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Africas top mobile phone seller Transsion to list in Chinese IPO

Chinese mobile-phone and device maker Transsion will list in an IPO on Shanghai’s STAR Market, Transsion confirmed to TechCrunch.

The company — which has a robust Africa sales network — could raise up to 3 billion yuan (or $426 million).

“The company’s listing-related work is running smoothly. The registration application and issuance process is still underway, with the specific timetable yet to be confirmed by the CSRC and Shanghai Stock Exchange,” a spokesperson for Transsion’s Office of the Secretary to the Chairman told TechCrunch via email.

Transsion’s IPO prospectus is downloadable (in Chinese) and its STAR Market listing application available on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s website.

STAR is the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s new Nasdaq-style board for tech stocks that also went live in July with some 25 companies going public. 

Headquartered in Shenzhen — where African e-commerce unicorn Jumia also has a logistics supply-chain facility — Transsion is a top-seller of smartphones in Africa under its Tecno brand.

The company has a manufacturing facility in Ethiopia and recently expanded its presence in India.

Transsion plans to spend the bulk of its STAR Market raise (1.6 billion yuan or $227 million) on building more phone assembly hubs and around 430 million yuan ($62 million) on research and development, including a mobile phone R&D center in Shanghai, a company spokesperson said. 

Transsion recently announced a larger commitment to capturing market share in India, including building an industrial park in the country for manufacture of phones to Africa.

The IPO comes after Transsion announced its intent to go public and filed its first docs with the Shanghai Stock Exchange in April. 

Listing on the STAR Market will put Transsion on the freshly minted exchange seen as an extension of Beijing’s ambition to become a hub for high-potential tech startups to raise public capital. Chinese regulators lowered profitability requirements for the exchange, which means pre-profit ventures can list.

Transsion’s IPO process comes when the company is actually in the black. The firm generated 22.6 billion yuan ($3.29 billion) in revenue in 2018, up from 20 billion yuan a year earlier. Net profit for the year slid to 654 million yuan, down from 677 million yuan in 2017, according to the firm’s prospectus.

Transsion sold 124 million phones globally in 2018, per company data. In Africa, Transsion holds 54% of the feature phone market — through its brands Tecno, Infinix and Itel — and in smartphone sales is second to Samsung and before Huawei, according to International Data Corporation stats.

Transsion has R&D centers in Nigeria and Kenya and its sales network in Africa includes retail shops in Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Egypt. The company also attracted attention for being one of the first known device makers to optimize its camera phones for African complexions.

On a recent research trip to Addis Ababa, TechCrunch learned the top entry-level Tecno smartphone was the W3, which lists for 3,600 Ethiopian Birr, or roughly $125.

In Africa, Transsion’s ability to build market share and find a sweet spot with consumers on price and features gives it prominence in the continent’s booming tech scene.

Diving deep into Africa’s blossoming tech scene

Africa already has strong mobile-phone penetration, but continues to undergo a conversion from basic USSD phones, to feature phones, to smartphones.

Smartphone adoption on the continent is low, at 34%, but expected to grow to 67% by 2025, according to GSMA.

This, added to an improving internet profile, is key to Africa’s tech scene. In top markets for VC and startup origination — such as Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa — thousands of ventures are building business models around mobile-based products and digital applications.

If Transsion’s IPO enables higher smartphone conversion on the continent, that could enable more startups and startup opportunities — from fintech to VOD apps.

Another interesting facet to Transsion’s IPO is its potential to create greater influence from China in African tech, in particular if the Shenzhen company moves strongly toward venture investing.

China’s engagement with African startups has been light compared to China’s deal-making on infrastructure and commodities — further boosted in recent years as Beijing pushes its Belt and Road plan.

Transsion’s IPO move is the second recent event — after Chinese owned Opera’s big venture spending in Nigeria — to reflect greater Chinese influence and investment in the continent’s digital scene.

So in coming years, China could be less known for building roads and bridges in Africa and more for selling smartphones and providing VC for African startups.

Opera founded startup OPay raises $50M for mobile finance in Nigeria

Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/07/africas-top-mobile-phone-seller-transsion-to-list-in-chinese-ipo/

telecommunications

At least 13 killed as Sudan military storms Khartoum sit-in

(CNN)At least 13 protesters were killed and several others injured on Monday when the Sudanese military opened fire to break up a sit-in, according to a local doctors’ union.

Opposition groups have relied heavily on social media to mobilize protesters, helping to unseat long-time President Omar al-Bashir in April, then opposing the interim military council that has ruled the country since the coup.
In response, Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), the group which has spearheaded the protests, called on people to press on with demonstrations and for telecommunications workers not to “succumb to pressure” by the ruling military council.
    Protesters congregated outside the Defense Ministry in Sudan‘s capital Khartoum and other main streets on Monday.
    Multiple eyewitnesses told CNN that security forces — the police and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces — shot at protesters with live fire. Several videos also showed security forces beating people with sticks. The Sudanese military has moved to forcibly disperse protesters since April 11.
    The Central Committee of Sudan Doctors (CCSD) said on their Facebook account that casualties were hit by “live bullets” Monday. The group said security forces surrounded hospitals which wounded and dead bodies were taken.
    Of those killed includes an 8-year-old, the CCSD said. It added that more than 116 injured people were in several Khartoum hospitals.
    A spokesman for the Sudanese Transitional Council said that the military “didn’t disperse the sit-in by force” but that the security crackdown was instead on a gathering in a nearby “dangerous” area.

    Burning tires, black smoke and gun shots

    Small fires and billowing clouds of black smoke could be seen in video taken in the capital on Monday. Other video showed people fleeing as guns went off. Protesters were also seen burning tires after security forces attempted to break up a sit-in.
    Deema Alasad, a 25-year-old dentist from Khartoum, who took part in a sit-in outside the military headquarters, said the government’s paramilitary force, as well as members of the intelligence and security services, arrived in the area early in the morning.
    “They hit us and then they started shooting live ammunition, after putting the entire sit-in under siege,” she said, describing the gunmen as “snipers.”
    One woman, who asked not to be named, filmed video of a man lying on the ground, his arms trying to shield him from the blows of security forces who were beating him with sticks.
    “I saw security forces chasing a car and stop it by force at gunpoint and hit the driver and his companion with sticks. And one of them yelled at me to stop recording. I filmed it from my window at 7:23 am,” she told CNN.
    Alasad said the protesters were “unarmed civilians.”
    “It is our right to protest and our right to express that we don’t accept what is going on,” she said.
    Activist Fathi Abdo told CNN he witnessed around 20 people getting shot on Khartoum’s main streets and near army headquarters, where protesters have staged a mass sit-in for months.

    Opposition suspends talks

    The Sudanese opposition suspended talks with the ruling body after Monday’s crackdown. “We have halted all political communication and negotiations with the putschist council,” said the Declaration of Freedom and Change Alliance — an umbrella group for opposition groups and protest leaders.
    “The leaders of this council are criminally responsible for all the bloodshed that took place since April 11th,” the statement added. The opposition leaders vowed to take the generals to court.
    The Declaration of Freedom and Change announced a general strike and civil disobedience starting Monday.
    It called on “honorable” members of various security forces to protect the people from the “militias of the putschist council” and to support a civilian transitional authority. They also called on the international community “not to recognize the military coup and to side with the Sudanese revolution.”

    Continued protests since Bashir forced out of power

    In April, Sudan’s former leader Bashir was arrested and forced out of power in a military coup after the country became engulfed in protests opposing his three-decade rule.
    Irfan Siddiq, the British Ambassador in Khartoum, called for an end to the violence.
    “Extremely concerned by the heavy gunfire I’ve been hearing over the last hour from my residence and reports that Sudanese security forces are attacking the protest sit-in site resulting in casualties,” he said on Twitter. “No excuse for any such attack.”
      An interim military council said it would lead the country through a transition period of up to two years, but protesters vowed to remain in the streets until a return to civilian government was guaranteed.
      Since then, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in front of the military headquarters. In May, nine people were injured when soldiers stormed a pro-democracy sit-in, eyewitnesses said.

      Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/03/africa/sudan-gunfire-khartoum-intl/index.html

      Credit Cards

      Partnering with Visa, emerging market lender Branch International raises $170 million

      The San Francisco-based startup Branch International, which makes small personal loans in emerging markets, has raised $170 million and announced a partnership with Visa to offer virtual, pre-paid debit cards to Branch client networks in Africa, South-Asia and Latin America. 

      Branch — which has 150 employees in San Francisco, Lagos, Nairobi, Mexico City and Mumbai — makes loans starting at $2 to individuals in emerging and frontier markets. The company also uses an algorithmic model to determine credit worthiness, build credit profiles and offer liquidity via mobile phones.

      “We’ll use [the money] to deepen existing business in Africa. Later this year we’ll announce high-yield savings accounts…in Africa,” says Branch co-founder and chief executive Matt Flannery.

      The $170 million round from Foundation Capital and its new debit card partner, Visa, will support Branch’s international expansion, which could include Brazil and Indonesia, according to Flannery. Branch launched in Mexico and India within the last year. In Africa, it offers its services in Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania.

      A potential Branch customer

      The Branch-Visa partnership will allow individuals to obtain virtual Visa accounts with which to create accounts on Branch’s app. This gives Branch larger reach in countries such as Nigeria — Africa’s most populous country with 190 million people — where cards have factored more prominently than mobile money in connecting unbanked and underbanked populations to finance.

      Founded in 2015, Branch started operating in Kenya, where mobile money payment products such as Safaricom’s M-Pesa (which does not require a card or bank account to use) have scaled significantly. M-Pesa now has 25 million users, according to sector stats released by the Communications Authority of Kenya. Branch has more than 3 million customers and has processed 13 million loans and disbursed more than $350 million, according to company stats.

      Branch has one of the most downloaded fintech apps in Africa, per Google Play app numbers combined for Nigeria and Kenya, according to Flannery.

      Already profitable, Branch International expects to reach $100 million in revenues this year, with roughly 70 percent of that generated in Africa, according to Flannery.

      In addition to Visa and Foundation Capital, the $170 Series C round included participation from Branch’s existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Trinity Ventures, Formation 8, the IFC, CreditEase and Victory Park, while adding new investors Greenspring, Foxhaven and B Capital.

      Branch last raised $70 million in 2018. The company’s overall VC haul and $100 million revenue peg register as pretty big numbers for a startup focused primarily on Africa. Pan-African e-commerce startup Jumia, which also announced its NYSE IPO last month, generated $140 million in revenue (without profitability) in 2018.

      Startups building financial technologies for Africa’s 1.2 billion population have gained the attention of investors. As a sector, fintech (or financial inclusion) attracted 50 percent of the estimated $1.1 billion funding to African startups in 2018, according to Partech.

      Branch’s recent round and plans to add countries internationally also tracks a trend of fintech-related products growing in Africa, then expanding outward. This includes M-Pesa, which generated big numbers in Kenya before operating in 10 countries around the world. Nigerian payments startup Paga announced its pending expansion in Asia and Mexico late last year. And payment services such as Kenya’s SimbaPay have also connected to global networks like China’s WeChat.

      Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/08/partnering-with-visa-emerging-market-lender-branch-international-raises-170-million/

      Telecom

      No business, no boozing, no casual sex: when Togo turned off the internet | Mawuna Koutonin

      When young people started mobilising online against Togos president, the state switched off the internet. In the week that followed, people talked more, worked harder and had less sex all of which proved bad news for the government

      On 5 September, at about 10am, the government of Togo cut off the internet. The plan was to limit the threat from a growing number of young people around the country who were mobilising online and talking of toppling the government.

      Faure
      Togos president, Faure Gnassingb, at the presidential palace in Lom following confirmation of his third term in office, in 2015. Photograph: Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images

      Throughout August, opposition parties in Togo had been organising protests as frustration grew over the reluctance of the ruling Gnassingb family to relinquish the power they have held for 50 years.

      With more protests planned for the beginning of September, Gnassingbs government which his political opponents have long sought to oust took action. The internet was closed for business. Text messages were blocked and international calls filtered.

      Leaving aside politics, it was a unique opportunity to observe the effect of internet deprivation on a country. During the week-long shutdown, I talked to friends. I interviewed strangers. For many, especially the young, it was a first taste of how state power could affect their personal life.

      Initially, people were confused. Some tried restarting their phones or computers. Internet subscriptions were renewed and mobile data plans topped up. Telecom company employees were accused of the usual appropriation of credits, while engineers were branded incompetent.

      After a few hours, though, the penny dropped: we realised the government had shut down the internet.

      For many people in Togo, the internet is WhatsApp. People went online or bought a smartphone just for WhatsApp. In many encounters, Id say, They cut off the internet, and people would respond, Yes, WhatsApp is not working. So the local lexicon had to be enriched with this new word, the internet, as radio and TV reports talked about the situation.

      On that first evening, bars and restaurants were deserted. People were afraid. They talked of keeping money in case things went wrong, in case the the banks closed or the government was unable to pay wages. Many among the upper middle class rushed to the bank to stockpile cash. But nothing was working during the first hours, because the internet had been cut.

      In all likelihood, sexual activity also dropped off. WhatsApp is the countrys biggest dating app and casual sex is commonplace. Togo has high youth unemployment and the economic situation is harsh, but there is a culture of sexual freedom. Marriage is as rare as diamonds nowadays, while sexual vagabondage is well tolerated and well spread.

      One friend said the internet shutdown had moved the dating market upscale. With WhatsApp, penniless guys would send women virtual flowers and rings. Now, they had to find money to buy real ones. Men who previously sought to impress ladies by copying and pasting cute quotes and images on social media now had to go out, bring friends together in a bar, pay the bill and prove their real verbal and intellectual skills.

      Another surprising effect was that productivity rocketed. Togolese people, from civil servants to police officers, often need to be dragged away from WhatsApp; now, they could get on with their work. Outside the workplace, without smartphones as a distraction, and with free time forcibly laid before them, people started talking to one another more; they walked in parks, enjoyed the outdoors.

      A couple of days in, I was conducting a technical workshop. The attention level in the room was close to that within a Buddhist temple. At the end, an attendee came to me and said she had never felt so engaged during a seminar. She wondered whether it was because of my performance or because there was no internet to distract her.

      Anti-government
      Anti-government protesters sit on a street in Lom as they keep an all-night vigil to press for constitutional reform. Photograph: Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images

      Interest in reading surged. It was heartwarming to see restless kids and adults embracing dusty books and magazines . Spontaneous conversation with strangers surged; asking about the status of the internet became the equivalent of Have you got a light? a conversation starter.

      Social gatherings improved dramatically. Conversations were lively, as they had been in the days before social media. That old thing called family dinner lasted longer. Without interruptions, it felt as though people were more caring, more available to each other. Was this just nostalgia?

      After a week, the government abruptly switched the internet back on. For thousands of businesses and professionals who depended on the web for work, it had been a highly stressful period. The shutdown had undermined their faith in the fragile digital transition. Companies that had moved their core business applications into the cloud could neither access their tools nor retrieve their data. Virtual business, it turned out, might not be suitable for dictatorship-prone countries. . We have yet to get a broad sense of the impact of unanswered urgent emails and lost opportunities.

      Families who depend on remittances through Western Union or MoneyGram all suffered too; they could not get the codes to retrieve their money and the banks couldnt serve them.

      The government could have been smarter. The best way to divert our youth from politics would have been to give them free, unlimited internet access a few days before the protests, and drop the price of beer and condoms all the while playing Be safe, live long songs on the radios. The youngies would have been watching porn, WhatsApping and YouTubing, and would have been too distracted to think about politics.

      Shutting down the internet achieved the opposite. Far from limiting youth mobilisation, it galvanised word of mouth and turned many neutrals against the regime. To young people for whom the internet had become so much part of the daily routine, the shutdown felt like an intrusion, a burglary of their personal life.

      Previously preoccupied mostly by sex and alcohol during the long two months of the school vacation, our youth were bloated with testosterone and boosted by a huge surge in political consciousness. They started gathering, talking to each other, commenting on the moves and motives of political leaders. The shutdown brought more people into the political stream.

      It was also a lightning rod for discontent among foreign business people living in Togo. They were suddenly denied their preferred channel of communication, making it impossible for them to reach out to families and friends back home. Naturally, most joined the chorus of opposition to a regime whose largesse they had previously enjoyed.

      Anti-government
      Anti-government protesters in Lom gather around a scrawled message saying: Faure should leave. Photograph: Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images

      I now have an experience to boast about; Im a member of an exclusive club of countries that shut down the internet without going back to the stone age. Tell me, how many people in the world have lived under a dictator who could shut down the internet on a whim? My country just entered the Guinness World Records book as one of the top dictatorships. Any fame is better than no fame.

      In the end, the shutdown was overwhelming stressful and negative. It was like living in a open prison: you could not reach out to your loved ones and they could not reach out to you, because someone had decided so, and was actively enforcing it against your will. Our lives have moved online to the point where an internet blackout is like a high security prison.

      Its not because one could have more time to read books when in prison that we should hail prisons.

      Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/sep/21/no-business-no-boozing-no-casual-sex-when-togo-turned-off-the-internet