In January, a bunch of African traders and executives, together with Tomi Davies, the founding president of the African Enterprise Angel Community (ABAN), and Babs Ogundeyi, CEO of Nigerian neobank Kuda, smiled for footage on the London Inventory Trade to launch the Africa Tech 50 Index (AT50), a quarterly, rules-based benchmark measuring how ready African startups are for public listings.
The AT50 assesses corporations utilizing a six-pillar framework overlaying valuation momentum, income energy, liquidity, company governance maturity, enlargement technique, and broader market alerts.
“The aim is to make Africa’s most scaled personal corporations seen by a framework world capital can see, belief, and worth,” stated Karima El Hakim, a accomplice at Plug and Play and a member of the AT50 Governance Council.
An impartial governance council oversees the index to make sure self-discipline and uniform software of its guidelines. “It’s thrilling as a result of it provides plenty of consciousness to African corporations,” stated Ogundeyi, including that African startups may doubtlessly checklist on the London bourse.
The seek for exit pathways in African tech has now set eyes on the London Inventory Trade, after a decade by which billions of {dollars} from U.S. and European growth finance establishments and enterprise capital companies poured into African tech, with few comparable exits.
Since 2019, over 20 African startups, together with MNT-Halan, Flutterwave, Wave, and M-KOPA, have raised mega rounds and are actually approaching a decade in operation with out itemizing publicly. A benchmark such because the AT50 may assist bridge that hole, giving mature startups higher visibility with later-stage traders and creating clearer pathways to progress capital or eventual exits.
“If an organization is available in on the AT50, they’re doubtlessly on the pathway to with the ability to increase capital on the personal market of the London Inventory Trade,” stated Sir John Lazar, the president of the Royal Academy of Engineering. “What we would like is an IPO in London of an African tech firm.”
For this week’s Ask an Investor, I spoke to Gbite Oduneye, who chairs the AT50, by way of e mail to know why now is an efficient time for the index, what African startups have missed when exiting globally, how the index requires disclosures, the enterprise mannequin behind the index, and what this might change for African tech.
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
You’ve described AT50 as market infrastructure, not hype. What particular market failure are you correcting?
Africa doesn’t have a capital scarcity. It has a capital translation hole. Personal corporations scaled. Public markets didn’t obtain a structured, comparable pipeline. AT50 builds the lacking institutional layer between personal scale and public capital.
African tech corporations have raised billions privately. Why do you suppose it hasn’t translated into public-market pathways?
Personal markets priced momentum. Public markets’ worth self-discipline. Progress was funded. Governance maturity was not institutionalised early sufficient. AT50 introduces that self-discipline earlier than itemizing, not after.
What modified within the final 24 months that made this index vital now?
The reset uncovered the distinction between narrative and sturdiness. Capital turned selective. Exchanges turned proactive. Secondary liquidity turned structural. Infrastructure needed to meet up with maturity.
What’s the largest phantasm in African personal tech valuations right this moment?
Valuation is negotiated. Readiness is audited. That hole explains a lot of the friction.
Governance maturity is one in all your pillars. How do you measure it?
The AT50 measures this by observable institutional alerts. The primary is board construction and independence, auditing readiness and reporting cadence, committee structure, the startup’s regulatory posture, and its disclosure behaviour. Governance shouldn’t be opinion. It’s construction.
Will AT50 require corporations to reveal metrics that they beforehand stored personal?
We don’t compel disclosure, however we reward verifiable transparency. Sign energy will increase with disclosure self-discipline.
What degree of economic transparency ought to African late-stage corporations realistically be ready for right this moment?
Audit-grade reporting. Constant metrics. Board-level oversight. Institutional cadence. Public markets should not allergic to progress. They’re allergic to opacity.
You referenced credible liquidity pathways. What does ‘credible’ imply within the AT50 context?
Credible means structured and defensible. IPO readiness. Twin itemizing feasibility. Regulated secondary liquidity. Strategic exits with institutional governance. Not aspiration. Preparation.
Are you envisioning IPOs in London or twin listings, or home exchanges?
Venue is secondary. Requirements are main. Africa’s progress story have to be priced domestically however recognised globally. Stronger home listings aligned to worldwide comparability create long-term depth.
Is there sufficient depth in African public markets to soak up scaled tech listings right this moment?
Depth grows with provide high quality. Markets don’t deepen from sentiment. They deepen from repeatable issuer readiness.
What must change structurally for Lagos, Nairobi, or Johannesburg to host significant tech IPOs?
Issuer preparation should start earlier. Itemizing guidelines should accommodate progress corporations. Analyst protection and liquidity help should enhance. Governance enforcement have to be constant. Preparation can’t start at submitting. It should start years earlier.
Worldwide traders usually worth Africa with a structural danger premium. Can an index realistically scale back that?
An index doesn’t eradicate danger. It reduces uncertainty. Uncertainty is what inflates pricing friction. Repeated comparability reduces uncertainty over time. AT50 is ruled beneath the IOSCO-aligned benchmark self-discipline. That issues as a result of world allocators perceive these requirements.
How do you examine fintech in Nigeria to SaaS in Egypt to mobility in Kenya inside one index?
We don’t examine sectors. We examine readiness structure. Income energy, governance maturity, liquidity visibility, strategic enlargement, valuation momentum, and market sign. Sector nuance is contextualised, not flattened.
What’s the long-term enterprise mannequin behind Indexa Trade Group?
Indexa Trade Group operates as a benchmark infrastructure platform. Our income streams embody institutional subscriptions, index licensing, and alternate and capital markets partnerships. Industrial scaling follows institutional credibility.
What income threshold makes an organization realistically IPO-ready on this atmosphere?
There isn’t any magic quantity. IPO readiness is the convergence of sturdy income, governance maturity, audit self-discipline, and market timing. Income with out construction doesn’t checklist.
What errors did earlier African tech listings make?
Untimely itemizing. Inconsistent reporting. Inadequate investor training. Overvaluation relative to public urge for food. Public markets punish the volatility of narrative.
If the AT50 works, what adjustments 5 years from now?
Listings change into normalised. Exchanges interact earlier. Firms put together earlier.
Capital costs with higher confidence. African tech transitions from episodic listings to repeatable public pathways.
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