|#452 MWAVC| — Sunday Reads 🗞️🗞️🗞️
Hi,
Welcome to MWAVC, a newsletter about finance, investing, venture capital and all that jazz. My name is Ato (more about me here) and I try to write every single day. Most of it is stuff I find interesting that I’d like to share and hear your thoughts on. If you’d like to sign up, you can do so here. Or just read on.
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5 key themes that emerged from Africa's startup ecosystem in the first half of the year: Emeka does a quick retrospective on key ecosystem events & trends from January to June 2021. Don’t sleep on Francophone Africa!
Uber's trucking unit to buy logistics planner Transplace for $2.25 bln: Been seeing a lot of logistics plays in the last couple of months. I remember how I felt when I first heard about Flexport in 2015/2016 and I knew it would be a hit. Glad to see a couple more coming out of the continent.
Convergence Partners holds first close of third Digital Infrastructure fund to drive digital inclusion in Africa: 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Bill Ackman Was Too Clever for His Own Good: He’ll figure it out. Bill always ahead of the game.
The ongoing African super app trend: Here for all of this…but my hope is that companies aren’t building super apps for building super apps sake. At the end of the day, we’re all looking for profits. But interesting developments in the ecosystem.
Novastar Ventures leads funding in West Africa weather forecaster Ignitia: Good luck to the team at Novastar with this one. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Naspers Has a $100 Billion Headache: These folks are swimming in too much cash. And as nice as that sounds, it’s a problem still lol.
The Story of TymeBank: First of all, I didnt know TYME stands for Take Your Money Everywhere. That’s pretty dope. And second, this is a very well-written piece. Will be following this page.
The Secret Auction That Set Off the Race for AI Supremacy: Under-priced…massively. But hey, cash is cash
Is Y Combinator Causing Long-Term Damage To India’s Tech Economy?: Same question we’re grappling with here on the continent 🥴
Savannah Fund launches $25M fund to invest in African startups at seed and Series A: Big ups to Mbwana and co 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
How fintech and serial founders drove African pre-seed investing to new heights in 2020: And this trend not going to stop. The numbers I’m seeing in Ghana these days… mad oo.
The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin Billionaire Arthur Hayes: This needs to be Netflix special asap.
Nigerian Cement Manufacturers Have World’s Highest Profit Margins: “Dangote Dangote Dangote still dey find money oo”. Anyone have a wild guess as to why these cement manufacturers are killing it?
Sign up to my cousin Yasbo’s newsletter btw. She’s already been dropping some serious gems, including this one on time management.
📱📱Quote of the day
“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”
Remember: “Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”
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