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Africa’s Exploding Tech Startup Ecosystem

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Africa's Exploding Tech Startup Ecosystem

Africa’s Exploding Tech Startup Ecosystem

In terms of economic potential and growth, Africa has never been more important on the world stage.

Africa is home to the fastest growing cities, and more than half of the world’s population growth will take place on the continent over the coming decades. By 2050, cities like Lagos and Kinshasa will be global megacities, each holding well over 30 million inhabitants.

Africa is also at the start of a technological renaissance. It was recently reported by WeAreSocial that 7 of 10 of the world’s fastest growing internet populations are in Africa – the beginning of a trend that will likely re-shape entire economies as new companies leapfrog established technology, ideas, and infrastructure.

That said, much of that opportunity lies in the future. As of today, internet penetration is just 29% throughout Africa, meaning that the majority of growth and network effects are still to come.

Africa Internet Penetration

A New Startup Ecosystem Emerges

Today’s infographic from GSMA shows the 300+ hubs that have emerged in the African tech startup ecosystem. Many of these plan to take advantage of the aforementioned growth potential, including the 360 million smartphone owners expected on the continent by 2025.

Investors are recognizing the potential as well. Last year, it was estimated that African startups raised a record-breaking total of $366.8 million in investment.

Here’s that distribution sorted by country:

African startup investment by country

In what sectors did most of the action happen? According to a separate report by Disrupt Africa, the fintech sector received the most funding in 2016, but the agri-tech sector saw the biggest percentage growth as compared to the previous year.

Other sectors that got substantial amounts of attention include solar, health, e-commerce, entertainment, and e-learning.

Unique Opportunities

Every startup ecosystem is different, and hubs in Africa are no exception.

In particular, the continent has a unique wrinkle that also presents a huge opportunity: according to the African Development Bank, about 55% of sub-Saharan Africa’s economic activity is informal.

The [informal economy] is a massive commercial space without such services as business enterprise software, small business banking, affordable third-party logistics or internet access. Expect VC-backed startups to attempt scalable applications for nearly every corner of Africa’s informal economy.

– Jake Bright, World Economic Forum

Last year, Africa Internet Group became the first unicorn on the continent after receiving investments from Goldman Sachs, Rocket Internet, AXA Group, Orange, and others.

It’s also certain to be just one of many born on the African Savannah.

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Charted: The Jobs Most Impacted by AI

We visualized the results of an analysis by the World Economic Forum, which uncovered the jobs most impacted by AI.

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Charted: The Jobs Most Impacted by AI

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Large language models (LLMs) and other generative AI tools haven’t been around for very long, but they’re expected to have far-reaching impacts on the way people do their jobs. With this in mind, researchers have already begun studying the potential impacts of this transformative technology.

In this graphic, we’ve visualized the results of a World Economic Forum report, which estimated how different job departments will be exposed to AI disruption.

Data and Methodology

To identify the job departments most impacted by AI, researchers assessed over 19,000 occupational tasks (e.g. reading documents) to determine if they relied on language. If a task was deemed language-based, it was then determined how much human involvement was needed to complete that task.

With this analysis, researchers were then able to estimate how AI would impact different occupational groups.

DepartmentLarge impact (%)Small impact (%)No impact (%)
IT73261
Finance70219
Customer Sales671617
Operations651817
HR57412
Marketing56413
Legal46504
Supply Chain431839

In our graphic, large impact refers to tasks that will be fully automated or significantly altered by AI technologies. Small impact refers to tasks that have a lesser potential for disruption.

Where AI will make the biggest impact

Jobs in information technology (IT) and finance have the highest share of tasks expected to be largely impacted by AI.

Within IT, tasks that are expected to be automated include software quality assurance and customer support. On the finance side, researchers believe that AI could be significantly useful for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing.

Still interested in AI? Check out this graphic which ranked the most commonly used AI tools in 2023.

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