These climate investors are funding climate startups using a hands-on venture-building model to support founders across Africa.  In this episode, we’re joined by James Mwangi from Africa Climate Ventures, Maxime Bayen from Catalyst Fund, and Lyndsay Holley Handler from Delta40. We discuss why African ventures and climate startups, in particular, benefit from the venture building model; the limitations of the traditional two and twenty fund model in the African tech ecosystem; the types of...

There are millions of Moniepoint point-of-sale terminals in use across Nigeria. These point-of-sale devices power Nigeria’s offline economy, and while there are many competitors in this space, Moniepoint appears to beating them all.  How did they do it? How did Moniepoint grow so quickly? And why has it become the preferred choice for agents and merchants across Nigeria? In this episode, we hit the streets of Lagos with Ezekiel Sanni, Moniepoint's Senior Vice President of Distribution...

Small retailers in Nigeria power the economy. But they’re going through some tough times. Devaluation, food inflation, and overall poor economic conditions have made it especially hard for these small businesses to operate. To better understand how retail works, and how these small businesses can grow, we hit the streets of Lagos with Deepankar Rustagi, CEO of OmniRetail. OmniRetail was ranked Africa's #1 Fastest Growing Company in 2024 by Financial Times. In this episode, Deepankar...

One of the African tech ecosystem's largest exits was the 2020 sale of Sendwave to WorldRemit for $500 million.  Sid Sridhar was Sendwave's Head of Business at the time, and in this episode, Sid shares his M&A lessons for the African tech ecosystem. Sid is now the Head of Business at Wave, the mobile money company spun out of Sendwave that's competing head-on with the telcos in Francophone West Africa. Wave raised a $200 million Series A in 2021, valuing the company at $1.7...

There is a $330 billion credit gap, according to the IFC. But why is it so hard to lend in African markets?  We explore that question with Chijioke Dozie, Co-founder and CEO of Carbon, and Mark Straub, CEO of Smile Identity. This episode was recorded live from the FT Partners Fintech in Africa Summit in New York City. Download their FinTech in Africa research report, published in March 2024. 00:00 - Introduction01:36 - The credit infrastructure problems in Africa02:28 - Carbon's approach...

In this episode, the third in our docuseries on jobtech platforms and the future of work, we dive deeper into the value chain, because the problems that small businesses have across the continent are multi-layered.  In an environment of demand constraints and a lack of infrastructure, platforms need to solve multiple problems across the value chain. This is what makes jobtech platforms so hard to build in Africa.  But for those who can solve problems across the value chain, it not only...

Benjamin Fernandes, the Founder and CEO of the remittance platform NALA, likes to say that payments are just 1% built in Africa.  Why are cross-border payments so hard?  In this episode, we're joined in conversation with Benjamin Fernandes and Dan Kleinbaum, a co-founder of Beyonic, which sold to Onafriq, and now the Founder of the FX platform GTXN.  This episode was recorded live from the FT Partners Fintech in Africa Summit in New York City. Download their FinTech in Africa research...

In this episode, we're joined in a panel conversation with the CEOs of three of Nigeria's biggest digital banks: Moniepoint's Tosin Eniolorunda, Kuda's Babs Ogundeyi, and FairMoney's Laurin Hainy. This episode was recorded live from the FT Partners Fintech in Africa Summit in New York City. Download their FinTech in Africa research report, published in March 2024. 00:00 - Intro01:18 - Moniepoint's distribution-first strategy02:45 - FairMoney's credit-led approach04:46 - Kuda's neobank...

In our first episode of this series on jobtech platforms and the future of work, we argued that the future of work is a tech-enabled portfolio of work.  But what does a portfolio of work really look like? And what happens next?  We know we need to create more formal jobs in Africa, and we need to boost the productivity of the informal sector. But how do we get there?  Considering the context of the markets in question, the future of work isn’t going to be designed or endowed; it’s going to...

In January 2024, we hosted a live show in Lagos with The Subtext's Osarumen Osamuyi on the relationship between the tech ecosystem and the media.  It was a follow-up to a 2020 episode we published entitled Much Ado About the Media. A lot of founders still feel the media is acting in bad faith amidst more accountable media coverage. In this episode, we explore this tension and have an important discussion with the ecosystem players themselves. 00:00 - Intro01:22 - Reflecting on 2020's...

Live from the BIG Summit, a platform hosted by investor and 2x NBA All-Star Baron Davis, at the 2024 NBA All-Star Game, a conversation with three operators connecting Africa to the world through culture and commerce.  In this conversation, we're joined by Clare Akamanzi, the CEO of NBA Africa, Abdul Karim Abdullah, the Founder and CEO of AfroFuture music festival, and entrepreneur and private equity investor Tuyee Yeboah.  00:00 - Intro02:38 - NBA Africa05:32 - AfroFuture08:34 - Investing...

The African continent has the highest levels of poverty, the lowest levels of formal employment, and its population is going to double in the next 30 years.  African countries need to create more jobs. But what kinds of jobs? And how?  What if I told you that the way governments and development organizations are trying to create jobs in Africa is all wrong?   To make a dent in this problem requires an understanding of the realities on the ground and how that has impacted the preferences of...

Despite research showing that female founders outperform their male peers, startups with a solo female founder or an all-female founding team raised a mere 2% of all the funding in Africa last year. There is a huge gender funding gap. How do we close it? This episode is the last episode of a five-episode series on gender lens investing, co-hosted by Eloho Omame, Founding Partner of First Check Africa, an early-stage fund backing female-led startups. Each episode of this series will explore a...

Despite research showing that female founders outperform their male peers, startups with a solo female founder or an all-female founding team raised a mere 2% of all the funding in Africa last year. There is a huge gender funding gap. How do we close it? This episode is the fourth of a five-episode series on gender lens investing, co-hosted by Eloho Omame, Founding Partner of First Check Africa, an early-stage fund backing female-led startups. Each episode of this series will explore a...

Despite research showing that female founders outperform their male peers, startups with a solo female founder or an all-female founding team raised a mere 2% of all the funding in Africa last year. There is a huge gender funding gap. How do we close it? This episode is the third of a five-episode series on gender lens investing, co-hosted by Eloho Omame, Founding Partner of First Check Africa, an early-stage fund backing female-led startups. Each episode of this series will explore a...

Despite research showing that female founders outperform their male peers, startups with a solo female founder or an all-female founding team raised a mere 2% of all the funding in Africa last year. There is a huge gender funding gap. How do we close it? This episode is the second of a five-episode series on gender lens investing, co-hosted by Eloho Omame, Founding Partner of First Check Africa, an early-stage fund backing female-led startups. Each episode of this series will explore a...

Despite research showing that female founders outperform their male peers, startups with a solo female founder or an all-female founding team raised a mere 2% of all the funding in Africa last year. There is a huge gender funding gap. How do we close it? This episode is the first of a five-episode series on gender lens investing, co-hosted by Eloho Omame, Founding Partner of First Check Africa, an early-stage fund backing female-led startups. Each episode of this series will explore a...

Today's guest is Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, Chairman of Coronation Capital and former Group MD and CEO of Access Bank.  Aigboje is one of the most successful and esteemed businesspeople on the continent. In 2002, he led the acquisition of Access Bank, which under his 11-year leadership grew into the largest bank in Nigeria and one of the largest in Africa. This wide-ranging discussion with the Chairman took place during the 2023 UN General Assembly in New York at an event hosted by the...

Today's guests are Natalie Kolbe, Ngetha Waithaka and Lexi Novitske - Partners of the $205 million growth fund Norrsken22.  In this episode, we'll talk about investment strategy, valuations, perspectives for the ecosystem, exits, and much more.  00:00 - Intro00:48 - Norrsken22's $205m fundraise09:36 - Investment strategy & process12:43 - Investing in asset-light marketplaces14:37 - Expansion18:04 - Investment theses27:26 - Macro perspectives30:22 - What are the partners focused on and...

Today's guest is Perseus Mlambo, Co-founder and CEO of Union54, the developers of the social commerce app ChitChat.  The company started as Zazu, an agtech startup, which pivoted to Zazu the neobank. After issuing virtual cards for their users and seeing the demand other fintechs had for virtual cards, they pivoted to Union54 the card issuing API, which after massive traction in the fintech ecosystem and subsequent issues with fraud, has pivoted once more to ChitChat. With many pivots come...

Today's guest is Adia Sowho, one of the most experienced and thoughtful operators in the African tech ecosystem. After starting her career in consulting and telecommunications, Adia led growth at the digital credit startup Migo, before leading the turnaround as Interim CEO of the embattled agriculture finance company Thrive Agric.  In this episode, we'll learn from Adia about her lessons working across both big and small companies, about the importance of sharing those lessons learned, and...

Today's guest is Ham Serunjogi, the Co-founder and CEO of Chipper Cash. In 2021, Chipper raised $150 million Series C extension, valuing the startup at $2 billion, but has since cut its valuation, reportedly by 70 percent, has engaged in three rounds of layoffs, reducing its headcount by nearly 175 from its peak of 450, and has drastically pulled back from its aggressive growth and expansion strategies across the continent. This conversation with Ham comes at an interesting time for Chipper...

Today's guest is Dare Okoudjou, the Founder and CEO of MFS Africa, which this week has rebranded to Onafriq.  The new name represents a new chapter in the company, which is a very different looking company than when we first had Dare on the show back in 2020, after their acquisition of Beyonic. Since then, they've also acquired the card issuer, GTP in the US, and the agent network Baxi in Nigeria.  This current period of the African tech ecosystem is one of increased consolidation and...

Today's guests are Michael Seibel, the Managing Director of Y Combinator, and Kwamena Afful, a Founding Partner of Microtraction.  Michael has been an avid supporter of the African tech ecosystem. Since his first trip to Lagos in 2016, and since Paystack joined YC's winter batch earlier that year, the number of African startups that have participated in the global accelerator has grown to 89.  And for Microtraction, the early-stage fund was founded in 2017, in part in relation to the...