Happy Tuesday, Munchers! 🙏

Hope your Monday was alright. Or as alright as can be. 😏

As always, here is your daily dose of the news that matters, from Wall Street to Dalal Street - in 5 minutes and 7 seconds.

This week, we'll make a little stop-over in Africa. Say hi to our guest Caleb. If you want to know anything about Africa - shoot him a message. He knows the scene like it's the back of his hand.

Let’s dive in.

What’s hot, what’s not?

Market Commentary

• The British Pound continued selling off - hit an all time low. Scone szn is over❔

• Weak global cues are pushing markets across the board lower - nothing good to look forward to.

• UK stocks continued a tumble - businesses are bracing for higher costs amid a fall in Sterling.

Story Roundup

1 - UK high street banks say no mo' mortgages. ❌

Retail banks in the UK are saying bye-bye to mortgages for now

Lloyds Banking Group, Virgin Money, and Skipton have all stopped offering new mortgage loans - and it's all because of the UK government's woefully named 'Mini-budget'.

This happened after UK bond prices plummeted along with the Pound - a direct knock-on result of the tax cuts announced.

When bond prices fall, their yields rise - so when lenders come back into market with repriced loans, it'll be very difficult for anyone to find cheap mortgages.

Brace! 😬

2 - Apple drawn to India for iPhone 14 manufacturing. 📲

Namaste Apple - welcome to India.

The tech giant has started producing their latest flagship iPhone 14 in India, and these phones are gonna start hitting customers' hands in the next few days.

Apple wants to move production away from China and into India - - less pressure from the US government- less chance of supply chain shocks- cheaper labour

By the end of 2022, they might be making 5% of all products in India, and by next year, they want to make 25% of all iPhones in India.

Apple's India revenue doubled last year - signs that the market is warming up to their products in a way like never before.

To the moon we go. 🚀

3 - UAE agrees to top up Germany's gas guzzling. ⛽

Germany's done some Sheikh talk - and inked a gas deal with the UAE.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz pulled up to the Gulf state, and seeked to drum up alternatives to Russian energy.

UAE is a modest gas exporter - but this deal means that there's a race to ramp up production. They have plans to double production by 2026.

Germany needs to replace almost 50% of it's gas inflows, so the Gulf is a perfect place to start.

Relief at the gas pump is in sight! 🙏

4 - Elon Musk wants to fix Iran's Internet up. 📶

Elon Musk's Starlink has activated it's satellite internet service after protests that caused 40+ deaths in the country.

Starlink's satellites sit almost 500km above Earth - and people now need terminals to connect to them

He said that the government is "obviously not gonna approve it, so to receive the signal, someone would need to smuggle a terminal into the country".

So the Starlink service has been turned on in Iran - all that's needed now are terminals.

It's just like a movie. 💥

5 - Africa's 'Big 4' guzzle up VC money. 💸

Caleb's got the mic for this one. 😏

Africa’s tech boom is here 💥

Just four countries dominate venture funding, attention and talent.

These countries attract 83% of the funding dollars of Venture Capital, and have produced 6 out of 7 of Africa’s Unicorns.

Meet Africa’s ‘Big 4.’

1. Egypt 🇪🇬 - $1.1 Billion in VC funding since 2019.

2. South Africa 🇿🇦 - $1.6 Billion in VC funding since 2019.

3. Kenya 🇰🇪 - $1.9 Billion in VC funding since 2019.

4. Nigeria 🇳🇬 - $3.5 Billion in funding since 2019

Each of these countries are the central ecosystem of their region in Africa.

Nigeria is the central ecosystem for startups in West Africa, Kenya in East Africa, Egypt in MENA (Middle East/North Africa) and South Africa in.. South Africa.

It's a rollercoaster ride to the top - and these guys are bringing the gravity.

Hope you enjoyed this issue of the Market Munch. If you've got any feedback - good or bad (😏) you can hit reply to this email. Thanks a ton for reading!

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If you want more top-notch insights from someone who's living, breathing, and investing in the African startup ecosystem, go sub to Caleb's newsletter. You won't regret it ;)

Cheers, and have a lovely day. 🙏

Aryaansh