AI for hands and brains

How long should it take to go from idea to product?

Before you answer that, artificial intelligence wants to make sure the answer is simply “minutes.” 

Cue in AI agents.

AI agents are changing how software is built. Instead of developers spending days or weeks writing code, debugging, and setting up infrastructure, AI tools can now generate entire applications, deploy them, and manage backend operations in real-time. Need an MVP? An AI agent can spin one up in hours. Deploying updates? AI can automate that too. Even DevOps—once a highly specialised role—is now seeing AI-driven automation handle cloud configurations, monitoring, and scaling.

This rise of “vibe coding,” where developers rely on AI to generate, refine, and deploy software, is< shaking up the industry. For founders, this means lower development costs, faster time-to-market, and fewer technical bottlenecks. For engineers, the skills in demand are shifting—less manual coding, more strategic thinking, and a deeper understanding of how to work with AI systems effectively.

It’s not a question of if AI will change software development as we know it, but how fast it will happen. And if AI gets its way, the answer to that opening question could go from “minutes” to “faster than you think.”

Read our feature on Stakpak, a0dev, and Vzy—startups helping early-stage teams become multi-efficient.

On March 18, Telkom, the South African-owned telecom operator, announced that it will raise its telecom tariffs by April 1, 2025. But guess who seized the opportunity to launch an uncapped internet service for just $0.27 per day?

Its competitor, MTN South Africa.

While competitors were expected to react to Telkom’s tariff hike, no one expected MTN to move this quickly. Its new product, GigZone, offers 5Mbps (megabytes per second) internet for just R5 ($0.27) a day. The speed isn’t exactly fast—streaming high-definition videos or downloading large files may be a challenge—but at that price, it’s hard to complain. For many people in township communities, this could be the most affordable way to stay connected.

Other telecom players are also looking at the low-cost internet market, but most of the competition so far has come from fibre-based providers like Riot Network, Vumatel, and Wire-Wire Networks. These companies have been working to bring affordable fibre to South African townships, but they face a major hurdle: rolling out last-mile infrastructure is expensive and takes time. MTN, on the other hand, already has mobile towers in these areas, allowing it to launch GigZone without building new infrastructure first. This means it can expand much faster than traditional fibre operators.

Right now, GigZone is only available in parts of Gauteng and the Western Cape, but if the pilot is successful, MTN could quickly scale it across the country. South Africans are facing price hikes for different services that improve their livelihoods: electricity (Eskom), internet (Telkom), and streaming service providers (like MultiChoice) have increased prices—almost at the same time—making downsizing a likely option for many of them, especially those in lower-income areas.

A $0.27 uncapped internet per day looks like a good deal, and only Wire-Wire Networks previously offered internet service at this amount. Yet, with more people joining its network, it became slow. From the pilot test, MTN’s GigZone doesn't appear to have that problem. Commercially, it remains to be seen.

In an ideal world, venture capitalists cash out via initial public outings (IPOs) or blockbuster acquisitions. But in the past five editions of TechCabal’s Ask an Investor, where fund managers from Oui Capital to Launch Africa were grilled, we see that in Africa, securing funding is only half the battle—investors must also creatively extract returns for their LPs.

With IPOs and acquisitions scarce, secondary sales have become the go-to exit. Take Oui Capital: In 2021, they bet $150,000 on a 1.2% stake in Nigerian fintech Moniepoint. Three years later, with Moniepoint a unicorn, they sold part of that stake for $8 million—enough to return their first fund twice. 

HoaQ, meanwhile, scored a 6x return flipping a Raenest stake at Series A. Olu Oyinsan of Oui Capital admits secondaries aren’t the gold standard, but “any liquidity is better than no liquidity.”

Nonetheless, while secondaries are a practical workaround, favourable terms do not come easy either. So whether it is secondaries, IPOs or acquisitions, squeezing returns in Africa requires patience, discipline, and sometimes building the exit yourself. Read TechCabal’s recap to see how these five VCs pull it off, the hands-on support they give founders, and which sectors are the hottest on the continent right now.