February 3, 2021 The Covid-19 pandemic has upended the African continent, and at the same time accelerated major innovative breakthroughs, including in talent marketplace businesses, pay-as-you-go platforms, and decentralized finance (DeFi). There is reason, therefore, to be hopeful in 2021. What follows is a top ten list of predictions—some more speculative than others—on Africa’s growing startup and venture sector for the year ahead. Early investing explodes. With nearly 10 trillion dollars of stimulus money entering the U.S. economy and trillions more around the world, investors will be looking anywhere for yield, including in frontier markets and early stage investing. Investing will also be driven by a growing group of “super angels,” fresh from the tech initial public offerings (IPO) craze in 2020, who form their own solo general partners, crypto funds, rolling funds, and angel syndicates—all of whom have dramatically different risk appetites. Adding to this is a series of strategic exits in Africa—Paystack to Stripe; DPO Group to the United Arab Emirates’ Network International; Sendwave App to WorldRemit—which have started to define what the continent’s exit multiples are, helping institutional and accredited investors cover the continent with more interest.