{"id":49064,"date":"2023-07-10T17:09:57","date_gmt":"2023-07-10T17:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge"},"modified":"2023-07-10T17:17:07","modified_gmt":"2023-07-10T17:17:07","slug":"african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge","title":{"rendered":"African start-ups face funding challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>Kubik is proud of its pioneering, climate-friendly technology that recycles one of the world\u2019s environmental curses — plastic waste — into construction blocks.<\/p>\n

But for the award-winning Ethiopian start-up to achieve lift-off has been no easy task. It has had to fight tooth and nail to raise funds, says its youthful boss.<\/p>\n

Kubik takes in bundles of discarded plastic, and sorts them into piles. Selected plastics are mixed, melted and combined with additives, and then moulded into the desired shape.<\/p>\n

The result: black beams and interlocking blocks which today are being assembled in a pilot project – the building of a day-care centre in the capital Addis Ababa.<\/p>\n

The site has no cranes or cement mixer, just a concrete floor on which four workers make a wall by fitting the blocks together like Lego, tapping them with a mallet to ensure a good fit.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no glue or cement. The beams, bolted together on all four sides of the walls, hold the structure up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is for it to be super-simple,\u201d said overseer Hayat Hassen Bedane, a 34-year-old structural engineer. \u201cYou have a manual, and the whole point is to get it done with inexperienced workers, obviously under supervision.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can… build 50 square metres of a building in just five days, so that\u2019s super- fast, compared to other forms of construction,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done tests, tension-stress tests and compressive tests, so it\u2019s durable and very strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speed and the smart use of unwanted plastic aren\u2019t the only benefits. The recycling generates just a fifth of the carbon from cement-making.<\/p>\n

If Kubik\u2019s plant processes 45 tonnes of ditched plastic each day, that\u2019s 100 000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) averted each year, the company says.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a trickledown socially too, boosting the country\u2019s many informal waste pickers, many of whom are women. But Kubik\u2019s CEO, Kidus Asfaw, 36, said he battled to get seed money for his company. He received a lot of knock-backs from wary investors, he says, before catching a break.<\/p>\n

He has just completed a round of funding for several million dollars to scale up production – a success that coincided with the prestigious AfricaTech award for the company, which boosted visibility. The Ethiopian previously worked for Google, the World Bank and Unicef after studying in the United States. He then took the plunge to become an entrepreneur, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a really large network that I already had within my professional sphere that I could tap into in the beginning,\u201d he told AFP last month in Paris, where he went to pick up the award.<\/p>\n

Even so, \u201chaving that did not make it any easier\u201d to raise funds. \u201cI\u2019ve met over 600 people in two years. Out of those 600 people, about 20 of them have become investors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Start-ups in Africa face myriad hurdles, from laws and regulations and lack of infrastructure to a fragmented continental market.<\/p>\n

But funding, on a continent that lacks intrepid individual investors to provide support, is a persistent and major headache.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are very few \u2018business angels\u2019 in Africa,\u201d said Sergio Pimenta, vice president for Africa at the Societe Financiere Internationale (SFI), a private sector unit of the World Bank that has just launched a US$180 million fund to help provide a financing source.<\/p>\n

Out of US$415 billion in risk capital deployed around the world, just over one percent – US$5.4 billion – goes to Africa, he said. And of this sum, 80% goes to just four countries: South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt.<\/p>\n

Henry Mascot, CEO and founder of Nigerian insurance start-up Curacel, a fellow winner of the AfricaTech award, said he floundered when he first tried to raise capital a few years ago.<\/p>\n

Africa\u2019s problem, he said, was that Western investors had a \u201cbias\u201d against the unknown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey invest in familiarity.<\/p>\n

They invest with the guy who they play golf with, or the guy who they have a drink with every month.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, how do I become that guy? Unless a lot of these investors are starting to spend time on the continent, it will be difficult. It\u2019s just about familiarity. Africa needs to be demystified, because right now it\u2019s a mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fabrice Aime Takoumbo, a Cameroonian entrepreneur who co-founded Cinaf, a streaming platform with only African content, said non-African investors were often deterred by tales of fraud or corruption.<\/p>\n

Without timely funding, many African start-ups withered, he warned. \u201cYou start off with great ideas… (which) fall away as time passes, and you realise that you don\u2019t have the means,\u201d he said. \u201cSome people simply stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

– Nampa\/AFP<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. Kubik is proud of its pioneering, climate-friendly technology that recycles one of the world\u2019s environmental curses — plastic waste — into construction blocks. But for the award-winning Ethiopian start-up to achieve lift-off has been no easy task. It has had to fight tooth and nail to raise funds, says its youthful boss. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":49063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-49064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\nAfrican start-ups face funding challenge - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kubik is proud of its pioneering, climate-friendly technology that recycles one of the world\u2019s environmental curses -- p ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"African start-ups face funding challenge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kubik is proud of its pioneering, climate-friendly technology that recycles one of the world\u2019s environmental curses -- p ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-07-10T17:09:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-10T17:17:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/07\/sm_1688996742.321074.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"479\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"African start-ups face funding challenge\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-07-10T17:09:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-10T17:17:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge\"},\"wordCount\":787,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/07\/sm_1688996742.321074.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge\",\"name\":\"African start-ups face funding challenge - Namibia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/07\/sm_1688996742.321074.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-07-10T17:09:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-10T17:17:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Kubik is proud of its pioneering, climate-friendly technology that recycles one of the world\u2019s environmental curses -- p ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/07\/sm_1688996742.321074.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/07\/sm_1688996742.321074.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":479,\"caption\":\"African start-ups face funding challenge\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"African start-ups face funding challenge\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/\",\"name\":\"Namibia\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"African start-ups face funding challenge - Namibia","description":"Kubik is proud of its pioneering, climate-friendly technology that recycles one of the world\u2019s environmental curses -- p ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"African start-ups face funding challenge","og_description":"Kubik is proud of its pioneering, climate-friendly technology that recycles one of the world\u2019s environmental curses -- p ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge","og_site_name":"Namibia","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2023-07-10T17:09:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-07-10T17:17:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":479,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/07\/sm_1688996742.321074.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"African start-ups face funding challenge","datePublished":"2023-07-10T17:09:57+00:00","dateModified":"2023-07-10T17:17:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge"},"wordCount":787,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/07\/sm_1688996742.321074.jpg","keywords":["africa press","Africa Press-Namibia","namibia"],"articleSection":["all news","community"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge","name":"African start-ups face funding challenge - Namibia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/07\/sm_1688996742.321074.jpg","datePublished":"2023-07-10T17:09:57+00:00","dateModified":"2023-07-10T17:17:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Kubik is proud of its pioneering, climate-friendly technology that recycles one of the world\u2019s environmental curses -- p ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/07\/sm_1688996742.321074.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/07\/sm_1688996742.321074.jpg","width":720,"height":479,"caption":"African start-ups face funding challenge"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/african-start-ups-face-funding-challenge#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"African start-ups face funding challenge"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/","name":"Namibia","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}