Where the Senegalese ecosystem is and should be going
Where the Senegalese ecosystem is and should be going
By Carine Vavasseur
About this op-ed’s author:
Carine Vavasseur is a leading force behind the Senegalese startup ecosystem. She was an ecosystem builder for La Der, Senegal’s President’s initiative aimed at fostering the country’s entrepreneurship and startup scene.
She is now the CEO of Ignite.E, an ecosystem builder within Haskè group (advisory firm and venture studio) with a mandate to build African startup successes through entrepreneurship support organizations’ empowerment.
She is also a 2023 Mandela Washington Fellow.
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A growth path
Considered a model of democratic stability in turbulent West Africa, Senegal has recently witnessed the emergence of its own startup ecosystem. Ambitious economic growth objectives, crystalized by the 2012 “Senegal Emergent” plan, led to digital infrastructure improvements, legislative reforms, and collaborations with foreign savoir-faire (StartupBootcamp Afritech, AfricArena, Open Startup Tunisia, La Startup Station, Draper University...).
Following continuous efforts by the Senegalese private sector, the past 5 years have seen the Senegalese government become a driving force behind the ecosystem’s development. This is unlike some of its neighbors such as the Ivory Coast, where the ecosystem evolved more organically. Those governmental efforts are encapsulated in the creation of dedicated agencies such as La Der, where I previously worked, as well as previous existing agencies like ADEPME.
While still young, the ecosystem’s flourishing is concrete. Local champions such as Paps and Chargel have raised significant rounds and are scaling fast. Others like Logidoo, Taaral, or Compact are on their way to significant impact. Seminal fintech startup Wave, American-funded but African-nurtured and raised, has chosen Senegal as its initial market.
As the ecosystem seeks to elevate and attract foreign investment, deciphering a couple of its specificities is useful.
How VCs should approach Senegal
VCs won’t drastically modify their approach just to invest in Senegal. Not only is the market too small to justify such granularity, but the size of the Senegalese market means any VC investment will have to be pan-African anyway.
That being said, VCs should be cognizant of the different approach to adopt when investing in African startups as a whole. Copy-pasting the investment methodology used for American or European markets is mistaken. Investing in the continent’s startups implies certain subtleties.