've achieved in the last decade. Powerful innovation hubs are bearing fruit in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, and Rwanda , and startup incubators and accelerators have exploded," she summarized, referring to the fact that between 2015 and 2022, the number of tech startups receiving funding each year increased sevenfold .

Investments in African startups have taken off in recent years , and returning investors are riding the wave from the various disciplines they learned abroad.

“On the one hand, there are the local people, educated in Africa and familiar with the context, and then the diaspora, who bring other perspectives. The convergence of both worlds is leading to an explosion of creativity,” Makadristo explained.

Purely African projects

Nigerian Ifeoluwa Ogunbufunmi, who, through her company SWIF , advises 10 African governments on creating conditions for startups to flourish, believes that those who left and foreigners with origins in the continent often share a motivation that transcends the mere goal of making money. “They have a purpose to improve things, to contribute to a more buoyant Africa,” she says. For her, this intention isn't diluted by empty marketing rhetoric or the creation of a brand that sounds socially committed. “It's about having learned to do things differently and starting purely African projects that integrate into one's own culture and enhance it,” she adds.

Ogunbufunmi, who studied an MBA at Oxford and now lives between London and his many African destinations, is confident that the contagion effect will produce more virtuous flows back and forth. “People like me can inspire other Africans living abroad by showing them how much impact can be created,” he summarizes. Ogunbufunmi could have been part of the brain drain, but he preferred to leverage his talent to galvanize development at home. Given the drain of human capital that Africa is experiencing , the digital path offers an attractive way to bring about a change of direction.

It is about having learned to do things differently and to start purely African projects that are inserted into one's own culture, that give it value.

Ifeoluwa Ogunbufunmi, Nigerian entrepreneur

The African digital universe not only receives contributions from abroad; it also looks outward with an eagerness to expand. In its 2024 report , the online platform TechCabal, which has been analyzing African digital ecosystems since 2013, counted nine technology companies that ventured into other markets last year. For example, Nigerian company Moove, a car rental app with the right to own, launched in the US and Mexico (previously operating in India). Or Grey, also Nigerian, which began facilitating financial transactions for foreign workers in Latin American and Southeast Asian countries. Makadristo maintains that African entrepreneurs have "a goldmine for their businesses" in other regions of the Global South, as their experience operating in poorly organized and regulated environments gives them a "competitive advantage."

Cultural bridges

There are also entrepreneurs who are directly connecting Africa with other geographical areas. Moroccan Driss Jabar studied at the National School of Arts and Crafts in Paris and worked in Europe for more than 10 years before returning to his country and founding Cloudfret, which optimizes truck transport between Morocco and countries like Spain and France. The son of a truck driver, Jabar was always surprised that in many of these transcontinental road trade operations (his estimates put the figure at 30%), the trucks returned empty after unloading. "It's an aberration from an ecological and economic standpoint," he comments. The Cloudfret app helps, with real-time information, transport companies and suppliers avoid wasting thousands of kilometers of travel time. Once again, cultural bridges and personal experience give the project its personality. "As an African who has lived in Europe for so long, I thought it would be great to contribute to further uniting the two continents," he concludes.

Do white savior attitudes exist among the African techie diaspora? Makadristo admits she has become "more humble" after successive "reality checks," realizing that much of what she had learned in Europe wouldn't be useful "in less structured contexts." However, the TNXT10 director adds that those returning from abroad are now glorified "less than before." "There's just a curiosity about new approaches," she says.

Zanyiwe Azare, born in Zambia and vice president of Yango (a ride-hailing app similar to Uber or Cabify, very popular in Africa), doesn't deny that colonialist residues persist in the African mentality. But she celebrates the fact that "a strong awareness of the enormous human wealth" that the continent holds is taking root among the new generations. This applies in all areas, including the digital world.

Powerful innovation hubs are bearing fruit in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Egypt and Rwanda, and startup incubators and accelerators have boomed.

Claudia Makadristo, Angolan entrepreneur

When you summarize Augustine Weah's story, the cliché of the self-made man falls short. At three years old, he fled the civil war in Liberia and settled with his family in a refugee camp in Ghana, where he lived until he was 16, when he emigrated to the US. Today, he's a venture capitalist. "I'm reconnecting with the continent in search of new opportunities," he says confidently. Weah sees a horizon of digital prosperity in Africa and doesn't want to be left out. "I'm convinced that many of the new unicorns [ start-ups valued at more than $1 billion] will be born in Africa, as other markets are very saturated. I want to be part of this exponential innovation frenzy and contribute to doing great things for the continent," he concludes.