From rideshare to digitizing food delivery, Angola’s budding start-up ecosystem is driving a digital revolution across the country and providing new services for a growing middle class.

Luanda

Angola's digital economy is experiencing significant growth, led by startups in sectors such as mobility and food delivery. Entrepreneurs like Sergio Tati of Anda and Kaie Carvalho of Mambu are addressing local challenges, including limited digital literacy and low smartphone usage, by developing innovative platforms and expanding access to asset financing and fintech services.

Government initiatives, such as support from Angola's National Institute in EPEM, have played a crucial role in nurturing the startup ecosystem. Despite ongoing obstacles, including consumer trust and infrastructure limitations, the number of tech startups is rising, and companies are expanding both within Angola and into other African markets. The country's young population and increasing innovation are seen as key drivers for future growth.

Driving Angola’s digital economy

Food delivery, ride-sharing, e-commerce. While these businesses operate on the ground across Angola, their growth is driven by going online. Hi, my name is Sergio Tati and I'm the co-founder and CEO of Anda. Hi, I'm Kaie Carvalho, I'm co-founder and CEO of Mambo. These CEOs are part of a growing number in the country's startup community, transforming the digital infrastructure. A really unique challenge to Angola is the lack of digital literacy. So that's quite specific to our context compared to, let's say, in Nigeria, where you have many more people who have access to smartphones. Sadly, the smartphone penetration rate in Angola is extremely low. You don't have a lot of internet cafes that people can go to and get access to the internet. So that's definitely something that has stifled innovation in Angola a little bit. One of the most successful startups in Angola is Anda. Anda is the largest two- and three-wheeler mobility platform in Angola. So we started with motorcycles, we're now doing three-wheelers, we're moving on to cars next. But the really key part of our business is the fact that we're using really advanced technologies to bridge this gap and put everything together. Founded by Sergio Tati and Jörg Norman, the company originally began as a ride-sharing platform, but they quickly uncovered another need in the marketplace, individual access to financing. The original plan was to sort of launch a motorcycle taxi app. You know, super easy and that's become the least important thing. So the focus has entirely shifted towards the asset financing piece of the business because that's what we realized was the biggest problem. Now we're going way deeper into the fintech part of the business and as well really focusing on the microcredit, mobile money payments and everything that we can now do thanks to the fact that we've solved this broader and the bigger credit problem that was getting access to the assets in the first place. As startups like his continue to grow, Tati says support from Angola's National Institute in EPEM, which was created to help sponsor and connect entrepreneurs with regulators and government ministries, has been vital to the company's success. Angola's startup ecosystem is emerging. In the last few years, as a state, we have paid more attention for the needs to organize all the key players that are operating and contribute to the reinforcement of our ecosystem. This kind of rapid growth from digitization is new to Angola, but entrepreneurs like Tati are seizing their chance. Anda launched in the spring of 2023 with five bikes. Now, two years later, they've got a fleet of 1,000. The cool thing about this is that now we can scale this really quickly because we built the technology base and now what's really nice is we can just keep adding assets at very low marginal cost. So we actually are going to be doubling our fleet within the next six months and then we're going to be doubling that again and then we're going to be adding new assets as well. So multi-modality is the future. According to Agosto, Inapem has registered approximately 345 tech startups in recent years, among them, food delivery company Mambu. This is the big opportunity in the end of the day. If you want to become big, you have to go where people are not going. You have to, you know, believe and go there because people will embrace you. Since day one, our plan is like, OK, we have to do Angola because we know the market, we already are there, but we have to look to Africa. After launching in Angola's capital of Luanda in 2020, Mambu has since expanded into Tanzania. And while growth has been steady in Angola, obstacles remain. For us, it's the first big barrier that we face because they have to trust, like, oh, but I will make an order, I will pay through an application and I will receive. They don't trust that. When we, as a public institution, start speaking more about startups, putting this topic in a political agenda, so they, as customers as well, they increase their level of confidence in getting the service from the startups. Braulio also says Innopem is aiming to provide qualitative data on the country's startups in an effort to encourage outside investment. Cavallo says there's more to be done. We are contributing to the ecosystem growth, and so it's more jobs that we are creating, but I think it will be easier and faster, the development, if we have initiatives that, you know, promote, support discussions. Whether it's the entrepreneurs or those boosting them, the goal is the same. The base for my presence in Angola today and not being somewhere else is because we have a super young, growing population. So what makes me very confident that I'm at the right place at the right time is seeing this paradigm shift from the mindset. It's these young people who said, hey, let's do stuff. We want to live, we want stuff, we want Africa to, you know, be in the spotlight. And we're seeing that in many ways, but I think the most interesting is that we see a lot of innovation. So I'm surrounded by innovators. Getting Angola to plug in is just the beginning. And I think we're all just super motivated to take things forward and to be the change that needs to happen.

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