…Codesphere launches with new features in Africa

At first, Codesphere founder Elias Groll thought the traffic from Africa was coming from bots – that’s how high it was. Then he heard a talk and decided to start an experiment with Mobile Money. 

“We’ve always had strong traffic from Africa,”

says Elias Groll, founder of the startup Codesphere, in an interview.

“Especially in the free tier,” meaning the free service offering of their freemium model. 

In June, about 700,000 impressions a month came from Nigeria. Another 200,000 each came from Ghana and Kenya. By comparison, Germany and the U.S. together account for only about a quarter of African impressions. 

Codesphere enables developers to program and scale web apps directly in the cloud without first having to create a separate development environment. Even complex applications such as Spotify can be created in this way.

“We thought they were bots at first”.

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Groll and his team initially thought they were bots, especially since there were a lot of impressions coming from Africa but hardly any revenue. Revenue a month from Africa was only about $100.

That’s another reason why Groll and his team didn’t pay attention to this region at first. Codesphere’s current focus is on Europe and the United States. 

“We were on the verge of completely excluding Africa, India and South America from our strategy,” Groll says.

Don’t users want to pay – or can’t they?

But a lecture gave the Codesphere team an idea: What if sales in these regions were to stop because the users there were unable to pay? Until now, individuals could only pay with a credit card at Codesphere.

“The presentation was a real eye-opener. It was about the fact that in Africa, entire development steps that we have taken in the West are being skipped,” says Groll. “Many people there don’t even have a bank account – they manage their money through their smartphones.” 

Interviews with users in Africa confirmed this thesis.

57 percent unbanked

In 2022, 57 percent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa was “unbanked,” according to a BPC report. As such, they also do not have access to payment solutions such as Apple Pay or PayPal.

“A large proportion there pay by mobile, so by sim card basically,” Groll says. “But until now, very few cloud providers had the option for people to pay them with mobile money. Not even AWS.” Groll wanted to change that.

It only took three weeks, then the new payment method was integrated, so that from now on you can also pay mobile at Codesphere – and without needing a bank account. 

With this, Groll wants to primarily reach young African developers between the ages of 16 and 30, who want to use it to host their portfolio sites or found startups.

The marketing will also be adapted accordingly. Ads are being tested immediately in selected countries such as Nigeria and Kenya.

Help for developers instead of development aid

“Instead of transferring money to the region in the form of development aid, it makes much more sense to give young developers access to tools with which they can be successful,” says Groll. “So far, the trade of companies like Amazon or Apple with developing countries has mostly been limited to raw materials.”

Groll hopes this move will inspire other Western companies to expand into Africa. And not just for altruistic reasons.

“We don’t want to save the world. At least not just.”

“We don’t want to save the world,” Groll says. “At least not only. First and foremost, mobile money integration is business for us. In one fell swoop, we’ll have access to 800,000 wallets in Africa, and local developers will have access to better tools in return.”

For now, Codesphere’s hosting will remain in German or American data centers. If the test works, Groll can well imagine setting up a region in Africa as the next step – “with a data center and the like.

Facts about Codesphere

• Founded in 2020, Codesphere provides individuals and businesses with a browser-based platform that enables developers and teams to build web apps directly in the cloud and scale globally without having to create a development environment.
• Codesphere has raised more than seven million US dollars in capital for its platform-as-a-service solution.

• Lead investors include venture capitalist Begin Capital, 42Cap and LEA Partners. Professional soccer player Mario Götze also participated in the seed round.