Tech Investing with Addis Alemayehou of Kazana Group

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to chat with Addis Alemayehou about Tech Investing. Bekure Tamirat and I were co-moderating the Habesha in Tech room. Addis shared us his starting point where he started investing in working at a hotel in Mississauga and then become a real estate investor in Toronto. His story and journey is very inspiring to many of us.  He moved to Ethiopia to contribute to the growing economy. Addis have been doing impressive work on expanding his investment portfolios: Fin-tech, telecom, communications, manufacturing, logistics, tech and more. He supports many young start up owners by guiding and sporting in ways he can. Addis also believes that Ethiopia has a huge potential in almost all of the sectors but Logistics is the biggest that will be hit by the disruptions. He also mentioned that the billing system still needs huge change as the data shows that 60% of people walking in the streets of Addis Ababa pays some kind of bills, this has a huge space for disruptors.  The new telecom licence awarded to Safaricom PLC by Ethiopian Communications Authority is bringing new opportunities to the tech start ups which is driven by the competition with existing telecom provider ethio telecom, the sole telecom provider in Ethiopia. Addis also discussed on the newly launched telebirr that is providing mobile money solution and he believes telebirr will be a game changer for new and existing businesses. Ethiopian start-up ecosystem is growing very fast and newcomers are joining in every sectors. Addis has advice to those who are interested in Tech or any other sectors in Ethiopia. Here are key take aways: Be informed about what’s happening on the ground. Understand what the current and new policies and identify their impacts.  Take a month or 2 write problems your community faces before making any moves. Ethiopia has it's own unique problems and investors/start-up owners should accept them and look for a way to solve the problem instead of complaining and wait for the impediments to be removed. It was an honour to host Addis Alemayehou on Habesha in Tech club. Thank you Addis for spending your time with us. I also would like to thank Bekure Tamirat for being a great co-moderator. Bekure is my next guest on July 3rd at 1:30 P.M. EDT, please join us then. #thankyou #tech #startup #opportunities #community #innovation #investing #logistics #investment #digitaleconomy #startupecosystem Kazana Group Gebeya Inc. 251 Communications & Marketing PLC