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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!
In this episode of African Science Focus, we look at the effort African scientists are making to elevate science and its impact globally.Our reporter, Michael Kaloki speaks with Vanessa McBride, science director at the International Science Council, who advocated for policymakers to invest more in research and development in Africa.Dorothy Ngila, director of strategic partnerships at South Africa's National Research Foundation, says gender integration in science is critical to the advancement of science in the continent.And Farai Kapfudzaruwa, research and strategic partnerships manager at Future Africa, University of Pretoria, South Africa, highlights the importance of pan-African open science platforms and effective collaboration between scientists in the region.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This podcast was supported by the Science Granting Councils Initiative which aims to strengthen the institutional capacities of 18 public science funding agencies in Sub-Saharan Africa.This piece was produced by SciDev.Net's Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.Do you have any comments, questions or feedback about our podcast episodes? Let us know at podcast@scidev.net
President Cyril Ramaphosa extended his congratulations to University of Pretoria Professor Dire Tladi for being selected by the United Nations (UN) to be a judge in the International Court of Justice. The International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the UN and one of its six principal bodies. Tladi is the newest member of a law fraternity of South Africans globally who are in positions of service to the international community. The President hopes "he will make important contributions to the better world we seek to build". Tladi is Professor of International Law at the University of Pretoria and serves as President of the South African Branch of the International Law Association and Executive Member of the International Law Association. In May, Cabinet endorsed Tladi's nomination by the South African Government, together with South Africa's membership on the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The Court's role is to settle legal disputes submitted to it by States and to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by authorised UN organs and specialised agencies. Commenting on Tladi's appointment, University of Pretoria pan-African collaborative research platform Future Africa director Dr Heide Hackmann said his appointment is a milestone in the pursuit of global peace and justice. She said Tladi being the first South African judge at the International Court of Justice, will undoubtedly raise the important voice of Africa and contribute to shaping a safer and more equitable world for all. "We look forward to witnessing the positive influence his expertise will have and commit our support to him in taking on this important international role," she said. Reflecting on his election which she said was intense and humbling, Hackmann said she was overwhelmed with gratitude because "so many people played a role in this journey".
Faith Abiodun is Executive Director at UWC International bringing a wealth of experience from his time spent as an education and social enterprise leader, international affairs analyst, writer and speaker. Prior to UWC International, he spent nearly a decade at the African Leadership Academy (ALA) in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he served as an executive leading the recruitment of thousands of young leaders from all over the world for ALA's programmes. He also headed the Communications, Marketing, Programme Recruitment and Partnerships departments, helping to build ALA's global brand and developing strategic partnerships with governments, corporates, foundations, NGOs and schools. He also founded the ALA Model African Union, through which more than 1,500 young leaders from 58 countries participated in a simulation of the African Union. Earlier in his career, Faith was a journalist with The Guardian in Nigeria; he also founded The Speech Academy, an elocution and public speaking institution and Future Africa, a public sector leadership organization with a network of emerging leaders spread across more than 30 African countries. Previously, he worked in Corporate Communications at the Bi-Courtney Group and served a sabbatical stint with the international secretariat of Catalyst 2030, a coalition of the world's leading social enterprises working with national governments to accelerate progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Faith is a member of the Board of Trustees for News Decoder, a Paris-based global education news service. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Geography from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and a Master's degree in Public Administration from Syracuse University, New York. He is also an alumnus of the World Innovation Summit for Education's (WISE) Learners Voice Executive Education programme. UWC Harvard Impact Study: https://www.uwc.org/impactstudy Social Links Instagram: @UWCint Facebook: @UWCint LinkedIn: @UWC International @faithabiodun Twitter: @UWCint
This podcast is a commentary and does not contain any copyrighted material of the reference source. We strongly recommend accessing/buying the reference source at the same time. ■Reference Source https://www.ted.com/talks/nnedi_okorafor_sci_fi_stories_that_imagine_a_future_africa ■Post on this topic (You can get FREE learning materials!) https://englist.me/132-academic-words-reference-from-nnedi-okorafor-sci-fi-stories-that-imagine-a-future-africa-ted-talk/ ■Youtube Video https://youtu.be/xhdbs9vhl7s (All Words) https://youtu.be/IyrS8TZM_hc (Advanced Words) https://youtu.be/VNStR_onAM0 (Quick Look) ■Top Page for Further Materials https://englist.me/ ■SNS (Please follow!)
TSHWANE WOMEN IN SPORT AWARDS In what has been a most successful sporting period, the finalists have been chosen for the highly esteemed and most prestigious Tshwane Women in Sports Awards 2022. The period under consideration for these awards was 1 September 2021 - 31 August 2023. While the date for the award ceremony had been moved from earlier this year owing to it clashing with the South African Sports Awards; TWISA 2022 is now taking place on 24 June at Future Africa at the University of Pretoria. This year we have received several high-quality nominations from across Tshwane and have the honor of announcing 33 finalists across the various categories which include many new nominees and new faces which is indicative that women's sport and women in sport are on the rise. One such nominee and finalist in this year's Tshwane Women in Sports Awards is the recently crowned French Open Doubles Winner Kgothatso Montanje. Over the years, women across the globe have continued to compete and participate on the sports front with many becoming of the top and most elite sportswomen and most recognized and decorated administrators, coaches, media personalities, and more.
#FutureReadinessWithZa Presents Dr Sizakele in Conversation with Dr Neeraj Mistry – a Medical Doctor turned economist and now a social scientist. In this discussion, rich with laughter and peppered with deep anecdotes, we talk about his practice and work at Future Africa (https://www.futureafrica.science/). As one deeply invested in contributing to the healing of social ills and the advancement of Africa and her people, his job is aligned with his purpose. In this episode, we discuss the transdisciplinary approach – which is the uniqueness of the Institute, responding to the urgent need for transformative ideas, and the importance of Africa in and to the World. With a chuckle to soften the heavy lifting required, he hones in on how we (leaders, party masters, policymakers, citizens, etc) can also advance the human family if we are strategic about the levers we push to effect transformative and sustainable change. He walks us through what the Institute has termed ‘challenge domains', he laments the loss of technical colleges as these produced skilled people needed in the industry, and he advocates for the respect of ALL work. Neeraj expands on the importance of ‘eating an elephant one piece at a time'; of leaning into the wisdom of Biko's beckoning to us all to reach towards the ‘envisioned self'. We also touch on the topic of training and how it can become invaluable in both the private and public sectors if done correctly. He expands on the importance of early childhood development as the seed that will one day sprout whole and engaged citizens and reflects on the necessity of a systems approach to solving social ills such as safety in the home and youth employability in the future. You can reach Dr Neeraj here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neeraj-mistry-md-mph-b9b888/ See more of Future Africa's work here: https://www.futureafrica.science/
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.
Les Africains sont connus pour leur débrouillardise. Et sur un continent où le chômage des jeunes est élevé, ils doivent se bousculer. Pour cet épisode, Claude parle à trois jeunes entrepreneurs - une femme d'affaires dans l'industrie de la musique, une entrepreneure dans la mode et un fondateur d'une startup technologique qui vaut maintenant plus de 3 milliards de dollars. Iyinoluwa Aboyeji qui a fondé la start-up fintech Flutterwave, qui vaut maintenant plus de 3 milliards de dollars. Il est maintenant à la tête de Future Africa. Zaid Osman, qui a fondé la marque de mode Grade Africa qui possède des magasins au Cap et à Johannesburg. DJ Elly Chuva, une des plus grands DJ d'Angola. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.
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.
In this episode, we'll unpack the role of DFIs in the African Venture Capital space and some of the challenges they encounter with Babacar Seck, Senior Investment Officer, Private Equity & Venture Capital, Proparco and Future Africa's Investor Success Partner, Caleb Zipperstein. Babacar Seck is an investor and business advisor passionate about projects that drive inclusive development, from education to healthcare and financial services. As a senior investment professional at Proparco, he currently focuses on designing and deploying a €200m Venture Capital program (equity, debt, funds, grants) to fund and support African entrepreneurs while also managing a global investment portfolio of financial institutions. Invest In The Future is a live fireside chat series by Future Africa where we learn from interesting people doing important work globally. The Fund for Africa's Future backs mission-driven founders turning Africa's biggest challenges into global businesses that deliver outsized returns and impact. Learn more about Future Africa at www.future.africa The content of this podcast should not be regarded as investment advice.
When discussing corporate governance in Africa, one crucial concern is whether to get serious about it at the early stages of a startup or later on while the company is in functional mode. It is common to invest more in it at the growth stage since, at the early stage, the founders desire the liberty of innovating and experimenting without any hindrance from traditional rules. Many experts have tried to infer that a balance needs to be struck. Many other experienced professionals believe that the actual role of corporate governance begins when the startup is far ahead from the idea stage and has entered into a more accountable phase. In this episode, Future Africa's CFO, Mayowa Olugbile, unpack these expert perspectives with Ory Okolloh (Partner, Verod-Kepple Africa Venture) and Patrice Raymond Backer (Partner / Chief Investment Officer, AFIG Funds). Invest In The Future is a live fireside chat series by Future Africa where we learn from interesting people doing important work globally. Future Africa is an early-stage fund that connects investors to mission-driven startups looking to turn Africa's most difficult challenges into global business opportunities. Learn more about Future Africa at www.future.africa The content of this podcast should not be regarded as investment advice.
Adetola Onayemi, is the Co-Founder & CEO of Norebase, a digital infrastructure startup that helps individuals expand their businesses with ease. Before Norebase, Tola worked studied Law in the University of Lagos where he graduated with a First Class, and did his Masters in Cambridge. He then worked in an Advisory role for the Nigerian government, was one of the key players in the creation of the AFCTA (African Continental Free Trade Area) and was one of the co-founders of Future Africa. In 2020, he was instrumental to the success of the EndSars Protests that took place in Nigeria. In this interview, Tola goes into detail concerning life and the experiences he's had so far. His story carries so much grace, but also hard work, a deep appreciation for people and the experiences he's had so far. Tola gives important legal advice to founders, and insightful knowledge to everyone looking to excel in their respective career paths. This is a really amazing interview. Enjoy! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/founders-connect/message
In this episode, Wura Kayode talks to Biola Alabi - Co-founder & General Partner at Atika Venture Capital Biola Alabi is the Co-founder & General Partner at Atika Venture Capital, a women-led venture fund providing early-stage capital in Africa. She is also an award-winning executive producer, and founder of Biola Alabi Media – a pan-African media and technology advisory firm that has worked extensively with local and global companies, governments, and development agencies in the Telcom, Media, and Technology (TMT) space. As an active angel investor and advisor to African technology and media companies, Biola has been involved in myriad start-ups. True to her reputation as a leader in the community, and fuelled by her passion to support up-and-coming talent, Biola is also the founder of Grooming for Greatness (G4G), a fellowship and mentorship program aimed at cultivating leadership skills in young, aspiring professionals and entrepreneurs. Invest In The Future is a live fireside chat series by Future Africa to learn from prolific founders & investors who have invested in and built some of the world's most impactful technology companies. Future Africa is an early-stage fund that connects investors to mission-driven startups looking to turn Africa's most difficult challenges into global business opportunities. Learn more about Future Africa at www.future.africa The content of this podcast should not be regarded as investment advice.
In this episode, our Research Associate, Chukwuyemisi Isichei, talks to Tijan Watt - Co-founder and Managing Partner of Wuri Ventures. Tijan has enjoyed a 20-year career as both an operating entrepreneur, creating dynamic companies in Senegal and in the US, and an investor, working in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and Private Equity at Nigerian firm Travant Capital Partners. Tijan graduated summa cum laude and phi beta kappa from Howard University in Mathematics / Computer Science and holds an MBA from Harvard University. Invest In The Future is a live fireside chat series by Future Africa to learn from prolific founders & investors who have invested in and built some of the world's most impactful technology companies. Future Africa is an early-stage fund that connects investors to mission-driven startups looking to turn Africa's most difficult challenges into global business opportunities. Learn more about Future Africa at www.future.africa The content of this podcast should not be regarded as investment advice.
This week on Womanity-Women in Unity, as part of our commemoration for #AfricaDay, which is celebrated on 25 May, Dr. Amaleya Goneos-Malka talks to Dr. Heide Hackmann, the Interim Director and Advisor on Transdisciplinarity and Global Knowledge Networks at the Future Africa Institute | University of Pretoria. Prior to this role Dr Hackmann served as CEO of the International Science Council. Future Africa is a research institute and pan-African platform that makes possible fundamentally new approaches to research and innovation that span disciplinary fields and geo-political boundaries to solve continental and global problems by collaborating between stakeholders in science and society. Some of these challenges include climate change, food security, poverty, human rights, gender equality, health and well-being, and biodiversity loss. Diversity and inclusivity are core values of Future Africa which help drive gender equality and equal participation of women across spheres. We emphasise the role of education and empowering Africa's for the future of the continent. Dr Hackman shares some insight into her leadership style, which include being inspirational (thinking BIG), being an effective enabler and decision maker, being authentic, connecting to people on a human level, and leading by example. Tune in for more….
In this episode, we talk about the impacts of living through a global energy crisis while living through a climate crisis. Inflation is running at 10% in most major economies, the highest in decades. This is driven primarily by the cost of food and energy. And while most of us are aware of higher prices at the pump and on energy bills, today we focus on the hardest place it is hitting: Africa. Since 2019, 4% of Africans have lost access to affordable energy, undoing a decade of gains. And with a desire in the Global North to get off of Russian Gas, there is higher demand for gas, and therefore pushing more and more people out of the ability to afford it. This week in response, African Ministers made the case for expanding gas production in Africa, amidst a climate crisis. So that's the setup for this week's discussion - we bring in Rachel Kyte, Dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University to argue the case on how to move forward out of this complicated situation. And be sure to stick around ‘til the end for a brand new tune from Carmody titled, “Mother.” Enjoy the show! — Christiana + Tom's book ‘The Future We Choose' is available now! Subscribe to our Climate Action Newsletter! — Mentioned links from the episode: READ: Vanessa Nakate's Op-Ed in Aljazeera READ: SG António Guterres' 5 Point Plan on Renewable Energy VOTE: Time is running out to vote! Go to EnvironmentalMusicPrize.com to vote for your favorite 3 songs. Voting ends May 22nd! — Thanks to our guest this week, Rachel Kyte! Rachel Kyte Dean | The Fletcher School at Tufts University Twitter The Fletcher School at Tufts University Twitter | Website — Thank you to our musical guest this week, Carmody! Carmody Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Spotify LIVE: Go see Carmody @ Amazing Grace in London on May 31st! — Keep up with Christiana Figueres online Instagram | Twitter Tom Rivett-Carnac Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn Paul Dickinson LinkedIn | Twitter — Follow @OutrageOptimism on social media and send us a message! Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn Don't forget to hit SUBSCRIBE so you don't miss another episode of Outrage + Optimism!
In this episode, our Principal, Peter Kisadha, talks to Sebastian Mallaby, author of The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future. Mallaby is a Paul A. Volcker senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) about his recently published book, The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future, and the important lessons African VCs can learn from it. He is an experienced journalist and public speaker; Mallaby contributes to a variety of publications, including Foreign Affairs, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, and the Financial Times, where he spent two years as a contributing editor. He is the author of five books, most recently The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future. Invest In The Future is a live fireside chat series by Future Africa to learn from prolific founders & investors who have invested in and built some of the world's most impactful technology companies. Future Africa is an early-stage fund that connects investors to mission-driven startups looking to turn Africa's most difficult challenges into global business opportunities. Learn more about Future Africa at www.future.africa The content of this podcast should not be regarded as investment advice.
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
In this episode, we speak to two amazing women in Venture Capital - Sabrine Chahrour, Investment Associate at Partech Africa Fund, and Ife Ojobanikan, Principal Investment Officer at Berrywood Capital - on how they started their careers in Venture Capital, their thesis in accessing great startups to invest in, and how they are eliminating the bias when assessing founders. Invest In The Future is a live fireside chat series by Future Africa to learn from prolific founders & investors who have invested in and built some of the world's most impactful technology companies. Future Africa is an early-stage fund that connects investors to mission-driven startups looking to turn Africa's most difficult challenges into global business opportunities. Learn more about Future Africa at www.future.africa The content of this podcast should not be regarded as investment advice.
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, General Partner at Future Africa and co-founder of Andela and Flutterwave, breaks down African innovation and the growth of the mobility-focused entrepreneurial sector in Nigeria. He discusses the policy mobility of trends in new vehicle financing and ownership models, fleet electrification, and urban growth.
In today's episode, I speak with Chine and Chuba Ezekwesili. Also known as the Ezeks Twins, Chine and Chuba are interdisciplinary designers, artists, and founders of Akanka, a design studio on a mission to create Heaven on Earth. Akanka achieves this mission by partnering with other visionaries to design and build ventures and movements. These include Future Africa, Stand to End Rape, #FixPolitics, and the School of Politics, Policy, and Governance (SPPG). At Akanka, they have worked with global brands that include Google, The World Economic Forum, Yale University, Duke University, Nexford University, GIZ, and Open Society Foundation. We dive into how to apply the Ezeks Twins' nature-inspired Framework of Intention in 3 steps: slowing down to be present and get clarity, giving gratitude for what's in front of you, and taking responsibility so you can make use of life's lessons and blessings.
In this episode, our General Partner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji talks to Saul Klein. Saul Klein is a serial entrepreneur, operator and investor with over 25 years of experience building and exiting companies in the US, Israel and Europe. He has a passion for working with seed and early-stage businesses and the positive impact that technology can make on society. Saul is a Founding Partner at LocalGlobe and Latitude Ventures. Previously, Saul was a General Partner at Index Ventures from 2007 until May 2015. In 2012 David Cameron appointed Saul to be the UK's first Technology Business Ambassador to Israel and in 2016 he was awarded an OBE for services to Business. For almost five years, Saul has been a trustee of Comic Relief. He currently serves on the UK Government's Digital Economy Council and is a member of The Council for Science and Technology which advises the Prime Minister on science and technology policy issues across government. Saul is also a member of Camden's Economic Renewal Commission. Invest In The Future is a live fireside chat series by Future Africa to learn from prolific founders & investors who have invested in and built some of the world's most impactful technology companies. Future Africa is an early-stage fund that connects investors to mission-driven startups looking to turn Africa's most difficult challenges into global business opportunities. Learn more about Future Africa at www.future.africa The content of this podcast should not be regarded as investment advice.
Trash Academy, a project of Mural Arts Philadelphia's Environmental Justice department, is an intergenerational collaboration of young people, seasoned activists, artists, non-profits, local government, and concerned citizens of diverse backgrounds. These interventions are geared to complicate and deepen people's understanding of litter, consumption, and waste and shift attitudes from passive acceptance to proactive responses to the waste stream. Collectively, they design projects that add surprising and interesting elements to the urban landscape using fun group activities and games, teach-ins, workshops, and three Trash Mobiles providing on-site art and creativity studios at neighborhood events and locales. Today's Sponsors: Climate Talks is a new podcast exploring sustainability and the ways that we communicate about the climate. Catch season 1 now as host Sophia Li interviews climate optimists, investigating the steps we can take to work towards a more sustainable future. https://pod.link/1592523204 In this episode Marjorie and Ron discuss: Some of the challenges with waste in Philadelphia and how Trash Academy is educating people of all ages about the true impact of waste in our communities How the Trash Mobile and other activities use concepts like gamification to have a lasting impact that traditional PSAs and non-interactive signage have not been able to accomplish How parents can help their children better understand the concept of trash Good first steps for how to get involved in issues you care about in your own community Resources mentioned in today's episode: Vanessa Nakate - read her UN profile here: https://www.un.org/youthenvoy/vanessa-nakate/ Vanessa's organization: Youth for Future Africa: https://www.facebook.com/YOUTH-for-Future-Africa-112041190182345/ Archive.org, is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more Silent Spring by Rachel Carson: http://www.rachelcarson.org/SilentSpring.aspx Connect with Trash Academy: Website: https://www.trashacademy.org Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trash.academy/ Connect with Marjorie Alexander: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asustainablemind/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/SustainableMind Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/asustainablemind/ Website: http://www.asustainablemind.com Interested in sponsoring or supporting A Sustainable Mind? Visit our sponsorship page at ASustainableMind.com/sponsor!
In this episode, our General Partner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji talks to Michael Eisenberg, General Partner at Aleph, and our Venture Partner, Caleb Zipperstein about what the African tech ecosystem can learn from the Start-Up Nation (Israel Tech Ecosystem) Aleph is an early-stage venture capital fund with $850M under management. Aleph partners with great Israeli entrepreneurs to build large, meaningful companies and impactful global brands. Since its founding in 2013, Aleph has invested in over 50 companies (not all announced), including Lemonade (NYSE: LMND), Frank (acquired JPM), Melio, Healthy.io, JoyTunes, Fabric, Honeybook and Bringg. Invest In The Future is a live fireside chat series by Future Africa to learn from prolific founders & investors who have invested in and built some of the world's most impactful technology companies. Future Africa is an early-stage fund that connects investors to mission-driven startups looking to turn Africa's most difficult challenges into global business opportunities. Learn more about Future Africa at www.future.africa The content of this podcast should not be regarded as investment advice.
Featured Books: Run For It: Stories of Slaves Who Fought For Their Freedom by Marcelo d'Salete translated by Andrea Rosenberg Hell of a Hat: The Rise of ‘90s Ska and Swing by Kenneth Patridge Around the World in 80 Books Noor by Nnedi Okorafor Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World by Pénélope Bagieu, Montana Kane (Translator) Nnedi Okorafor - Sci-fi Stories that imagine a Future Africa 2021 Cumulative Featured Books & 2021 Cumulative Featured Books, Part 2 via Good Reads Follow or Contact Book Club of One: Instagram @bookclubofuno bookclubofuno@gmail.com Goodreads --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
In this episode of Invest in the Future, our co-founder and Growth Partner, Olabinjo Adeniran talks to Idris Ayodeji Bello - Founding Partner, LoftyInc Capital Management and Founder, Wennovation Hub. Loftyinc is an early investor in 2 of Africa's 5 unicorns - Andela & Flutterwave and backs startups across Sub-Saharan Africa and the MENA region. We talk to Idris about starting out his career in the Oil and Gas industry and pioneering technology entrepreneurship in Nigeria. Invest In The Future is a live fireside chat series by Future Africa to learn from prolific founders & investors who have invested in and built some of the world's most impactful technology companies. Future Africa is an early-stage fund that connects investors to mission-driven startups looking to turn Africa's most difficult challenges into global business opportunities. Learn more about Future Africa at www.future.africa The content of this podcast is not to be regarded as investment advice.
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji calls himself an entrepreneur in the public interest. He is passionate about partnering with missionary talent and capital to build an African future. Iyinoluwa is the Founder & General Partner of Future Africa, a people-powered innovation fund that provides capital, coaching and community to mission-driven innovators turning Africa's biggest challenges into business opportunities. Iyin is also a co-founder of Andela and was the former managing director of Flutterwave, a business building payments technology and infrastructure to connect Africa to the global economy. E' as he is fondly called as had a fantastic career so far, and we talked about it all in this video. He shared a lot about how he grew up, how he got the opportunity to study at Waterloo, the initial experiments/startups he tried building before Andela, how he met Jeremy and other Andela Co-founders, why he left to join Flutterwave and why he left. He talked about The Future Africa Fund and so much more. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/founders-connect/message
NextGen Talks host and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Founder & General Partner, Future Africa, unpack "Digitising the family business: Getting the buy-ins."
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji Today, we chat with Iyinoluwa Samuel Aboyeji, a Nigerian entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of the tech companies, Andela and Flutterwave. He is also the general partner and co-founder of Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators.In this episode, Iyin demystifies the process of building a start-up, knowing when to step back, and staying driven.
Everything SA Music Premium South African Music Content Mnqobi Yazo is a prominent singer and music producer. He has worked with many international artists, including Lil Wayne, Bryson Tiller, and Nipsey Hussle. The singer has several local and international music awards, and billboard features some of his hit songs. He is a member of the Future Africa music band, which transforms traditional African music into modern music that fits the present way of life. The singer states that he does not perceive other musicians as his competitors because music is more than a sound to him. He grew up in a musical environment; therefore, it influences his spirituality and ancestral beliefs. Yazo is a proud African who loves inspiring people to produce African songs. Is Mnqobi Yazo a Sangoma? He encourages people to answer their spiritual calling through his single, Sabela, but he is not a traditional healer. Sangomas are respected Zulu traditional healers.Follow : https://www.instagram.com/mnqobi_yazo...https://www.instagram.com/everythings...#ESAM #MnqobiYazo #EverythingSAMusicTV #Impi #Sabela #Iscephu
In this episode of Invest in the Future, our principal Adenike Sheriff talks to Surabhi(Ruby) Nimkar - Principal at Greenhouse Capital, a Nigeria-based early-stage investor focused on Sub-Saharan Africa and MENA regions. Ruby is primarily focused on Fintech and Enterprise Software and is actively involved in GHC's investment decisioning, having backed market champions such as Flutterwave, Helium Health, Migo, NowMoney, Indicina and several others. Invest In The Future is a live fireside chat series by Future Africa to learn from prolific angel investors who have invested in and built some of the world's most impactful technology companies. Future Africa is an early-stage fund that connects investors to mission-driven startups looking to turn Africa's most difficult challenges into global business opportunities. Learn more about Future Africa at www.future.africa The content of this podcast is not to be regarded as investment advice.
Adenike Sheriff is a VC investor, Co-founder, and Principal at Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity are within everyones reach. Future Africa is helping early-stage entrepreneurs solve some of Africas most pressing problems. Other co-founders include Iyinola Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave (Fintech company), and Andela (a tech talent sourcing company).Key interview highlights: Over 3.5 million dollars have been deployed to companies through the fund since March of 2020. 20 companies are presented within a year to members of the collective and if they are interested in a company they can invest via a special purpose vehicle. The Future Africa Fund enables limited partners to get diversified returns without having to take on deal-specific risk. Limited partners can commit a minimum of $25,000 per quarter and gain pro-rata exposure to all investments Future Africa participates in. Do not approach VC for funding if you are not prepared. VC funding isnt the only way to raise funding for your business. Glossary:Secondaries: Secondary investments are primarily purchases of funds that are three to seven years old with existing underlying portfolio companies. Sales are often driven by an investor's need for liquidity or an active approach in managing their private equity portfolio.Limited partners: In the context of private equity, a limited partner (or LP) is a third-party investor in a private equity fund. They are passive investors with the income and expenses flowing directly to their hands to be taxed in the year when they accrue.Special Purpose Vehicle: An SPV is created as a separate company with its own balance sheet. It may be used to undertake a risky venture while reducing any negative financial impact upon the parent company and its investors.Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback.Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzieJoin us for the next episode!
Adenike Sheriff is a VC investor, Co-founder, and Principal at Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity are within everyones reach. Future Africa is helping early-stage entrepreneurs solve some of Africas most pressing problems. Other co-founders include Iyinola Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave (Fintech company), and Andela (a tech talent sourcing company).Key interview highlights: Over 3.5 million dollars have been deployed to companies through the fund since March of 2020. 20 companies are presented within a year to members of the collective and if they are interested in a company they can invest via a special purpose vehicle. The Future Africa Fund enables limited partners to get diversified returns without having to take on deal-specific risk. Limited partners can commit a minimum of $25,000 per quarter and gain pro-rata exposure to all investments Future Africa participates in. Do not approach VC for funding if you are not prepared. VC funding isnt the only way to raise funding for your business. Glossary:Secondaries: Secondary investments are primarily purchases of funds that are three to seven years old with existing underlying portfolio companies. Sales are often driven by an investor's need for liquidity or an active approach in managing their private equity portfolio.Limited partners: In the context of private equity, a limited partner (or LP) is a third-party investor in a private equity fund. They are passive investors with the income and expenses flowing directly to their hands to be taxed in the year when they accrue.Special Purpose Vehicle: An SPV is created as a separate company with its own balance sheet. It may be used to undertake a risky venture while reducing any negative financial impact upon the parent company and its investors.Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback.Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzieJoin us for the next episode!
Adenike Sheriff is a VC investor, Co-founder, and Principal at Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity are within everyones reach. Future Africa is helping early-stage entrepreneurs solve some of Africas most pressing problems. Other co-founders include Iyinola Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave (Fintech company), and Andela (a tech talent sourcing company).Key interview highlights: Over 3.5 million dollars have been deployed to companies through the fund since March of 2020. 20 companies are presented within a year to members of the collective and if they are interested in a company they can invest via a special purpose vehicle. The Future Africa Fund enables limited partners to get diversified returns without having to take on deal-specific risk. Limited partners can commit a minimum of $25,000 per quarter and gain pro-rata exposure to all investments Future Africa participates in. Do not approach VC for funding if you are not prepared. VC funding isnt the only way to raise funding for your business. Glossary:Secondaries: Secondary investments are primarily purchases of funds that are three to seven years old with existing underlying portfolio companies. Sales are often driven by an investor's need for liquidity or an active approach in managing their private equity portfolio.Limited partners: In the context of private equity, a limited partner (or LP) is a third-party investor in a private equity fund. They are passive investors with the income and expenses flowing directly to their hands to be taxed in the year when they accrue.Special Purpose Vehicle: An SPV is created as a separate company with its own balance sheet. It may be used to undertake a risky venture while reducing any negative financial impact upon the parent company and its investors.Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback.Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzieJoin us for the next episode!
Adenike Sheriff is a VC investor, Co-founder, and Principal at Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity are within everyones reach. Future Africa is helping early-stage entrepreneurs solve some of Africas most pressing problems. Other co-founders include Iyinola Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave (Fintech company), and Andela (a tech talent sourcing company).Key interview highlights: Over 3.5 million dollars have been deployed to companies through the fund since March of 2020. 20 companies are presented within a year to members of the collective and if they are interested in a company they can invest via a special purpose vehicle. The Future Africa Fund enables limited partners to get diversified returns without having to take on deal-specific risk. Limited partners can commit a minimum of $25,000 per quarter and gain pro-rata exposure to all investments Future Africa participates in. Do not approach VC for funding if you are not prepared. VC funding isnt the only way to raise funding for your business. Glossary:Secondaries: Secondary investments are primarily purchases of funds that are three to seven years old with existing underlying portfolio companies. Sales are often driven by an investor's need for liquidity or an active approach in managing their private equity portfolio.Limited partners: In the context of private equity, a limited partner (or LP) is a third-party investor in a private equity fund. They are passive investors with the income and expenses flowing directly to their hands to be taxed in the year when they accrue.Special Purpose Vehicle: An SPV is created as a separate company with its own balance sheet. It may be used to undertake a risky venture while reducing any negative financial impact upon the parent company and its investors.Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback.Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzieJoin us for the next episode!
Adenike Sheriff is a VC investor, Co-founder, and Principal at Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity are within everyones reach. Future Africa is helping early-stage entrepreneurs solve some of Africas most pressing problems. Other co-founders include Iyinola Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave (Fintech company), and Andela (a tech talent sourcing company).Key interview highlights: Over 3.5 million dollars have been deployed to companies through the fund since March of 2020. 20 companies are presented within a year to members of the collective and if they are interested in a company they can invest via a special purpose vehicle. The Future Africa Fund enables limited partners to get diversified returns without having to take on deal-specific risk. Limited partners can commit a minimum of $25,000 per quarter and gain pro-rata exposure to all investments Future Africa participates in. Do not approach VC for funding if you are not prepared. VC funding isnt the only way to raise funding for your business. Glossary:Secondaries: Secondary investments are primarily purchases of funds that are three to seven years old with existing underlying portfolio companies. Sales are often driven by an investor's need for liquidity or an active approach in managing their private equity portfolio.Limited partners: In the context of private equity, a limited partner (or LP) is a third-party investor in a private equity fund. They are passive investors with the income and expenses flowing directly to their hands to be taxed in the year when they accrue.Special Purpose Vehicle: An SPV is created as a separate company with its own balance sheet. It may be used to undertake a risky venture while reducing any negative financial impact upon the parent company and its investors.Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback.Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzieJoin us for the next episode!
Adenike Sheriff is a VC investor, Co-founder, and Principal at Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity are within everyones reach. Future Africa is helping early-stage entrepreneurs solve some of Africas most pressing problems. Other co-founders include Iyinola Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave (Fintech company), and Andela (a tech talent sourcing company).Key interview highlights: Over 3.5 million dollars have been deployed to companies through the fund since March of 2020. 20 companies are presented within a year to members of the collective and if they are interested in a company they can invest via a special purpose vehicle. The Future Africa Fund enables limited partners to get diversified returns without having to take on deal-specific risk. Limited partners can commit a minimum of $25,000 per quarter and gain pro-rata exposure to all investments Future Africa participates in. Do not approach VC for funding if you are not prepared. VC funding isnt the only way to raise funding for your business. Glossary:Secondaries: Secondary investments are primarily purchases of funds that are three to seven years old with existing underlying portfolio companies. Sales are often driven by an investor's need for liquidity or an active approach in managing their private equity portfolio.Limited partners: In the context of private equity, a limited partner (or LP) is a third-party investor in a private equity fund. They are passive investors with the income and expenses flowing directly to their hands to be taxed in the year when they accrue.Special Purpose Vehicle: An SPV is created as a separate company with its own balance sheet. It may be used to undertake a risky venture while reducing any negative financial impact upon the parent company and its investors.Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback.Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzieJoin us for the next episode!
Adenike Sheriff is a VC investor, Co-founder, and Principal at Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity are within everyones reach. Future Africa is helping early-stage entrepreneurs solve some of Africas most pressing problems. Other co-founders include Iyinola Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave (Fintech company), and Andela (a tech talent sourcing company).Key interview highlights: Over 3.5 million dollars have been deployed to companies through the fund since March of 2020. 20 companies are presented within a year to members of the collective and if they are interested in a company they can invest via a special purpose vehicle. The Future Africa Fund enables limited partners to get diversified returns without having to take on deal-specific risk. Limited partners can commit a minimum of $25,000 per quarter and gain pro-rata exposure to all investments Future Africa participates in. Do not approach VC for funding if you are not prepared. VC funding isnt the only way to raise funding for your business. Glossary:Secondaries: Secondary investments are primarily purchases of funds that are three to seven years old with existing underlying portfolio companies. Sales are often driven by an investor's need for liquidity or an active approach in managing their private equity portfolio.Limited partners: In the context of private equity, a limited partner (or LP) is a third-party investor in a private equity fund. They are passive investors with the income and expenses flowing directly to their hands to be taxed in the year when they accrue.Special Purpose Vehicle: An SPV is created as a separate company with its own balance sheet. It may be used to undertake a risky venture while reducing any negative financial impact upon the parent company and its investors.Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback.Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzieJoin us for the next episode!
Adenike Sheriff is a VC investor, Co-founder, and Principal at Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity are within everyones reach. Future Africa is helping early-stage entrepreneurs solve some of Africas most pressing problems. Other co-founders include Iyinola Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave (Fintech company), and Andela (a tech talent sourcing company).Key interview highlights: Over 3.5 million dollars have been deployed to companies through the fund since March of 2020. 20 companies are presented within a year to members of the collective and if they are interested in a company they can invest via a special purpose vehicle. The Future Africa Fund enables limited partners to get diversified returns without having to take on deal-specific risk. Limited partners can commit a minimum of $25,000 per quarter and gain pro-rata exposure to all investments Future Africa participates in. Do not approach VC for funding if you are not prepared. VC funding isnt the only way to raise funding for your business. Glossary:Secondaries: Secondary investments are primarily purchases of funds that are three to seven years old with existing underlying portfolio companies. Sales are often driven by an investor's need for liquidity or an active approach in managing their private equity portfolio.Limited partners: In the context of private equity, a limited partner (or LP) is a third-party investor in a private equity fund. They are passive investors with the income and expenses flowing directly to their hands to be taxed in the year when they accrue.Special Purpose Vehicle: An SPV is created as a separate company with its own balance sheet. It may be used to undertake a risky venture while reducing any negative financial impact upon the parent company and its investors.Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback.Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzieJoin us for the next episode!
Adenike Sheriff is a VC investor, Co-founder, and Principal at Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity are within everyone's reach. Future Africa is helping early-stage entrepreneurs solve some of Africa's most pressing problems. Other co-founders include Iyinola Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave (Fintech company), and Andela (a tech talent sourcing company). Key interview highlights: Over 3.5 million dollars have been deployed to companies through the fund since March of 2020. 20 companies are presented within a year to members of the collective and if they are interested in a company they can invest via a special purpose vehicle. The Future Africa Fund enables limited partners to get diversified returns without having to take on deal-specific risk. Limited partners can commit a minimum of $25,000 per quarter and gain pro-rata exposure to all investments Future Africa participates in. Do not approach VC for funding if you are not prepared. VC funding isn't the only way to raise funding for your business. Glossary: Secondaries: Secondary investments are primarily purchases of funds that are three to seven years old with existing underlying portfolio companies. Sales are often driven by an investor's need for liquidity or an active approach in managing their private equity portfolio. Limited partners: In the context of private equity, a limited partner (or LP) is a third-party investor in a private equity fund. They are passive investors with the income and expenses flowing directly to their hands to be taxed in the year when they accrue. Special Purpose Vehicle: An SPV is created as a separate company with its own balance sheet. It may be used to undertake a risky venture while reducing any negative financial impact upon the parent company and its investors. Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback. Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com. Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues. Join the listener community. When you join the FREE community, you get the following: Two months FREE access (from the time you sign up) to my Grant Writing course, a $220 value. The course includes 6 individual modules that will walk you through grant writing, grant review, and the post-award process. Notice of grant funding opportunities to apply before deadlines close. Unmissable masterclasses where lots of knowledge gems will be dropped. Discount access on new courses when they are launched and the opportunity to beta test courses BEFORE they are launched. Access to live Q&A sessions; you get to request guests featured on the podcast (and other investors or entrepreneurs) to have a live session where YOU get to ask them questions and learn directly from their experience. Join now! Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzie Join us for the next episode!
Adenike Sheriff is a VC investor, Co-founder, and Principal at Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity are within everyones reach. Future Africa is helping early-stage entrepreneurs solve some of Africas most pressing problems. Other co-founders include Iyinola Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave (Fintech company), and Andela (a tech talent sourcing company).Key interview highlights: Over 3.5 million dollars have been deployed to companies through the fund since March of 2020. 20 companies are presented within a year to members of the collective and if they are interested in a company they can invest via a special purpose vehicle. The Future Africa Fund enables limited partners to get diversified returns without having to take on deal-specific risk. Limited partners can commit a minimum of $25,000 per quarter and gain pro-rata exposure to all investments Future Africa participates in. Do not approach VC for funding if you are not prepared. VC funding isnt the only way to raise funding for your business. Glossary:Secondaries: Secondary investments are primarily purchases of funds that are three to seven years old with existing underlying portfolio companies. Sales are often driven by an investor's need for liquidity or an active approach in managing their private equity portfolio.Limited partners: In the context of private equity, a limited partner (or LP) is a third-party investor in a private equity fund. They are passive investors with the income and expenses flowing directly to their hands to be taxed in the year when they accrue.Special Purpose Vehicle: An SPV is created as a separate company with its own balance sheet. It may be used to undertake a risky venture while reducing any negative financial impact upon the parent company and its investors.Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback.Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzieJoin us for the next episode!
Adenike Sheriff is a VC investor, Co-founder, and Principal at Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity are within everyones reach. Future Africa is helping early-stage entrepreneurs solve some of Africas most pressing problems. Other co-founders include Iyinola Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave (Fintech company), and Andela (a tech talent sourcing company).Key interview highlights: Over 3.5 million dollars have been deployed to companies through the fund since March of 2020. 20 companies are presented within a year to members of the collective and if they are interested in a company they can invest via a special purpose vehicle. The Future Africa Fund enables limited partners to get diversified returns without having to take on deal-specific risk. Limited partners can commit a minimum of $25,000 per quarter and gain pro-rata exposure to all investments Future Africa participates in. Do not approach VC for funding if you are not prepared. VC funding isnt the only way to raise funding for your business. Glossary:Secondaries: Secondary investments are primarily purchases of funds that are three to seven years old with existing underlying portfolio companies. Sales are often driven by an investor's need for liquidity or an active approach in managing their private equity portfolio.Limited partners: In the context of private equity, a limited partner (or LP) is a third-party investor in a private equity fund. They are passive investors with the income and expenses flowing directly to their hands to be taxed in the year when they accrue.Special Purpose Vehicle: An SPV is created as a separate company with its own balance sheet. It may be used to undertake a risky venture while reducing any negative financial impact upon the parent company and its investors.Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback.Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzieJoin us for the next episode!
Adenike Sheriff is a VC investor, Co-founder, and Principal at Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity are within everyones reach. Future Africa is helping early-stage entrepreneurs solve some of Africas most pressing problems. Other co-founders include Iyinola Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave (Fintech company), and Andela (a tech talent sourcing company).Key interview highlights: Over 3.5 million dollars have been deployed to companies through the fund since March of 2020. 20 companies are presented within a year to members of the collective and if they are interested in a company they can invest via a special purpose vehicle. The Future Africa Fund enables limited partners to get diversified returns without having to take on deal-specific risk. Limited partners can commit a minimum of $25,000 per quarter and gain pro-rata exposure to all investments Future Africa participates in. Do not approach VC for funding if you are not prepared. VC funding isnt the only way to raise funding for your business. Glossary:Secondaries: Secondary investments are primarily purchases of funds that are three to seven years old with existing underlying portfolio companies. Sales are often driven by an investor's need for liquidity or an active approach in managing their private equity portfolio.Limited partners: In the context of private equity, a limited partner (or LP) is a third-party investor in a private equity fund. They are passive investors with the income and expenses flowing directly to their hands to be taxed in the year when they accrue.Special Purpose Vehicle: An SPV is created as a separate company with its own balance sheet. It may be used to undertake a risky venture while reducing any negative financial impact upon the parent company and its investors.Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback.Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzieJoin us for the next episode!
Adenike Sheriff is a VC investor, Co-founder, and Principal at Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity are within everyones reach. Future Africa is helping early-stage entrepreneurs solve some of Africas most pressing problems. Other co-founders include Iyinola Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave (Fintech company), and Andela (a tech talent sourcing company).Key interview highlights: Over 3.5 million dollars have been deployed to companies through the fund since March of 2020. 20 companies are presented within a year to members of the collective and if they are interested in a company they can invest via a special purpose vehicle. The Future Africa Fund enables limited partners to get diversified returns without having to take on deal-specific risk. Limited partners can commit a minimum of $25,000 per quarter and gain pro-rata exposure to all investments Future Africa participates in. Do not approach VC for funding if you are not prepared. VC funding isnt the only way to raise funding for your business. Glossary:Secondaries: Secondary investments are primarily purchases of funds that are three to seven years old with existing underlying portfolio companies. Sales are often driven by an investor's need for liquidity or an active approach in managing their private equity portfolio.Limited partners: In the context of private equity, a limited partner (or LP) is a third-party investor in a private equity fund. They are passive investors with the income and expenses flowing directly to their hands to be taxed in the year when they accrue.Special Purpose Vehicle: An SPV is created as a separate company with its own balance sheet. It may be used to undertake a risky venture while reducing any negative financial impact upon the parent company and its investors.Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback.Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzieJoin us for the next episode!
Adenike Sheriff is a VC investor, Co-founder, and Principal at Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity are within everyones reach. Future Africa is helping early-stage entrepreneurs solve some of Africas most pressing problems. Other co-founders include Iyinola Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave (Fintech company), and Andela (a tech talent sourcing company).Key interview highlights: Over 3.5 million dollars have been deployed to companies through the fund since March of 2020. 20 companies are presented within a year to members of the collective and if they are interested in a company they can invest via a special purpose vehicle. The Future Africa Fund enables limited partners to get diversified returns without having to take on deal-specific risk. Limited partners can commit a minimum of $25,000 per quarter and gain pro-rata exposure to all investments Future Africa participates in. Do not approach VC for funding if you are not prepared. VC funding isnt the only way to raise funding for your business. Glossary:Secondaries: Secondary investments are primarily purchases of funds that are three to seven years old with existing underlying portfolio companies. Sales are often driven by an investor's need for liquidity or an active approach in managing their private equity portfolio.Limited partners: In the context of private equity, a limited partner (or LP) is a third-party investor in a private equity fund. They are passive investors with the income and expenses flowing directly to their hands to be taxed in the year when they accrue.Special Purpose Vehicle: An SPV is created as a separate company with its own balance sheet. It may be used to undertake a risky venture while reducing any negative financial impact upon the parent company and its investors.Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback.Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzieJoin us for the next episode!
Adenike Sheriff is a VC investor, Co-founder, and Principal at Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity are within everyones reach. Future Africa is helping early-stage entrepreneurs solve some of Africas most pressing problems. Other co-founders include Iyinola Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave (Fintech company), and Andela (a tech talent sourcing company).Key interview highlights: Over 3.5 million dollars have been deployed to companies through the fund since March of 2020. 20 companies are presented within a year to members of the collective and if they are interested in a company they can invest via a special purpose vehicle. The Future Africa Fund enables limited partners to get diversified returns without having to take on deal-specific risk. Limited partners can commit a minimum of $25,000 per quarter and gain pro-rata exposure to all investments Future Africa participates in. Do not approach VC for funding if you are not prepared. VC funding isnt the only way to raise funding for your business. Glossary:Secondaries: Secondary investments are primarily purchases of funds that are three to seven years old with existing underlying portfolio companies. Sales are often driven by an investor's need for liquidity or an active approach in managing their private equity portfolio.Limited partners: In the context of private equity, a limited partner (or LP) is a third-party investor in a private equity fund. They are passive investors with the income and expenses flowing directly to their hands to be taxed in the year when they accrue.Special Purpose Vehicle: An SPV is created as a separate company with its own balance sheet. It may be used to undertake a risky venture while reducing any negative financial impact upon the parent company and its investors.Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback.Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzieJoin us for the next episode!
Adenike Sheriff is a VC investor, Co-founder, and Principal at Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity are within everyones reach. Future Africa is helping early-stage entrepreneurs solve some of Africas most pressing problems. Other co-founders include Iyinola Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave (Fintech company), and Andela (a tech talent sourcing company).Key interview highlights: Over 3.5 million dollars have been deployed to companies through the fund since March of 2020. 20 companies are presented within a year to members of the collective and if they are interested in a company they can invest via a special purpose vehicle. The Future Africa Fund enables limited partners to get diversified returns without having to take on deal-specific risk. Limited partners can commit a minimum of $25,000 per quarter and gain pro-rata exposure to all investments Future Africa participates in. Do not approach VC for funding if you are not prepared. VC funding isnt the only way to raise funding for your business. Glossary:Secondaries: Secondary investments are primarily purchases of funds that are three to seven years old with existing underlying portfolio companies. Sales are often driven by an investor's need for liquidity or an active approach in managing their private equity portfolio.Limited partners: In the context of private equity, a limited partner (or LP) is a third-party investor in a private equity fund. They are passive investors with the income and expenses flowing directly to their hands to be taxed in the year when they accrue.Special Purpose Vehicle: An SPV is created as a separate company with its own balance sheet. It may be used to undertake a risky venture while reducing any negative financial impact upon the parent company and its investors.Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback.Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzieJoin us for the next episode!
Adenike Sheriff is a VC investor, Co-founder, and Principal at Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity are within everyone's reach. Future Africa is helping early-stage entrepreneurs solve some of Africa's most pressing problems. Other co-founders include Iyinola Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave (Fintech company), and Andela (a tech talent sourcing company). Key interview highlights: Over 3.5 million dollars have been deployed to companies through the fund since March of 2020. 20 companies are presented within a year to members of the collective and if they are interested in a company they can invest via a special purpose vehicle. The Future Africa Fund enables limited partners to get diversified returns without having to take on deal-specific risk. Limited partners can commit a minimum of $25,000 per quarter and gain pro-rata exposure to all investments Future Africa participates in. Do not approach VC for funding if you are not prepared. VC funding isn't the only way to raise funding for your business. Glossary: Secondaries: Secondary investments are primarily purchases of funds that are three to seven years old with existing underlying portfolio companies. Sales are often driven by an investor's need for liquidity or an active approach in managing their private equity portfolio. Limited partners: In the context of private equity, a limited partner (or LP) is a third-party investor in a private equity fund. They are passive investors with the income and expenses flowing directly to their hands to be taxed in the year when they accrue. Special Purpose Vehicle: An SPV is created as a separate company with its own balance sheet. It may be used to undertake a risky venture while reducing any negative financial impact upon the parent company and its investors. Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback. Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com. Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues. Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzie Join us for the next episode!
Adenike Sheriff is a VC investor, Co-founder, and Principal at Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity are within everyone's reach. Future Africa is helping early-stage entrepreneurs solve some of Africa's most pressing problems. Other co-founders include Iyinola Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave (Fintech company), and Andela (a tech talent sourcing company). Key interview highlights: Over 3.5 million dollars have been deployed to companies through the fund since March of 2020. 20 companies are presented within a year to members of the collective and if they are interested in a company they can invest via a special purpose vehicle. The Future Africa Fund enables limited partners to get diversified returns without having to take on deal-specific risk. Limited partners can commit a minimum of $25,000 per quarter and gain pro-rata exposure to all investments Future Africa participates in. Do not approach VC for funding if you are not prepared. VC funding isn't the only way to raise funding for your business. Glossary: Secondaries: Secondary investments are primarily purchases of funds that are three to seven years old with existing underlying portfolio companies. Sales are often driven by an investor's need for liquidity or an active approach in managing their private equity portfolio. Limited partners: In the context of private equity, a limited partner (or LP) is a third-party investor in a private equity fund. They are passive investors with the income and expenses flowing directly to their hands to be taxed in the year when they accrue. Special Purpose Vehicle: An SPV is created as a separate company with its own balance sheet. It may be used to undertake a risky venture while reducing any negative financial impact upon the parent company and its investors. Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback. Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com. Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues. Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzie Join us for the next episode!
Adenike Sheriff is a VC investor, Co-founder, and Principal at Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity are within everyone's reach. Future Africa is helping early-stage entrepreneurs solve some of Africa's most pressing problems. Other co-founders include Iyinola Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave (Fintech company), and Andela (a tech talent sourcing company). Key interview highlights: Over 3.5 million dollars have been deployed to companies through the fund since March of 2020. 20 companies are presented within a year to members of the collective and if they are interested in a company they can invest via a special purpose vehicle. The Future Africa Fund enables limited partners to get diversified returns without having to take on deal-specific risk. Limited partners can commit a minimum of $25,000 per quarter and gain pro-rata exposure to all investments Future Africa participates in. Do not approach VC for funding if you are not prepared. VC funding isn't the only way to raise funding for your business. Glossary: Secondaries: Secondary investments are primarily purchases of funds that are three to seven years old with existing underlying portfolio companies. Sales are often driven by an investor's need for liquidity or an active approach in managing their private equity portfolio. Limited partners: In the context of private equity, a limited partner (or LP) is a third-party investor in a private equity fund. They are passive investors with the income and expenses flowing directly to their hands to be taxed in the year when they accrue. Special Purpose Vehicle: An SPV is created as a separate company with its own balance sheet. It may be used to undertake a risky venture while reducing any negative financial impact upon the parent company and its investors. Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback. Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com. Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues. Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzie Join us for the next episode!
In this episode of Invest In The Future, our co-founder Olabinjo Adeniran talks to Maya Horgan-Famodu the Founder & MD of Ingressive Capital - a $10 Million Fund 1 and $50 Million Fund 2 for early-stage African startups. Maya shares her story of trying to raise a fund in 2014 and being unable to do so but going ahead to set up Ingressive Advisory to help venture funds find and back African startups. Some money from the advisory business was used to invest in companies like Paystack and Tizeti. By 2016, Ingressive Capital was born and began to invest in more startups. Maya shares Ingressive's philosophy for the African tech startup scene as well as what they consider red flags when founders pitch them. Invest In The Future is a live fireside chat series by Future Africa to learn from prolific angel investors who have invested in and built some of the world's most impactful technology companies. Future Africa connects investors to mission-driven startups looking to turn Africa's most difficult challenges into global business opportunities. Learn more about Future Africa at www.future.africa The content of this podcast is not to be regarded as investment advice.
Smile Identity received a $7 million Series A investment from Costanoa Ventures and CRE Venture Capital. Smile Identity intends to utilize the extra funds to strengthen its services, expand into new locations, and serve a larger range of ID kinds. John Cowgill, a Costanoa partner, will join Smile Identity's board of directors. Smile Identity provides ID solutions in Africa and throughout the world for banking, telecoms, financial services, and shared economy applications.IBM plans to acquire BoxBoat Technologies, a well-known DevOps consulting firm and Kubernetes-certified enterprise service provider. BoxBoat will join IBM Global Business Services' Hybrid Cloud Services business, which is constantly growing. BoxBoat provides a wide range of services, including customized Kubernetes and Enterprise Container Platform adoption strategies, application containerization, and DevSecOp training and facilitation.Peter Boyce II, a General Catalyst partner, has left the company to form his own firm called Stellation Capital. He plans to raise $40M for his company's fund. Mr. Boyce joined GC in 2013 and is in charge of Ro, Macro, towerIQ, and Atom investments.Switzerland's national postal service has acquired a major stake in the end-to-end cloud-based file synchronization and management software provider, Tresorit. It said that the move falls in line with its broader aspirations of supporting the Swiss economy in times of digital transformation.Rootly, a startup helping companies recover and learn from incidents, has announced the raise of $3.2 million in seed round funding led by Ross Fubini at XYZ Venture Capital with participation from 8VC (investors in Asana, Palantir) and Y Combinator.Toronto-based Clearco, a fintech capital provider, has raised $215 million in new funding round, just months after it turned unicorn, rebranding itself from Clearbanc, raising Canadian Dollars (CAD) $125 million ($100 million) in Series C at $2 billion valuation.Nairobi-based MarketForce, a B2B end-to-end platform that helps customer brands deliver essential goods and services, has announced the raise of $2 million in a pre-Series A funding round.With this round, its total funding stands at $2.5 million. Investors who participated in this round were – Y-Combinator and P1 Ventures joined by V8 Capital, Future Africa, Greenhouse Capital, Launch Africa, Rebel Fund, Remapped Ventures, and a couple of strategic angels.Botman, a cybersecurity software-as-a-service business, has received $200K from Modulor Capital and Pentathlon Venture in a seed round. The funds will be used to grow the company's software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution for the digital advertising supply chain. The company wants to get rid of IVT (invalid traffic) from the digital ad ecosystem.Avataar Ventures and Ascent Capital led a Series B investment of $16 million for CRMNEXT. Avataar Ventures and Ascent Capital lead a $16 million Series B investment for CRMNEXT. Across 100 major banking and insurance firms around the world currently use the startup's services.
In this episode of Invest In The Future, our founder Iyin Aboyeji chats with Michael Seibel - Group Partner at Y Combinator - the world's largest technology accelerator, Managing Director of YC Early Stage and co-founder of Justin.tv/Twitch and SocialCam. Michael shares his philosophy for investing in startups as an angel as well as YC's philosophy - enabling founders to build companies they would like to build. He also talks about investing in emerging markets like Africa and why founders in emerging markets have a lot to learn from each other than from the US. There's a lot to unpack in this episode about opportunities to build startups and ideas founders should chase. Invest In The Future is a live fireside chat series by Future Africa to learn from prolific angel investors who have invested in and built some of the world's most impactful technology companies. Future Africa connects investors to mission-driven startups looking to turn Africa's most difficult challenges into global business opportunities. Learn more about Future Africa at www.future.africa The content of this podcast is not to be regarded as investment advice.
In this episode, the team discusses whether or not a college education is essential in Africa. To do this we are joined by Fred Swaniker who is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of the African Leadership Group. We are also joined by Faith Abiodun who is also an entrepreneur and the founder and executive director of Future Africa. We hope you enjoy!!!! Follow us on: Website: mindshack.org LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/mindshack-podcast/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCigY8gRK929-3X8xrfUOcNA Instagram: www.instagram.com/mind_shack_
This UNAJUA podcast the first of a two-part series highlighting ecosystem insight gaps that African research startups might help to address. Presenting the series is Ugandan founder and researcher Peter Kisadha. Peter has just recently joined early-stage investment outfit Future Africa as an associate researcher. He previously worked for the mobility tech company, Eywa, and, before that, he interned at Jumia Group's classifieds arm in Uganda. He is also the co-founder of the tech innovation data and insights startup Digest Africa. In this episode, Peter offers minimum actionable responses to the question, "Why would anyone launch a research insights business in Uganda?" by outlining the significant real-world problems local research businesses might undertake to solve. HAVE YOUR SAY: Click on the UNAJUA tab at AfricanTechRoundup.com (https://www.africantechroundup.com/unajua/) and leave us a 60-second voice note with your reaction to this episode. (We will include some of your audio takes in future follow-up episodes.) PROMO: African Tech Roundup is partnering with Socialstack to launch a social token ($ATRU) on the Celo blockchain to drive community engagement. Check out the press release (https://www.africantechroundup.com/atru-token/) then tune in on Wednesday, June 16th 2021, to listen to African Tech Roundup Co-founder Andile Masuku and Socialstack Co-founder and CEO Andrew Berkowitz unpack how the $ATRU token works. SUPPORT US: Back our independent media-making efforts by becoming a Patreon (https://www.africantechroundup.com/patreon/). Image credit: Yu Gu
In this episode of Invest In The Future, we chat with Nadayar Enegesi - co-founder of software developer training and recruitment company Andela. Nadayar is now founder of Eden Life - a startup that provides concierge services for homes in Nigeria. Nadayar talks about discovering math after high school, studying Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, joining his friends to build Andela and now solving design problems with chores at Eden Life. Invest In The Future is a live fireside chat series by Future Africa to learn from prolific angel investors who have invested in and built some of the world's most impactful technology companies. Future Africa connects investors to mission-driven startups looking to turn Africa's most difficult challenges into global business opportunities. Learn more about Future Africa at www.future.africa The content of this podcast is not to be regarded as investment advice.
In this edition of the Business Day Spotlight, we talk about growth of the African tech startup industry. Our host Mudiwa Gavaza is joined by Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, founder and general partner at Future Africa, together with Okendo Lewis-Gayle, founder and chair of the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance (HEA). The discussion focuses on the work being done by Aboyeji and Lewis-Gayle; the importance of networking for entrepreneurs and startups; Aboyeji and Lewis-Gayle’s career highlights; identifying gaps in the African startup ecosystem; highlighting the available opportunities for new startups; and tips around finding the right investor for a business venture.
African Unity Day Greetings Glocal Citizens! This week we're back in Nigeria with one of Forbes' 30 under 30 in Enterprise Technology (https://www.forbes.com/30-under-30/2018/enterprise-technology/#4c092bd3551c). Starting his first company at age 19, he's a serial entrepreneur in the public interest. Iyinoluwa Aboyeji spent the last few years as the CEO of Flutterwave (https://flutterwave.com/gh/), a business building payments technology and infrastructure connecting Africa to the global economy. He led the company to becoming one of the fastest growing payments technology businesses of all-time processing over $2 billion across over 50 million transactions. In his tech-prenuer endeavors, prior to Flutterwave, Iyinoluwa co-founded Andela (https://andela.com/) - Africa's largest engineering organization with over 1,000 software engineers; Andela’s investors include Mark Zuckerberg and Google Ventures amongst others. Iyinoluwa or "E" now heads Fund for Africa’s Future (https://future.africa/) where he spends time helping founders, philanthropists and investors from around the world understand how to do build fast growing and impactful technology businesses in Africa. Today we salute all that Iyinoluwa is doing to manifest a more unified Africa! Where to find Iyinoluwa: On LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/eaboyeji/) On Twitter (https://twitter.com/iaboyeji?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor) On Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/iaboyeji/?hl=en) On Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/eaboyeji) What's Iyinoluwa reading? The House of Morgan (https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B003CIQ57E&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_AFF2BR1GYD0ZWZBMRDNV) by Ron Chernow The Great Gatsby (https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B08S45R4BZ&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_40W4S5N25CQ2SMSQ40RH) by F. Scott Fitzgerald American Disruptor: The Scandalous Life of Leland Stanford (https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B07ZVFH5JM&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_AXFMM9AW3NVK98VE9SMM) by Roland De Wolk Other topics of interest: Velocity @ University of Waterloo (https://velocity.uwaterloo.ca//) Learning Management Systems (https://www.valamis.com/hub/what-is-an-lms#:~:text=A%20learning%20management%20system%20%20LMS,the%20delivery%20of%20educational%20content.&text=Think%20of%20a%20learning%20management,what%20is%20more%20important%20%2D%20trackable) The Gilded Age (https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/gilded-age#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20Gilded%20Age%E2%80%9D%20is%20the,1800s%2C%20and%20was%20its%20namesake) Niger Delta Conflict (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_in_the_Niger_Delta) Special Guest: Iyinoluwa Aboyeji.
LIVE FROM CAMEROON; HEALTHY FUTURE AFRICA; CHINJIE SYLVESTER NKEH; DAKOTA VERRICO (Rutgers, NJ) DakoTech-Digital; Affordable Health Care for Women, Children, Disabled. CONVERSATIONS WITH CALVIN WE THE SPECIES YouTube Subscribe free http://bit.ly/3mSXWJQ LIVE FROM CAMEROON; HEALTHY FUTURE AFRICA; CHINJIE SYLVESTER NKEH, Founder; DAKOTA VERRICO (Rutgers, NJ) DakoTech-Digital; Affordable Health Care for Women, Children, Disabled. YouTube: ** A conversation with Chinjie & Dakota on health needs of Cameroon (Western Africa) & goals of Healthy Future Africa & if people donated just $1 to help build health centers in rural Cameroon. Life expectancy is (56); one doctor for every 5000 people. Due to financial cuts in health care, there are few professionals. Outside major cities, facilities not good. GOALS OF HEALTHY FUTURE AFRICA “To educate & provide affordable health care to women, children & disabled.” ** CHINJIE SYLVESTER NKEH: Founder: BS in Accounting with years of experience in accountancy, banking & management. DAKOTA VERRICO: CEO & Founder of DakoTech-Digital, a LinkedIn Agency that helps business & professionals unlock power of LinkedIn CONTACTS: healthyfutureafrica.org dakotech-digital.com (Company Website) ** Edit Claudine Smith- casproductions01@gmail.com AUDIO: SPOTIFY http://spoti.fi/3bMYVYW GOOGLE PODCASTS http://bit.ly/38yH3yP ** #cameroon #africa @rutgersalumni
In this episode, we speak with Yele Bademosi - founder of social cryptocurrency app Bundle Africa & founding partner of early-stage Africa-focused VC firm, Microtraction. Yele discusses his journey from medicine to technology - learning design, code, marketing and eventually venture capital. We also discuss the opportunity for crypto to transform Africa and how Yele measures startups to invest in at Microtraction. Speaking with Yele is Olabinjo Adeniran, Co-founder and Growth Partner at Futrue Africa. Invest In The Future is a live fireside chat series by Future Africa to learn from prolific angel investors who have invested in and built some of the world's most impactful technology companies. Future Africa connects investors to mission-driven startups looking to turn Africa's most difficult challenges into global business opportunities. Learn more about Future Africa at www.future.africa The content of this podcast is not to be regarded as investment advice.
For women's month, we hosted Sacha Haider(Principal at Global Ventures), Harriet Adinkrah (Investment Analyst at 4DX Ventures), Nina Chen (Venture Investing at the Raba Partnership) and Chidinma I. Iwueke (Partner at Microtraction). Moderating the session is Damilola Aderinto(Operating Partner at Future Africa). The panel of women VCs and Angel investors to discuss how women can start a career in venture capital. Panellists also discussed what they look for when deciding to fund startups, how women should think about scaling their businesses with technology and how women can pitch VCs better. Invest In The Future is a live fireside chat series by Future Africa to learn from prolific angel investors who have invested in and built some of the world's most impactful technology companies. Future Africa is a platform for mission-driven innovators and investors turning Africa's biggest challenges into global business opportunities. Learn more about Future Africa at www.future.africa The content of this podcast should not to be regarded as investment advice.
In this episode, we host Odunayo Eweniyi. Odun is the co-founder and COO of Piggyvest - the largest savings and investments app in Nigeria. She's also the founder of FirstCheck Africa - an early-stage venture fund signing up to $25,000 for women founders in Africa. Odun is interviewed by Adenike Sheriff the co-founder and Principal of Future Africa. Invest In The Future is a live fireside chat series by Future Africa to learn from prolific angel investors who have invested in and built some of the world's most impactful technology companies. Learn more about Future Africa at www.future.africa
In the first episode, we host Sahil Lavingia. Sahil is the founder and CEO of Gumroad. He also runs a successful $7 million a year early-stage fund. The fund typically writes $100,000 to $250,000 cheques and has invested in HelloSign, Movable Ink, Lambda School, Figma, Clubhouse, and Haus. Sahil is interviewed by Iyin 'E' Aboyeji, the founder of Future Africa and co-founder Andela and Flutterwave. Invest In The Future is a live fireside chat series by Future Africa to learn from prolific angel investors who have invested in and built some of the world's most impactful technology companies. Future Africa is a platform for mission-driven innovators and investors turning Africa's biggest challenges into global business opportunities. Learn more about Future Africa at www.future.africa
Vanessa Nakate is a climate activist in Uganda. She founded Youth for Future Africa and Rise Up. She spoke recently at COP25 Madrid and in Devos. She leads installation of solar panels and efficient stoves in rural schools.
Co-founder of Andela, Flutterwave, and now with Future Africa. We talked about the demand and supply of governance. His belief that the challenges we have are opportunities. He firmly believes that "innovation precedes development". Iyinoluwa is bullish in his optimism about the future of Nigeria and Africa. I thank him for sharing his insights with us.Links to Apple, Stitcher, TuneIn, Pocket Casts. You can also rate us here. Thank you guys for always listening and your feedback. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at www.ideasuntrapped.com/subscribe
Oghene Kologbo, guitariste du légendaire saxophoniste et chanteur Fela Kuti pendant la période Africa 70, était notre invité survolté pour cette Proxima Estacion. Rencontre, in English please, avec un énergumène qui poursuit son combat afrobeat. Playlist du 19 février 2018: artiste - titre - album - label Oghene Kologgbo - Abandon property - Africa is the Future - Paris DJ's Oghene Colombo - Africa is the Future - Africa is the Future - Paris DJ's Oghene Colombo - Adjaloloru - Africa is the Future - Paris DJ's Oghene Colombo - Who is who - Africa is the Future - Paris DJ's Femi Kuti - One people, one world - One people, one world - Knitting Factory record Arat Kilo - Toulo - Visions of Selam - Pias