Episodes
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The Trajectory Africa’s first principles series was inspired by a desire to understand the drivers and assumptions underlying investable opportunities in key sectors hypothesized to be the engine of African VC, starting with fintech.
Across 11 episodes, we explored the opportunities for, and limits of, ubiquitous digitalization and the role of fintech, the jobs to be done by, and characteristics of, a digitally enabled financial system, the case for infrastructure building in payments, partner-led neobanking, the logic of financial operations, community-based lending and savings-led embedded finance, and finally, boosting trade by facilitating b2b cross-border payments and connecting enabling infrastructure.But somehow, all those granular questions led to many big, hairy questions. So, to help sense-make on this final, fintech-focused episode, we have Emeka Ajene, Founder and Publisher of Afridigest, a business media brand with an editorial focus on ideas, analysis, & insights for business innovators across Africa and beyond; Afri.capital, an emerging investment firm focusing on early-stage, tech-enabled investments; and Africreate, a strategic thinking partner & trusted advisor to senior executives doing business in Africa.
I hope you enjoy the conversation!
Tune in to hear about:
[2:58] - The infrastructure of trade — the chicken or the egg
[5:58] - How to win in neobanking
[19:38] - Superapp logic
[23:39] - The role of banks in fintech — partners and competitors
[37:32] - Financial products as cultural products
[43:03] - Creating sources of lending data
[56:05] - The remaining investable opportunities in African fintech
[1:02:28] - The role and value proposition of fintech’s 1st gen infrastructure builders
[1:22:52] - First principles for understanding Africa’s fintech opportunities
Recommendations:
Afridigest. A newsletter that delivers Africa-focused ideas, insights and analysis on business and innovation.Chasing Outliers: Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa. A report I co-authored on VC investing in Africa.Connect on social media:
Emeka Ajene on LinkedInEmeka Ajene on TwitterThe Trajectory Africa on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on Twitter -
In Episode 1 of this series, Abraham Augustine, Research Partner of trendsAf and Comms and Programs Lead at Norrsken warned against “long arm, no mouth” syndrome and the risks of digitalizing one part of a system (distributed solar energy, for example) without considering where the barriers and effects might materialize (think missing payment rails). Infrastructure is great, but it can’t be half-baked, and those pipes need something to carry. That something is trade.
Previous guests Samora Kariuki and Wiza Jalakasi both emphasized the power of interoperability—cross-continental (and international) money movement to catalyze the development of Africa’s digitally-enabled financial systems. And in the previous episode, ‘Tayo Bamiduro suggested that while physical infrastructure takes time to build, you can rapidly scale digital infrastructure to deliver inclusion, access, and inclusive growth.
In this episode, I’m chatting with Gwera Kiwana, VP of Partnerships, Blockchain Payments for Onafriq and Nika Naghavi, Chief Network Officer, also of Onafriq, a “network of networks” that makes borders matter less. We dig into what it looks like to build infrastructure that connects mobile money networks, banks, fintechs and cash pick up points to support African trade.
What role can crypto still play in fintech infrastructure? How does a cross-border payment work? And what are the implications of USD dominance in international trade? It’s all here. I hope you enjoy the conversation.
Tune in to hear about:
[2:25] - Role of crypto as enabling infrastructure for trade flows
[9:40] - The role of USD in trade/Implications of USD dominance for international trade
[13:16] - The evolution of Onafriq, market and channel expansion and acquisitions
[27:55] - Anatomy of payment transactions and cross-border payments
[39:01] - Distribution of infrastructure jobs to be done and the problems Onafriq solves
[59:20] - Business model, competition vs. cooptition and future growth
[1:08:00] - Counterintuitive first principle
Recommendations:
Chasing Outliers. Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa, a report I co-authored on VC investing in Africa.
Connect on social media:
Gwera Kiwana on LinkedInGwera Kiwana on TwitterNika Naghavi on LinkedInNika Naghavi on TwitterThe Trajectory Africa on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on Twitter -
Episodes manquant?
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Back in Episode 7 of Trajectory Africa’s first series, Barbara Iyayi, CEO & Founding Partner of Unicorn Growth Capital made a strong statement about the ubiquity of financial services, arguing that every company should be a fintech company. Because as long as financial inclusion is a huge problem, every company should be able to offer financial services. This is the essence of embedded finance, which McKinsey defines as placing a financial product in a nonfinancial customer experience, journey, or platform.
In the previous episode’s conversation with Tunzaa’s Ng’winula Kingamkono, we learned about how an embedded finance model called Save now, Buy later enables responsible consumption. In this episode, we’ll hear from 'Tayo Bamiduro, Co-Founder and CEO of MAX, a company that’s powering eco-friendly mobility through high performance electric vehicles. So, we’re keeping the assets, but shifting from consumption to production.And in this case the finance is in service of democratizing access to vehicles for mobility entrepreneurs. This flavor of embedded finance is called asset-based lending, or when a borrower's assets serve as collateral for a loan. But MAX isn’t just helping riders and drivers finance productive assets, it’s building the digital infrastructure needed to reimagine the mobility space with environmental sustainability at its core. Asset-based lending as an engine for EV-led mobility? Let’s dig in…
Tune in to hear about:[2:08] - inspiration for MAX’s two-wheeler design
[4:16] - the evolution of MAX’s business over time
[9:12] - pillars for shepherding EV transition and market size
[13:55] - MAX’s product offerings
[18:44] - how credit decisions are made, sources of loan capital
[23:00] - access to assets vs. ownership of assets and the best path to wealth creation
[32:55] - integrating operator and vehicle productivity
[55:00] - MAX’s business model, fleet financing, unit economics, and moat
[1:13] - Collaboration vs. competition in nascent industries
[1:21] - Counterintuitive first principle
Recommendations:
Chasing Outliers. Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa, a report I co-authored on VC investing in Africa.
Connect on social media:
'Tayo Bamiduro on LinkedIn'Tayo Bamiduro on TwitterThe Trajectory Africa on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on Twitter -
In the previous episode of The Trajectory Africa, we explored the art and science of community lending to microbusinesses. In this episode, we turn from business lending to consumer savings, but as an antidote to a consumer lending model called buy now, pay later, or BNPL.
BNPL emerged as a global trend in the wake of COVID-19 and the tough macroeconomic environment that accompanied it. As inflation increased the cost of living, people started using these short term loans issued, after a quick credit check at the point of sale, to get by.According to Afridigest, these solutions also proliferated across the continent, delivered by companies like LipaLater, Klump and Float. But SNBL products, otherwise known as save now buy later, are being offered by innovators who believe that BNPL lacks a viable business model, promotes cyclical indebtedness in its users, and contradicts cultural norms that favor saving over lending. Ng’winula Kingamkono, Founder and CEO of Tunzaa is on a mission to transform the financial habits of everyday Africans (and improve the business operations of merchants while he’s at it).
Tune in to hear about:
[1:49] - Ng’winula’s “alter ego”
[5:45] - Why save now buy later
[8:15] - How Tunzaa works
[16:28] - Building a two-sided marketplace, API first
[25:06] - Savings vs. credit culture
[30:50] - Product suite evolution and growth
[47:27] Beliefs about consumption and the impact of the macroeconomic environment, consumer behavior
[55:00] - Counterintuitive first principle
Recommendations:
Save now, buy later: an emerging fintech model. This episode is inspired by Afridigest’s reporting on the save now, buy later model. Chasing Outliers. Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa, a report I co-authored on VC investing in Africa.Connect on social media:
Ng’winula Kingamkono on LinkedInNg’winula Kingamkono on TwitterThe Trajectory Africa on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on Twitter -
In the previous episode of the Trajectory Africa, we heard from Kiiru Muhoya and Judith Bogonko at Fingo about the importance of cultivating Africa’s youth as the next generation of retail consumers of financial services.
In this episode, we’ll hear how Femi Iromini, Co-Founder and CEO of Moni, and his team, have created a community lending model for microbusinesses that has the DNA of a not completely neobank, if the "neo" in neobank, means digital only. The rule of thumb in lending is it’s easy to give money out, but difficult to get it back.
But Moni’s approach suggests that if you use technology to make existing social structures like community savings groups (otherwise known as ajo or esusu in Nigeria, tontines in Francophone Africa, chamas in Kenya, stokvels in South Africa, sanduks in South Sudan, etc.) work better, you can leverage social intelligence to build trust, efficiently underwrite loans, and eventually create the foundations of a bank by and for the people.
Tune in to hear about:
[1:49] - Lessons learned from previous startup experience
[6:44] - Definition of community banking and characteristics of a bank for Africa
[12:00] - How community financing works at Moni
[22:00] - How Moni’s community lending model impacts consumer acquisition and retention
[25:45] - Loan terms and approach to recovery
[35:33] - Moni’s business model and transition from community lending to retail (neo)banking
[45:55] - Portability of trust and social intelligence underwriting as moat
[51:47] - The importance of offline engagement and early signs of product market fit
[59:39] - Counterintuitive first principle
Recommendations:
Chasing Outliers. Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa, a report I co-authored on VC investing in Africa Frontier Fintech Newsletter. Mentioned in this episode, Frontier Fintech is an excellent primer on the fundamentals of fintech in Africa.Connect on social media:
Femi Iromini on LinkedInFemi Iromini on TwitterThe Trajectory Africa on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on Twitter -
According to research by global consultancy Simon-Kucher in 2022, fewer than 5% of neobanks were profitable. A recent update suggests that most are still loss-makers, although a path to profitability is emerging.
Also in 2022, Tech Cabal’s reporting on Kuda Bank’s NPLs (non-performing loans) sparked a discussion about what levels make sense for companies doing instant loans. And in a brilliant series of episodes about African neobanks, Afrobility posed a fundamental question: how do you profitably sell financial services to customers traditional banks don’t want (because they’re unprofitable)?
It’s an important question because many companies start by delivering a core service—p2p transfers, payments, saving, investment, lending. But as they fight to own the customer and increase market share, they migrate into other areas. We explored that dynamic in the last two episodes about cross-border payments and financial operations. After all, part of the high growth playbook is to dominate a beachhead market and expand into adjacent value added services. And what is the practical realization of that logic in fintech? A neobank, of course.
In this episode with Kiiru Muhoya, Co-Founder and CEO of Fingo, “the bank for Africa’s ambitious” and Judith Bongoko, Fingo’s Chief Commercial Officer, we talked about two keys to solving this puzzle: 1) cultivating the next generation of financial services consumers; and 2) strategically partnering with banks. We also chatted about which starting point is the most strategic for a neobank and financial literacy as a workhorse ingredient in the secret sauce of customer retention.
Tune in to hear about:[2:05] - Fingo’s mission and key functions of a banking system
[7:16] - Fingo’s product journey
[15:11] - Early signs of product market fit and best starting points for neobank building
[26:42] - Growing the next generation of financial services consumers
[33:00] - The yin and yang of partnering with Ecobank
[49:14] - Regional dominance as a platform for partnership
[57:36] - Fingo’s business model
[1:01] - How a bank partnership aligns cost and revenue curves; CAC as a first mover
[1:07] - Navigating competition when “winner takes all”
[1:13] - Counterintuitive first principle
Recommendations:
Chasing Outliers. Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa, a report I co-authored on VC investing in Africa Afrobility has done several excellent episodes on neobanks. They contributed greatly to background research for this episode:#24: Neobanks (African WealthTech Pt 2) - How TymeBank, Kuda & other digital banks are delivering banking services across Africa
#34: Kuda Bank - How Nigeria’s most popular Neobank is scaling to offer financial services to “every African on the planet”
#68: Branch - From Kiva to providing consumer loans and FinTech services across Africa and other developing markets
#69: FairMoney - How the credit-led neobank is providing consumer loans and financial services across Nigeria, India and other developing markets
#70: Carbon - How the credit-led neobank is providing loans, BNPL and financial services across Nigeria and Africa
#71: TymeBank - How the South African Neobank is integrating digital and physical experiences to provide holistic financial services across emerging markets
Connect on social media:
Kiiru Muhoya on LinkedInJudith Bongonko on LinkedInKiiru Muhoya on TwitterThe Trajectory Africa on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on Twitter -
This episode of The Trajectory Africa features Yele Oyekola, Co-founder and CEO of Duplo, a company on a mission to streamline financial operations for African businesses. We’re diving deep into the world of digitizing financial operations, from payables and expense management to reconciliation and reporting.
Africa’s $1.5T B2B payments market represents a massive opportunity in a space that’s ripe for innovation—think medium to large businesses in industries like FMCG, logistics and manufacturing. These companies have a lot of challenges like managing manual operations to navigating payment terms.
But it’s not just about payments— it’s really about the unsexy business of digitizing financial operations. Digitizing payments bleeds into tackling financial operations as a whole—payments in the front, financial operations in the back. (Huge thanks to Gwera Kiwana for being first to apply the mullet metaphor to finance, specifically crypto.)
And the dimensions of this opportunity, from money movement to workflow automation, are pretty interesting. In Episode 5, Verto’s CEO Ola Oyetayo made the connection between enabling cross-border payments and managing tasks like account receivables. With Yele, we dig into how to dislodge cash within a value chain by automating transactions across it.
Tune in to hear about:
[2:08] - The basics of b2b payments
[15:50] - What Duplo does, how it started, and the size of the bizopps opportunity
[22:55] - Acquiring customers’ customers
[33:46] - Automating the key functions of a finance department
[42:10] - Duplo’s tech stack and business model[56:21] - Value chain integration/infiltration as moat
[1:02] - Counterintuitive first principle
Recommendations:
Chasing Outliers. Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa, a report I co-authored on VC investing in AfricaConnect on social media:
Yele Oyekola on LinkedInDuplo on TwitterThe Trajectory Africa on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on Twitter -
On this special episode of The Trajectory Africa, we’re featuring “someone you should know”—David Ogundeko, Founder and Chief Vision Officer for Funema, a last-mile, impact-focused, alternative investment company.
David has spent the last 7 years creating a model to engineer and invest in problem solving, impact creating, high growth SMEs. In the process, he’s reimagining a VC model for Africa, and has built the operational muscle to back his claims.
In this conversation, we’ll learn how David’s challenging experiences as a founder spurred him to create a model that protects founders and their impact potential while still building big, profitable businesses.
The Trajectory Africa is helping David tell his story to support his bid to join the 11th cohort of VC Unlocked: Silicon Valley, 500 Global’s flagship investor education program. Help David get to Stanford in September by donating here.Tune in to hear about:
[3:07] - The dangers of faux expertise
[8:00] - Funema’s origin story
[11:39] - How Funema confronts extractive capitalism
[16:55] - Protecting founders’ equity in the context of a VC fund
[32:06] - Funema’s impact on its portfolio
[39:00] - Balancing mission and three paths to growth
[49:56] - Thoughts on talent
[1:00:27] - Finetuning how you communicate about your mission
[1:09:57] - Counterintuitive 1st principle
Recommendations:
David's LinkedIn post on original thinking.Chasing Outliers. Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa, a report I co-authored on VC investing in AfricaConnect on social media:
Funema on LinkedInDavid Ogundeko on LinkedInThe Trajectory Africa on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on Twitter -
On this episode of The Trajectory Africa, we’re talking to Ola Oyetayo, Co-Founder and CEO of Verto, the first "all in one" cross-border payments platform for corporate treasuries in emerging markets. He’ll help us understand the mechanics of cross-border payments, why they're so expensive in Africa, how to improve price transparency and manage volatility, and how supporting cross-border payments evolves into accounts payable workflows.
We're picking up a theme that emerged in Episode 2, when Samora Kariuki highlighted intercontinental money movement as an “unlock” for the rest of the (digital) financial system. Similarly, Wiza Jalakasi from Episode 3 argued that money should move the way Africans and their business activities do—across borders. Finally, in the last episode with Sassoum Niang on building payments infrastructure, she emphasized that the tech isn’t the hardest part. It’s the financial operations—reconciliation, accounting system integration, and currency settlement.
So, we’re pulling on all those threads in this conversation with Ola.
Tune in to hear about:
[2:14] - Sharing Verto’s origin story during a product launch
[7:08] - The problems in cross-border payments that Verto solves
[11:53] - The role of price transparency and what causes volatility
[28:49] - How cross border payment facilitation evolves into supporting business operations
[49:37] - The business of moving money across borders
[56:17] - Counterintuitive first principle
Recommendations:
Chasing Outliers. Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa, a report I co-authored on VC investing in Africa.Connect on social media:
Ola Oyetayo on LinkedInThe Trajectory Africa on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on Twitter -
On the previous episode of The Trajectory Africa, Wiza Jalakasi, Africa Market Development Director at EBANX suggested that infrastructure-building consumer payments businesses create value because of the sheer number of payment methods available, from mobile money to bank transfers and cards.
With all these options, businesses taking consumer payments need a neutral third party to provide a single point of aggregation. But what does it *actually* take to build this type of infrastructure? What are the mechanics behind aggregating and routing payments? Is tech the hardest part, or is it business, finance and operations? And how do you transition from aggregator to b2b super app? On this episode of The Trajectory Africa, we’re talking to Sassoum Niang, Director of Product & Marketing at InTouch about how you build pan-African “air traffic control” that allows businesses to collect payments in whatever form they come in.
Tune in to hear about:
[1:25] From film and e-commerce to payments at InTouch
[5:34] About InTouch and the problems it solves
[11:54] InTouch’s core infrastructure
[30:36] How partnerships help adapt to market and distribute strategically
[46:02] The business of infrastructure building
[51:00] Pressing problems remaining to be solved for payments to be functional
[1:05] Counterintuitive first principle for building a high growth payments infrastructure business
Recommendations:
Chasing Outliers. Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa, a report I co-authored on VC investing in AfricaConnect on social media:
Sassoum Niang on LinkedInSassoum Niang on TwitterThe Trajectory Africa on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on Twitter -
On this episode of The Trajectory Africa, we’ll hear from Wiza Jalakasi, Director for Africa Market Development at EBanx, a payments processor headquartered in Brazil. He’ll shed some light on why building payment rails in Africa is deceptively hard work—from why some payment methods work better in some places than others to whether infrastructure-building or enabling payments through APIs is the best way to create value.
Tune in to hear about:
[5:41] Key milestones in payments infrastructure creation
[11:53] Why certain payment methods gain traction in different areas
[15:39] How consumer payments work and what the infrastructure looks like
[26:11] Back end infrastructure builders vs. API players
[33:30] VC leapfrogging logic vs. the path toward building a massive payments infrastructure business
[46:34] Similarities in payments problems across emerging markets[52:50] Pressing problems remaining to be solved for payments to be functional
[1:00] Counterintuitive first principle
Recommendations:
Wiza Jalakasi. Wiza’s website, including his writingFrontier Fintech, Samora Kariuki's newsletter, mentioned by WizaThe Hard Thing About Subscription Payments in Africa. The piece Wiza referenced in this episodeThe Subtext. A newsletter written by Osarumen Osamuyi, referenced by WizaChasing Outliers. Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa, a report I co-authored on VC investing in AfricaConnect on social media:
Wiza Jalakasi on LinkedInWiza Jalakasi on TwitterThe Trajectory Africa on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on Twitter -
On this episode of The Trajectory Africa’s current series, "The Engine of African Venture: A Return to First Principles", we’re laying the foundation for a deeper exploration of fintech by stepping back to understand the system(s) that fintech creates and operates in. For that, we’re chatting with Samora Kariuki, Founder of the Frontier Fintech newsletter and Director at Sote, a company that’s building African supply chain infrastructure, about the goals and characteristics of Africa’s financial system(s).
Tune in to hear about:
[3:03] Why Samora launched Frontier Fintech newsletter and the benefits of “writing out loud”
[7:09] What problems fintech solves
[17:58] Characteristics of a functional financial system and the value it should deliver
[23:25] Why Africa's financial system needs technology and how it works in cash-driven, informal economies
[36:00] How much of Africa’s financial systems remain to be built
[47:05] What infrastructure layer will catalyze the rest of the system
[51:56] Consolidation vs. integration in fintech
[55:53] First principle for understanding what Africa’s digitally enabled financial system will look like
Recommendations:
Frontier Fintech, Samora’s newsletterThe anatomy of a fintech stack: enterprise businesses in South Africa, a hypothetical fintech stack for an established enterprise business in South AfricaChasing Outliers: Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa, a report I co-authored on VC investing in AfricaConnect on social media:
Samora Kariuki on LinkedInSamora Kariuki on TwitterThe Trajectory Africa on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on Twitter -
This is the first episode of Part 1 of a new series on The Trajectory Africa —The Engine of African Venture, A Return to First Principles. This series will explore what powers fundamental value creation and investability in sectors that drive the bulk of African VC opportunities.
Part 1 is focused on fintech, and this episode with Abraham Augustine, Comms & Programs Lead for Norrsken, tackles the premise that digitalizing African economies is the African investment opportunity. Abraham shares his perspective on how digital Africa’s digital economy can actually be and how this impacts the way venture capital is invested.
Tune in to hear about:
[3:43] why Augustine authored a series on Africa's digital economy
[6:05] how Africa’s digital economy can defined and the venture-backable opportunity in digitalization
[18:40] the physical constraints of “digital” opportunities and investing for bytes vs. atoms
[30:20] market knowledge as a key to anti-fragility
[40:21] African unicorns hiding in the “crevices” of shifting markets
[55:00] the systems effects of digitalization in digital economies
[1:03] why momentum fails as a first principle for investing in Africa’s digital economy
Recommendations:
Next Wave: The social questions around Africa’s digital economy
Read Abraham’s writing on Africa’s digital economy on Tech Cabal:
The Next Wave: A data centre roadmap for Africa
The Next Wave: A digital economy is, above all, physical
The Next Wave: How Africa’s digital infrastructure gap manifests
The Next Wave: Africa’s power deficit is at odds with its digital economy goalsConnect on social media:
Abraham Augustine on LinkedInAbraham Augustine on TwitterThe Trajectory Africa on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on Twitter -
The Trajectory Africa’s second series, The Engine of African Venture: A Return to First Principles, is a two-part exploration of what powers fundamental value creation and investability in sectors that drive African VC opportunities. The first part is focused on fintech, starting from the premise that digitizing African economies is the African investment opportunity.
From this foundation, the series will explore fintech’s subsectors—from market opportunities to business models—to tease out why they are (or aren’t) destinations for venture capital.
For a recap of the previous series, check out The Trajectory Africa Rewind: Principles for Understanding African Venture.
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Welcome to Episode 5, the next to last of Dans les Coulisses, a series exploring VC and tech entrepreneurship in Francophone Africa, brought to you by Impact Hub Dakar and
The Trajectory Africa.For this episode, we have two guests: Birame Sock and Madji Sock.
Birame Sock is a technology expert with over 20 years of experience as a tech entrepreneur and high-level executive in the digital space. She recently founded Kwely, a B2B wholesale sourcing marketplace that showcases products made in Africa. Birame is also a co-founder of Haskè Ventures, a venture-builder and investment fund focused on high potential Francophone companies. She has served on several boards, including a publicly traded company valued at over a billion dollars, where she helped develop digital strategies for major entertainment brands such as American Idol. Birame is the jury president of the Francophone Africa region for the Cartier Women’s Initiative Award; serves on the jury of the Jack Ma Foundation’s Africa Business Heroes competition; and is an ambassador representing Francophone Africa for the UNCTAD eTrade for Women program.
Madji Sock is a seasoned entrepreneur and senior manager. She is a co-founder and President of Haskè Ventures, a venture-builder and investment fund focused on high potential Francophone companies. She launched a consulting firm in Senegal, which later expanded to three other West African countries. Madji has also co-founded the Women’s Investment Club Senegal, from which WIC Capital, a fund focused on women-owned businesses in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, emerged. In addition to co-founding an incubator in Dakar, she has launched, and currently manages, a chain of cafés. Madji has designed numerous programs and initiatives to strengthen the private sector, drive policy change, and build partnerships.
In this episode, we discuss:
Birame’s entrepreneurial crossroads and what motivated her to return to Senegal [2:02]Why Madji returned, her professional journey, and the launch of Haskè Ventures [4:45]What need Birame’s company Kweli was launched to to serve [9:00]Why venture building makes sense when startups have to build infrastructure [14:30]How to characterize the regional opportunity in Francophone Africa [33:00]The role of blended capital and M&A in funding and exiting African businesses [41:30]How African founders and investors should navigate “winter” in global VC [51:10] -
Welcome to Episode 4 of Dans les Coulisses, a series exploring VC and tech entrepreneurship in Francophone Africa, brought to you by Impact Hub Dakar and The Trajectory Africa.
This episode’s guest is Tijan Watt. Tijan is a Co-Founder and General Partner of Wuri Ventures, a pan-African venture capital fund focused on pre-seed and seed opportunities. Tijan has spent 20 years as an operator, building companies in Senegal and in the US, and as an investor, working in investment banking at Goldman Sachs, and private equity at Travant Capital Partners. Tijan graduated summa cum laude with a BA from Howard University in mathematics and computer science, and holds an MBA from Harvard University. Tijan writes about all things “business in Africa” at www.tijanwatt.com.
In this episode, we discuss:
Why demand is truly unlimited in Africa [1:54]Why rethinking a sector-centric thesis might be a good idea [9:02]Why the UEMOA zone has an underappreciated competitive advantage [13:43]How startups delivering public goods is a venture-scale opportunity [22:28]Why investing in the “real economy” unlocks $4 trillion in value [26:06]How to know if your investable trend has “legs” [28:22]Why affordability is the key to cracking “informal” markets [35:00]What drives capital flow into the UEMOA region [43:03] The bankability of soft power in Africa [51:32] -
Welcome to Episode 2 of Dans les Coulisses, a series exploring VC and tech entrepreneurship in Francophone Africa, brought to you by Impact Hub Dakar and The Trajectory Africa.
Impact Hub Dakar is a Dakar-based incubator that supports early stage startups in Senegal, with a mission to help investors meet scalable, early stage startups in Francophone Africa. The Trajectory Africa is a “pop-up” podcast exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa.
This episode’s guest is Omar Cissé. Omar is the Founder and CEO of InTouch, a platform that is working to increase financial inclusion in Africa. The platform has 50,000+ TouchPoints across 14 countries, with more than 400 services available, generating more than 2 billion euros in transaction volume per year. In 2010, he launched CTIC Dakar, the first ICT incubator in Senegal, which he managed until 2013. Prior to CTIC, he co-founded 2SI, a company specializing in software engineering, which he led from 2005 to 2010.
Omar is also the co-founder of Teranga Capital, an investment fund he launched in collaboration with Investisseurs & Partenaires, an impact investment group dedicated to SMEs based in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean. He is an engineer by training, with a degree from the École Supérieure Polytechnique of Dakar and an MBA from the Institut Supérieur de Management.
In this episode, we discuss:
InTouch’s scale and expansion journey [2:12]VC opportunities in Francophone Africa and the importance of talent [8:52]Structure, challenges, and means to improve the Senegelese startup ecosystem [10:55]Investing category leaders, or industry “champions” [16:50]Signs of progress in the Senegalese startup ecosystem [23:31]Size, characteristics and constraints of Francophone markets [29:10]Sub-market differences in terms of regulation and talent [38:25]Problematic stereotypes about Francophone Africa [47:00]NOTES:
At 18:35, I meant to say “imported to domestically produced” instead of “domestically produced to imported”.At 24:40, CFA = FCFA.This episode was recorded in July of this year, which makes the comment at 46:08 about Sequoia Capital calling for sustainable growth, a bit ironic in the aftermath of FTX’s collapse. There’s also the question of whether African startups/to what extent African startups held to the profitability mentioned.
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Welcome to The Trajectory Africa: Rewind, the summary episode for the Trajectory Africa, a "pop-up" podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa.
Over the course of 11 episodes, the series has explored: the key characteristics of African markets; the opportunities presented by digital commerce, SME financing and fintech, and how they power the broader venture opportunity; what drives fund performance in terms of economics and structure; how funds raise money; and how LPs make investment decisions.
The Rewind features key insights from the series, distilling them into six “principles” (or principles in training) that help explain the emerging logic behind VC opportunities in Africa.
In this episode, we break down these principles:
Now is the time for Africans to solve their own problems and build their own future.The future of African venture opportunities is digitizing African economies.African consumers may have limited purchasing power, but it’s possible to increase and enable consumption.Fintech is an important enabler for digitizing African economies because it provides foundational infrastructure. SMEs power tech startups by buying from them, and funding and supplying SMEs is a VC-scale opportunity.Africa-focused funds (as do most VCs), have an uphill battle to develop working business models.It also presents some thoughtful observations about the challenges faced by African (women) GPs as they raise funds, and what impact the impending global slowdown will have on African VC opportunities.
"Guest Artists" Featured in this Episode:
Abieyuwa Obaseki, Senior Associate, Stears DataAdenike Sheriff, Fund Operations, Future Africa | @AdenikeRaksBabacar Seck, Senior Investment Officer, Venture Capital & Private Equity, ProparcoBarbara Iyayi, CEO & Founding Partner, Unicorn Growth Capital | @barbara_iyayiDanai Musandu, Senior Investor Relations Associate, HPE Growth | @DanaiMusanduDotun Olowoporoku, Chief Commercial Officer, TeamApt | @DrDotunEghosa Omoigui, Managing General Partner, EchoVC | @EghosaOKuhle Mnisi Masilo, Associate, Transaction Management and Consulting, Roots of Impact Jake Kendall, Founder and Director, DFS Lab | @JakeKendall5Tony Chen, Partner, Verdant Frontiers | @tonyschenFeatured Resources and Recommended Track:
Chasing Outliers: Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa (report)
https://kinyungu.com/chasing-outliers/Way Less Sad. AJR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlVhUbGa2pgDJ Saphir’s Spotify Playlist:
https://spoti.fi/2RS6hTc -
Welcome to Track 11 of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. This episode’s guest artist is Babacar Seck. Babacar is an investor passionate about projects that drive inclusive development, from education to healthcare and financial services. As a senior investment professional at Proparco, he focuses on designing and deploying a €200M venture capital program to fund and support African entrepreneurs while also managing a global investment portfolio of banks, insurance, and fintech.
Prior to Proparco, Babacar led key areas of strategy and development for AXA, a €1 trillion insurance firm, working under the Chairman and CEO. In his spare time, Babacar supports Africa-focused initiatives, as the Chair of the Sciences Po Alumni Africa Division, and as a member of Africultures and the Association of African Actuaries, respectively.
In this episode, the final one of the series, we discuss:
How Babacar started his career in venture capital and private equityProparco’s distinct characteristics as an LP and how it evaluates GPsHow DFIs’ ESG standards have benefitted African VCCommon mistakes that GPs make while fundraising and how the process works against themWhy African, women, and first-time GPs struggle to raise moneyWhat drives (African) fund underperformance and how LPs can helpWhat micro and macro factors will drive adjustments in the African VC spaceBabacar’s Recommendations & Featured Resources:
Proparco
https://www.proparco.fr/en
Spiritual. Burna Boy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Coj0yQaItes
Chasing Outliers: Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa (report)
https://kinyungu.com/chasing-outliers/DJ Saphir’s Spotify Playlist:
https://spoti.fi/2RS6hTc -
Welcome to Track 10 of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. This episode’s guest artist is Danai Musandu. Danai is a Senior Investor Relations Associate at HPE Growth, where she leads and supports the public and investor relations function, with a focus on fundraising and strategic communication.
Prior to HPE, Danai was an Investment and Investor Relations Associate at Goodwell Investments, an early-stage technology private equity firm focused on emerging markets and impact investing. Danai is an advisory board member of Private Equity International and the Africa Trust Group, and holds a BCom. in politics, philosophy and economics, as well as a postgraduate honors degree in Economics from the University of Cape Town.
In this episode, we discuss:
How Danai launched her career in venture capitalWhy she pivoted from investing to investor relationsThe fundraising process in investor relations (IR), and how it differs by LP typeWhat LPs look for when they evaluate fundsThe do’s and don’ts of raising moneyWhy deep listening and cultural multi-linguality are super powers for IR professionalsDanai’s Recommendations & Featured Resources:
HPE Growth
https://hpegrowth.com/
“It Is Not the Critic Who Counts”. Thomas Roosevelt
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7-it-is-not-the-critic-who-counts-not-the-man
Summer YoMuthi. Black Diamond
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AagjAUE8U8s&ab_channel=AmbitiouzEntertainmentChasing Outliers: Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa (report)
https://kinyungu.com/chasing-outliers/DJ Saphir’s Spotify Playlist:
https://spoti.fi/2RS6hTc - Montre plus
