Andile Masuku

Rob Bergman's carrier-neutral vision for Africa's digital infrastructure arrives at a fascinating inflection point - when powerful contradictions in internet connectivity expansion are playing out across the continent and around the world.

"People think of digital infrastructure as a buzzword," Bergman explained during our recent African Tech Roundup podcast conversation, "but there's dirt under your fingernails when you're building it." The Dutch investor, who heads investments at Unicorn Factory, has spent over a decade watching—and now actively shaping—how capital flows into Africa's internet infrastructure development.

For context, Unicorn Factory operates as a family office and permanent capital vehicle founded by Edward Lawrence in 2021. Lawrence, who co-founded WorkOnline Communications in 2006, has established a presence in Africa's internet landscape through several ventures including Yafibr (formerly AIK Group) and Magic Space Dust. He also happens to sit on boards of various pan-African technology companies and has been involved in regional initiatives aimed at improving internet security and infrastructure across the continent - think IPv6, BGP security and RPKI development.

What particularly struck me during my chat with Bergman is how a carrier-neutral approach like the one Unicorn Factory is punting might be increasingly vital in Africa given the dramatic shifts reshaping global connectivity.

Starlink paradox

At the Mission 300 Africa Energy Summit held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in January, the overwhelming demand for SpaceX's Starlink in Kenya and Zambia was under the spotlight. Despite being designed primarily for rural areas, demand in urban centres had been overwhelming and led to the suspension of new sign-ups in major regional cities like Nairobi and Lusaka.

Lauren Dreyer, the vice president of Starlink Business Operations, acknowledged this tension in an on-stage fireside interview at the event with CNN's Larry Madowo: "The satellite constellation doesn't care how many people live in a given place. It puts down the same amount of capacity whether it's looking at Dar es Salaam or the middle of the desert."

This has revealed an uncomfortable truth: when affordability and quality converge, disruption may lie in wait for existing underperforming infrastructure players.

Meanwhile, in India last week, both India's largest telecoms company Reliance Jio and rival Bharti Airtel announced partnerships with SpaceX within hours of each other—a dance of duopoly that reveals how traditional carriers are scrambling to integrate rather than compete with satellite innovation.

Beyond zero-sum infrastructure

Bergman's approach - investing in carrier-neutral assets across the entire internet value chain - offers a fascinating counterpoint to these developments. While mobile network operators have historically dominated infrastructure deployment in Africa, their primary concerns rarely aligned with opening access to competitors.

"When a regulator opens up the market that was dominated by one party, as happened in South Africa with Telkom, you see the ecosystem expand exponentially," Bergman noted. He reckons the results speak for themselves, arguing that South Africa's internet landscape has transformed from a frustrating monopoly to a dynamic marketplace with vastly improved customer experience.

Through WorkOnline (one of Africa's largest IP transit providers), Unicorn Factory has positioned itself at what Bergman calls "the Google Maps of internet," helping data packets navigate across networks regardless of who built the underlying infrastructure. He points to their on-going commercial success as proof that the carrier-neutral thesis isn't just ideologically appealing, but also commercially viable.

Patient capital, pragmatic realities

What makes this approach potentially transformative, according to Bergman, is its blending of commercial ambition with ecosystem thinking. Unlike traditional infrastructure investment focused solely on asset ownership, Unicorn Factory operates two complementary pillars: direct holdings in critical infrastructure and advisory services helping others raise capital.

"It's not charity," Bergman insists, "when you have a sustainable investment with positive cash flow keeping that business alive." This pragmatism extends to how they approach potential conflicts of interest - choosing not to directly fund internet service providers (ISPs) they serve through WorkOnline, but instead helping these companies access international capital through their advisory arm.

The $900 million (R16. 3 billion) in advisory mandates they claim to have accumulated in under a year suggests there's substantial appetite for this approach among African infrastructure players seeking capital.

Geopolitical headwinds

The question remains whether carrier neutrality can thrive amid increasingly fraught geopolitical competition. As Western nations grow increasingly wary of Chinese-backed infrastructure (particularly in telecommunications), and as both East and West compete for digital influence across Africa - even as speculation locally swirls regarding if indeed anybody can be trusted - truly neutral infrastructure may face growing pressures.

Yet this volatility might paradoxically strengthen the case for carrier neutrality. When major national powers and multinational corporations compete, independence becomes valuable precisely because it offers optionality—the ability to interconnect with all players without political constraints.

Journey, not destination

What's clear is that Africa's digital future requires infrastructure that serves an ecosystem rather than just specific players. The continent's connectivity challenges aren't solved by monopolistic carriers, nor by satellites alone—they require thoughtful integration of multiple technologies under competitive frameworks that prioritise access over control.

As Bergman put it: "When the internet wins, we get the South African situation, which allows all assets to grow very organically because now there's more internet, more internet traffic, more need for dark fibre routes, more need for transmission."

Perhaps carrier neutrality isn't just pragmatic - it might be essential for an Africa seeking to chart its own digital path amid global economic uncertainty. By separating the infrastructure layer from service provision, it creates space for innovation without dependence on any single corporate or geopolitical agenda.

In that light, Unicorn Factory's bet on carrier neutrality mightn't merely be wishful thinking—it's a compelling proposition in a broader theatre of ideas where there's precious little consensus on what the best approaches are, and even when there is, the best ideas don't necessarily prevail over special interests and complex market realities.