Vuyo Angoma-Mzini, Launch Africa. Photography: Karolina Komendera

Getting into the rest of Africa should be a massive opportunity for South African tech startups, particularly if they produce solutions that could benefit the continent’s rapidly urbanising population. Yet significant challenges mean many local founders would rather look elsewhere when expanding.

The opportunity for some is clear. In October, Pargo, a local parcel delivery startup, announced that it had landed a $4 million investment and revealed that it had expanded the number of collection points in Egypt to 500, from 150, following a pilot project it launched there in 2023.