Africa has the expertise. Can it construct the subsequent Slack or Notion? 

Africa has constructed unicorns in fintech, mobility, and commerce, however the place are the worldwide Software program-as-a-Service (SaaS) giants?

I’ve questioned why African startups weren’t constructing SaaS merchandise like their Indian counterparts. Now we have the engineering expertise, price benefits, and entry to international concepts. However why don’t we see extra Slack, Notion, or HubSpot equivalents rising from Lagos, Nairobi, or Accra, priced competitively, but constructed domestically?

Over time, I realised the query isn’t about functionality; it’s about focus. Most African startups are fixing deeply native issues, and for good motive. Throughout the continent, the largest alternatives usually lie in infrastructure gaps: funds, logistics, mobility, vitality, and healthcare.

Expertise is seen as a improvement device right here, a bridge to inclusion and affect. So naturally, our brightest founders are drawn to the toughest native issues, those that hold economies from functioning easily.

However that focus comes with a trade-off. Native issues don’t at all times translate into international merchandise. In case your resolution relies on cellular cash integration or is constructed to unravel irregular energy provide or lack of credit score, scaling past Africa turns into more durable, except you’re scaling to different rising markets (e.g South East Asia, Latin America) with comparable challenges. 

The actual query, then, isn’t whether or not we will construct for the world; it’s whether or not we’re selecting to. As a result of constructing international SaaS merchandise requires a mindset shift: transferring from fixing native ache factors to fixing common issues, usually summary, software-first, and never tied to geography, infrastructure, or in-market operations. 

Meaning eager about group collaboration, productiveness, platforms, workflow optimisation, or buyer engagement in ways in which resonate all over the place, not simply inside Africa’s constraints.

Why Africa can construct international SaaS merchandise

Africa’s largest benefit isn’t low cost labor, it’s a artistic constraint. Constructing merchandise in environments the place energy cuts, bandwidth drops, and currencies fluctuate forces groups to design for reliability and resilience. 

Those self same design instincts at the moment are international strengths. In Southeast Asia, Latin America, and even components of Jap Europe, customers face comparable realities: spotty web, low-end gadgets, and unpredictable infrastructure. What works in Nairobi can usually work in Manila or São Paulo.

One other quiet benefit is expertise. Over 700,000 software program builders work throughout the continent, lots of them constructing for worldwide purchasers or working with globally distributed groups. African engineers are studying to design, check, and ship software program at international requirements, usually for purchasers who’ve by no means set foot on the continent. It’s the muse of a brand new type of confidence: constructing for the world, not simply from it.

After which there’s the market complexity. Most African startups develop throughout a number of nations early, navigating new currencies, rules, and client behaviors in every. Fintech firms like Flutterwave, Wave, and MFS Africa expanded throughout African markets very early and had been pressured to construct multi-currency structure, compliance workflows, and cross-border product buildings as an early necessity and never a late growth technique. 

That type of pressured adaptability provides African founders a multi-country mindset from the onset. In some ways, an African product supervisor juggling compliance in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya is already training what it takes to run a worldwide SaaS operation.

Put collectively, these three elements, constraint, functionality, and complexity, make Africa uniquely geared up to construct software program that travels. Merchandise formed by powerful environments are typically leaner, extra dependable, and simpler to scale. That’s an edge. 

Ought to we replicate profitable SaaS merchandise?

There’s nothing fallacious with beginning by copying what works. Replication, executed with function, is usually a shortcut to studying. 

The actual check is whether or not you possibly can adapt what you copy to the realities round you and switch imitation into innovation.

A less expensive Slack, in-built Africa, would possibly sound like a price play: $4 per person as an alternative of $9. However the actual alternative isn’t in undercutting costs; it’s in rethinking design. Think about a collaboration device that works seamlessly even when bandwidth drops, permits invitation by way of cellphone quantity (not simply by way of electronic mail), compresses information mechanically, integrates with WhatsApp for hybrid groups, and accepts cellular cash funds. That’s not a clone, that’s context-led innovation. 

That is what Cynoia, a Tunisian startup, is doing. It began as a group workspace constructed for Africa’s connectivity challenges, lighter file transfers, offline capabilities, and mobile-first workflows. The consequence? A product that doesn’t simply serve African groups but in addition international NGOs, distant firms, and distributed groups in rising markets. By fixing for its hardest atmosphere first, Cynoia constructed one thing resilient sufficient for everybody else.

We’ve seen this story earlier than in different markets. Canva didn’t invent design software program; Adobe did. However Canva understood that most individuals didn’t want enterprise-grade complexity. They wanted a quicker, less complicated method to design on-line with out high-end {hardware} or coaching. By reimagining design instruments for accessibility, Canva turned a neighborhood frustration into a worldwide class.

African startups can do the identical. The aim isn’t to out-feature Silicon Valley, it’s to out-adapt it. After we construct with Africa’s constraints in thoughts, restricted knowledge, low literacy, and excessive price sensitivity, we’re not simply fixing for native customers; we’re fixing for the subsequent billion international customers who face the identical realities.

_____

Olumide Durotoluwa is a Product Chief with expertise constructing and scaling digital merchandise throughout fintech, cleantech, and SaaS in African markets. At the moment, he’s a Senior Product Supervisor at M-KOPA, the place he’s instrumental in driving product technique and development.