• Microsoft has placed significant emphasis on enabling digital transformation across the African continent.
• The company is focusing on startups in particular, looking at countries like South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Egypt.
• This week Microsoft held a Startups Meet-up in Cape Town, with the event part of its initiative to support 10 000 African startups over the next five years.

When it comes to its Africa investment, Microsoft appears to be focusing on two areas in particular – digital transformation and African startups.

The former has seen Microsoft sign a partnership with MTN to create a fully fledged ecosystem on the continent, while the latter involves the ambitious goal of accelerate the growth of 10 000 African startups over the next five years.

In order to reach that target, Microsoft plans to hold more events like the one it did this week in Cape Town, which saw the company’s Africa Transformation Office (ATO) host a meet-up for startup founders and entrepreneurs.

The meet-up focused on the role of the founder within the startup ecosystem, as well as examining the role that corporate organisations, venture capital investors, tech accelerators and incubators can play in accelerating startup innovation and growth across the continent.

“South Africa is well established as one of the top four startup ecosystems on the continent and is leading the way for successful exits with more than one-third of the acquisitions across the African tech space since 2015. Microsoft is committed to nurturing and supporting our proudly South African startups through engagements such as today’s meet-up,” emphasised Lionel Moyal, Commercial Partner director at Microsoft South Africa, in a press release sent to Hypertext.

During a virtual media roundtable for the meet-up, Microsoft noted that an estimated 1 000 startups are currently involved with the company to accelerate digital transformation, with the short-term goal being to reach 3 000 over the next year or so.

“There is huge potential for Africa to become a thriving hub of digital innovation on the global startup landscape. Our ambition is to see an explosion of local invention and innovation that will contribute positively, not just to Africa’s digital economy, but to global society,” added Kunle Awosika, MD of the Microsoft Africa Transformation Office.

Answering the question of how best startups can make contact with Microsoft in order to access many of its resources, tools and solutions and digital acceleration, the company points to its Founders Hub as the first port of call.

“The Founders Hub allows Microsoft to engage with accelerators, incubators and tech hubs across the continent. Our partnerships with key African accelerators provide crucial support to accelerate our South African growth-stage startups with their business development and market expansion plans,” enthused Moyal.

“The response to the Founders Hub shows the need African startups have for such engagement. Microsoft is currently supporting more than 1,000 African startups on the Founders Hub, through Azure credit, Dev tools, access to mentors and technical support, including nearly 150 South African startups,” the company concluded.

[Image – Photo by Microsoft 365 on Unsplash]