Samir Abdelkrim is an entrepreneur, author, and consultant. In 2013, he founded the StartupBRICS blog dedicated to tech, innovation, and startup news from BRICS
and emerging countries. He is also the founder of Emerging Valley, an international summit dedicated to African digital ecosystems.
Can you tell us about your career path? Your work on the African continent?
In 2013, I conducted field research in Africa on innovation. For nearly four years, I analyzed what was happening in ecosystems in nearly 25 countries. This project was funded by crowdfunding. I was then spotted by media outlets such as Le Monde and Les Echos, for which I became a columnist. To date, I have written several hundred articles, interviews, and analyses on African startups.
In 2017, when I returned to Marseille, my hometown, I wanted to establish African tech for the long term. So I wrote a book called "Startups Lions: au cœur de l'African Tech" (Startups Lions: at the heart of African Tech) and created the Emerging Valley platform, which connects innovators from Africa, the Mediterranean, and Europe in Marseille. We are now in our fourth edition.
Google recently announced its decision to end the Loon project, launched in 2013, which aimed to provide internet access and broadband to people in the most remote areas of Africa. What is your view on the abandonment of this project?
In recent years, Africa has become the scene of a veritable race to connect GAFAM.
I was in Nairobi on the day Mark Zuckerberg visited the local tech ecosystem to present his vast project to connect Africa digitally via satellite to Kenyan entrepreneurs. This event put the spotlight on the challenges of developing the internet in Africa. Unfortunately, the satellite exploded on launch day, incidentally in a rocket belonging to Elon Musk, another Silicon Valley giant! The web giant then embarked on a second project: connecting Africa using a solar-powered drone the size of a Boeing 737, known as Project Aquila. This project was also abandoned because it was difficult to make economically viable.
Finally, the third initiative in Africa was Google Loon, which has just failed. This was a real technical feat, as the project involved floating 4G antennas, self-guided by AI, to connect remote areas. Google had found a commercial partner in Kenya to distribute this connectivity to the population in agreement with the Kenyan government.
With the health crisis, we have seen that the internet is essential for staying informed, sharing information, and working. Unfortunately, the economic model was not there because in order to access this service, you had to subscribe. Except that in these remote areas, few people have a device with a 4G connection, and for those who do, it is still an expensive service.
For me, this is not a technological failure. It was certainly a futuristic project, but a promising one. Quite simply, they created a product that was ill-suited to the realities on the ground.
What other initiatives are being carried out on the continent to promote the development of the internet? How do they manage to work where players like Google and its Loon project fail?
Other solutions that work well have been deployed in the field. For example, the startup BRCK is also on the path to internet for all, notably with portable connectivity systems installed in private transport buses operating in Kenya. These systems are mobile Wi-Fi antennas that provide free internet access. In terms of the business model, the internet connection is sponsored by local companies or international organizations. This startup has already connected millions of Kenyans for free. Innovations are possible, and African startups are making them happen.
It is time for GAFAM and other major players to get to grips with the realities on the ground if they want to connect the continent with local players. They will not succeed with futuristic, "crazy" projects that are technically conceived in Silicon Valley but are not suited to the local context.
But things are changing. GAFAM is gradually understanding that it needs to work from Africa and not just parachute projects in from Silicon Valley. I think the abandonment of the "Loon" project will give them food for thought.
GAFAM can do a lot on the continent, particularly by providing training and equipment. They can also contribute a lot in terms of connectivity, but this must be done through partnerships with local players. Local startups must be included in the discussion.
GAFAM can create value in Africa, there's no question about that, but only if they partner with players on the ground.
We are just a few months away from the fourth edition of Emerging Valley. Can you give us an overview of the next edition?
Emerging Valley is an event that attracts investors, African startups, and African and emerging digital ecosystems that want to boost their international appeal, develop their business relationships, and accelerate their impact on a global scale. The next edition will take place digitally this time, on April 7 and 8, 2021.
It will be a very rich edition, hosted by numerous speakers and startups, organized around key themes such as: territorial resilience, e-health, access to financing, creative and cultural industries, and Europe-Africa biodiversity. We will also address the subject of the diaspora and territories to enable synergies between continents.