We have a hot take 👀
Most market entry advice is WRONG for digital product companies.
What’s the usual advice?
Get a lawyer, get incorporated, get a local license, open a bank account, start selling.
If your business sells software, this process only helps you waste an unnecessary amount of time.
Let’s go over each one. 👇🏽
Licensing: Everybody tells you to get licensed. But they don’t tell you that licensing in African markets can take around 3-18 months. Requirements vary per country, so you cannot copy and paste. In most cases, you’re navigating frameworks that weren’t written with digital products in mind. You can spend a year getting licensed before one customer pays you a dime.
Then there’s tax:
VAT, withholding tax, corporate income tax, etc. Every market has its own rules, rates and filing calendar.
If you discover this after you’ve started selling, it means that you’ve been non-compliant without knowing it. Like licensing, you have to navigate these frameworks to function legally in each jurisdiction.
And then, payments:
Getting money from customers in-market to your account at home involves: local payment rails, FX conversion, settlement timelines, and in some markets, central bank approval for repatriation.
A lot of companies figure this out after they've already promised customers a product. The payment infrastructure has to be part of your original expansion plan.
Lastly, compliance:
Compliance is not a one-time thing. Regulations are constantly changing in Africa, with different geographical and language barriers many advisors might not fully understand. Compliance is a full time job.
So, what’s the right advice?
You don’t need to set up a local entity or get licensed separately. You don’t have to manage tax registration across multiple markets.
All you need is an entity to become the legal seller in each market — Startbutton.
We absorb the compliance layer, while you sell.
Startbutton is built for global digital products and software looking to expand across Africa. We’re live in 15 countries, including 7 in francophone Africa. Your company can go from zero to legally selling in a new African market in as little as 30 minutes. Get started today on
startbutton.africa