Zuri Health’s cure
Khula is planting a new seed COVID’S GIFT TO TELECOMS What’s that saying about storms having silver linings?
Well, if anyone can see the silver lining of COVID-19, it’s Nigerian Telecoms. Their revenues rose by 12% in 2020.
How did that happen?
First guess, a lot of netflix and chill.
Since the first case of the coronavirus disease was confirmed in Nigeria in February 2020, nationwide lockdowns and movement restrictions meant more people spent time on their phones. Businesses were also forced to alternative working models so this meant virtual workspaces (and Zoom fatigue).
Add in the plethora of festivals, seminars, workshops, and masterclasses, and you’ve got a significant increase in internet consumption. In fact, the number of active internet subscriptions increased from 125.98 million in December 2019 to 154.29 million in December 2020, a 22.5% increase.
South Africa’s Khula closes $1.3M seed to scale its software-for-agriculture platform
The myriad challenges faced by farmers in Africa inadequate financing, education and input distribution persist and greatly affect the agricultural output on the continent. But startups are providing innovative solutions to these problems, and South Africa’s Khula is an example. The startup, launched in 2018, is finding its niche in the ever-growing industry.
Today, it announced a $1.3 million seed round to scale operations across the country.
On the surface, it would seem agritech in Africa hasn’t taken off as exponentially as other tech-operated industries. But it has: The agritech sector grew 44% year-on-year between 2016 and 2019, and the continent has the highest number of agritech services in the developing world, reaching more than 33 million smallholder farmers, according to a report from Farmers Review Africa.