00:00I want to ask you all how you see the next level of the startup ecosystem growing on the continent.
00:07We mentioned you're a part of the 25 startups to watch.
00:10There are hundreds of thousands of startups across the continent.
00:14What needs to, is it patient capital that needs to help continue this momentum to grow and build
00:20and maybe one day make the startup ecosystem similar to Silicon Valley?
00:24What do you think, Koto?
00:25I think I have three answers.
00:27Pension funds, pension funds, pension funds.
00:29That's it.
00:29Okay, we can go now.
00:32If you look at the performance of DFI funded startups, objectively, you have to conclude that it hasn't worked.
00:43And anybody can look this up, do their research on Google.
00:48At the same time, our pension funds across Africa sit on trillions of dollars, trillions of dollars.
00:56And, you know, it's odd because last year I went to Egypt for the first time and I was talking to some investors and they were talking about how they were trying to work with Egyptian insurance companies and pension funds to increase their investments in alternative assets.
01:23And so there is, from my perspective, an increase in momentum with challenging pension funds to fund alternative asset classes, including private equity and venture capital.
01:39So however you look at it, you cannot get around the fact that, you know, we have an ecosystem with risk capital providers who are dominated by outsiders, which in and of itself is not bad.
01:55But the absence of that, but the absence of that local capital, which is more affordable capital, which also comes with a degree of local expertise and door opening, that is conspicuously missing in the way that you do see in Silicon Valley.
02:10So it's more of a local issue that you think needs to be addressed.
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