In the latest episode of Marketplace Africa, CNN’s Zain Asher explores how a budding startup ecosystem is driving a digital revolution in Angola.
Sergio Tati is the CEO of mobility platform Anda. He speaks about the difficulties impacting the Angolan market, “A really unique challenge to Angola is the lack of digital literacy. So that’s quite specific to our context compared to let’s say in Nigeria, where you have many more people who have access to smartphones. Sadly, the smartphone penetration rate in Angola is extremely low. You don’t have a lot of internet cafes that people can go to and get access to the Internet, so that’s definitely something that has stifled innovation in Angola a little bit.”
The company originally began as a ridesharing platform, but Tati says they quickly uncovered another need in the marketplace, “The focus has entirely shifted towards the asset financing piece of the business because that’s what we realised was the biggest problem. Now, we’re going way deeper into the FinTech part of the business. And as well, really focusing on the microcredit, mobile money payments, and everything that we can now do, thanks to the fact that we’ve solved this broader and the bigger credit problem that was getting access to the assets in the first place.”
As startups like his continue to grow, Tati says support from Angola’s National Institute INAPEM has been vital. INAPEM was created to help sponsor and connect entrepreneurs with regulators and government ministries. Braulio Augusto, Executive Director at INAPEM, explains, “The Angola startup ecosystem is emerging. In the last few years, we as a state have paid more attention for the needs to organise all the key players that are operating and contribute as well for the reinforcement of our ecosystem.”
According to Augusto, INAPEM has registered approximately 345 tech startups in recent years, including food delivery company Mamboo. Kae Carvalho, COO of Mamboo, tells CNN, “We are contributing to the ecosystem growth and so it’s more jobs that we are creating in the economy. But I think it will be easier and faster, the development, if we have initiatives that promote and support discussions. We can do a lot of things. We just need a little push sometimes.”
Augusto believes other African nations can learn from Angola, and vice versa, “We have a lot of opportunities across the continent, where we have a lot to learn from other top ecosystems in our continent, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and others. And we need to be more open to speak with them, share our experience as well, local experience. But also getting from them and see how we can partner more intra-African. African ecosystems need to be more integrated, need to cooperate more between them, and see in each other more complementary solutions rather than competitive solutions.”
Appy Saúde is the largest online pharmacy network in Angola, opening up health and medical access to an entirely new population. CEO and co-founder Pedro Beirão says the company started as a way for people to find information about medical services and products, “We were worried about how information access was just so restrained. So, we really wanted to make it available for everyone. So, information is free for people.”
Since 2017, the product has grown, developing an integrated payment system. Beirão explains, “And now they’re able to purchase the product and get it delivered. So, the whole idea is really to empower people to use technology and to take a step further into having access to services that were 10, 15 years ago unavailable to them.”
Looking to the future, Beirão says the company is focused on its growth, “We want to be the company in Angola that will be known for creating the highest impact in people’s lives. We would like to reach ten plus million people in health care, education.” He concludes, “We want to be in different African countries. We want to be an Angolan company conquering the African region, not only Angola, and take that flag with us.”
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