TechCabal’s editors share highlights of the newsroom’s reportorial impact in Q3.
Welcome to our first quarterly editorial letter.
It has been a hectic quarter for startups. The common themes have been mergers and acquisitions, crypto-based initiatives, the macroeconomic environment funding and the state of web3. How did we leave out artificial intelligence? Most conversations these days have a question or comment on how different the apps we use could look in a few years.
Beyond these themes, it’s clear that Africa’s tech ecosystem is maturing. In Q3 2023, understanding this maturity guided a lot of our storytelling. When acquisitions and mergers happen, the audience wants to see figures. How much is the transaction value, and what’s the real story behind the acquisition? Those are the questions we ask when we report these stories. In September, Whogohost completed the acquisition of Sendchamp, while Risevest acquired Chaka. We know one deal was in the mid-six figures, although no one knows how much Risevest paid for Chaka.
Thanks for reading and contributing to TechCabal’s growth in Q3
We may not always get all the answers immediately, but TechCabal is committed to finding them. Our audience is resonating with that commitment. In Q3, you and over 2 million people across Africa and the world read and visited our website, while our newsletter hit 143,487 subscribers. Our Sunday newsletter, Next Wave, has over 45,900 subscribers now while Entering Tech now has 55,856 readers.
A lot of big stories drove our numbers in Q3, including Sendchamp’s acquisition by WhoGoHost; Float’s ₦5 billion loss; Payday’s plans to sell its business; Jumia’s drive to reassess its business priorities following the loss of a third of its users in one year; and Moniepoint’s entry into retail banking.
Our most-read story for the quarter—25,142 eyes—touched on the grim side of AI. In case you didn’t know, AI is currently being used to “undress” people’s photos in a disturbing trend. Read our story on that here.
But it’s not all doom and gloom with AI; we covered other perspectives like how AI will create new jobs, attend to us when we go to the hospital, service our food orders, and help companies with their public relations operations. There is a lot to hope for with increased interest in AI.
We also kept tabs on the streaming world this Q3. Have you read our coverage of Canal+’s challenges in its European operations? How about DStv exiting Malawi following a high court ruling stopping it from further increasing the prices of its services?
All of our reporting has been possible because of the founders and operators who have been gracious with their time and shared their stories with us. TechCabal and the tech ecosystem are on a shared mission to tell the impact stories of tech businesses on the continent. And we do not take the time and effort of everyone who has walked with us on this journey for granted.
TechCabal won some awards!
Last week, TechCabal and TC Insights won trophies in three categories at the StartupSouth Awards. We won for Best New Media Platform (Technology), Best Startup Intelligence Platform (TC Insights) and Best Startup Ecosystem Newsletter (TC Daily). We are really pleased about this and proud of the hard work everyone the TC team have put in to get us here. We thank StartupSouth for the great honour.
Moonshot, the biggest tech festival is here.
It’s events season in the ecosystem, with many tech conferences happening around this time, including TechCabal’s very own Moonshot Conference! Moonshot is the conference that brings together Africa’s tech ecosystem in person to network, collaborate, share insights and celebrate innovation on the continent. This October, join us in Lagos and meet the founders, business leaders, startups, enterprise companies and more building innovative solutions for huge problems across Africa. Nigeria’s minister of communications, innovation and digital economy, Bosun Tijani, will be in attendance, alongside other eminent speakers: the DG of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi; former Google director for West Africa, Juliet Ehimuan; Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola; managing director at Xavier Africa, Tavonga Muchuchuti; Lexi Novitske, General Partner, Norrseken22; Voltron Cpital’s Olumide Soyombo, Korty, and many more. Click this link for the full lineup of speakers.
And if you’ve not got your tickets, do so now, as October 12 and 13 are almost here!
Empowering tech innovators and aspiring entrepreneurs
Before we sign off, have you been following our short-video series, My Startup in 60 Seconds and Entering Tech? We created My Startup in 60 Seconds to spotlight founders building the future of Africa tech. Season 1 and 2, which aired in Q1 and Q2 respectively, featured over 24 startup founders from across the continent including Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco, South Africa and more. These innovators are dedicated to conquering critical challenges in health tech, logistics, payments, agriculture, and beyond. Their dedication and innovative spirits are the driving forces behind a more promising future for Africa and the world. Entering Tech, on the other hand, a spinoff of the popular Entering Tech newsletter series, provides practical guidance and assistance for aspiring tech entrepreneurs.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel so as not to miss these series!
Reach out to us
Is something interesting happening in your area that might interest us? Email us at team@techcabal.com.
Until next time,
