Chasing Unicorns 🦄
What does it take to build a Billion dollar tech company in Africa?
What are the odds that you will see a unicorn in Senegal?
A definite zero. They are mythical creatures for a reason.
But, Senegal does have one unicorn. Its name is Wave, and it’s one of seven African companies valued at over a billion dollars.
A unicorn. But what is that, really?
In tech, a unicorn is a tech startup that has a valuation of over one billion dollars.
Though we often hear of unicorns in tech news, they are still extremely rare.
Out of at least 585,000 tech companies in the US, only about 666 are unicorns.
Just 0.1%.
And in Africa’s case, there are only seven (7) tech unicorns.
Just a handful of billion-dollar companies that have defied some crazy odds to get here.
They are Flutterwave, Opay, MNT Halan, Wave, Interswitch, Chipper Cash and Andela.
These companies prove that it is possible to build a unicorn from Africa.
But what does it take to be among the top 10% of the 1% of startups?
Here are a few common things we have noticed among the world’s unicorns - which should help you spot one in the making.
Global market opportunity
Unicorns (or potential unicorns) often build in markets with a global volume.
Due to this, they are able to acquire users (or customers) at a rapid rate. A company with a high growth rate has a high chance of being a unicorn.
Flutterwave’s big break came when Uber entered Africa. It was such a big deal to be the payment processor helping Uber collect payments across different countries on the continent.
First mover’s advantage
Many unicorns (not all) are often the first to implement their idea and get it to the market.
As the market matures, their edge over new competitors and imitators gets stronger.
When Andela set out to be Africa’s number one talent incubator, there was no other company solving the problem with their kind of approach.
Disruptively innovative
Another thing to look out for is their ability to disrupt existing processes and solutions in their market.
Uber in 2009 is a perfect example of this. Their launch caused a major shift in the American taxi business.
Constantly improving
Unicorns take leverage seriously. This is why they keep innovating on their tech and improving their product offering.
They are also quick to try new markets and products.
MNT Halan went through different stages of innovation - from ride-hailing to payments to lending - that brought them to unicorn status.
If you’re lucky enough to spot a unicorn early and invest, you can make outlandish returns on your investment.
And Africa is the next tech goldmine.
8 of the 15 fastest-growing economies in the world are based here and we have the majority of young people in the world.
If you’re like me, you probably want to spot these unicorns early and follow their growth.
The challenge is finding the resources to learn about them. This can be just as difficult as finding the unicorns themselves.
Well, it was. Until Tech Safari.
Tech Safari is the guide for anyone curious about African tech.
Every week, Tech Safari explores different stories across Africa’s Tech Scene.
And speaking of Africa’s Unicorns, Tech Safari has put together a free 14-page guide with Tech Safari to learn about Africa’s 7 unicorns.
Want to get it? Just click below and we’ll email it to you.
And to get your fix of African Tech News, make sure to subscribe to Tech Safari. ’