TechCabal's TC Daily briefing for September 30, 2026, covers three developments across Africa's technology sector: collapsed e-commerce startup Copia's remaining assets falling well short of its declared liabilities, telecom group MTN's search for African producers of short-form vertical dramas for its One TV platform, and Vodacom South Africa's successful trial of what it describes as a world-first network antenna system developed with Nokia.

Startups: BuuPass marks a decade built on proximity to customers

Before BuuPass, the Kenyan mobility startup, sold a single ticket, co-founder Sonia Kabra spent three months living in Ongata Rongai, a town south of Nairobi. According to TechCabal, the experience was crucial to the startup's survival and helped shape its first decade.

Kabra was testing Magic Bus, BuuPass's first matatu-booking service, with university students in the area. It was an early example of a pattern that would define the company: major changes came from the founders getting closer to their customers.

TechCabal's Class of 2016 profile on BuuPass was set to be published later that day. It traces the company's evolution from an idea for a solar-powered bus with Wi-Fi to the software bus operators now use to manage their businesses, processing more than $100 million in tickets annually.

Companies: Copia's remaining assets are not enough to cover its debts

Copia Kenya, the e-commerce startup that spent more than a decade trying to bring online shopping to underserved customers, raised $123 million, built a network of tens of thousands of agents, and at one point reached a $250 million valuation.

In May 2024, cash-strapped and in need of a business rescue, Copia entered administration — a formal insolvency process in which an administrator attempts to rescue a company or, where rescue is not possible, realises its assets for creditors — kicking off a resuscitation plan intended to recover the valuable parts of the business. What is left of the company may now not be enough to pay what it owes.

According to Kenyan publication Business Daily, Copia's realisable assets amount to about KES 206.6 million ($1.6 million), after a court declared its liabilities. That is less cash than the company raised from investors during its operating years. With far larger liabilities, investors have no foreseeable way to recoup their investments.

Background

Copia launched in Kenya in 2013 with a different idea about getting people to shop online. Rather than expecting customers in rural and peri-urban areas to own smartphones, trust an online checkout, and pay digitally, Copia built a network of local agents who helped customers place orders and pay for household goods. At its peak, the company had 54,000 agents and served more than 750 million households in Kenya. It raised $123 million across eight funding rounds, expanded into Uganda, and reached a $250 million valuation.

The same model that made Copia distinctive also made it expensive. The company had to buy and store physical goods, operate warehouses, move products around Kenya, and maintain a vast agent network. It shut down its Uganda business in 2023 (Copia leaves Uganda) and later stopped operations in East Africa by June 2024 (Copia stops orders in six regions in Kenya).

What happens to investors' money

Investors cannot simply demand their original investment back because Copia failed. Once the company is liquidated, whatever money is recovered from selling its remaining assets will be distributed according to the legal priority of claims. Equity investors sit behind creditors, meaning that if the recovered funds run out before shareholders are reached, they could walk away with nothing.

Telecoms: MTN wants a piece of the micro-drama market

Remember MTN One TV, the streaming MTN launched in June? The telecoms group is now looking for African producers to make the kind of short, cliffhanger-packed dramas that have become a significant business in Asia.

Micro-dramas are stories told in vertical video clips, usually two to three minutes long — a format familiar to Instagram users, where such content, often AI-generated, is common. Each episode gives viewers just enough plot to get hooked, then frequently cuts off at the crucial moment. To find out what happens next, viewers keep watching, pay to unlock episodes, or sit through advertisements.

The format has become big business in China, where micro-drama revenue has outpaced the movie box office for two consecutive years. Bloomberg has estimated that the global market could reach R423 billion ($23 billion) by 2030, according to reporting carried by MyBroadband. Globally, downloads of short-drama apps grew by more than 140% between the first quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2026, according to Sensor Tower.

While MTN is not attempting to rival Netflix or replace Showmax with cinematic-level production, TechCabal notes that the nimbler approach makes sense: Asia has ReelShort and DramaBox, while Africa has no equivalent dedicated micro-drama producer beyond Instagram channels. Selective viewing and a free-to-watch hook could be value propositions that draw in African streamers.

Why MTN is interested

One TV is more than another attempt to break into streaming. MTN wants to combine local stories, live channels, and international programming with multiple payment options, including airtime and mobile money where available. The platform can offer free content, sell subscriptions, and charge viewers per title or episode. Now it wants more African-made stories, including micro-dramas. In September, MTN invited established production companies to pitch projects, which selected producers will present at FAME Week Africa in Cape Town, South Africa. The Cape Town pitch session will show which African production companies are ready to build for the format.

TechCabal's assessment is that MTN holds a distribution advantage through its existing mobile customer base, but that this does not guarantee viewers will stick around or pay; local stories could help make the platform feel relevant. More broadly, the company is moving beyond selling connectivity toward monetising what people do with it, and its content business now has to prove it can pay its way.

Telecoms: Vodacom South Africa looks to squeeze more capacity from its network

As demand for mobile data grows, operators eventually need to expand their physical infrastructure. Vodacom, one of South Africa's largest telecom operators, believes it has found a way to make its existing space work harder.

On Tuesday, Vodacom South Africa said it had successfully tested what it calls the world's first integrated passive-active Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) system, developed with Nokia, the Finnish telecom equipment maker, according to the company's statement. MIMO allows a mobile network to use multiple antennas to send and receive several data streams at once.

The test took place at a site in the Western Cape and combined several antenna capabilities into a more compact setup. Vodacom says it can now deploy the technology at existing sites with little room, or where adding more conventional equipment would be difficult. Massive MIMO extends the concept by using many antenna elements to serve multiple devices simultaneously — akin to turning one road lane into several without building an entirely new road. Vodacom tested the system across the 2600 megahertz (MHz) and 3500 MHz spectrum bands — mid-band frequencies that balance coverage and capacity — which are already used for its 4G and 5G services.

Why Vodacom needs it

In 2025, South Africa's mobile internet usage penetration rate was 51.49%. Adding network capacity can mean installing equipment at existing sites or finding new sites altogether. Vodacom says the new system will let it use its spectrum more efficiently and add capacity without requiring much physical expansion, and it is now moving from testing to deployment at sites where the extra capacity is needed. The company said customers in high-demand areas should gain access to stronger 4G and 5G networks, allowing them to browse the internet faster and stream videos. The rollout will show whether the results from a single Western Cape site translate across the network.

Opportunities: Citi Foundation offers AI skills grants

The Citi Foundation is offering $500,000 grants to 50 organisations that help low-income young people build AI and other job skills. The grants can support programmes that teach skills such as prompt engineering and digital content creation, help young people find jobs, provide access to devices and software, or add AI tools to existing employment programmes. Applications close on October 6, 2026, at 5 p.m. Lagos time, via the Citi Foundation's funding page.

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Written by Emmanuel Nwosu and Yemi Kareem; edited by Emmanuel Nwosu and Ganiu Oloruntade. This article is based on TechCabal Daily – Keeping it micro, published September 30, 2026.