Senegal. Seven months in. Ten ventures underway. Five insights.

Haskè Ventures[1] was established in 2021, and stems from an observation that Senegal and the broader Francophone Africa are some of the most entrepreneurial regions of the world, and yet we struggle to propel our many gems for the world to experience. But the time has come: the brilliance of our entrepreneurs, ideas, demanding consumers and growing ecosystem of support actors, has become undeniable. In Senegal, players in the ecosystem are working together to step into the next chapter of building a startup nation, open to the world. We have gathered here some insights from our experience and welcome you to the journey.

Money matters but co-construction is just as important. Francophone West Africa represented less than 2% of total equity funding in Africa in 2020. One year later, fundraising headlines from Paps, Wave and others in the Haskè Ventures pipeline to be announced in the next few weeks, have become ‘normal’. The incredible efforts from the last few years to build the ecosystem are paying off and in a big way. About five years ago, there seems to have been an awakening that we need to stop complaining about an absent private sector, roll up our sleeves, and simply start building it. Incubators became more present and vocal, from CTIC, Jokko Labs, Impact Hub Dakar and many others. Government-led initiatives played their role, including the Delegation for Rapid Entrepreneurship (DER), agency for small and medium enterprises (ADEPME), Start-Up Act, sovereign wealth fund (FONSIS), guarantee fund (FONGIP), and many more. Later in 2021, Haskè Ventures joined its efforts to the journey, first thought of as a Venture Capital fund, focused on investing in promising entrepreneurs who had already figured out an MVP. We quickly reconfirmed that despite an incredibly dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem, our pipeline would take years to build. We decided to jump in and help accelerate the creation of investment-ready ventures. Haskè Ventures is now working on four ventures from ideation to launch, in sectors as varied as EdTech, logistics, FMCG and digital consumer credit. We have also invested in three startups that are early-stage and led by some of the most dynamic entrepreneurs in the region. Our corporate venture building is actively working on three joint-ventures in agriculture, health and food service. Our ambitions are regional, African and global, and Senegal is where we have started.

Building ecosystems, not just ventures. Our engagement in development consulting working with the government of Senegal and its development partners, has helped us experience very closely all the efforts over the years, to build value chains and all the enablers that need to be created or strengthened. Much is to be commended and progress is real. DER is an example of a government-led initiative that has crystallized Senegal’s ambitions to be a startup nation, in record time. Conversations on entrepreneurship as a choice and not a side-gig have evolved. Convincing entrepreneurs on why investment for equity makes sense will soon be obsolete. However, we continue to try and build everything for everyone, which often leads to building for too many actors and not being able to satisfy targeted and unique venture-building needs. It is changing and we are finding some partners who for example are investing directly in private sector entities, taking the risk and not allowing market dynamics and competition policy to become blockers for change. As a country, we are not yet at a stage where competition will just happen. We still need to create national champions, very deliberately, that will stimulate competition at the next level. Our partnership with Institut Pasteur de Dakar in the process of co-launching a Health Ventures Studio holds that promise.

Connecting the dots. Collaboration is slowly becoming the name of the game. At Haskè Ventures, the companies in our pipeline are discovering the power of a self-fulfilling ecosystem that sits under one venture-builder, and engages with others including incubators, accelerators, etc. It is magical to observe how our warehousing venture under construction has already secured interest and commitments from our pipeline of ventures, and how one of our investee companies will be developing the packaging for products under our upcoming new chain of coffee shops in Dakar. Beyond the direct market linkages, we have also confirmed the need to start engaging the entrepreneurs of tomorrow, through partnerships with educational institutions. For example, through our collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Dakar (UCAD), we will be teaching a module on entrepreneurship to medical students, a first for the Faculty, starting in April 2022. Our partnership with the Ecole Polytechnique de Thiès (EPT) will aim to push for the many brilliant innovations by engineering students to be considered as potential ventures, bringing in the rigor of business creation, product-market fit and demand generation. Our current push is making sure we are connecting with those investors and ecosystem builders who are ready to accelerate our journey to Series A, and take it from there.

The race for talent is real. As leaders of a strategy consulting firm in Dakar, it took us multiple years to master the mechanisms to build the profiles of problem-solvers needed to serve clients in a Francophone environment. We have now identified other talent essential to venture building, and for which we cannot afford a multi-year journey before the skills are readily available. It has required many networking emails and interviews, and much creative thinking to find design thinkers, data scientists, product developers, etc. One of our big bets focuses on identifying the existing core skills that are needed to build towards these profiles and provide highly tailored training and coaching to help the right individuals pivot quickly. We have the raw talent, the training institutions and Senegal’s strong culture of learning to make it happen. We will then need to make sure we can resist the global market, hungry for these profiles.

Figuring out the speed, execution and pivoting equation. The beauty of Senegal is also the pace at which it evolves, majestic, and taking it in, every step and every moment along the way, while sipping attaya tea and enjoying a tik-tok here and there. Our very loose relationship with time is part of what makes our country a joy to experience. But the imperative of speed in venture-building to maximize capital, fail fast and occupy a market, does not always bode well with Senegal’s concept of time. However, consider that this is a country where we devour the latest, from technology to fashion, give it our spin and even share back our adapted version with the world. Being current is a cultural trait, from adding a local twist to the latest hair styles, to building a modern train system that connects a vibrant capital to a new central business district, Diamniadio. Mindsets are changing, impatience for a better tomorrow is palpable among youth, and it will seep into our ways of doing business in no time.

As we navigate through Senegal’s opportunities, we are keeping a close eye on the rest of Africa and Francophone Africa in particular. We are deliberately building for the future, for Africa. As we continue to drive change, we invite you to explore Senegal as a startup hub and join Haskè Ventures in its quest to build the African private sector we want.

For more information about Haskè Ventures and our journey, please go to www.haskeventures.com or reach out to [email protected]. Madji is the co-founder and President of Haskè Ventures. She has worked in strategy consulting in Senegal for over 14 years and is the owner of Layu Café. She is also the co-founder of the Women’s Investment Club (WIC) Senegal and currently sits on the board of WIC Capital.

[1] Haskè means ‘to shine’ in the Hausa language.