Startup Couches with Lotanna

Referral as a service, Grow your business through referral marketingDon't waste money on Ads that don't convert, increase customer acquisition, retention, and brand loyalty with our easy-to-use API for startups.Dammie speaks about how they are helping businesses market their products even better. Check out ReferBox here

Speaking to Ife about allowing fintech, mobile money operators, and merchant platforms to extend microloans to their users at scale without worrying about liquidity, compliance, risk assessment, or recovery. And the gist about her TechStars journey

On the couch with Marco & Ethan talking about education and financial products for young people with Prograd 

A data intelligence company that gathers information on weather, security, and others to help improve different sectors that lack access to these data. All starting with the insurance sector

CEO Ankur discusses Opta and its assistance with Compliance, Cloud infrastructure, and its relevance for experts and new users.

 Founders Joc & tell us how a running joke led them to build a product development company.

Mark talks about Dream VC and the vision to bridge the gap for the investor ecosystem in emerging markets such as African markets. You can apply for the Launch into VC program, a VC crash course, or the Investor accelerator program to learn alongside a lifetime community of future trailblazers across the continent and catalyze your unique path into venture capital and angel investing.

Feedpay helps you save both in fiat and stablecoins, you can make day-to-day bank transfers easily using the app, and lots more. It is currently in private beta with 30 people and has already processed 2m Naira in transaction value.

I had a great chat with Ollie Howie a little while ago about Afriex multi-currency app, the fastest way to send money across continents. Helping folks send and receive money anywhere in the world. YC Journey, closing a $10m series A round recently and plans for the future. Download the app here http://afriexapp.app.link/

NileHome is a software platform that allows brokers to deliver the ultimate end-to-end client experience by simplifying and streamlining residential real estate transactions—they developed an end-to-end platform for selling & buying real estate, creating visibility and a gateway for brokers for homes between $500k-$3m and already serve 100% of California. The founder became the youngest broker in California at 20 and works with a builder.

Simpu is a platform that provides a more unified, human experience for customer engagement, across all channels. It is the most unified customer data and engagement platform, helping your customer success teams to be at their best. Started building in October 2020, being in beta for a while. We launch this month and have gotten about 90 businesses signed up.

Lendha, a financial service provider, provides loans to SMEs and tools that would help them to grow. Peter wants the product to have more presence in Nigeria, nationwide expansion.

Frelapay is a management platform that helps you document your freelance process, track progress, client reminders. Eniola went hunting for ideas on Whatsapp and a match was made. Its been amazing doing research. Writers, copywriters, video editors, techies, anyone that can get a job from Fiverr. 500k users, don't hire too fast.

A really exciting episode with Alexander, co-founder of Powered by People. It is a tech platform and marketplace, connecting small brands all over the world to buyers in the US and hopefully in Europe. The massive network of businesses and set up offices in Mexico, Kenya, Columbia, SA, turkey, and almost around the world.

Ajo Money savings/contribution platforms, bringing back the Ajo system to life in a digital form for young people to become a part of. Co-operatives, society contributions. She joined in February 2021, the team is already in partnership with Paga and with support from Tayo. The Beta version was released in May 2021. Experiencing organic growth, Full version in October, and more partnerships. Angel investments, the team has grown, with 12k installs and 8,500 active members $400k transactions. Adoption is nationwide, employees are also a lot and business owners. 1m installs by 2023 cos we are going to do heavy marketing. Remote work and team being at sync and the power supply issues. Trust issues of Nigerians.

Petra is a modern crypto-powered payment channel for African merchants. Receive payments using our fast and reliable Card, Crypto, and Direct Debits services. Petra is a payment gateway that helps people receive payment via crypto, cards, and others. The ease of payment is still a big problem in Nigeria, working on this for 9 months. Businesses and individuals integrate Petra, a Bowen University graduate, who interned at Jobberman. Petra means something solid

Precious is on the couch as we talked about Pandascrow, a fraud-free heaven for every transaction you make in Africa. An escrow service, a middle man who makes sure no fraud is detected. Started with the b2c user communities, social commerce spaces and now has shifted to b2b businesses with users on their platforms. The b2c side needed a lot of education as escrow services are not mainstream and so the b2b shift makes the most business sense and would also solve the education problem.

On the couch with Moatasem, he speaks about OnMarket, an E-GROCERY marketplace allows you to buy groceries online, empowering grocers. They did the parallel method of customer acquisition, acquiring customers and retailers almost simultaneously. Started June 2020, and now they have delivered 27k orders in one city in Egypt and onboarded over 100 retailers. 4 co-founders. 30-people team. We don't compete with retailers, we do not have warehouses or keep inventories.$30bn market in Egypt alone. The Egyptian market is huge, timing

Frikax is the default place to meet people, get jobs and interact with others, bridging the gap for techies with employers, opportunities to learn and teach, and a solid focused community.

Dr Phil-afel is a plant-powered brand, ingredients come from nature and we believe nature gives you the power to succeed. Started a burger patty, from house sales and. We had a restaurant and a cafe and then covid came, we decided to go non-profit but feeding schemes and we can generate 45 foods for the general public. The transition was natural, we were spending so much time with tax, CS, and a lot of other things but food.

Rwazi provides organizations with fresh, on-ground data from markets across sub-Saharan Africa to facilitate effective decision-making. A market intelligence platform, that helps consumer goods companies access on-ground data from developing markets. Mauritius, SA, Uganda, Kenya, and 40 markets and now expanding into India. We want to start producing predictive analytics for companies coming into the African Market.

Emtech modernises central banking tools to establish regulatory frameworks for emerging finch solutions. A company in the regtech and fintech to modernize and digitize regulatory processes and help innovators to easily work with regulators and approvals. To increase the financial inclusion in the markets, focus on African and Caribbean markets. De-risk market approval for limited regulatory access. Central Bank digital currencies. Cadet in 10 years at IBM saw the need for tech to increase financial inclusion through the regulators. Looking forward to growing significantly in 2023, a lot of people using the product already.

FoodLama is an easy-to-use grocery shopping platform that works with a smart personal assistant over your familiar shopping site. With FoodLama, you can easily discover the foods that suit your preferences, get recommendations and explore with freedom. If you had dietary preferences, allergies, going keto, etc is hard. A browser extension that makes that food shopping. Filter out what you can't have: save time, Discover what you can have, Helps you become more health-conscious. The social impact of food connects everyone. A chunk of the customer segment is Moms who are typically in charge of groceries in food. Food manufactured under fair trade processes, Santiago had eczema and it was corn intolerant and nut allergic, mom is vegan and dad is avoiding palm oil. Active in the UK and we plan to roll out in the US by next year, we are expecting FoodLama hit millions of users. Food content is personalized to you wherever you go is our mission.

Stormkit helps you can easily manage your frontend infrastructure. It integrates perfectly with your git flow. Simplify and automate complex processes over the entire life cycle of a Javascript application. Make building & delivering applications a delightful low-code-like experience. Deployment platform for JAMStack websites and node js applications, connect your app to GitLab, BitBucket. Vercel and Netlify are great products, we offer flexibility and you can host yourself and you can have full control over your served assets. It has been 3 years now and now we are 2 co-founders and we are bootstrapping. Over 2,000 users with little or no marketing and some paying customers.

BuildSpace is a community of web3 builders, developers, biggest web3 developer community.

Cylon Accounting is an easy-to-use accounting and bookkeeping software for small businesses. Create your first invoice in less than 60 seconds. Send quotations, generate reports, track customers and you can record your transactions. Automate all your accounting departments' work, and save time and money. An income/expense management tool and entrepreneurs, and freelancers, can use it to access loans. All reports are generated for them, with automated tools. We are going to be in Southern Africa in 2023 and at the start of the next year, we go to Ghana and Kenya.

FixBot helps you track your car's health without you worrying about breakdowns anymore. Their device monitors the overall performance of your vehicle and sends alerts via SMS, chatbot as well as mobile app, and web applications. IoT/hardware startup that makes devices and dongles to scan their car without the help of a mechanic. Reducing the time and money we spend at the mechanics. Capital and talent can be challenges.

Falcon Robotics provides top-notch technology solutions to individuals and businesses. They are keen on problem-solving, which is why we stand out. Manufacturing, training, and R&D and AI products, drone manufacturing. Unify, making robots affordable. Home automation systems, that is mind-blowing.

MyTherapist.ng is a mental healthcare startup that connects you to vetted therapists as well as resources for your emotional needs in Nigeria. MyTherapist.ng was founded by young Nigerian entrepreneurs with the goal of providing affordable, accessible, and quality mental health care to everyone who needs it. Our vision is to make therapy available everywhere and as easy as booking an Uber or ordering from Amazon Prime! Provide teletherapy services. Mental health in Nigeria is a huge problem, mental healthcare startups, connect people to mental health professionals, psychoeducational materials, journals, and personality tests. Young creatives are the first customer niche for us. 18-29 internet savvy in the business of using their minds daily. 5k people on our platform, social media visibility too, Nigerians need education. Mental health is the new Agriculture in Nigeria.

Voda is a mental wellness app for the LGBT community and includes digital therapy programs for queer people. CBT-based approach and psychotherapy. Started in October last year. Came out as an adult a few years ago, and therapy worked well for him. Queer people find it hard to find therapy cos of their lived experiences. Getting our programs right, a lot of mindfulness apps, are in close beta, and over 100 people testing. Self-guided digital therapy. New partnerships with psychotherapists. A great compliment to therapy.

Eventis is an event tech and video conferencing platform, allowing you to connect with your audience in a more immersive way. Remote work is now the norm and were building for it. Create an ecosystem of collaborative tools, virtual event tech platform. Host webinars, conferences, hybrid events. Sell tickets. 2 teams: Internal team: Quick meets and external team: Eventis. Quick Meets is currently being tested internally and June is public launch date.

VijeV helps people to build an online presence and grow their businesses through unique brand storytelling. Named after the founder, storytelling for startups and large organizations. Consultancy startup that helps startups connect with their audience, there was always a story that binds people together.

Yalla Fel Sekka is a delivery company. A very Arabic Egyptian slang (I'm coming, stop bugging quickly) YFS instant delivery company in Egypt, b2b2c on-demand logistics platform: groceries, pharma, e-commerce, the dog stores. Quick commerce. Instant delivery. Closed a round last year, to expand the core business across Egypt. From 5 to many more cities. Investment in the Fulfilment Centers. 10k orders/day 36 people + 1k drivers. Egypt is a rising market and so the potential is exciting.

Transtura is a one-stop shop for everyday mobility. Share mobility and on-demand bus hailing startup, solving public transport system in Nigeria. Shuttle mini-buses 5 seater buses. And the fare is shared. Designated bus stop system where you check available cars, reserve seats and they ride. Launched last year in October. Acquired a Fintech startup WazoMoney and built a marketplace for car owners for insurance and auto parts. The market is fragmented, we are using our numbers as an advantage.

QPay allows freelancers to receive and exchange foreign funds in seconds and helps workers to receive their foreign payments from freelancer sites anywhere in Africa. Fiver, Upwork, Terawork, a foreign virtual account, and a local bank account. Currency exchange, p2p feature to do so within the community. Euros, Pounds virtual account. Pre-launch and we are waitlisting. Partnerships are the only thing left. Launch MVP April. We are focused on Nigerian freelancers for now.

HiVend provides you with FREE digitalized education and knowledge in all formats including videos, audios, infographics, animated tutorials and so much more. Hivend is an e-learning platform to digitalize education in all forms and eliminate the number of people in the uneducated and low-skill stage. We are building stage and designing user flow and backend and started producing courses. Started targeting kids, now targeting even over 16-year-olds. Chess in Slums and Pleasant are his inspirations. Do not go into things when you don't understand them

Cheeps allows you to make predictions on Future Events and earn money when your predictions come true. Stake cheeps on anything, including trending topics like Big Brother, Guilder Ultimate Search, or The UEFA Champions League. A platform where you can predict events and earn crypto while doing so. You bet against the community members, instead of against the house. Politics. Our customers are people who follow these events. We are trying not to overbuild and serve our customers by listening to them well. We are also playing into the community learning and providing primers. Crypto adoption is still super low globally and in Africa and regulations can be challenging. People are looking below the dollar experiences in Nigeria. Near 80% accuracy as opposed to making baseless claims.

Internify as Joel says provides students with high-involvement, project-based internships in Nigeria. Helps secure the right placement for young people. An internship connecting platform, helping students to get access to various internships in Nigeria. 2 teams, a tech and research team and we look at companies that offer internships, and then we have all this info gathered and displayed. When you have a great team, your work is easier.

AbstractOps is an OS for the back office, taking care of operational work, payroll, and employee management. Used to automate back office for seed stage companies, a team of 5, and no dedication to Ops

Pideaky is a POS system to provide services to corner shops in Latam, it is hard for these businesses, to focus on the bottom of the pyramid, the unbanked that lack digital services.

KadAfrica is a social enterprise based out of Uganda, creating opportunities for young women using agriculture and technology as a tool to turn these women into business-minded people. He talks about challenges and how KadAfrica

Brick is a financial API platform for south east Asia, the market leader for financial data and efficient cash-out, and recurring payouts. Connect your fintech products in one place.

Intro, a zoom extension that lets you see the company's information for pre-call research, and check your next call, and information. Targeting salespeople, early-stage founders, and account executives.

Money Hash is a Super API infra for payment and fintech, a single point connection to actually run any kinda fintech product. AWS for fintech for the MENA

Fernando talks about Devengo, a platform that provides payroll tech solutions for employers and employees.

Dominic is creating ways for children content creators to get excited, a content marketplace for children content, text, audio and video.