This January, Germany’s largest vaccine maker BioNTech announced that it had agreed to acquire Tunisian-born and London-headquartered AI startup InstaDeep for up to £562 million, including a performance-tied £200 million tranche investment.
InstaDeep’s deal — subject to regulatory approval and expected to close in the first half of this year — is quite intriguing, for a few reasons. First, when completed (at $682 million, adjusted in U.S. dollar terms), it’ll become the largest acquisition deal involving an African or Africa-focused startup, besting prices bargained for Sendwave, DPO Group and Paystack. Second, unlike the other high-profile acquisitions, InstaDeep isn’t a fintech. And third, although early believers who wit...
