BRITER BRIDGES
Key Findings
State of the industry
a. The number of startups developing or integrating deep-tech across Africa is growing. Despite the growing number, however, there exist few to no innovations around some of the core deep-tech clusters. Using our categorisation, we see little to no presence in the Next-Gen Compute, SW Dev Tools/DevOps, and HW & Manufacturing clusters. b. Overly across the years, AI/ML and computer vision has seen the most growth and adoption in comparison to the other tech clusters. c. Fintech, e-commerce, Health, and Agriculture were found to be the key sectors intersecting with deep-tech in the continent. d. Looking at the geographical distribution of the deep-tech companies, we see a large concentration in a few select countries in the continent, i.e., Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tunisia.
Support Ecosystem
a. Most hub programmes are sector-agnostic, with very few having programmes that are catered to deep-tech-specific needs. b. There are some efforts by governments, and we encourage them to do more to facilitate the growth of the industry. c. There are few deep-tech-focused investors or investment vehicles.
Hurdles and limitations
a. There are barriers to entry due to the large R&D costs, time, and a lack of adequate tailored support programmes for deep-tech. b. There is little funding available to conventional deep-tech startups in the early stages. The companies that have raised the most funding typically also operate across other industries. c. There are limited networking opportunities and events between players in the deep- tech scene across the continent.
16
EVALUATING THE AFRICAN DEEP-TECH STARTUP ECOSYSTEM
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker