Lending
September 12, 2023

Productive lending – filling the $330bn funding gap for African SMEs with compelling risk-adjusted returns

Investors are steering clear of Africa’s non-bank lending sector amid prevailing macroeconomic conditions marked by high interest rates and slowing growth. However, pockets of opportunities with compelling risk-adjusted returns remain within productive asset-backed financing.

Pollination
September 5, 2023

The €150bn pollination opportunity in Agri-tech

Pollinator insect population are plummeting due to climate change, with Honeybee hives seeing a near-record 48% loss from April 2022 to April 2023, worse than the 12-year 40% average. This jeopardises global food production, which relies on pollinators, mainly bees, to fertilise plants and trees. This complex process holds an immense economic value of approximately EUR 153 billion.

African
August 8, 2023

What African companies “need to look like” today to raise $50m+

Prior to 2022, African growth companies had begun raising $50m+ equity rounds regularly for the first time in history, mainly in fintech but increasingly in sectors such as logistics, education, and healthcare. Since the market downturn, those large rounds have slowed to a trickle, even though today there are more African companies than ever before who are truly “eligible” to raise that kind of capital.

Embedded AI
August 1, 2023

With embedded AI enterprises can generate additional $500bn in value

The Bessemer Cloud Index, representing enterprise SaaS companies with a market cap of around $1.5 trillion, highlights the potential of embedded AI. A mere 10% AI value addition could yield a remarkable $150 billion boost.The true game-changer is applying embedded AI to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), where the impact could be 2-3 times higher. 

Carbon accounting
July 24, 2023

Carbon accounting software market projected to be over $60bn by 2030

Our latest blog examines the carbon accounting software market, expected to reach over $60 billion by 2030, quadrupling its current value. Similarly, the carbon credits market is projected to surpass $50 billion in the same year, presenting attractive investment prospects.

Climate adaptation
July 17, 2023

The >$2tn climate adaptation market offers quick wins against climate change

Climate adaptation offers significant investment opportunities in the growing market. With a potential value of $2 trillion annually within five years, private investors can tap into the groundwork laid by the public sector, whilst driving real near-term climate benefits.

AI
July 10, 2023

Generative AI will drive the next AWS-like paradigm shift for enterprise businesses

The rise of Generative AI is on the verge of sparking a revolutionary shift similar to the transformative impact of AWS on enterprise businesses. Projections suggest that AI has the potential to contribute an astonishing $2.6 to $4.4 trillion to the global economy every year, paving the way for a remarkable transformation across various industries.

B2B payments Africa
July 3, 2023

B2B payments set to be the next focus for VC’s in Africa

The growing digital economy in Africa offers a lucrative prospect for investors and entrepreneurs aiming to tap into the continent’s vast B2B payments market.

In our latest blog post, we emphasise that previous funding predominantly favored fintech companies involved in embedded finance and start-ups focused on digitising the business-to-consumer (B2C) value chain, such as digital banks and payment processors. However, the upcoming phase of investment will primarily focus on B2B payment solutions that integrate the CFO technology stack.

Proteins
June 21, 2023

Global revenues from alternative proteins projected to surpass $290bn

By shifting away from environmentally damaging animal agriculture to alternative proteins could significantly reduce emissions by up to 20% and save an astounding 39 billion cubic metres of water globally. Despite the challenges faced by industry leaders the sector remains resilient with investor interest remaining strong, as evidenced by start-ups securing $3.5 billion in funding in 2022. And the demand for alternative proteins is growing, with global revenues projected to exceed $290 billion by 2035.

African growth
June 12, 2023

Learnings from raising $1bn for African growth companies

Five years into helping African growth companies raise larger rounds, we’ve seen enough to pattern-match the key ingredients that help get larger deals over the line, through up, down and sideways market conditions. So, we thought it would be timely to share our distilled experience as so many growth companies on the continent navigate the next 12-18 months, which will be a defining window for the whole ecosystem.

Drone
June 5, 2023

Drone industry can power new revenue streams and decarbonise key sectors

While drones have been around for a relatively long time, their transformative potential within the commercial realm is only now being realised. In the United Kingdom alone, the deployment of almost 1 million drones is expected to contribute an estimated £45bn to the economy by 2030, with potential net cost savings estimated at £22bn. This will result in a reduction of 2.4 million tons of carbon emissions.

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