While applying to YC recently, I came across their application:<p><a href="https://paystack.com/blog/company-news/paystacks-y-combinator-application" rel="nofollow">https://paystack.com/blog/company-news/paystacks-y-combinato...</a><p>They applied in 2015 and their revenue at the time was $1,300. Inspiring stuff!
This has completely rejuvenated those of us struggling along in the African tech startup scene.<p>And quite a contrast to the #EndSARS protests that have been ongoing in Nigeria, where young men exactly like this are being brutalised and killed by a corrupt policing unit that pretends to assume any young person with a laptop and iPhone is an internet fraudster.<p>So happy for these guys.
For those interested in how that compares to local market conditions, this is a value of $1 per citizen of Nigeria, which has a GPD/capita of $2k.<p>If we assume the penetration doesn't extend beyond the main city Lagos and it's metropolitan area, that is more like $10/person with roughly the same GDP/capita.
<a href="https://outline.com/AkJsKv" rel="nofollow">https://outline.com/AkJsKv</a> to get past TCs ever increasing popups
This article on the same news is also well written and detailed: <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/beb9a517-ea27-4d52-8544-43c8fdfa2f1d" rel="nofollow">https://www.ft.com/content/beb9a517-ea27-4d52-8544-43c8fdfa2...</a>
I'm not sure what's going on here but when I click the link[1] I don't actually end up at techcrunch but advertising.com[2] which is blocked in my DNS.<p>[1]: <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/15/stripe-acquires-nigerias-paystack-for-200m-to-expand-into-the-african-continent/" rel="nofollow">https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/15/stripe-acquires-nigerias-p...</a><p>[2]: <a href="https://guce.advertising.com/collectIdentifiers?sessionId=#_cc-session_uuid_here" rel="nofollow">https://guce.advertising.com/collectIdentifiers?sessionId=#_...</a>
Phenomenal news! Lots of interesting startups in Africa are starting to get recognition. Wouldn't be surprised if Jumia is on someone's radar
I never understood why startup wait that long to branch out internationally.<p>I imagine that you need some local presence and need to adjust to local customs and requirements quite a bit, but it should be cheaper to enter other markets when you've "made it" and have solid funding. Instead, it seems they often wait for years while local copy cats develop the market and then pay a heavy premium by buying them.<p>Is that simply because they don't want to divert attention from building the business? Are VCs more skeptical if you want spend money on international growth?