Numerous cities and regions across Africa like to portray themselves as the continent’s answer to Silicon Valley. From the “Silicon Cape” (incorporating the greater Cape Town-Stellenbosch region) in the south to Nairobi in the east, Lagos in the west, and Cairo in the north, all have produced some incredible startups and entrepreneurs. Despite drawing international support and international attention, however, none have reached anything like the scale of America’s tech and startup capital.
A useful illustration is how much the total VC capital raised by African startups in 2024 (US$3.2 billion) is dwarfed by that raised by Silicon Valley startups (US$90 billion). Another useful measure is the number of exits, particularly when it comes to those making initial public offerings (IPOs) and listing on a local stock exchange. Search for African tech IPOs, and you’ll find scant evidence of a thriving tech sector. In fact, the listing of WeBuyCars on the JSE in April last year wasn’t just a rare example of an African tech company (whether WeBuyCars fits the definition of a tech startup is debatable) going public, it was also a welcome break from the chain of de-listing horror stories that have plagued the local bourse.
Against that backdrop, many have argued that the Silicon Valley-style startup model simply doesn’t work in Africa. Rather than focusing on accelerated growth fueled by massive investment rounds in the hope of achieving big exits, the argument goes, startups on the continent should focus on building sustainable, profitable businesses. It may not make for sexy headlines, but it avoids scenarios where companies that have built up large staff numbers and customer bases suddenly close because they can’t raise another round of funding.
One local venture builder that gets that is Let’sCreate. Venture builders actively create, fund, and scale startups in-house, providing hands-on operational support. That makes them significantly different to accelerators and incubators, which primarily offer mentorship, networking, and short-term funding to externally founded startups.
A bootstrapped company itself, Let’sCreate partners “with select enterprises and entrepreneurs to co-create scalable, impactful B2B SaaS platforms and transformational commerce solutions.” Founded in January 2024, Let’sCreate came out of DoshEx, a blockchain and digital asset company created in 2017. Today, it has R3.6 billion worth of revenue under management and has helped create digital commerce products used in more than 1000 stores, with successful digital commerce automation deployments in South Africa, Namibia, Nigeria, and Australia.
Among its most well-known customers are the likes of Kauai, Localchoice (owned by Dis-Chem), Belgotex Flooring, and Cashbuild.
According to founder and CEO Alex de Bruyn, the fact that Let’sCreate is bootstrapped doesn’t mean it can’t have the same big, audacious goals as other tech companies.
“We want to build the first South African bootstrapped unicorn (a startup valued at more than US$1 billion) by 2048,” he says. “That might seem like a long timeframe, but the data clearly shows us that the most sustainable and profitable SaaS companies play the long game.”
De Bruyn and Let’sCreate also aren’t afraid to take on the kind of problems that other investors might find boring. That’s because “boring” problems often present multi-million dollar opportunities. It’s something that de Bruyn had to learn the hard way.
“For years, I chased ‘big’ ideas,” he says. “I was obsessed with flashy decks, cool branding, and nailing down the perfect pitch. But I was trying to solve the wrong problems.”
Then, one day, something clicked.
“I asked one question,” he says: “What’s one small, painful problem no one wants to think about—but happens every day?”
The answer was order confirmation data. This data includes details such as order ID, customer information, purchased items, pricing, payment status, and delivery information, verifying that a transaction has been successfully placed.
“One missing order confirmation can cost a store revenue, a customer’s trust, or both,” he says. “Multiply that by hundreds of stores, and you’ve got chaos.”
In other words, it’s a massive headache for any entity engaged in digital commerce and something that they’d pay good money not to have to worry about. And so, the first thing Let’sCreate built was an order confirmation data product. The ongoing success of that product has allowed it to build out other ventures aimed at solving similar digital commerce problems.
“Of course, digital commerce is just one sector,” de Bruyn says. “There are hundreds of other sectors in Africa with thousands upon thousands of niggling problems that present significant opportunities for those willing to solve them.”
“While well-funded startups may be able to solve some of those problems, many more will be solved by bootstrapped companies that create revenue from day one and are focused on long-term sustainability and growth.”
