For once, Africa has an image advantage Also published as an op-ed under Speaking Heads in The Economic Times on 2020-10-17 As the world reopens, and leisure tourism gradually resumes, African countries have a competitive…
Browsing Category Business
My blog posts and external op-eds/articles on business-related topics
Remote workers – a key source of Africa’s future tourism revenue
[Article in The Exchange: Remote workers – a key source of Africa’s future tourism revenue] Digital Nomads are now changing the way of doing business in Africa given the upsurge and availability of internet connectivity….
[Techmoran] How the pandemic led to the launch of FoodleDoodle, East Africa’s first cloud kitchen
Foodledoodle, the first multi-brand cloud kitchen operation in East Africa has launched in Kenya and is working with hotels to utilize idle kitchen capacity to produce food for delivery under its own brands. Foodledoodle and…
Going cashless in Kenya is now King!
How the pangs of the pandemic are forging a new era of cashless payments for Kenya and Africa, as the world returns to a new normalcy. A few weeks ago, I was positively surprised to…
Nairobi, a city of endless roadworks
Kenya is bustling with roadworks at the moment. Nairobi is leading from the front. With the promise of great highways in the the near future, however, comes utter chaos now. Every other major road seems…
HotelOnline: How we scaled across Africa
The first-ever African Innovation Week took place in Addis Ababa at the African Union Headquarters, Oct. 28 – Nov. 2. AIW is an international conference, showcasing entrepreneurship in Africa. I was honoured to be among…
21st Century Capitalism
Why terms like “impact business” or “social entrepreneurship” are outdated Henry T. Ford once said “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business”. The attitude behind his statement remains emblematic for some…
HotelOnline – the story
The CEO of Africa Innovation Network, Flemming Sørensen, reached out recently, asking if I could do a video appearance at a seminar, telling the story of HotelOnline. Sure, I love telling about how Endre and…
[Ventureburn] Norwegian Håvar Bauck’s Kenyan startup HotelOnline announces it’s raised $320k
Håvar Bauck, the Norwegian entrepreneur who hit the news earlier this year over his dealings with controversial Polish tech entrepreneur Marek Zmyslowski announced yesterday that his Kenyan travel tech startup HotelOnline had raised $320 000. The company provides solutions…
[BW Hotelier] Shravan Shroff Joins HotelOnline Board of Directors
Shravan Shroff Joins HotelOnline Board of Directors Article in BusinessWorld Hotelier, published on 2019-07-10 HotelOnline is a travel tech scale-up, started by Norwegian entrepreneurs Håvar Bauck and Endre Opdal, both living in Kenya. HotelOnline, with…
[The Exchange] HotelOnline conquers Africa from Kenya
HotelOnline conquers Africa from Kenya Article published in The Exchange on 2019-04-25 How two Norwegians turned Kenyan built a global traveltech success from five apartments in Syokimau When Håvar Bauck landed in Kenya in 2002,…
Kaleidoscope Africa Launched in Nairobi
On January 17th, 2019, we kicked off the inaugural event for Kaleidoscope Africa, at Nailab in Nairobi with a catchy topic: Launch to Scale: How Successful Startups Scale into Global Enterprises. Only two days after…
[TechMoran] HotelOnline signs up over 1500 hotels across 17 markets in Africa, Europe & South Asia
Article in Techmoran, 2018-09-27 HotelOnline, an online hotel booking software suite firm that helps hotels get online bookings through its super simple, cloud-based dashboard to manage bookings, rates and availability from one place has signed…
HotelOnline Equity Crowdfunding Video
In October 2017, we were looking to raise money to accelerate HotelOnline’s expansion. With the HotelOnline/Savanna Sunrise merger completed earlier in the year, we had become a dominant traveltech player in Africa, and we had…
[Techweez] Founder Håvar Bauck on building HotelOnline to become a booking stalwart
Article published in Techweez on 2017-12-06 Havar Bauck, the founder and executive Chairman of HotelOnline is a Norwegian but is quick to note that he was born in Norway, but his heart is with his lovely wife…
Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) – future hub for Africa?
JKIA in an advantageous position When Kenya (or the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, to be precise) finally gained the coveted Category One status in February, it was a game-changer. With Kenya Airways recently obtaining air…
Lunatic Express – New life as a tourist attraction?
Lunatic Express – The Railway that Built a Country Kenya is doubtlessly the only country in history to have been built around a railway line. When construction on the “Lunatic Express” (its official name being…
Uber, and the taxi app revolution in Kenya
It all started with Uber.. When Uber launched in Nairobi, in January 2015, few imagined the impact they would have on how people move around. Taking a taxi in Nairobi used to be a dreadful…
The rise and rise of Kenya’s infrastructure
Kenya – Africa’s infrastructure powerhouse Kenya’s ongoing infrastructure boom started with former President Mwai Kibaki. Grand projects like Thika Road, and the Northern, Eastern and Southern Bypasses in Nairobi, ushered in a national sense of yes-we-can. This has…
Kenya – Ready for take-off
The resilience of Kenya’s economy surprises even the harshest pessimists On September 17th and 18th 2013, an IMF held conference in Nairobi in praise of the economic environment in Kenya. Throughout the country, a tangible…
Zambia’s new currency
New Kwacha – same look – three zeros less Being back in Lusaka after almost 10 months felt really good. After all the travelling there last year, it is a country that I had really…
Lagos – Cash is still king!
Having relocated from Nairobi to Lagos in January 2013, I have settled down, and gotten more or less used to living here. Apartment, car, driver, etc., are already in place, and I dare commend my own…
Konza Technology City
Konza Technology City – Africa’s “Silicon Savannah” Konza Technology City, dubbed “Africa’s Silicon Savannah”, some 60km from Nairobi, is one of the most publicized elements of Kenya’s Vision 2030. The US $10bn project aims to…
Kenya strikes oil in Turkana!
Oil in Turkana: A Curse or a Blessing for Kenya? On March 26th, 2012, President Mwai Kibaki made an historic announcement: Kenya has struck oil in Turkana County! The announcement had barely been made before…
Jon Bøhmer sees his solar project, Kyoto Energy, go bankrupt!
Jon Bøhmer saw his company, Kyoto Energy go down on April 6th, 2011, as the court in Norway ordered liquidation