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Overview: Today, we're going to explore PiggyVest - the Nigerian savings and investment platform. We'll discuss the story across the following areas: African Banking & Neobank context PiggyVest's early history Product & monetization strategy Competitive positioning & potential exit options Overall outlook This episode was recorded on Oct 30, 2024 Companies discussed: PiggyVest, Chipper Cash, Kuda Bank, Paystack, Flutterwave, FairMoney, Paystack, Brass, Cowrywise, Carbon, Chipper Cash, Interswitch, GTBank, Sterling Bank & UBA. Business concepts discussed: Neobank / Challenger bank / digital bank strategy, remittances Neobank monetization & Consumer Lending, consumer FinTech monetization strategy, consumer lending, retail banking strategy, customer segmentation strategy & low-end disruption Conversation highlights: (00:30) - Introduction (05:00) - African Banking & Neobank context (25:30) - Piggyvest's Founding Story (40:15) - Fundraising and Growth (52:30) - Geographical Expansion and Partnerships (01:18:52) - Product and Monetization strategy (01:35:20) - Competition and options for exit (01:54:35) - Bankole's overall thoughts and outlook (02:05:15) - Olumide's overall thoughts and outlook (02:15:45) - Recommendations and small wins Olumide's recommendations & small wins: Recommendation: Sisqo - Got to Get it video - Insane shit. Sisqo singing and dancing his heart out. So dope. Recommendation: Rob Berger's Personal Finance YouTube channel Recommendation: The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy. Excellent book. A little bit of everything, entrepreneurship - history, politics, family life & hollywood. Small win: I spent the week in Cusco & Lima, it was magical and fun. Some sand, some llamas, lots of dancing. Epic shit Bankole's recommendations & small wins: Recommendation: BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time Podcast & Active - Asake Small win: Running 25 miles a week Other content: These Nigerian universities produced the most startup founders - Nairametrics Listeners: We'd love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback! Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com
In this episode, Nimmy Mathews (Head of EMEA Sales, Startups at AWS) and Yvonne Bajela (Partner at LocalGlobe and Latitude) discuss investing in African startups and supporting black female founders and underrepresented founders. They share insights on funding challenges and their vision for improving the ecosystem. Mathews has led diverse organizations at Amazon, focusing on helping startups and small businesses scale globally. Bajela, a founding member of Impact X Capital LLP, has invested in companies like Wise and Flutterwave. She's been recognized on Forbes' 30 Under 30 Europe Finance List and 25 Leading Black British People.
This time, I had the pleasure of chatting with Parminder Mann, VP of Product and Design at Flutterwave, Africa's largest startup. Flutterwave is essentially what you'd get if Stripe and Wise combined forces and decided to focus on Africa. Topics Covered: - The problem Flutterwave is solving - Flutterwave's target countries - Product playbook used by Flutterwave's product organization - A breakdown of Flutterwave's latest product launch - Setting up metrics for new fintech features - The importance of regulatory requirements - Challenges PMs face in moving into fintech - Solving for both sides of transactions in fintech - The role of stablecoins in Africa - Church WhatsApp groups vs. fintechs - Prioritization playbook at Flutterwave - Building for Africa from London - Embracing the problem you're solving - Product career advice from Parminder Links: Pavlo Pedenko on Substack: https://pavlopedenko.substack.com/ Parminder Mann on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/parminder-mann-12878013/
In today's episode of Equity Podcast, Mary Ann Azevedo talked to Flourish Ventures co-founders Tilman Ehrbeck, Emmalyn Shaw and Arjuna Costa about a variety of topics, including how their investment themes have evolved in the past 5 years and what trends they're most excited about today. We also got their opinion on M&A deals in fintech, AI and founder wellness, among other things.The trio founded Flourish Ventures in 2019 and now the evergreen firm has $850 million under management, last raising a $350 million fund in October of 2023. Flourish invests all over the world, backing fintech startups in the U.S., and across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Notable investments include digital bank Chime, Brazilian neobank Neon, which was last priced at $1.6 billion; embedded finance startup Unit, and African payments infrastructure company Flutterwave.Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.
Greetings Glocal Citizens! Increasingly, I am thinking thoughts about places of being that better reflect citizen-centered social, economic and built enviroments. In recent conversation with Paul Damalie (https://glocalcitizens.fireside.fm/guests/paul-kwesi-damalie) and following the works of another fellow GC, Chinedu Echeruo (https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/beloved-ecosystem-6923267349097680896/) (which happens to be how I came across this week's guest), those thoughts are beginning to rise into a mental framework for manifesting that new world. Born and raised in Nigeria, Victor Ndukwe is an Architect that has evolved over the years straddle tech and design. He is currently a founding team member of Itana (formerly Talent City) (https://www.itana.africa) and is positioned to change the environmental and economic landscape in Africa. Victor developed a keen mind for technical things in his formative years and honed his creativity in architecture school. He is a T-shaped individual (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-shaped_skills) with strong skills in Architecture and environmental planning and secondary skills in programming - a hardcore java developer once upon a time. He has worked in architecture firms, software development firms, real estate development firms, and now city developers. He has his eyes set on developing the infrastructure in Africa by unlocking capital for development as well as solving the critical problem of energy in Africa. Victor's optimism and committment are clear as you'll come to understand in our conversation, and with this blueprint, his vision is looking like a present many on the Continent have been anticipating. Where to find Victor? Find out more about the Donacare Foundation (http://www.donacarefoundation.org) On LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/victorndukwe/) On X (https://twitter.com/vndukwe) What's Victor listening to? Johann Sebastian Bach (lin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGA1v6gZj1s) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (https://www.classicfm.com/composers/mozart/music/) George Frideric Handel (https://www.classicfm.com/composers/handel/) Other topics of interest: Umahia or Ama Ahia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umuahia) in Abia State (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abia_State), Nigeria About Governor Alex Otti (https://www.alexotti.com) Discovery Channel (https://www.discovery.com) Charter Cities Institute (https://chartercitiesinstitute.org/intro/#whycc) Computer Village. Ikeja Lagos (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Village) The Echelon Conspiracy Film (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echelon_Conspiracy) NIIT Nigeria (https://www.niit.com/nigeria) Free Trade Zones in Nigeria (https://nepza.gov.ng/free-zones/) What is Industry 3.0? (https://tech-labs.com/blog/evolution-industry-10-40-and-beyond) Special Guest: Victor Ndukwe.
Awa Kone, Global Head of Operations at Flutterwave Awa is a go-to expert for multinational corporations and multi-billion-dollar startups looking to expand worldwide, especially on the continent of Africa. In this exclusive episode, she reveals the top three secrets she's used to develop her career and the businesses she's scaled on a global stage. We dive into Swiss Re and Flutterwave's tactics and expansion strategy and how the two giants think about new countries, markets and verticals. Awa also shares the lessons she's learned from her experiences as a former actuary and how you can level up your career similarly, even if you don't plan on a career in actuarial sciences or risk. Plus, she explains how to deal with interpersonal or company politics and real-life politics. This episode of "The Blind Ambition with Jack Kelly" is brought to you by Hims and BetterHelp. Get access to affordable and discrete sexual health treatments with a free online visit at hims.com/blind. BetterHelp offers affordable online therapy on a flexible schedule. Visit betterhelp.com/teamblind for 20% off your first month. https://bit.ly/blindpodcast
Overview: Today, we're going to explore eTranzact - the African payments and switching platform. We'll discuss the story across the following areas: First, Nigerian payments context Second, eTranzact's early history Third, Product & monetization strategy Fourth, Competitive positioning Fifth, Overall outlook This episode was recorded on Feb 11, 2024 Companies discussed: eTranzact, Interswitch, Unified Payment Services Limited (UPSL), Systemspecs (Remita), Paystack, Flutterwave, Moniepoint, Paga, OPay, MTN & Airtel. Business concepts discussed: Mobile money, Payments Collections, Payments ecosystem, payments partnerships strategy, card networks, payments infrastructure, low-end disruption, banking regulation & payments M&A strategy Conversation highlights: (00:57) - What is eTranzact and why we're talking about it (07:43) - Context of Nigeria's payment sector before eTranzact (16:45) - eTranzact founding story (35:46) - Growth and geographic expansion (45:10) - Product strategy (01:02:56) - Monetization strategy (01:20:41) - Competition (1:31:10) - Bankole's overall thoughts and outlook (1:34:38) - Olumide's overall thoughts and outlook (1:43:20 - Recommendations and small wins Olumide's recommendations & small wins: Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook) Recommendation: Never Enough (Loren Allred). Incredible. I can listen to it on repeat for the whole day. Recommendation: La Bachata (Maniel Turizo). Dope shit. Recommendation: "Someone You Loved". Not the original but a fabulous cover. Best line, "I was getting kinda used to being someone you loved". Listen to the 3rd verse when they sing simultaneously. Incredible! Recommendation: A Million Miles Away movie. It is a biographical drama film about the life of José Hernández, a Mexican-American migrant farm Small win: Booked Cirque Du Soleil show. Looking forward to it. Bankole's recommendations & small wins: Recommendation: Comma - Burna Boy && Wolfram|Alpha as the Way to Bring Computational Knowledge Superpowers to ChatGPT Small win: Clean shaven + the Nigerian AFCON semifinal win only to lose in the final a few hours after recording :( Other content: History of Web Acquiring in Nigeria && Atlas Copco on Invest Like The Best && An Empirical Examination of Why Mobile Money Schemes Ignite in Some Developing Countries but Flounder in Most Listeners: We'd love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback! Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com
Meet Iyin Aboyeji popularly known as E, the man behind some of Africa's most impactful startups, including Andela and Flutterwave. In this episode. Ever wondered what drives Africa's tech revolution? Tune in as we unlock the secrets with Iyin Aboyeji, who is the founding partner of Future Africa! In this explosive interview, you'll discover: His journey from Nigeria to global impact. Why he bets big on African talent & innovation. Success stories & secrets from Future Africa's portfolio. His vision for Africa's next generation of entrepreneurs. What it takes to drive bold change on the continent. His unique perspective on African politics & policies. Where he sees the biggest opportunities in Africa today. One crucial piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. Whether you're an entrepreneur, investor, or simply interested in Africa's development, this episode provides an insider's perspective on the continent's tech ecosystem. This ain't your average podcast! Join us for an in-depth conversation with a true changemaker. Subscribe now and hit the bell to never miss an episode!
Support the show → 0.0.1725506This week brings a major upgrade to the show: new professional equipment, a theme song and unlocked potential thanks to supporters of the show! Also, Hedera gets a new president, the Governing Council teases a new member in their October meeting, FSCO goes live on the Hedera mainnet, Bitcoin ETF rumours and network struggles, music NFTs, Flutterwave makes major moves for African payments and the real struggles of a bull market. This is a big one folks! Next week will be the last episode of the year...Tune in live on
Overview: Today, we're going to talk about Nomba (formerly known as Kudi) , the FinTech payments solutions provider. We'll explore the story across the following areas: African & Nigerian SME context Nomba's early history Product & monetization strategy Competitive positioning & potential exit options Our overall outlook. This episode was recorded on December 3, 2023 Companies discussed: Nomba (Kudi), MoniePoint (TeamApt), Yoco, Kuda Bank, Flutterwave, Paystack, Stripe, Safaricom, Brass Banking, TradeDepot, Sabi, Paystack, Flutterwave, MTN, Airtel, Bumpa, Vendease, Orda, OPay, OnePipe, Paga, FairMoney, Omnibiz, Interswitch & Kippa Business concepts discussed: SME Agency Banking, Informal retail, banking, Open banking & Mobile Money, Merchants solutions, Points-of-Sale devices, SME Lending & hardware and software bundling Conversation highlights: (01:25) - Nomba context (06:29) - Context of African SMEs and Informal retail (19:10) - Founding story and founders' background (29:02) - Fundraising (43:07) - Partnerships, Geographical expansion and Team (47:55) - User metrics (52:55) - Product and Monetization strategy (1:02:24) - Competition and options for exit (1:12:35) - Olumide's overall thoughts and outlook (1:18:50) - Bankole's overall thoughts and outlook (1:24:40) - Recommendation and small wins Olumide's recommendations & small wins: Recommendation: TBD Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook) Jay-Z at Madison Square Garden. Incredible. He performs so many of his hit songs with an ensemble of other artists. I was jumping of my chair rapping along. Charlie Munger died last week.. What a hero. What a legend. What a mind. I love the guy. I can recommend all his books and videos Bankole's recommendations & small wins: Recommendation: Constellation Software on Business Breakdowns Small win: Running in Paris and Ray-Ban Meta glasses Listeners: We'd love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback! Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com
Miguel Armaza sits down with Emmalyn Shaw, Managing Partner at Flourish Ventures, a global fintech-focused fund with over $850 million in assets under management. Flourish Ventures is also a permanent capital vehicle that aims to back companies that can create systemic change and help build a more fair financial system. Some of their investments include Chime, Neon, Alloy, Flutterwave, Paga, and Kamino.We discussed:Lessons learned after almost 25 years in venture capitalBuilding a venture teamWhy specialized funds can deliver big wins and returnsWhat it means to be a mission-driven entrepreneur and why they love investing in themThe strategy that has allowed Flourish Ventures to invest around the world… and a lot more! Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today's global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join almost 60,000 readers and listeners worldwide!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp
Support the show → 0.0.1725506The HBAR community exudes optimism reminiscent of 2021, with Hedera's substance established and a need for more hype-driven marketing. Flutterwave collaborates with Hedera Hashgraph to integrate USDC for enhanced cross-border transactions in Africa, while Hedera continues to innovate with features like "Data on Disk" and optimized consensus algorithms, setting industry benchmarks. Also, Brandon (The HBAR Bull) stops by to talk about Twigital!Tune in live on
Today's guest is Olugbenga Agboola, better known as the one and only GB - the Co-founder and CEO of Flutterwave. It's been a trying last year or so for Flutterwave with issues of fraud, allegations of impropriety inside the company, regulatory hurdles, and the general challenges of scaling a fintech in a tough operating environment.Yet through it all, Flutterwave has "technology reach" in 34 countries, they've continued to ship new products beyond their core payments technology, including their rebranded remittance product Send App, and there are rumors swirling about the near-term timeline of their planned IPO.In this episode, we'll hear from GB about many of his recent lessons, his perspectives on product and expansion strategy, and we'll ask many of the questions we've been wanting to hear from him about, including the big one about Flutterwave's IPO.00:00 - Intro03:13 - When is Flutterwave going public?04:56 - What about the allegations?09:24 - Sharing more for the benefit of the ecosystem11:17 - Growth and expansion16:13 - Did Flutterwave grow too fast?21:09 - Fundraising and the African growth story27:11 - GB's angel investing activities30:29 - Lessons from GB's banking and big tech background32:08 - Why did GB start Flutterwave in the first place?33:49 - Are payments still broken?35:55 - The vision for the future38:02 - Final words of wisdomFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theflipafricahttps://twitter.com/just_normhttps://twitter.com/techprod_arch
On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa share their thoughts on some industry news - ChipperCash's pivot into offering KYC services, Anchor raising $2.4 million in a seed round, Nestcoin raising $1.9 million to grow Onboard; “a secure self-custody wallet for managing digital assets with no middlemen”, and Swap by Flutterwave._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
When Mariam Braimah led product design at Netflix she struggled to find participants in Africa to test new products. So she started Kimoyo Insights, a research analytics platform that helps companies like Microsoft & Flutterwave gather feedback from African consumers. But Kimoyo doesn't quite fit the venture mold. Can Mariam convince investors to make a bet on user research in the data desert of Africa? Today's investors are Erica Wenger, Jillian Manus, Martin Tobias and Charles Hudson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Wine: 2014 Chardonnay, Herencia del Valle Elisabeth Rosario is an outsourced communications strategist that works with startups of all sizes and venture capital firms. As an independent contractor since 2016, her clients have included venture firms such as: Lux Capital, Renegade Ventures, Spero Ventures (sole LP is Pierre Omidyar), Equal Ventures, RRE Ventures, and Innovation Endeavours (founding partner Eric Shmidt). Startup clients have included: Sonoro, Koinz, Pattern Brands, Pitch, ServiceTitan, Own It (a book) by Ellevest's Sallie Krawcheck, Emi Couple, Token, Flutterwave, Morty, Looking Glass Factory, Eight Sleep, Dipsea, Loft Orbital, and more. Previously, Elisabeth was the Director of Communications at Spark Capital, an early stage venture capital firm that has backed companies like Twitter, Oculus VR, Slack, Warby Parker and Cruise Automation (acquired by GM). As the firm's first in-house communications hire, she helped startup founders and the firm's investment team to develop and share their points of view with the world. She also helped to lead platform initiatives with the firm's community of entrepreneurs: building infrastructure, resources and programming to empower and connect over 100 portfolio companies. Before that, Elisabeth was a key part of the growth of various PR agencies where she led media relations campaigns for over 100 disruptive entrepreneurs and startups including Rakuten's Buy.com, Trello, ClassPass, HowAboutWe, HelloFresh, Squarespace, Zola and Academy award-winning sci-fi film Ex Machina. In 2015, Adweek named Elisabeth on its 30 Under 30 in the PR Industry list. In 2018, Bustle named her on their list of Must-Follow Latinx. She's a graduate of Baruch College's Zicklin School of Business. Instagram TikTok Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode, Fk and jollz have a chat with Koye Kekere Ekun also known as K10 . A lawyer, an actor and a man of many talents. He takes us through his many experiences, having to make tough career choices and living life as a creative.Listen to the full episode for all the tea!. Make sure you rate, share and leave a comment wherever you listen to the podcast telling us how much you enjoyed the episode!. Better Ratings mean even more people find out about the podcast!.Don't forget to use the hashtag ISWISPodcast to let us know what you think of the episode, we love hearing from you!.Follow us on Instagram @isaidwhatisaidpodPlease check out the Link for flutterwave Flutterwave.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On the third episode of Season 3 "Listening to our Customers" - we'll be listening to Kajal Goel. Kajal was most recently a Senior Product Manager at Legl, a startup providing process automation for modern law firms. She has previously worked in senior product manager roles at Flutterwave - a scaling African fintech as well as at Worldpay, a more traditional payments giant. Listen in for some unique insights into product challenges from someone who has worked in product at three very different company stages of size and scale! This season of POP is brought to you by BTRT ("beetroot"). Sign up to their private beta here.
BIO Elisabeth Rosario is an outsourced communications strategist that works with startups of all sizes and venture capital firms. As an independent contractor since 2016, her clients have included venture firms such as: Lux Capital, Renegade Ventures, Spero Ventures (sole LP is Pierre Omidyar), Equal Ventures, RRE Ventures, and Innovation Endeavours (founding partner Eric Shmidt). Startup clients have included: Sonoro, Koinz, Pattern Brands, Pitch, ServiceTitan, Own It (a book) by Ellevest's Sallie Krawcheck, Emi Couple, Token, Flutterwave, Morty, Looking Glass Factory, Eight Sleep, Dipsea, Loft Orbital, and more. Previously, Elisabeth was the Director of Communications at Spark Capital, an early stage venture capital firm that has backed companies like Twitter, Oculus VR, Slack, Warby Parker and Cruise Automation (acquired by GM). As the firm's first in-house communications hire, she helped startup founders and the firm's investment team to develop and share their points of view with the world. She also helped to lead platform initiatives with the firm's community of entrepreneurs: building infrastructure, resources and programming to empower and connect over 100 portfolio companies. Before that, Elisabeth was a key part of the growth of various PR agencies where she led media relations campaigns for over 100 disruptive entrepreneurs and startups including Rakuten's Buy.com, Trello, ClassPass, HowAboutWe, HelloFresh, Squarespace, Zola and Academy award-winning sci-fi film Ex Machina. In 2015, Adweek named Elisabeth on its 30 Under 30 in the PR Industry list. In 2018, Bustle named her on their list of Must-Follow Latinx. She's a graduate of Baruch College's Zicklin School of Business. Instagram TikTok Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode, we sit down with Paul Harris, Country Manager, South Africa at Flutterwave. Flutterwave's mission is to build payment infrastructure to connect Africa to the global economy. Paul Harris's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-harris-181961162/Flutterwave's Website: http://www.flutterwave.com/Darren Franks' Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenfranks/TalentintheClouds Website: http://talentinthecloud.io/TalentintheCloud's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/talentinthecloud/A-Maze-ing CareersThe world of work is a maze with twists, turns and dead ends, often with no particular...Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifyStarfleet Leadership Academy - Leadership Through Star TrekThe most unique leadership podcast you've ever heard.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
The Nigerian tech entrepreneur on how he built two billion dollar businesses. Iyinoluwa Aboyeji co-founded talent marketplace Andela and payments company Flutterwave, both of which have been valued at more than a billion dollars. He tells Rob Young he wants to use his wealth to help Africa achieve its economic potential. Presenter / producer: Rob Young Image: Iyinoluwa Aboyeji; Credit: Getty Images
During today's discussion, we sat down with Carlos Alonso-Torras, a newly promoted Partner at FinTech Collective in New York City. Carlos is a former operator turned investor with a strong passion for investing in Latin America. His current fund focuses on Seed and Series A investing in FinTech globally. Since its inception in 2012, FTC has invested in over 50 companies, including MoneyLion, Vestwell, Willa, Flutterwave, and TradeBlock. Join us as Carlos discusses shifting from an operating to investing role, starting as an Associate and working his way up to Partner, vertical specializations within FinTech, and the investing ecosystem in Latin America.Episode Chapters:Motivation to get an MBA at Penn - 1:05Operations to Investing - 2:05Interest in FinTech - 3:17FinTech Collective - 4:10Promotions in VC - 4:50Portfolio Support - 5:50 Vertical Specialization in FinTech - 7:10 Venture & Growth Investing in Latin America - 9:40Tech Adoption in LatAm - 14:10Current State of Venture Capital Funding - 16:57Mattilda Investment - 19:45 Decentralized Finance Solutions - 20:50Ending Questions - 22:45 As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback. Show NotesLatAm Digital Payments
Blessing Abeng is the Director of Communications and Co-founder of Ingressive for Good, a non-profit created to increase the earning power of African youth in need, by empowering them with tech skills, resources, community and the power of work. She was formerly the CMO and Co-founder, a tech product that provides creators and businesses with more sales and success by empowering them with tools and templates that help them showcase their work and reach more customers. It was acquired by Flutterwave in 2021. Ultimately, Blessing is a brand expert who has helped so many national and global organizations with their brand and communication strategies. In this episode, we spoke about her childhood, career and life in general. Do listen and share!
Overview: Today, we're going to talk about Yoco, the South African Point-Of-Sale FinTech company. We'll explore the story across the following areas: South African payments context Yoco's early history Yoco's Product & monetization strategy Yoco's Competitive positioning & potential exit options Overall outlook. This episode was recorded on Apr 9, 2023 Companies discussed: Yoco, Square, Flutterwave, PayFast, PayThru, PayU, DPO, Flutterwave, Paystack, Stripe, Ikhokha, MTN, Safaricom, Zapper, Visa, Interswitch, Nedbank, ABSA, FNB (First National Bank South Africa) & Wave Business concepts discussed: Merchants solutions, Points-of-Sale devices, SME Lending & hardware and software bundling Conversation highlights: (01:30) - Yoco context (07:30) - Africa / SA payments context (23:11) - Yoco Founding Story and Founders' background (40:45) - Fundraising and Growth (51:52) - Partnerships, Acquisitions, and Team (59:20) - Key metrics (1:02:16) - Product Strategy (1:19:42) - Monetization strategy (1:30:50) - Competition (1:36:42) - Options for exit (1:49:06) - Bankole's overall thoughts and outlook (1:57:01) - Olumide's overall thoughts and outlook (2:07:14) - Recommendations and small wins Olumide's recommendations & small wins: Recommendation: I released my book called Firedom = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. It was an incredible journey to get it out and I'm very excited about it. I think many people will really enjoy it. You can buy the audiobook, ebook or print here. Here's an excerpt from the full blog post announcement: Book Creation context: Around the end of 2022, I made a new friend when I met Samon, we instantly got along because we shared a lot in common: African immigrants who moved to America/Europe, worked in Management consulting and are in love with personal finance. We decided to embark on a project together and write a financial independence book we are calling Firedom! What is Firedom book about? Living life intentionally + Personal finance + Financial independence + Personal Development + Freedom + Exploring your own unique path in life + Life adventures of two African immigrants Who is it for? Underdogs, outsiders, expats, nomads, minorities, immigrants interested in : Living their lives more intentionally to achieve Financial Independence Learning about people's life stories (turning points, challenges, flameouts, etc) Changing their mindset and psychological relationship with wealth Recommendation: Owl City - Unbelievable. I love the song so much because it reminds me of adventures and experiences growing up Recommendation: Good Hair - Documentary by Chris Rock. Good shit. Reduced my ignorance level about African women hair Small win: Virgin Voyages cruise - First ever cruise. Very cool. Small win: No scrubs Karaoke on cruise. Too much fun. It was an experience. Bankole's recommendations & small wins: Recommendation: Economist Article on Nitrogen & Asake - 2:30 Small win: Moderating a panel at the Harvard Business School Africa Business Conference Other content: The Prosperity Paradox by Efosa Ojomo, Karen Dillon, Clay Christensen, Adyen pricing page & PayFast pricing page Listeners: We'd love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback! Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com Join our substack mailing list where discuss more & find all episodes on Afrobility.com
The artist-entrepreneur-investor Mr Eazi has no on-off switch. Who he is in the recording studio, on stage, and on the boardroom are the same. With business and music, Mr Eazi has found parallel industries that allow him to be the same person.He's founded both emPawa Africa and Zagadat Capital to feed his business appetite. The former invests into African artists and helps them scale. Meanwhile, Zagadat Capital invests into tech startups, most of which are inside the continent. Then there's Mr Eazi, the Afrobeats artist. He's collaborated with the likes of Beyonce and J Balvin, and also taken center stage at Coachella. After taking time away from music amid the pandemic, Mr Eazi is back in album mode now. Holed up in Cape Town currently, Mr Eazi has plans for two new albums this year.I caught up with Mr Eazi to cover his never-ending pursuits in music and business. Here's everything we chatted about:[0:22] How Mr Eazi is balancing artistry and entrepreneurship[1:40] Similarities between music and startups[6:19] Taking equity stakes in artists and what an “exit” looks like[10:50] How Eazi measures success for Empawa artists [13:00] Eazi's investment thesis for startups[18:10] Startup success trends in Africa [21:30] Lack of capital is biggest challenge to Africa's startup scene [29:45] Raising awareness within the continent[32:20] Biggest obstacle that African artists face [36:52] Uncleared sample on a Bad Bunny song[40:45] Impact of Western companies investing into Africa[47:35] Mr Eazi is in album modeListen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | SoundCloud | Stitcher | Overcast | Amazon | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | RSSHost: Dan Runcie, @RuncieDan, trapital.coGuests: Mr Eazi, @mreaziThis episode's sponsor is Symphony. Put your fanbase growth on autopilot with the first AI-powered platform that brings all your artist marketing workflows in one place. Learn more at symphony.to/trapitalEnjoy this podcast? Rate and review the podcast here! ratethispodcast.com/trapitalTrapital is home for the business of music, media and culture. Learn more by reading Trapital's free memo.TRANSCRIPT[00:00:00] Mr. Eazi: part of me deciding to be an artist was reading the book, the Jay-Z book, Empire State of Mind. And that was when I saw it clearly and I was like, oh, wait a minute like this music is a business and the music gives you access, it gives you access to capital, access to the network it puts you, gives you a seat at the table[00:00:20] Dan Runcie Intro: Hey, welcome to the Trapital Podcast. I'm your host and the founder of Trapital Dan Runcie, this podcast is your place to gain insights from the executives in music, media, entertainment, and more. Who are taking hip hop culture to the next level.[00:00:48] Dan Runcie: All right. Today we have the one and only Mr. Eazi, the artist, entrepreneur. How you doing man? Welcome to the pod.[00:00:56] Mr. Eazi: I'm good. I'm good. I'm chilling. What's, going on[00:00:59] Dan Runcie: Me. I'm good, man. Trying to keep up with you. Trying to keep up with you, man.[00:01:03] Mr. Eazi: I'm trying to keep up with me, bro.[00:01:06] Dan Runcie: Well, let's talk about that because you are someone who sits at this intersection of artist, investor, entrepreneur, and you are doing all of those three jobs and more. And it's also happening at this moment where the entire continent of Africa is booming from an entrepreneurship perspective, booming from a music perspective.[00:01:29] How does it feel right now? How are you operating being at the center of that?[00:01:34] Mr. Eazi: To be honest, I just feel like it's a blessing to be born or to be existing in this time. where like you said, everything is just like taking shape and, you know, yeah, it's exciting and it is for me. It's like every day I'm seeing opportunity left and right and just figuring out what is fun and what is doable and just, you know, going from thinking, oh, I'm an entrepreneur, to oh, I make music. And, it's similar cause it's products at the end of the day, on the bottom line, it's like you're selling music or you're selling some other product. And I thought they were two different things, but you know, I'm seeing how it's one and the same.[00:02:17] It's just exciting to realize that I don't need to be two different people like I still be the same me and operating both walls.[00:02:27] Dan Runcie: So how are they similar for you approaching both music and startups?[00:02:32] Mr. Eazi: So I feel like every artist is like a. because the artist has a brand, has a feel, it's like a service product, it's an emotional product, right? And every artist, you know, that IP, there's an IP with every artist, and the artist usually needs investment to scale. And like coming from, like when I went outta school straight into an incubator program called 440NG and I kind of, there I learned how, you know your idea and your business, you know, you have the idea, you put it together, you iterate as the business keeps on going. So what you thought was the business at the beginning, you know, your customers could give you feedback and then you realize it evolves, it accelerate and you are trying to be as lean as possible and grow to the point where you have that critical volume to sort of like ask, what's the word as, proof that this is a valid idea either via customers or via revenue. And then you try and get to, you know, you try and scale, and you figure out what's your, unique value proposition is, and that's like where the startup, what's your unique value proposition?[00:03:46] Who are your customers? What's the idea? You take it to market, you test it, you go get investment. And it's the same thing with every artist so at the time where I decided to do music full-time, I was in an incubator program, and so I just started to see the similarities with the music. I'm like, okay, let me test it, put it out, people listen to it, you know, gimme the feedback, you know, and the point where I decided I was gonna take the music as a business was when like I got the first person reach out to me and say, Hey, I want to pay you for a verse. So that was the first signifier to let me know that, okay, maybe I'm onto something.[00:04:22] Then I started to have my early fans then Lauryn Hill reached out and said she wanted me to come play at her show. And I thought it was a fluke until I found myself in America performing in Lauryn Hill, coming out to say, I love you, thank you so much for coming. And like all of that is like with a business, with a traditional startup, it could be different things, but for me, the revenue, the number of users, aka the fans, all of that were signifiers.[00:04:51] And then I just needed, you know, the capital to take it to the next level, right? So I think those are the similarities, and I've tried it when I started emPawa it was at the beginning, it was to test if they were one and the same. So I was like, okay, Y Combinator send, you know, picks a few, start a couple of startups, you know, does incubator program put funding and whatnot to them?[00:05:18] And then maybe 20% of them you know, end up working on, and I did that with 100 artists across 11 African countries, over 30,000 entries then picked 100, then gave them the same amount of money, created the emPawa YouTube channel to host their videos, service it the same way, and in the end, start to see the ones that organically started picking up.[00:05:41] And we had success with that. So for me it was like, oh, wait a minute it's one and the same. I've proved this. And that's when emPawa then turn from, you know, the, program I was doing to actually full service music company, because I had proved that it was the same and in the same way you invest in a song.[00:06:01] I remember the first Joeboy song, the visualizer cost me $500, and then the song ended up having like 30 million views in like a year. And you know, Joeboy just went boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. So, I start to say, okay, there is a process here and perhaps we could do it with other artists, you know? So to answer your question, that's how I see both as, you know, one and the same in a way.[00:06:28] Dan Runcie: That makes sense. And I wanna talk about emPawa specifically because this is you bringing so many of those startup concepts to music like you said, you saw Y Combinator is doing. How could you apply that here? The difference though is that with Y Combinator, the promises of course, an exit, so they're hoping this companies get acquired.[00:06:47] They're hoping that they go public in music though. What does that look like for you as someone that is taking equity stakes in the artist? What does your return look like? What does your exit look like?[00:06:59] Mr. Eazi: So, I mean, first off, the return is like when you invest, you know, you invest to create the content, you put it out, put some marketing, and you start to see, you know, the streams coming, the revenue coming, the artist is now doing live shows, getting endorsement deals, you know, you could get four, 5x, 10x multiples, you know, and time.[00:07:24] so that's, one. But secondly, like on a developmental standpoint, you could develop the artist and then a big label comes and says, oh, we wanna upstream. So upstreaming is like a sale. It's like an exit, and you could still have passive rights to get passive income, on the artist. So those are like the kind of like returns and the kind of like exits.[00:07:48] Plus you could just invest in the IP, buy it up, and next thing somebody wants to sample it and then they have to write you a big check. And it could happen now, it could happen in like 10 years, in 15 years time, you know, you could have a record just lined. I'll give you an example, recently the Joeboy record that didn't make it to the Joeboy is one of my artists.[00:08:09] The song didn't make it to his album, and so we then licensed the song to a guy called Lakizon, you know, he puts out the record, you know, there's not so much thought to that. I wake up one day, Bad Bunny has put out, an album and I'm just listening to the album cause I'm a fan and I hear a record there and I'm like, basically what I was trying to say is, so you have that record that didn't make it to the album, Right? And it's just there and we license it to this guy and the next thing the record appears on a Bad Bunny album.[00:08:43] And that's like the biggest artist in the world last year by a lot of metrics. And so that's like an example, you know, an exit because you make this record and then boom, and the upsides are like, you know, so high. And right now on the market, even if you wanted, you are seeing, you know, my mentor, one of my mentors, Merck Mekadalas, you see how many multiples from 10 to 23, 24xlast year's revenue on, you know, buying rights for music. So I think there's multiple exits and even just the music and music IP as an asset class has been proven to be a valid asset class by Merck and the likes. For instance, I was, I was part of the deal, the KKR deal that bought, I don't know if you saw that some time ago, that bought a law of the rights, including the Weeknd et cetera.[00:09:36] I was part of that deal, via one of the companies, and you could see how you could see what an exit looks like. So there's multiple exits for music, whether it's an upstreaming deal from the label or it's a straight up acquisition of the catalog, or it's just multiples of revenue, the artist is now beginning to earn or if your label, you could get your entire label could become upstreams or you could go into a JV type situation.[00:10:06] Dan Runcie: So that speaks more to the flexibility that's offered with being able to invest in music. It isn't just this one time event that you're hoping for as a startup investor.[00:10:17] Mr. Eazi: Yeah. 100 percent.[00:10:19] Dan Runcie: Yeah. Yeah And with that too, you mentioned that you have a hundred artists that at least came through the first cohort, over 30,000 had applied and when you are measuring your success for them, I'm sure that each of the things you mentioned are the things that you hope for, but along the way, what are some of those key performance indicators or what are some of those things that you're looking for to hope that traction can be gained to hopefully get to the point where you do have, positive financial event that comes.[00:10:51] Mr. Eazi: I mean, it starts with like hyper local recognition. So, you know, I give example, there was this like I think she was 18 or 17 at the time, Nik, her name is Nikita and she's from Kenya. She had joined the program, she didn't make it to the top 10, but we put out the video and you know, that song started to gain local traction in Kenya even though she didn't make it to the Final 10.[00:11:17] And by local traction, I mean like number of downloads, it made it to radio, you know, it made it to press picking it up. And even though she wasn't part of the software and I didn't give her full on funding, she got signed to Universal. So for me that's a testament of like the success and those are like KPIs like, okay, does it get to radio in your local country?[00:11:40] Does it get, you know, that local, you know, appreciation from the fans in your country? And then when does it start to transcend, and there's nothing wrong with you having a popular song in Kenya or in Tanzania, but by the time it starts to go from Tanzania, you know, to rest of East Africa and then comes to the west, you know, those are the things you look out for and, you know, next level is by the time you start getting booked for shows based on the 1, 2, 3 singles you put out,[00:12:11] Dan Runcie: That makes sense. That makes sense. Let's shift gears a bit to startups, because I know that's the other space that you're actively in. What is your thesis for investing in startups?[00:12:22] Mr. Eazi: Right now, what I do is like, you know, I can bring some form of value to. So when I look at like the idea, or like when my team, you know, sends me some deal flow and we kind of walk through it, it's like, okay, aside the money, what else can we bring to this business? You know? And if I'm able to spot some extra form of value I can bring to help the business kill.[00:12:53] Then I want to invest, you know, it could be marketing. Can I add some marketing? Can I add some of my experience here? Can I leverage on my network in this other side? Aside the money, and most of the investments I've been making haven't been personal. They've been via my collectives, Zagadat Capital, and Zagadat Capital is basically, for now, it's 12 people like myself, young, successful African boys or girls who usually, you know, find it boring to speak to the financial guys and you know, have some form of liquidity. And so when we get the deal flow, and I just look at who's in the collective and who can add value, then we bring it to, the collective and then we invest.[00:13:45] So it's majorly been, it's like 90% being Africa focused because I feel like there's so much opportunity, on the continent and also on the sentimental level. The amount of impact the investment does when it's, on the continent makes, is something that's bigger than just the money.[00:14:07] And the money is great like, you know, we've seen a lot of African companies hit and cross a billion dollar evaluations to become unicorns. so you know that, can happen. But at the same time, the impact, and it's always fun when I go to an office that I'm an investor in of the like employees, they're excited that Mr. Eazi is in our office and Mr. Eazi is a shareholder like, you can't buy that. And I think that's what I always wanted because like part of me deciding to be an artist was reading the book, the Jay-Z book, Empire State of Mind. And that was when I saw it clearly and I was like, oh, wait a minute like this music is a business and the music gives you access, it gives you access to capital, access to the network it puts you, gives you a seat at the table and you know your merch, merchandising could be like the three cap that chance the rapper does, or it could be Uber or it could be, you know, Power Pay, which I've invested in that, you know, is the number one mobile money focused payments aggregate on Africa doing over 1 million transactions a day, you know, and so it's, different things and I know how I can bring value beyond my, cash it and just watch it grow. And it's exciting[00:15:28] Dan Runcie: That makes sense. So that collective, that operates a lot like a syndicate. You all are sharing deal soon where you can add value. What stage do you normally invest in and how much money are you normally putting into startups?[00:15:41] Mr. Eazi: You know, it's different like we've done like some seed stage. we did a company that was looking at listing last year on the LSE. We've done growth stage as well, so it really depends, it depends on where it comes to us, and it could be as low as, you know, 25K check, which just gets maybe if it's a 25 K check, I might just take 50% of it and just say, Hey guys, do the rest, and I just put it on the platform we use and boom, boom, boom, everybody just clicks and it's, done. Once it's done, it's done like I just invested in a platform called Ruka Hair, and it is a startup that, you know, provides hair for, people of African descent based out of London.[00:16:30] And that was a small check for, and it is growth stage, you know, so it really varies. and there's no rule. Yeah.[00:16:41] Dan Runcie: That makes sense. Yeah, keeping it flexible and gives you the opportunity to see everything that's coming through. What are some common trends that you're seeing? What are some things that you're seeing from the founders or from the startups that are coming through, especially the ones that are getting markups and getting closer to exits?[00:16:59] Mr. Eazi: I'm seeing like, you know, companies that solve fundamental, problems. You know, and I know there's so much bars on FinTech, it's like everybody just gets a hardon for African FinTech. But like, for instance is, if this products are solving specific, like there's a company called Eden Life, which I invested in.[00:17:26] And what this company does is like, you know, there are a lot of people like myself who, we don't in town enough, like enough for us to like have a chef and all of that. And we have very busy schedules, so we want like meal preps delivered to us and we want like our laundry picked up, you know, that's a very middle class, sort of like early into the job market, like pre family kind of types. And so that kind of product is a product that's like valid because like you're solving a particular need, you know, or PISA for instance, that are invested in. So PISA gives remittance based lending.[00:18:13] to, people in Mexico. So you know, the love Mexicans in the US sending money back to, Mexico to their family and their loved ones. And PISA uses that data of how much you get your current every month like my mom and dad, I put them on allowance. Like I pay them an allowance every month, Right? So we use like, by the way, for clarity they don't need it like they're good, but it's just something I do. And the other people in cultures like African culture, like in Africa, it's a pride for you, even if your dad is a billionaire, like being able to do something for your dad is like, it's like a pride.[00:18:53] It's like you've achieved, right? So you have people sending money back home, you know, either to Mexico or to different parts of Africa to either family that need it or to do stuff with it, like build a house back home or to help the family school fees or whatever, or just out of sentiment, like, it's like paying your tithes.[00:19:15] I don't know if you're Christian, it's like when you pay 10% of your income to the church. It's something like that. and then there's all that data, all that data because it's like salary, right? it comes every month, usually on a certain day. So PISA uses that information to provide loans to people.[00:19:34] And that's like a need, that's a specific need. So that's what we are seeing, Yeah.[00:19:40] Dan Runcie: What are some of the bigger challenges right now for startups in Africa?[00:19:45] Mr. Eazi: I think one of the biggest challenges is, you know, getting funding and you see a lot of, like African startups, YC has been doing a great job, but there are, you know, and like, future Africa, which I'm part of and I'm an advisor, you know, investing in these projects. But raising fund is like so hard.[00:20:07] There's still a hesitance when it comes to African startup raising funds, especially at seed stage. And usually this is not a lot of money. It's like from 20K checks to like even hundred is a lot of money, you know, but that 50 k to, get you into flight mode. So I think that's the biggest issue is not lack of ideas, it's, you know, getting funding, especially local funding that's not a lot of local funding sources. There's few options like the YC's and it's hard to get in generating that local funding is still a problem as a lot of the, you know, organizations and a lot of investors are still trying to understand this whole tech investment and valuation.[00:20:55] I have my uncles ask me, you said this company is, is what, $20 million? Do they have 20 million cash in their account or do they have, buildings? Where's the building? Where's the physical asset, you know, it's that culture going from brick and mortar to technology and understanding evaluation and all of that.[00:21:15] And, then you have sectors that are now like so hot that valuations are going crazy you know, And you have, like, depending on what sector you are, a lot of the countries are just catching up to technology. And in some places there are no laws written for the kind of products you are creating.[00:21:38] So if you're not in sync with the regulators, the regulators might pass a law that is detrimental to your business and all of a sudden you wake up one morning and your successful business is now killed just like the motorbike railing company. I forgotten the name in Lagos. That was really growing and then with one day regulations like no motorbike, transportation in Lagos, boom, dead.[00:22:04] So, I think it's not just in Africa-peculiar problem. It's like, for instance, with crypto and, you know, a lot of, you know, countries trying to understand what is going on. So you're having innovation outpacing regulation and you know, if there's no proper interaction you are having like regulations could just like be the end of use.[00:22:28] So I think access to capital, and in some sectors, depending on your sector, regulation as well could be a major setback.[00:22:38] Dan Runcie: The access to capital piece, I could see that, especially since the friends and family round is such a key piece, or having the angels outta there, such a key piece to help make that happen. But if the people that have the financial means are fewer and far between, you know, whether it's folks like you or others that are in your syndicate or maybe some of the other co-investors you have, that means that the deal flow that you all get is heightened even more so because there's just so fewer other places, which makes you all needing to be even more selective, I can imagine, than you maybe otherwise prefer to be. I mean, how do you feel in that perspective as someone that wants to see the space grow, but you know that you can't back everybody even though you know, I'm sure inherently you wish you would, but you still have your own rubrics. You still have your way that you evaluate things, and that likely has to be even heightened given the number of deals that you're seeing.[00:23:32] Mr. Eazi: Yeah, I mean like, well one of the things I pray, I have some days, fuck you money. Do you understand? To just like, because like 1.2 billion people in Africa on the continent. And it's like, if you think of the amount of money that comes back to Africa from the African Diaspora, it's like, I think it's like over a trillion dollars a year.[00:23:54] So there's so much opportunity. And, but like you said, what this does is it makes things a little bit harder for people, you know, entrepreneurs who need the money and the proof is in the pudding. Like I always say, like although it takes time and things are changing, don't get me wrong, things are changing.[00:24:15] They are more local, VCs, funding, but like I probably know like five people with networks over a hundred million, right? But now, for me to get to the point where, and these are people who've, amass all this wealth with brick and mortar businesses. So now you know, there's a job to do to sort of like show proof, show validity that, hey, I invested at this point, it's not for Gen Z it's not a pyramid scheme.[00:24:50] And like show people and then you get more people, coming in. And I have seen like some of my friends who are like billionaires now start to set up separate funds to say, okay, you know what? I don't really know what this tech thing is about for, but you know, put the money in future Africa or put it in some other fund and try to learn.[00:25:11] So it's more sort of like publicity and sometimes the drop, the setbacks are when there's a big startup out of the continent that then runs into all sorts of scandals and then, you know, it causes five steps backward. And that's not peculiar to Africa like, I mean, you seen what happened to ftx, right? So that happens everywhere.[00:25:35] The only differences, you know, because it's still kind of new. It causes more negative effects, you know, so I think there needs to be more education, more pr to the successes of these companies. Every success is a success and should be, you know, communicated and things would get better because there is capital on the continent.[00:26:00] There is like lose capital on, the continent looking for where to invest, you know? So I mean, things are changing like Future Africa. I always keep mentioning Future Africa, like they've been able to show that, you know, they know what they're doing. There is a method to the madness. They could deliver results in terms of like revenue, you know, they invested in Move, which is a company that provides, you know, the cars for Uber drivers and it's, you know, I think it's now a unicorn and that's like a very particular need because, you know, drivers need cars, but they don't have the capital to purchase the cars, right? And going through the banking routes, you are gonna have to bring collateral, your mom's name, your grandmother's house, plus the high interest, you know, so they've identified, and this has been a problem, it's still a problem to today that they've been able to solve.[00:26:54] So I think the more people know about this, the more education, the more things will open up.[00:27:01] Dan Runcie: The PR piece you mentioned is interesting because from my side, living in the states, I'll see the articles about a company like Carry1st, which I do think has had a fair amount of PR, I feel like one of their announcements got an got an article in the Hollywood Reporter, so I remember seeing things like that, but I feel like it does become fewer and farther between, at least from what you are seeing, from the awareness of some of these[00:27:27] Mr. Eazi: Yeah, you're correct and it's not so much I understand why like there's a lot of PR outside looking PR like you said, you know, New York Times, you know, LA blah, blah, blah, because that's where the money's coming from, right? But like, I'm talking more intra-Africa PR like for the money on the continent, you know, because that's like easily, like it's right there in your face, you know, there's enough money in Lagos for them not to be any need to raise capital from outside . You get what I'm saying? There's so much capital in Lagos, like from Lagos, you feel me? Or from Rwanda, you know, and, Rwanda is trying to position itself as startup, you know, pro-startup investing, you know, so there's money on the continent and it's like[00:28:22] that's what I mean by PR and publicity and awareness. if I wasn't friends with, like, I met in, was co-founder of, Flutterwave with and then Andela, you know, and then Move. So three unicorns, right? And, you know, we've been friends and we've been investing together. if there was not that proximity to him or to Shola the founder of Paystack that got bought by Stripe, I wouldn't know that this was going on.[00:28:50] You feel me? Maybe, you know, I wouldn't have known. So that's what I mean, you know, because like every A-list, Afro-B artist can be you know, can be invested, you know, so that's exactly what I mean.[00:29:08] Dan Runcie: It is interesting you bring up the music piece because I'd be curious to hear how you feel some of these challenges that African startups may face. How do the African artists themselves fare in that regard? Do you think that they have similar challenges with funding or with regulations in that way?[00:29:26] Mr. Eazi: There's regulation issues, like for instance, collecting, publishing revenue on the continent. It's a joke, right?[00:29:34] Dan Runcie: Why is that?[00:29:34] Mr. Eazi: Or collecting streaming revenue because like for you to be able to collect publishing revenue, you need the government to enforce the laws for the radio stations to pay you, you know, publishing royalties on the music they place for the bars to be able to pay for what they play, like for the use of your music. So you need strong in a lot of African countries, these laws are there, but there's no enforcement because I would say it's worse for creatives because people still look at the creative sector as a joke.[00:30:08] The orange economy is like, ah, that's not really business like that's just young people with dreadlocks, just singing and dancing and jumping across the world. Yes, they hear the music everywhere. Yes, now things are getting better because they're seeing teams at the Grammys, they're seeing Burna Boy, you know, and whiskey doing Madison Square Garden, but there's not a lot of education for them to really understand the business of music or creativity.[00:30:36] So even, I remember like two years ago I spoke to almost all the bank MDs, or three years ago, almost all the bank MDs in Nigeria trying to convince them on why music is a business is a valid business, but I couldn't get funding. And that's me being a successful African artist showing the revenue, showing all of that, like I once got on a panel with, you know, a financial institution that was meant that. they have a fund, they have like a 500 million dollar fund for investing in creatives. And I was on a panel with somebody there and the person said, oh, it is impossible to protect music IP, it is difficult to protect music IP, and I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, What? And like, are you kidding me? Like, there's Shazam technology, there's like, every song has an ISRC code and like if you upload the song in Kenya or in in Afghanistan, like on YouTube, like it will pick it up instantly. So when you have a situation where you have an institution that has up to a billion to invest in creatives. But you are having the key stakeholders who decide who gets what telling you or speaking out confidently and saying is hard to protect the IP, you know, then that just shows you where it sucks. So there's still a lot, but I feel like that's why there needs to be more education, you know, just like for startups to music, to let people realize that this is a business, like there's revenue to be earned. Not just live revenue, like streaming revenue, publishing revenue, especially now that the world is looking to Africa. Like you're seeing early starters jumping on Afro Beats records, like, what's that song?[00:32:31] Essence, Essence was a hit song before Justin Bieber jumped on it. It was already a global smash. Peru was a, global smash before, Ed Sheeran jumped on it. So you are having like pure Afro Beats records in our local language produced locally in some hotel room in Lagos, you know, going on to be big songs globally without any major support from without necessarily, you know, I know A and R like support, like his producers locally. And you're seeing this, so you do know that this is the time, or you know, like the example I gave, you know, Bad Bunny, you know, sampling a Joeboy record and putting it on his album, putting an Afro Beats record on his album, you know, that's an ex example.[00:33:18] Dan Runcie: And by the way, that was declared properly and like I'm about to go, you know, go crazy with the lawyers to make sure I get my bread. And more importantly, the writers and the producers get, their due credit and revenue and, you know, Did Bad Bunny's team reach out before this?[00:33:39] Mr. Eazi: No, no, no, I literally just listened to Bad Bunny's album and I just heard Joe Boy's voice at the end of the record, and I was like, I've heard this record before. And then I realized is a record, I didn't make it to his album. And I'm like, wait a minute. And then my team start speaking to them since May of, last year.[00:33:55] And it's just back and forth to the point where I'm like, okay, you know what, you guys have had fun with this. Like, I'm just going brazen on this, let's get lawyers. Let's make it like a proper lawsuit. But what I'm trying to, or you have, you know, Beyonce, you know, doing the Lion King, the gift and having created from all of Africa put it so like, you know, you are having Drake, you know, with Whiskey on one dance you're having Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber jump on multiple Afro Beats records that are Afro Beats records. You're having people more and more people sampling Afro Beats records, you know, and maybe not giving proper credit or do, or you are having, like I once produce. and was on co-produced and wrote and featured on a record involving Bad Bunny on the Joint album and Afro Beats record.[00:34:45] So you're seeing is becoming more global and global. So we need to be able to tell these stories to the funding sources back home to establish that this is indeed a business. So it's education the same way education for the startups, but even more for music because music was never, and creatives, you know, was never looked at as a valid business.[00:35:09] It was looked at as things, people who don't graduate from school or people who just wanna be jokers do. But right now people are sitting, wait a minute, wow, that artist bought car that artist's bought a house. that artist did this, did that or Grammys or this, that, that. So, but there still needs to be more information back home to the business side of the music to know that behind that sold out.[00:35:36] MSG is a check, and behind that billboard is a check, you know, and even the TikTokers, like I was speaking to someone at the bank and explaining to my bank MD friend that, you know, I showed him a lot of payments, like TikTokers in Nigeria are getting paid as much as $10,000 to put up a post on their TikTok.[00:35:59] 17 year old, 18 year old, you know, and I had to show this and he was like, what? Are you serious? And then he went back to ask his kids. And find out that, oh wow, this is a thing, you know? So it's that education, I mean, because there is the capital on the continent, it's just like, how do you get it?[00:36:17] And it is a lot of work to do to basically explain and explain and explain. And one needs to have the patience. And it's hard to do that while still running my label, doing everything I'm doing, putting out music for myself, you know, so, you know, but thankfully I'm not the only one doing it, Don Jazzy is doing it.[00:36:39] Olamide is doing it. They're more examples. So one way or the other people are saying it.[00:36:44] Dan Runcie: How do you feel about the investment in African music that has come from the West? So thinking about Universal Music group opening up record label in Africa and some of the other majors having different concentration in Nigeria or elsewhere, how has that been and what type of impact has that had, if any, on your end?[00:37:07] Mr. Eazi: I mean, I think it's good. It's a good signifier because all these labels were in Africa from the years before Fella, right? You had all these labels in Nigeria before, you know, the nationalization where, you know, the government had passed that all the companies should be nationalized and the labels got sold to local owners.[00:37:26] So you are just having, you have Majek Fashek that was on the late, late show, the late night show in 1991, bro. So when people say, oh, African music is then becoming popular. It's been popular. And it's coming back again with technology and everything. So I think it's good. I think the more, you know, major labels coming to Africa, but not just as, or let's test to see what happens.[00:37:52] But the more investment that comes, the more structure there will be for the business and the more signifiers, you know, to show people who wanna invest, you know, so yeah, I welcome it. And I think there should be more funding and there should be more, like the local companies should be autonomous, you know, I think that's been the only drawback with the majors, pardon of me, I might be wrong. Don't quote me where you are seeing the local, you know, Universal Nigeria or Sony or whatever, you know, that lookout team not having a lot of, autonomy in the checks they're writing to the artists or taking those risks they have to get approval from maybe South Africa or, you know, London or LA.[00:38:43] Meanwhile, everything is happening on the ground in Lagos, so you are having distributors. So I think a lot of the most recent successes have been by more distributors than record label in breaking artists. So more like Empire or ONErpm or the Orchid or emPawa or, you know, Believe, because these distributors are more flexible and have been able to give a lot more autonomy to the local guys who are running, these local companies to write those checks because like, what is somebody in London like with all due respect, like I always say this as a joke. There's no songwriter in the world that would've written, I don't care how many Grammys you've, gotten, you cannot write Soco, Soco, Soco, Soco, Soco, baby.[00:39:42] You. That's the Wizkid song, you can't write that song or, one of my favorite artists Wande Coal, there's a part of his song where he just spits jibberish, like he don't mean anything, like it's a vibe. So like without due respect to your A and R ears, you don't know the music like even me, I'm from Nigeria, but I always have to be updated.[00:40:09] So there needs to be more investment and more autonomy. But I love it like the more labels come in and the more distribution companies come in and there's this competition, the more money is invest invested. And when you invest money, then you start to structure it then you start to say, Hey, why are we not making as much money locally?[00:40:29] Okay, let's invest in touring, you know, in Nigeria, in on the continent. let's go lobby for enforcement of collection of royalties. So, yeah.[00:40:40] Dan Runcie: Have you seen any success stories from the major record label side in Africa yet?[00:40:48] Mr. Eazi: There's none that comes to mind in terms of breaking an artist. So you have Wizkid signed, you have Diplo signed, you have Burna Boy signed. you know, and this is like A-list, A-list, right? But if you look at all the artists that have broken Buju for instance, initially signed to Burna Boy and then Empire, broke him, you know, that's Buju, Fire Boy via Empire and Olamide's YBNteams, you know, independently broke with, her record. I think she's been upstreamed now. So in terms of sort of like carrying that conversation, you know, outside to the rest of the world, yes, I'm sure there's been a lot of success like the Wizkid record, you know, Burna Boy, entire Renaissance.[00:41:44] And you could go on and on, but in terms of actually finding an artist and breaking the artist, there's not a lot of successes. And I think that's down to autonomy because, you know, you have some executives moves from the label to the distributors and do well, you know, we just understanding you know, how to a and r and how to put our music, on the continent, and you can't just bring like somebody who's of Nigerian descent and just expect that they don't understand. Like, I am Nigerian, but every time I go back to Lagos, I'm like, whoa, the sound has changed, you know? So that underground on the ground, you know, and there's a lot of work.[00:42:31] Dan Runcie: Definitely, and yeah, I know that there's so much interest, but like you said, if they don't have the control or the ability to really make decisions on their own, I can easily see why an Empire or some of the other distributors have been able to have success there. But Mr. Eazi, man, this was great. I feel like you gave us a snapshot of where everything is right now on music and investing side.[00:42:53] But before we let you go, for you, what's big on the road for you still beginning of the year? What's big on the deck for you? What do you got coming up?[00:43:02] Mr. Eazi: I mean, I kind of like needed a break from putting out music and touring and when COVID happened I was like, oh, thank God, like because I was battling with, oh, if I should, I pause, like it was just routine doing the same thing and it was like too much for me. So I was able to have that pause, and put some of the attention towards like growing emPawa with my co-founder.[00:43:27] And then leaving it to him to sort of like, you know, and come back to iterate, iterate change the model, blah, blah, blah, build the team. And I just went off and started doing like investment and putting more time in the startups I was investing in. And now, I'm in Cape Town recording. I'm putting out two albums this year, one in September and one in, I think April or May.[00:43:55] So I'm just recording that now and I feel like, and now I want to go back on the road, but not first as my usual live band touring, but first as sort of like a curator, where I bring like, you know, the way Major Lazer tour where they have the sound system with Walshy and Diplo and Ape Drums. But instead of Diplo and Ape Drums, I select like the DJs, maybe one playing Afro Pop, one playing Ama one playing something else.[00:44:27] And I am the Walshy Fire, sort of like putting it together, hype man MC. So that's what I want to tour. The first part of the year once I put out the Chop Life album, so that's called Chop Life. To chop life means to enjoy life. So I'm making an sort of Afro dance album that I'll put out first and then I will talk as Chop Life sound system with doing these parties.[00:44:53] you know, of majorly Afro Beat parties, sound system across the world. And then I dropped the album, the second album, and I taught as, okay, this is my album tour. So that's the plan. Hopefully I'm able to complete the first album. The second album is done, it is just in mixing a mastering, that's the September one.[00:45:13] It's done just in mix. And my string phase and then this first one, I'm recording. That's what I'm recording right now. Recording downstairs.[00:45:21] Dan Runcie: Nice. Nice. Well, looking forward to all of that, man, and thank you. No, this has been a pleasure. And yeah, so people that wanna follow along and keep up with all that, where should they go to follow you?[00:45:30] Mr. Eazi: Follow me everywhere on social media @mreazi, M R E A Z I, Mr. Eazi. Yeah, everywhere, everywhere on social media.[00:45:44] And I wanna see you at one of my shows. You have to come maybe when I do the parties, where are you right now?[00:45:49] Dan Runcie: Me, I'm in San Francisco[00:45:51] Mr. Eazi: Cool. I'm, sure I'll be coming around LA, San Fran, at some point[00:45:55] Dan Runcie: Yeah, come through.[00:45:57] Mr. Eazi: I'd send you an invite,[00:45:58] Dan Runcie: Definitely, definitely. All right, man. We'll talk soon.[00:46:01] Mr. Eazi: All right. Have a good one. Thank you.[00:46:03] Dan Runcie Outro: If you enjoyed this podcast, go ahead and share it with a friend. Copy the link, text it to a friend, post it in your group chat. Post it in your Slack groups. Wherever you and your people talk, spread the word. That's how capital continues to grow and continues to reach the right people. And while you're at it, if you use Apple Podcast, go ahead.[00:46:24] Rate the podcast, give it a high rating, and leave a review. Tell people why you like the podcast. That helps more people. Discover the show. Thank you in advance. Talk to you next week.
Overview: Today, we're going to talk about DPO Group. We'll explore the story across the following areas African payments context DPO group's early history Product & monetization strategy Competitive positioning & potential exit options overall outlook. This episode was recorded on Mar 5, 2023 Companies discussed: DPO Group, Network International, Flutterwave, Paystack, Interswitch, Safaricom, MTN, Airtel, Takealot.com, Superbalist.com, Safaricom, Yoco, PayPal & Chipper Cash Business concepts discussed: Bootstrapping, Payments ecosystem, payments partnerships strategy, payments infrastructure, low-end disruption, banking regulation, Mobile Money, E-commerce payments, Virtual cards & payments M&A strategy Conversation highlights: (04:40) - Africa Payment Context at time of DPO's founding (12:46) - DPO Group Founding and early history (14:05) - Founder Background (25:57) - Fundraising and Growth (29:48) - Acquisitions and Partnerships (51:30) - Product and Monetization Strategy (1:00:05) - Competition (1:08:35) - DPO's exit to Network International (1:27:15) - Bankole's overall thoughts and outlook (1:39:10) - Olumide's overall thoughts and outlook (1:47:01) - Recommendations and small wins Olumide's recommendations & small wins: Recommendation: The War of Art: Book for creators and artists to get over the hump and release their inner creative expression to the world Recommendation: Naval Ravikant podcast with David Deutsch talking about Physics. Amazing episode. Having two of them together is incredible. Like having a rap collabo. Recommendation: Fela in Versace. Shit is too nice.I love songs that combine unrelated ideas Small win: Soul Cycle for the First time. Dope shit. Bankole's recommendations & small wins: Recommendation: Stratechery Podcast - Eric Seufert and Ben Thompson & Mike Munger on EconTalk on Decision-making Small win: I signed up for a gym membership for the first time ever Listeners: We'd love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback! Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com
The Cybercrime Wire, hosted by Scott Schober, provides boardroom and C-suite executives, CIOs, CSOs, CISOs, IT executives and cybersecurity professionals with a breaking news story we're following. If there's a cyberattack, hack, or data breach you should know about, then we're on it. Listen to the podcast daily and hear it every hour on WCYB. The Cybercrime Wire is sponsored by Deloitte Cyber. To learn more about our sponsor, visit https://deloitte.com/cyber • For more breaking news, visit https://cybercrimewire.com
Overview: Today, we're going to talk about MFS Africa. We'll explore the MFS Africa story across the following 5 areas: African payments context MFS Africa's early history Product & monetization strategy Competitive positioning & potential exit options Overall outlook. This episode was recorded on Jan 29, 2023 Companies discussed: MFS Africa, Safaricom (M-Pesa), Opay, Flutterwave, Paystack, MTN, Airtel, Orange, Chipper Cash, Ecobank, Safaricom, Homesend, TransferTo, MasterCard & Visa Business concepts discussed: Financial interoperability, mobile money (agency banking), banking regulation, acquisition strategy, payment processing, payment gateways & closed-loop payment networks Conversation highlights: (09:50) - Africa payments context and background (20:26) - MFS Africa founding and early history (22:06) - Founder background (31:40) - Fundraising and early growth (38:44) - Partnerships and M&A (1:02:15) - Product Strategy (1:06:30) - Monetization Strategy (1:13:59) - Competition and Options for Exit (1:28:51) - Olumide's overall thoughts and outlook (1:34:00) - Bankole's overall thoughts and outlook (1:47:00) - Recommendations and small wins Olumide's recommendations & small wins: Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com Recommendation: Be Happy 35 Powerful Methods for Personal Growth & Well-Being. Talks about practices for a positive mental health. Fun short read that you can refer to time and time again Small win: Birthday celebrations with friends in Miami, NYC & SF. It was epic! Bankole's recommendations & small wins: Recommendation: Accidental Gods by Anna Della Subin Small win: I read 3 books in January Other content: Afrobility Chipper Cash episode , Inside the MFS Africa acquisition of Beyonic & Follow me on Goodreads Listeners: We'd love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback! Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com
We decided to rerelease this episode to make sure it gets the listenership it deserves.Andela, Jumia, Flutterwave - these are just a few of the African tech startups now worth over a billion US dollars. Foreign money is flowing in. Some people are getting rich. We ask our three contributors whether these tech startups will create significant employment on the continent. Maya Horgan Famodu is a Nigerian-American venture capitalist. She is the founder and managing director of Ingressive Capital. The $10 million venture capital firm targets early-stage tech startups across Sub-Saharan Africa. Gabriel Curtis is the former minister in charge of investments and public-private partnerships in Conakry, Guinea.Samba Bathily is a Malian entrepreneur specializing in sustainable clean energy and solar solutions. He founded Africa Development Solutions (ADS) and partnered with Akon the American-Senegalese hip-hop artist on the Akon Lighting Africa Initiative.The Limitless podcast is made possible with a grant from the U.S. Department of State and the Seenfire Foundation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Our expert host, Kate Moody, is joined by some great guests to talk about the most notable fintech, financial services and banking news from the past week. This week's guests include: Benjamin Fernandes, CEO, NALA Charlie Conchie, Investment Editor, City AM Wiza Jalakasi, VP of Global Merchant Business, Chipper Cash With soundclips from: Tom Burton, Director of External Affairs and Public Policy, GoCardless We cover the following stories from the fintech and financial services space: African payments giant Flutterwave vies to buy British fintech Railsr - 4:15 NALA expands into Europe to enable cross border payments - 16:40 UK fintech funding tumbles amid global slowdown, but London remains well ahead of global rivals - 30:15 Jack Ma to give up control of fintech giant Ant Group - 41:40 Visa and Enfuce pilot prepaid cards for refugees in France - 49:15 Open Banking turns five! - 50:50 YouTube star Logan Paul apologises for CryptoZoo project failure - 55:00 Fintech Insider by 11:FS is a podcast dedicated to all things fintech, banking, technology and financial services. It's hosted by a rotation of 11:FS experts including David M. Brear, Ross Gallagher, Benjamin Ensor, and Kate Moody - as well as a range of brilliant guests. We cover the latest global news, bring you interviews from industry experts or take a deep dive into subject matters such as APIs, AI or digital banking. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe and please leave a review Send us your questions for the Fintech Insider Mailbag here (https://11fscompany.typeform.com/to/kBMan5qL?typeform-source=t.co) Follow us on Twitter: @fintechinsiders where you can ask the hosts questions, or email podcasts@11fs.com! Special Guests: Benjamin Fernandes , Charlie Conchie , Tom Burton, and Wiza Jalakasi.
Africans are known for their hustle. And on a continent where youth unemployment is high, they have to hustle. For this episode Claude speaks to three young entrepreneurs - a business woman in the music industry, a fashion entrepreneur, and a founder of a tech start-up now worth over $3billion.Iyinoluwa Aboyeji who founded fintech start-up Flutterwave, now worth over $3 billion. He's now head of Future Africa.Zaid Osman, who founded the fashion brand Grade Africa which has stores in Cape Town and Johannesburg.DJ Elly Chuva, one of Angola's biggest DJs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Overview: Today, we're going to have a creator roundtable to discuss the African tech ecosystem. We'll discuss the biggest 2022 moments in Africa Tech & our hopes for the tech ecosystem in 2023. This episode was recorded on Dec 10, 2022 Companies discussed: Flutterwave, FTX, 54gene, Swvl, Chipper Cash, TeamApt, QED, Binance, Remitly, Flutterwave & Jumia Business concepts discussed: Economic recessions, fundraising, bootstrapping, Cryptocurrency, M&A, Creator monetization & Pan-African Expansion Conversation highlights: (07:35) - Biggest moments in 2022 in Africa Tech (00:53) - Impact of Recession on Africa Tech (1:00:05) - What we would like to see in Africa Tech 2023 (1:28:00) - Creator Q&A (2:00:24) - Recommendations & Small Wins Olumide: Recommendation: Knives Out 2 (Movie). Excellent and funny sequel :) Win: Opened Fidelity HSA. I had used Vanguard only previously. Fidelity has nice functionality & UX (especially for HSAs) Bankole: Recommendation: Unauthorized Shein boutiques are popping up across Mexico & Co-founding considered harmful Win: Seeing Emeka in person Emeka: Recommendation: Magical Text Expander (tool), Friction (article), Afridigest (newsletter) Win: Finally meeting & taking a picture with the Oga of Ogas, Bankole. Plus: Afridigest crossing 4500 page followers on LinkedIn — help us on the push to 5000! Other content: Why super apps are proliferating across emerging markets, The hierarchy of venture opportunities in emerging markets tin: Recommendation: ChatGPT & the Dissect podcast Small win: My alma mater the University of Michigan beating our rivals Ohio State in football for the second year in a row. Getting to spend a lot of in-person quality time with people in the African tech ecosystem over the past few weeks in Cape Town. Samora: Recommendation: “The Founders Podcast” by David Senra. Michael Jordan The Life - by Roland Lazenby Big Win - Getting my 2nd born daughter. Other content: Amp it Up by Frank Slootman is a great read - Narco Saints on Netflix is superb! Listeners: We'd love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback! Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com
The African tech scene has witnessed an explosion of innovation and growth in recent years with several impressive startups springing up all across the continent, a staggering influx of global talent and over 5 billion dollars raised in investment. From artificial intelligence, to the Internet of things, to blockchain, SHACK15 placed the spotlight on Africans using technologies in exciting ways to solve everyday problems and foster inclusivity. The conference on October 18 was presented in collaboration with MEST Africa in Ghana. MEST Africa is the non profit arm of the software company Meltwater, and was established in Ghana in 2008. It has trained and developed thousands of software entrepreneurs and provided seed investment to a lot of them. The conference highlighted the success stories and investment opportunities for technology startups in Africa, and why it's important that Silicon Valley pays attention now. Part 1 focuses on African Business Success Stories, with panelists Chika Nwobi (founder of Decagon), Omosalewa Adeyemi (Global Head of Expansion and Partnerships, Flutterwave), and Ngozi Dozie (Co Founder, Carbon).
As the world swarms to invest in the wave of innovations and entrepreneurs rising out of Africa, few have the insights, processes and success that Marsha Wulff has accumulated over time. Marsha has spent a large part of her career life scaling an investor ecosystem for Africa's tech startups through LoftyIn Capital Management. With her “founder first” attitude and appreciation for the nuance that lies across the continent, she has built one of Africa's most successful VC firms- funding and supporting successful companies like Flutterwave and many more. In this episode, we discuss her extensive career over the decades in private equity, venture capital and development finance with a focus on demystifying these crucial industries. We also dig into the lessons she's learned about building exceptional businesses, the psychology of investing in Africa, and the fascinating relationship between entrepreneurs and funding stakeholders. Marsha explains how we can create better ecosystems to support our growing startups, and our collective responsibility to believe in, and support African businesses as a whole! For more information on LoftyInc, check out their website here: https://loftyinccapital.vc/ --- Join us in creating social impact through a cup of tea by visiting www.nepalteacollective.com Support our podcast further by subscribing to our Patreon Page here: https://www.patreon.com/boardroombanter?fan_landing=true
Yvonne Bajela spent time with us on the Grinders Table sharing her experience building a career, following her intuition, taking risks and pivoting throughout her career. Yvonne invests in startups across the UK & Africa. She is a founding member at Impact X a UK-based venture capital fund founded to invest in companies led by underrepresented entrepreneurs. Over the last five years, Yvonne has invested over £200 million in various startups across Europe, the Middle East and Africa including Wise (formerly TransferWise), Flutterwave and Marshmallow. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-grinders-table/message
Our expert hosts, Kate Moody and Nicole Perry, are joined by some great guests to talk about the most notable fintech, financial services and banking news from the past week. This week's guests include: Katie Llanos-Small, Founder & Editor, Iupana Brian Byrnes, Head of Personal Finance, Moneybox We cover the following stories from the fintech and financial services space: Cost of living: People turning back to cash as prices rise - 4:28 Argentinian fintech start-up Geopagos raises $35m funding round - 17:35 ZayZoon charges employees $5 to get paid sooner - 28:38 SoftBank CEO ‘ashamed' of pride in past profits as record losses prompt cost cut - 38:55 The Bank of London to boost US presence with tech hub in North Carolina - 48:08 Central Bank of Kenya doubles down on its position on Flutterwave and Chipper Cash, orders banks to close fintechs' accounts - 49:50 Domino's Pizza says arrivederci, flees Italy after failing to win over local customers - 52:20 Fintech Insider by 11:FS is a podcast dedicated to all things fintech, banking, technology and financial services. It's hosted by a rotation of 11:FS experts including David M. Brear, Simon Taylor, Jason Bates and Gwera Kiwana, as well as a range of brilliant guests. We cover the latest global news, bring you interviews from industry experts or take a deep dive into subject matters such as APIs, AI or digital banking. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe and please leave a review Follow us on Twitter: @fintechinsiders where you can ask the hosts questions, or email podcasts@11fs.com! Special Guests: Brian Byrnes and Katie Llanos-Small.
This episode FK & Jollz catch up on how their eventful weekend went. They also share their experiences at childrens parties lately. They also give their thoughts on that sent in their dilemmas. Enjoy the episode!Make sure you rate, share and leave a comment wherever you listen to the podcast telling us how much you enjoyed the episode!. Better Ratings mean even more people find out about the podcast!.Don't forget to use the hashtag #ISWISPodcast to let us know what you think of the episode, we love hearing from you!.This episode is sponsored by Flutterwave Please check out the Link for flutterwave Flutterwave.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Our expert hosts, David M. Brear and Kate Moody, are joined by some great guests to talk about the most notable fintech, financial services and banking news from the past week. This week's guests include: Abubakar Idris, Africa Reporter, Rest of World Anita Ramaswamy, Reporter, Techcrunch We cover the following stories from the fintech and financial services space: Klarna's valuation slashed by $39 billion amid fintech rout - 4:45 Fintech Flutterwave has accounts frozen in Kenya amid court probe - 14:15 Brazilian lender Creditas raises $200 million, buys bank - 24:10 Kadmos, a salary payments platform for migrant workers, raises $29.5M - 31:30 Almost 4.5 million UK families are in serious financial trouble - 39:50 Revolut launches ‘learn and earn' crypto courses - 41:45 Playboy goes full Minecraft, teases pixelated mansion in the metaverse - 43:00 Fintech Insider by 11:FS is a podcast dedicated to all things fintech, banking, technology and financial services. It's hosted by a rotation of 11:FS experts including David M. Brear, Simon Taylor, Jason Bates and Gwera Kiwana, as well as a range of brilliant guests. We cover the latest global news, bring you interviews from industry experts or take a deep dive into subject matters such as APIs, AI or digital banking. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe and please leave a review Follow us on Twitter: @fintechinsiders where you can ask the hosts questions, or email podcasts@11fs.com! Special Guests: Abubakar Idris and Anita Ramaswamy.
This episode FK & Jollz talk about money, earning it and maintaining it. The pressure the society puts to everything regarding money. This episode is Informative and interesting. Enjoy Make sure you rate, share and leave a comment wherever you listen to the podcast telling us how much you enjoyed the episode!. Better Ratings mean even more people find out about the podcast!.Don't forget to use the hashtag #ISWISPodcast to let us know what you think of the episode, we love hearing from you!.This episode is sponsored by Flutterwave Please check out the Link for flutterwave Flutterwave.comThis Episode is sponsored by Star Radler https://instagram.com/star_radler?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Joining us on this episode is Munya Chiura, Head of Growth for Rest of Africa at Flutterwave, one of the few fintech unicorns in Africa. Seven unicorns emerged from Africa in 2021, five out of the seven were fintech. On this episode, we talk about the state of fintech in Africa, lessons that the west can learn from African fintechs. We also talk about key trends that are influencing fintech on the continent as well as how cloud played a significant role in scaling their business. Learn more about Flutterwave (https://flutterwave.com/us/) You can also learn more about Fintechs and Startups on AWS (https://aws.amazon.com/startups/ or https://aws.amazon.com/startups/FinTech/)
This episode FK & Jollz are joined by Dekunle Abudu. They discuss the secrets and lies you sent in, this episode guarantees a good time. Make sure you rate, share and leave a comment wherever you listen to the podcast telling us how much you enjoyed the episode!. Better Ratings mean even more people find out about the podcast!.Don't forget to use the hashtag #ISWISPodcast to let us know what you think of the episode, we love hearing from you!.This episode is sponsored by Flutterwave Please check out the Link for flutterwave Flutterwave.comThis Episode is sponsored by Star Radler https://instagram.com/star_radler?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
This episode FK & Jollz are joined by Micheal Jackson,(Ayo Lawal) and Madam producer (Tolani). We play a card game and emotions were flying all over. Make sure you rate, share and leave a comment wherever you listen to the podcast telling us how much you enjoyed the episode!. Better Ratings mean even more people find out about the podcast!.Don't forget to use the hashtag #ISWISPodcast to let us know what you think of the episode, we love hearing from you!.This episode is sponsored by Flutterwave Please check out the Link for flutterwave Flutterwave.comThis Episode is sponsored by Star Radler https://instagram.com/star_radler?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
This episode FK & Jollz discuss about all things love, they even set Micheal Jackson on a date, They also help all of you who send in questions. A good time is guaranteed with this episode. Don't miss this Episode!Make sure you rate, share and leave a comment wherever you listen to the podcast telling us how much you enjoyed the episode!. Better Ratings mean even more people find out about the podcast!.Don't forget to use the hashtag #ISWISPodcast to let us know what you think of the episode, we love hearing from you!.This episode is sponsored by Flutterwave Please check out the Link for flutterwave Flutterwave.comThis Episode is sponsored by Star Radler https://instagram.com/star_radler?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
This episode FK & Jollz are joined by Dr Akinsete and Precious Gaza. In honor of the upcoming sickle cell day. They discuss about the reality of persons living with sickle cell and what is being done to Help persons living with this condition. They both educate and enlighten us from their experiences. Don't miss this Episode!Make sure you rate, share and leave a comment wherever you listen to the podcast telling us how much you enjoyed the episode!. Better Ratings mean even more people find out about the podcast!.Don't forget to use the hashtag #ISWISPodcast to let us know what you think of the episode, we love hearing from you!.This episode is sponsored by Flutterwave Please check out the Link for flutterwave Flutterwave.comThis Episode is sponsored by Star Radler https://instagram.com/star_radler?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
This episode FK & Jollz are joined by the hilarious and talented Layi Wasabi. He helped people with their problems as agony uncle. They discussed what he has been up to recently and how he started creating videos online . Don't miss this Episode! Your laugh is guaranteed. Make sure you rate, share and leave a comment wherever you listen to the podcast telling us how much you enjoyed the episode!. Better Ratings mean even more people find out about the podcast!.Don't forget to use the hashtag #ISWISPodcast to let us know what you think of the episode, we love hearing from you!.This episode is sponsored by Flutterwave Please check out the Link for flutterwave Flutterwave.comThis Episode is sponsored by Star Radler https://instagram.com/star_radler?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
This episode FK & Jollz are joined by the producer and main characters of the hit series on Netflix, Blood Sisters. They all discuss about the process to making the amazing work of art and their reaction to people accepting and loving the film. They also help our listeners with their problems on Agony aunt segment. Don't miss this Episode! Make sure you rate, share and leave a comment wherever you listen to the podcast telling us how much you enjoyed the episode!. Better Ratings mean even more people find out about the podcast!.Don't forget to use the hashtag #ISWISPodcast to let us know what you think of the episode, we love hearing from you!.This episode is sponsored by Flutterwave Please check out the Link for flutterwave Flutterwave.comThis Episode is sponsored by Star Radler https://instagram.com/star_radler?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
This episode FK & Jollz are joined by Dr Joy & Dr Ayomide, they take us into the realm of what it's like being a Doctor in Nigeria. They share their experiences, highs and lows as a medical practitioner in Nigeria. Don't miss this Episode !Make sure you rate, share and leave a comment wherever you listen to the podcast telling us how much you enjoyed the episode!. Better Ratings mean even more people find out about the podcast!.Don't forget to use the hashtag #ISWISPodcast to let us know what you think of the episode, we love hearing from you!.This episode is sponsored by Flutterwave Please check out the Link for flutterwave Flutterwave.comThis Episode is sponsored by Star Radler https://instagram.com/star_radler?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Title: Iyin Aboyeji: The Challenges are Always The OpportunitiesArtist: Michael Redd Iyin Aboyeji, named one of the Top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine, and co-founder of Andela, Flutterwave, and Future Africa, joins Michael on the podcast today.“The challenges are always and forever the opportunities.” - Iyin AboyejiThey discussed Iyin's decision to commit his talents and career to the future of Africa instead of Silicon Valley, honing his professional goals, his incredible startup success, building the first “unicorn” company on the African continent, and his childhood growing up as a Pastor's kid.Iyin is a man of true and deep faith, and one who is extremely accomplished in business. His transformative vision for the future of Africa is incredibly inspiring and completely practical. This is a special episode of the podcast.In this episode Michael and Iyin Aboyeji talked about:What betting on yourself means to himHis original desire to be accepted by Silicon ValleyHis ultimate commitment to AfricaThinking about the challenges in AfricaHis incredible success in multiple startupsWhat it's like growing up as a Pastor's kidLessons learned from his mother and fatherHis vision for the future of AfricaBuilding the first “unicorn” company in AfricaThe aggregation of capital and the allocation of capitalThe advice he'd give his sixteen-year-old selfIf you're a fan of the show don't forget to follow to hear new episodes and Rate or Review us wherever you tune in!To ask a question, read the transcript, or learn more, visit MichaelRedd.com.Resources:Iyin Aboyeji on TwitterMichael Redd on Instagram
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