Shows
The Trajectory AfricaGoodbye for now, Trajectory AfricaThe Trajectory Africa, is a "pop-up" podcast designed to explore the first principles of VC and tech entrepreneurship in Africa, as they emerge in real time. After a nearly four year run, the journey has come to an end. This conversation with Andile Masuku, Co-Founder and Producer of African Tech Roundup (ATRU) and Tayo Akinyemi, Host and Producer of The Trajectory Africa tells the origin story of the pod, how and why ATRU was involved, how both media properties have evolved, and what's next for both creators.[07:15] – Revisiting early conversations about collaboration[13:55] – Unpacking tensions between open...
2025-07-021h 25
The Trajectory AfricaFirst Principles: Towards a Thesis on Digital Commerce & LogisticsThis episode of The Trajectory Africa features Lydia Idem, Chief Operating Officer of LoftyInc Capital and Managing Director of FM Capital Group. We discuss what “point B” looks like for digital commerce on Africa’s S-curve, why asset-heavy models are more necessary than investors like to admit, why venture debt may be a missing ingredient in African VC, and how talent, timing, strategic partnerships and focus, shape outcomes in logistics and e-commerce. [00:00] – Introduction and context for Lydia’s role in the series roundup[04:55] – Africa’s S-curve, fund returns, and the need for longer-duration capital[10:34] – What “point B” lo...
2025-06-261h 12
The Trajectory AfricaLeta: Why AI Compounds Logistics Efficiency at ScaleThis episode of The Trajectory Africa features Nick Joshi, Founder and CEO of Leta, a startup that uses AI to optimize delivery routes, track shipments in real time, streamline payments, and provide businesses with shipping insights. We discussed how the first generation of logistics players paved the way for evolution in the space, how Leta optimizes trips and delivery routes at the last mile (otherwise known as the business model killer), how it plans to increase efficiency at the middle mile, and why efficiency gains compound at scale.[00:00] - Introduction/ Leta as a logistics OS for...
2025-06-1956 min
The Trajectory AfricaLogistics for Trade: Why Paps is Building End-to-End InfrastructureThis episode of The Trajectory Africa features Bamba Lo, CEO and Co-founder of Paps, a technology-enabled logistics company operating across Francophone Africa. He explains how Paps delivers across the value chain— from freight and customs clearance to warehousing and last-mile delivery, while owning less than 1% of the vehicles in its network. Bamba also shares how Paps is building Africa’s critical logistics infrastructure domestically, in service of a broader mission to drive regional and international trade.[00:00] - Introduction and Paps’ accidental origin story [05:40] - Paps’ value proposition and the role of technology[07:14] - An asset-lig...
2025-06-121h 02
The Trajectory AfricaInefficiency the Income Thief: Lori and the Financial Story of African LogisticsThe cost of moving goods across Africa remains one of the continent's toughest economic challenges. With logistics accounting for up to 75% of the price of goods—compared to just 9% in the US—solving transport inefficiency could be key to boosting affordability for African consumers.In this episode of The Trajectory Africa, I'm chatting with Jean-Claude Homawoo, CEO of Lori, a company that matches cargo owners with transporters, to move cargo efficiently. We discuss how badly trucking businesses need working capital with better payment terms, how truck utilization can change the economics of a trip, and the pote...
2025-06-051h 12
The Trajectory AfricaReflections on Sote: A Business Model for Freight ForwardingOn this episode of The Trajectory Africa, Samora Kariuki, CEO and Founder of Frontier Fintech and former Director at Sote, a digital logistics and supply chain infrastructure company, breaks down the fundamentals of logistics in Africa. He explains the relationship between the size of an economy and its trade volume, and the role of a freight forwarder in making trade more efficient, sustainable and easier to coordinate. He also explains the primary stakeholders in logistics value chains and their roles, the margin distribution between them, what key problems in logistics can (and can’t) be monetized, and what problems re...
2025-05-291h 02
The Trajectory AfricaTalking to Trade: How Chpter Helps Businesses Sell SociallyIn this episode of The Trajectory Africa, Mark Kiarie, Co-founder and CEO of Chpter, explains conversational commerce and how his company uses AI to help businesses serve buyers where they already are, on social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Instagram. Chpter enables them to respond instantly to customers, transforming DMs into sales. Mark also shares how Chpter is building digital infrastructure for *Commerce 3.0*, where chat messages drive revenue for businesses that are selling online.[0:00] - Introduction, podcasting and a sneaker store success story[7:19] - Chpter’s value proposition and customers [12:14] - Defining conversational commerce ...
2025-05-221h 05
The Trajectory AfricaAll in One: How Bumpa Aggregates Digital Services for BizOppsThis episode of The Trajectory Africa features Kelvin Umechukwu, Founder and CEO of Bumpa, a company that provides sellers with the tools needed for digital commerce, inventory and sales management, and customer engagement. Kelvin explains how Bumpa helps businesses by aggregating and integrating functions like inventory and order management, payments, and messaging, so they can get what they need in one place. He also shares how Bumpa’s network of partnerships embeds it more deeply into customer workflows—solidifying retention and network effects without needing to "own" every piece of the stack. [00:00] - Introduction: the problems you choos...
2025-05-1547 min
The Trajectory AfricaThe Full Stack Experience: Dukka's BizOpps Ecosystem for MerchantsThis episode of The Trajectory Africa features Keturah Ovio, CEO of Dukka, a company that’s changing how small businesses operate in Nigeria (and beyond). Dukka integrates payments, inventory management, sales tracking, and business intelligence into a single platform. Keturah explains how she built Dukka with merchants in mind, leaned into creating a full stack experience by introducing a custom-built POS, and aims to drive growth by creating an ecosystem that brings businesses closer to their customers. [00:00] - Introduction, Dukka’s value proposition and the business operations opportunity [8:35] - Dukka’s customers and acquisition strategy[18:3...
2025-05-0855 min
The Trajectory AfricaB2B E-Commerce to Fintech: How Chari is Charting a Path to ProfitabilityIn this episode of The Trajectory Africa, Ismael Belkhayat, CEO and founder of Chari, a b2b e-commerce and fintech platform for traditional retailers in French-speaking Africa, explains how fintech and digital commerce came together inside his company. He shares Chari's journey supporting traditional shopkeepers in Morocco, the financial infrastructure they've built, and how they're creating a sustainable business model by turning mom-and-pop shops into neighborhood financial service providers. He also offers his perspective on how to pursue growth through strategic acquisitions and “going deep” in a single market while leveraging local talent to expand.[00:00] - Introduction...
2025-05-0347 min
The Trajectory AfricaAsset Efficiency in B2B E-commerce: Maad’s Journey to Single Market ScaleIn this episode of The Trajectory Africa’s series on digital commerce and logistics, Sidy Niang and Jessica Long, Co-founders of Maad, a retail platform connecting FMCG brands and retailers in Senegal, share how they think about asset efficiency as a way to own assets strategically, once demand is assured. Maad embraces the reality (and the challenges) of physical infrastructure, but uses technology to manage assets efficiently. Sidy and Jessica also talk about how to expand the thin margins common in b2b ecommerce, increase revenue opportunities for retailers, and scale by going deep in one market. [00:00] - I...
2025-04-241h 20
The Trajectory AfricaPremium "Informal" Retailers: How Sarafu Captures Value in B2B E-commerceThis episode of The Trajectory Africa features Firas Ahmad, CEO of Sarafu, a B2B e-commerce platform, and AzamPay, a payments platform, both in Tanzania. Firas shares his approach to running a digital commerce business—focusing on delivering premium service to customers who are willing to pay, running data-driven operations, and turning cost centers into revenue generators. He also explains why informal markets are more optimized than they appear, why making analog processes digital isn't enough to win, and how you balance value creation with value capture. [00:00] - Introduction[02:00] - Corporate intrapreneurship and digitizing last mil...
2025-04-171h 04
The Trajectory AfricaThe “Banana” Company: How Twiga Made the "Impossible" RepeatableOn this episode of The Trajectory Africa, Kikonde Mwatela, former COO of Twiga, talks about how it tackled a fundamental problem in Kenya's banana supply chain—turning days of trapped working capital and high spoilage into ready-to-sell product. He also shares how Twiga balanced standardizing production while growing its retail universe, the critical relationship between revenue assurance and distribution costs, and perhaps most importantly, the right lessons to learn from Twiga's journey. 00:00 - Introduction to Twiga 01:41 - A first principle for building a profitable digital commerce business in Africa16:00 - A primer on bana...
2025-04-101h 41
The Trajectory AfricaAfrica's S Curves: A Case for Realistic OptimismIn this episode of The Trajectory Africa, DFS Lab General Partner Stephen Deng introduces "Africa's S-curves," a framework that explains why technology transitions on the continent take longer, but are also characterized by dramatic adoption and big impacts on informal markets due to improvements in productivity and cost structures. We talk through why the S-Curve logic points to a case for augmenting informal market structures with tech rather than trying to replace them entirely. We also talk about cybernetic commerce and how technology can interface with informal markets around money, by enabling digital transactions, energy, by boosting t...
2025-04-031h 06
The Trajectory AfricaThe Engine of African Venture: A Return to First Principles (Digital Commerce & Logistics)The Trajectory Africa’s second series, The Engine of African Venture: A Return to First Principles, is a two-part exploration of what powers fundamental value creation and investability in sectors that drive African VC opportunities. The eleven episodes of Part I were focused on fintech, exploring fintech’s subsectors—from market opportunities to business models—to tease out why they are (or aren’t) destinations for venture capital.Part II is focused on digital commerce and logistics and its foundations—infrastructure, business models, and core beliefs about how problems are solved and value is created.
2025-03-2601 min
The Trajectory AfricaFinding Fintech's Future: Towards a Thesis on Investing in AfricaThe Trajectory Africa’s first principles series was inspired by a desire to understand the drivers and assumptions underlying investable opportunities in key sectors hypothesized to be the engine of African VC, starting with fintech.Across 11 episodes, we explored the opportunities for, and limits of, ubiquitous digitalization and the role of fintech, the jobs to be done by, and characteristics of, a digitally enabled financial system, the case for infrastructure building in payments, partner-led neobanking, the logic of financial operations, community-based lending and savings-led embedded finance, and finally, boosting trade by facilitating b2b cross-border payments an...
2024-09-171h 32
The Trajectory AfricaBuilding the "Boring" Stuff: Infrastructure for Money Movement & TradeIn Episode 1 of this series, Abraham Augustine, Research Partner of trendsAf and Comms and Programs Lead at Norrsken warned against “long arm, no mouth” syndrome and the risks of digitalizing one part of a system (distributed solar energy, for example) without considering where the barriers and effects might materialize (think missing payment rails). Infrastructure is great, but it can’t be half-baked, and those pipes need something to carry. That something is trade.Previous guests Samora Kariuki and Wiza Jalakasi both emphasized the power of interoperability—cross-continental (and international) money movement to catalyze the development of Africa’s digitall...
2024-08-231h 14
The Trajectory AfricaCaptain MAX: Democratizing Access to Electric VehiclesBack in Episode 7 of Trajectory Africa’s first series, Barbara Iyayi, CEO & Founding Partner of Unicorn Growth Capital made a strong statement about the ubiquity of financial services, arguing that every company should be a fintech company. Because as long as financial inclusion is a huge problem, every company should be able to offer financial services. This is the essence of embedded finance, which McKinsey defines as placing a financial product in a nonfinancial customer experience, journey, or platform. In the previous episode’s conversation with Tunzaa’s Ng’winula Kingamkono, we learned about how an embedded f...
2024-08-121h 23
The Trajectory AfricaSave Now, Buy Later: A Culturally-relevant Approach to Consumption?In the previous episode of The Trajectory Africa, we explored the art and science of community lending to microbusinesses. In this episode, we turn from business lending to consumer savings, but as an antidote to a consumer lending model called buy now, pay later, or BNPL. BNPL emerged as a global trend in the wake of COVID-19 and the tough macroeconomic environment that accompanied it. As inflation increased the cost of living, people started using these short term loans issued, after a quick credit check at the point of sale, to get by. According to A...
2024-08-0157 min
The Trajectory AfricaBanking on Social Intelligence: A Community Model for Microbusiness LendingIn the previous episode of the Trajectory Africa, we heard from Kiiru Muhoya and Judith Bogonko at Fingo about the importance of cultivating Africa’s youth as the next generation of retail consumers of financial services. In this episode, we’ll hear how Femi Iromini, Co-Founder and CEO of Moni, and his team, have created a community lending model for microbusinesses that has the DNA of a not completely neobank, if the "neo" in neobank, means digital only. The rule of thumb in lending is it’s easy to give money out, but difficult to get it back. ...
2024-07-251h 02
The Trajectory AfricaBanking Africa's Ambitious: Anatomy of a Partner-Powered NeobankAccording to research by global consultancy Simon-Kucher in 2022, fewer than 5% of neobanks were profitable. A recent update suggests that most are still loss-makers, although a path to profitability is emerging. Also in 2022, Tech Cabal’s reporting on Kuda Bank’s NPLs (non-performing loans) sparked a discussion about what levels make sense for companies doing instant loans. And in a brilliant series of episodes about African neobanks, Afrobility posed a fundamental question: how do you profitably sell financial services to customers traditional banks don’t want (because they’re unprofitable)? It’s an important question because many compan...
2024-07-111h 19
The Trajectory AfricaB2B Payments: Unseating Cash through Value Chain IntegrationThis episode of The Trajectory Africa features Yele Oyekola, Co-founder and CEO of Duplo, a company on a mission to streamline financial operations for African businesses. We’re diving deep into the world of digitizing financial operations, from payables and expense management to reconciliation and reporting. Africa’s $1.5T B2B payments market represents a massive opportunity in a space that’s ripe for innovation—think medium to large businesses in industries like FMCG, logistics and manufacturing. These companies have a lot of challenges like managing manual operations to navigating payment terms.But it’s not just ab...
2024-06-271h 04
The Trajectory AfricaThinking Differently: A Case for Venture Building in African VCOn this special episode of The Trajectory Africa, we’re featuring “someone you should know”—David Ogundeko, Founder and Chief Vision Officer for Funema, a last-mile, impact-focused, alternative investment company. David has spent the last 7 years creating a model to engineer and invest in problem solving, impact creating, high growth SMEs. In the process, he’s reimagining a VC model for Africa, and has built the operational muscle to back his claims. In this conversation, we’ll learn how David’s challenging experiences as a founder spurred him to create a model that protects founders and their impact...
2024-06-181h 14
The Trajectory AfricaCross Border Payments and the Alchemy of Price and VolatilityOn this episode of The Trajectory Africa, we’re talking to Ola Oyetayo, Co-Founder and CEO of Verto, the first "all in one" cross-border payments platform for corporate treasuries in emerging markets. He’ll help us understand the mechanics of cross-border payments, why they're so expensive in Africa, how to improve price transparency and manage volatility, and how supporting cross-border payments evolves into accounts payable workflows. We're picking up a theme that emerged in Episode 2, when Samora Kariuki highlighted intercontinental money movement as an “unlock” for the rest of the (digital) financial system. Similarly, Wiza Jalakasi from Episode 3...
2024-05-2359 min
The Trajectory AfricaA Wordline Playbook for Africa: from Payments Infrastructure to SolutionsOn the previous episode of The Trajectory Africa, Wiza Jalakasi, Africa Market Development Director at EBANX suggested that infrastructure-building consumer payments businesses create value because of the sheer number of payment methods available, from mobile money to bank transfers and cards. With all these options, businesses taking consumer payments need a neutral third party to provide a single point of aggregation. But what does it *actually* take to build this type of infrastructure? What are the mechanics behind aggregating and routing payments? Is tech the hardest part, or is it business, finance and operations? And how do...
2024-05-091h 06
The Trajectory AfricaThe Hard Thing about (Consumer) Payments in AfricaOn this episode of The Trajectory Africa, we’ll hear from Wiza Jalakasi, Director for Africa Market Development at EBanx, a payments processor headquartered in Brazil. He’ll shed some light on why building payment rails in Africa is deceptively hard work—from why some payment methods work better in some places than others to whether infrastructure-building or enabling payments through APIs is the best way to create value.Tune in to hear about:[5:41] Key milestones in payments infrastructure creation[11:53] Why certain payment methods gain traction in different areas
2024-04-241h 03
The Trajectory AfricaBeyond Fintech? On building financial systems in AfricaOn this episode of The Trajectory Africa’s current series, "The Engine of African Venture: A Return to First Principles", we’re laying the foundation for a deeper exploration of fintech by stepping back to understand the system(s) that fintech creates and operates in. For that, we’re chatting with Samora Kariuki, Founder of the Frontier Fintech newsletter and Director at Sote, a company that’s building African supply chain infrastructure, about the goals and characteristics of Africa’s financial system(s). Tune in to hear about:[3:03] Why Samora launched Fr...
2024-04-1159 min
The Trajectory AfricaLong arm with no mouth: The physical limits of Africa's digital economyThis is the first episode of Part 1 of a new series on The Trajectory Africa —The Engine of African Venture, A Return to First Principles. This series will explore what powers fundamental value creation and investability in sectors that drive the bulk of African VC opportunities.Part 1 is focused on fintech, and this episode with Abraham Augustine, Comms & Programs Lead for Norrsken, tackles the premise that digitalizing African economies is the African investment opportunity. Abraham shares his perspective on how digital Africa’s digital economy can actually be and how this impacts the way vent...
2024-03-281h 09
The Trajectory AfricaThe Engine of African Venture: A Return to First PrinciplesThe Trajectory Africa’s second series, The Engine of African Venture: A Return to First Principles, is a two-part exploration of what powers fundamental value creation and investability in sectors that drive African VC opportunities. The first part is focused on fintech, starting from the premise that digitizing African economies is the African investment opportunity. From this foundation, the series will explore fintech’s subsectors—from market opportunities to business models—to tease out why they are (or aren’t) destinations for venture capital. For a recap of the previous series, check out The Trajectory Africa Rew...
2024-03-2103 min
The Trajectory AfricaLe ou La: Rightsizing Complexity when (Venture) Building in Francophone AfricaWelcome to Episode 5, the next to last of Dans les Coulisses, a series exploring VC and tech entrepreneurship in Francophone Africa, brought to you by Impact Hub Dakar and The Trajectory Africa. For this episode, we have two guests: Birame Sock and Madji Sock. Birame Sock is a technology expert with over 20 years of experience as a tech entrepreneur and high-level executive in the digital space. She recently founded Kwely, a B2B wholesale sourcing marketplace that showcases products made in Africa. Birame is also a co-founder of Haskè Ventures, a venture-builder and investment fun...
2023-03-091h 02
The Trajectory AfricaPopping Cristal: On How to Tap Unmet Need in Francophone MarketsWelcome to Episode 4 of Dans les Coulisses, a series exploring VC and tech entrepreneurship in Francophone Africa, brought to you by Impact Hub Dakar and The Trajectory Africa. This episode’s guest is Tijan Watt. Tijan is a Co-Founder and General Partner of Wuri Ventures, a pan-African venture capital fund focused on pre-seed and seed opportunities. Tijan has spent 20 years as an operator, building companies in Senegal and in the US, and as an investor, working in investment banking at Goldman Sachs, and private equity at Travant Capital Partners. Tijan graduated summa cum laude wit...
2023-02-2255 min
The Trajectory AfricaOn Our Own?: Growing Francophone Startup ChampionsWelcome to Episode 2 of Dans les Coulisses, a series exploring VC and tech entrepreneurship in Francophone Africa, brought to you by Impact Hub Dakar and The Trajectory Africa. Impact Hub Dakar is a Dakar-based incubator that supports early stage startups in Senegal, with a mission to help investors meet scalable, early stage startups in Francophone Africa. The Trajectory Africa is a “pop-up” podcast exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa.This episode’s guest is Omar Cissé. Omar is the Founder and CEO of InTou...
2022-12-0649 min
The Trajectory AfricaThe Trajectory Africa Rewind: Principles for Understanding African VentureWelcome to The Trajectory Africa: Rewind, the summary episode for the Trajectory Africa, a "pop-up" podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. Over the course of 11 episodes, the series has explored: the key characteristics of African markets; the opportunities presented by digital commerce, SME financing and fintech, and how they power the broader venture opportunity; what drives fund performance in terms of economics and structure; how funds raise money; and how LPs make investment decisions. The Rewind features key insights from the series, distilling th...
2022-09-291h 08
The Trajectory AfricaTracing Roots: The Role of LPs in African Venture Ecosystem(s)Welcome to Track 11 of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. This episode’s guest artist is Babacar Seck. Babacar is an investor passionate about projects that drive inclusive development, from education to healthcare and financial services. As a senior investment professional at Proparco, he focuses on designing and deploying a €200M venture capital program to fund and support African entrepreneurs while also managing a global investment portfolio of banks, insurance, and fintech. Prior to Proparco, Babacar led key areas of strategy and development for AXA...
2022-05-241h 02
The Trajectory AfricaListening with Empathy: Fundraising beyond SpreadsheetsWelcome to Track 10 of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. This episode’s guest artist is Danai Musandu. Danai is a Senior Investor Relations Associate at HPE Growth, where she leads and supports the public and investor relations function, with a focus on fundraising and strategic communication. Prior to HPE, Danai was an Investment and Investor Relations Associate at Goodwell Investments, an early-stage technology private equity firm focused on emerging markets and impact investing. Danai is an advisory board member of Private Equity International and...
2022-04-281h 08
The Trajectory AfricaBreaking Boundaries: Building Wealth & Community through African VCWelcome to Track 9 of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. This episode’s guest artist is Adenike Sheriff. Adenike is the Co-founder of Future Africa, a fund manager that invests early in mission driven founders solving hard problems for large markets. Prior to Future Africa, Adenike focused on content strategy and storytelling for technology companies in Africa and beyond. Her work has appeared in various international publications including the Huffington Post.In this episode, we discuss:How Adenike plotted an “unlikely” path into VCHow...
2022-03-3151 min
The Trajectory AfricaFun with VC Math: Designing Funds & Exits in AfricaWelcome to Track 8 of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. This episode’s guest artist is Eghosa Omoigui. Eghosa is the founder and Managing General Partner of EchoVC Partners, a seed and early-stage technology venture capital firm investing in underrepresented founders and underserved emerging markets. Prior to Echo, Eghosa worked for Intel, and in his last role served as the Director of Consumer Internet & Semantic Technologies for Intel Capital. A Kauffman Fellowship mentor, Eghosa is also engaged with organizations that support women founders and angel investors su...
2022-03-031h 00
The Trajectory AfricaPerception vs. Reality: How Fintech is Driving Africa's Digital EconomyBarbara Iyayi is an entrepreneur and investor with over 16 years of experience in venture capital, growth equity, and financial services. She has founded, invested in, scaled and advised, fintech and financial services companies globally. Currently, Barbara is the CEO & Founding Partner of Unicorn Growth Capital, an early-stage VC firm investing in the future of fintech. She also sits on the board of the World Wide Web Foundation. Prior to launching Unicorn, she was the Chief Growth Officer and Managing Director for Africa of Element, a pioneer of mobile deep learning, and served as the Board Chair of...
2022-01-2859 min
The Trajectory AfricaIf You Build It, They Will Come: Creating a Lending Ecosystem for African SMEsWelcome to Track 6 of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. This episode’s guest artist is Hilda Moraa. Hilda is the Founder & CEO of Pezesha, a holistic digital financial infrastructure powering embedded finance to SMEs and institutions across Africa. She is an award-winning entrepreneur and author, who has more than 10 years of experience in fintech, regulation, and working with supply chain-driven multinationals such as Coca-Cola. Prior to launching Pezesha, she founded WezaTele, a Kenyan fintech startup that was acquired in 2015. Hilda has been named a Top 30 Af...
2021-12-1642 min
The Trajectory AfricaNo Enterprise Left Behind: The Role of SMEs in Africa's Venture LandscapeWelcome to Track 5 of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. This episode’s guest artist is Kuhle Mnisi. Kuhle is a Principal at Secha Capital, which she joined to marry her finance skill with a deep passion for impact. Prior to joining Secha, Kuhle worked as an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Cape Town, and interned with Act in Africa, a design thinking and entrepreneurship development program, as well as Goldman Sachs in investment banking and PwC in auditing. In this conversation, Kuhle and I ex...
2021-12-151h 08
The Trajectory AfricaOne Step at a Time: Sizing Consumer Markets & Enabling Consumption in NigeriaWelcome to Track 4 of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. This episode’s guest artist is Abieyuwa Obaseki, a consultant at Stears Data, a division of Stears Business. Stears’ mission is to make it easy for anyone anywhere in the world to access high quality information and data on Africa. Abieyuwa currently focuses on delivering insights to, for, and about Nigeria’s technology and innovation ecosystems. Prior to Stears, she was a strategy consultant, advising clients in the UK across multiple sectors such as banking, telecoms, and con...
2021-09-241h 16
The Trajectory AfricaHold the C.R.E.A.M.: Decoding Consumer Markets & Digital Commerce in AfricaWelcome to Track 3 of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. Jake is a Co-founder of the DFS Lab, an early-stage investor and accelerator that supports entrepreneurs to refine, grow, and launch digital commerce ventures in Africa. He is formerly a Deputy Director with the Financial Inclusion team at the Gates Foundation, where he funded and worked closely with M-Pesa and many other successful mobile money innovations that comprised the first and second waves of success across Africa and South Asia. Prior to joining the Foundation, he...
2021-08-2555 min
The Trajectory AfricaWe Can Solve It Ourselves: The Case for African Startup SuccessWelcome to Track 2 of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. It’s inspired by the concept of a mixtape, in which each episode, or “track” will feature a conversation with a “guest artist”. There is also a soundtrack for inspiration provided by (DJ) Saphir Esmail via his Spotify playlist (link below).Our guest artist is Dotun Olowoporoku. Most recently, Dotun was an Associate Director at Novastar Ventures, an early stage fund that invests in businesses addressing the biggest problems for the low income mass markets in...
2021-07-291h 06
The Trajectory AfricaDon't Start a Fund? Kinyungu's New Take on Chasing OutliersWelcome to Track 1, the inaugural episode of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. With the unique African landscape—market characteristics, business environment, goals, and culture—as a starting point, The Trajectory Africa aims to pinpoint a destination for African tech, and the signposts that signal direction of travel. It’s inspired by the concept of a mixtape, in which each episode, or “track” will feature a conversation with a “guest artist”. There is also a soundtrack for inspiration provided by (DJ) Saphir Esmail via his Spotify playlist (link...
2021-06-2355 min
The Trajectory AfricaWelcome to The Trajectory: Africa!This is a brief introduction to The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. With the unique African landscape—market characteristics, business environment, goals, and culture—as a starting point, The Trajectory Africa aims to pinpoint a destination for African tech, and the signposts that signal direction of travel. It’s inspired by the concept of a mixtape, in which each episode, or “track” will feature a conversation with a “guest artist”. There is also a soundtrack for inspiration provided by (DJ) Saphir Esmail (bio below) via his Spotify playli...
2021-05-1505 min
2020-05-2059 min
African Tech Roundup PodcastTonjé Bakang of African Leadership Academy on Afrostream's demise and failing forwardYou might recall that in September 2017 the Cameroonian former Founder & CEO of Afrostream and current Chief Brand Officer of African Leadership Academy's Anzisha Prize, Tonjé Bakang, published a heavily-publicised Medium post in French announcing that his VOD streaming service was shutting down. Here is Tonjé's letter in English— translated by Audrey Lang: http://bit.ly/tonjéokayafrica. Our very own Andile Masuku even wrote a syndicated op-ed for Business Report South Africa (http://bit.ly/tonjeoped) celebrating Tonjé's decision to chronicle how and why his company failed. By founding Afrostream, Tonjé set out to capture the loyalty of an u...
2018-09-0748 min