The Brave Firms Aiming to Expand Outside of Africa

For many homegrown businesses in Africa, expanding beyond the continent has historically been considered a daring move. African startups have a long-standing record of choosing neighboring African countries for their international debut instead. Even after record-smashing investments in recent years, penetrating a non-African market is still a long shot for many local companies. Lately, this long-purported risk is changing. Instead of looking for growth opportunities in neighboring countries, some companies are actively skipping continental expansion and heading directly to overseas markets. Plentywaka, a Nigerian bus-booking platform, today announced that it has been accepted into the Techstars Toronto accelerator program. In addition to this and the new capital from Techstars, Plentywaka is looking to scale its platform across Africa and North America. Akumah says this global expansion plan will start with a city in Canada, most likely Toronto, on or before Q4 2021.

SOURCE: QUARTZ AFRICA