African Tech Round-Up

Collins Onuegbu is the Nigerian Founder of Signal Alliance as well as a Director of the Lagos Angel Network. In this conversation with Andile Masuku - taped at Africa Tech Summit Kigali 2018 (https://www.africatechsummit.com/kigali/) - Collins frames the massive business opportunity that is Nigeria, explains the difference between business angel investment efforts and less disciplined traditional angel funding activities, and unpacks why he believes that Africa’s early-stage startup scene would be best served by indigenous money.

Back on the show for the first time since contributing his fair share of involuntary hot takes on Episode 109 entitled "Investor Bias Debate 2.0 + Should Africa Embrace Uberisation?" (http://bit.ly/investorbias) Tapsnapp Founder, Vije Vijendrenath assumes co-hosting duties in Musa Kalenga’s absence. Andile Masuku chats to him about the workarounds he's deployed to secure funding for two startups that he previously struggled to get investors to take seriously-- namely, www.tapsnapp.co and www.youbabyandi.com. Then, joining Andile and Vije on the show for a deep dive into South Africa's mobility scene is Obakeng Morapeli Matlhoko, the Founder of AftaRobot-- South Africa's ambitious "Uber for minibus taxis". Obakeng shares trench insights into his company’s audacious attempt usher in a new paradigm for the country’s notoriously fragmented minibus taxi industry. Music Credits: Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Wambui Kinya is the Chief Strategy Officer at Andela-- a startup helping companies overcome tech talent shortages by delivering high performing distributed engineering teams that leverage some of Africa's finest coding talent. Wambui joined Andela after spending over eighteen years working within the professional services space (spanning digital, mobile marketing and technology consulting) in North America, Europe and Africa for companies such as ThoughtWorks (where she notably served as Group Managing Director, Pan-Africa and South America), Praekelt Consulting and IBM Global Business Services. In her current role, Wambui has been tasked with developing partnerships with top tech organizations across the continent and with spearheading Andela's tech leadership recruitment efforts. In this candid chat with Andile Masuku, taped at African Tech Summit Kigali 2018 (https://www.africatechsummit.com/kigali/) she unpacks Andela's distinctive approach to capitalising on the global gig economy trend and address

Karabo Songo and Musa Kalenga are the savvy business minds behind FastGro-- the 100% black-owned investment firm which just acquired a 25.1% share of the independent agency, House of Brave (HOB). As part of the deal, Karabo has been appointed the business' Group CEO, while Musa has assumed the position of Chief Future Officer. In this conversation with Andile Masuku, Karabo and Musa share how they plan to go about applying platform thinking and leveraging technological innovation to thrive within an industry that's currently taking serious strain.

Bunmi Akinyemiju is Co-founder and CEO of Nigeria's Venture Garden Group-- a global technology firm which owns several fully-developed SaaS intellectual properties. Bunmi has over 16 years of entrepreneurial experience in high-tech sales, solutions development and management, and has so far led the development of over 20 proprietary technologies in multiple sectors globally. In this conversation with Andile Masuku, Bunmi unpacks the platform strategy driving Venture Garden's approach to incubating, funding and operating early-stage tech firms, and shares the rationale behind what is now the biggest African ICO to date-- Sure Gift's $7 million raise to launch the Sure Remit remittance platform.

So, we invited friends of the African Tech Roundup podcast to join us for drinks at the Kigali Marriott's Iriba Bar between 4:30 PM and 6:00 PM on Feb 13th, 2018-- the day before the Africa Tech Summit Kigali conference. And when the homies demanded an impromptu podcast session, we gladly obliged. Listen in to hear what was trending at the recent #ATRULive Meetup Kigali.

We aren't even halfway through the first quarter of 2018 but already, we've seen a fair amount of questionable 'factual' content do the rounds on social media. In this episode of the African Tech Roundup, https://AfricaCheck.org Editor, Anim Van Wyk, joins Andile Masuku and Musa Kalenga to examine the seriousness of Africa's fake news problem and chat through recent highlights from Africa's emerging tech and innovation scene. Listen in to hear Anim explain why you shouldn't trust anyone - not even fact-checking organisations - without verifying their claims. She also explains why debunking false information on platforms like WhatsApp and WeChat is especially tricky, and shares handy pro tips on spotting and preventing the dissemination of "alternative facts" and fake news. Music Credits: Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Tunde Kehinde is the co-founder of Lidya, a branchless internet bank that aims to ease Nigeria's estimated $30 billion small business credit gap. Tunde holds a honours degree in finance from Howard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He previously co-founded the logistics startup, Africa Courier Express (ACE). Before that, he co-founded Jumia.com and served as the e-commerce giant's Managing Director. In this chat with Andile Masuku, Tunde reflects on his founder experience and explains why investors keen on helping Lidya deliver on their mission best be ready to put some serious skin into the game.

Kola Aina is the Founder and CEO of the Nigerian-based pan-African seed-stage fund and accelerator, Ventures Platform. The firm's portfolio includes well-publicised Nigerian rising startup stars like Paystack and Printivo, as well as promising, lesser-known ventures like the Cameroonian wifi entertainment platform, Viva. In this conversation with Andile Masuku, Kola unpacks his firm's investment thesis and their Y Combinator-esque approach to startup incubation and acceleration. He also shares his concern about what he considers to be a deep-seated tendency to underestimate the value of African capital and local context.

In the first full African Tech Roundup podcast of 2018, Andile Masuku mulls over Gefira Solutions Founder and CEO Bert Bruggeman's assertion that we can't just "app our way" to solving all of Africa's problems. Then, he ponders which hybrid investment approaches might prove successful in fueling African startups in 2018, and echoes the questions posed by Seyi Fabode’s blog post entitled: “Is It Time To Dump The ‘Lean Startup’ Approach?” Also, in this episode, Andile gives a quick update on the #NotOurManifesto dumpster fire that Co-Creation Hub Nigeria co-founder Femi Longe lit late last year and shares some encouraging news regarding the https://africamanifesto.com initiative that was subsequently launched. Music Credits: Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Bert Bruggeman is the Belgian Founder and CEO of the Silicon Valley-based technology advisory firm, Gefira Solutions. Bert has an impressive 25-year track record of successful technology product development and C-level leadership in a broad range of high-tech industries. Gefira Solutions is keen to act on their expansion agenda within Africa's hardware development and innovation space. In this conversation with Andile Masuku, Bert unpacks his organisation's vision and explains why Africa can't simply "app its way" to solving all its problems and achieving digital transformation goals.

Montserrat native Kenfield Griffith is co-founder and CEO of mSurvey-- a data analytics SaaS startup based in Nairobi Kenya. In 2012, Kenfield partnered with Kenyan Louis Majanja to launch the business following an extended visit to Nairobi to conduct some research for his MIT PhD on the use of technology as a means to improving communication. In this conversation with Andile Masuku, Kenfield explains why he's bullish on 2018 and unpacks how mSurvey's data analytics platform is delivering solid business results for an impressive roster of big-name clients in East Africa, the US and the Caribbean.

Rich Tanksley is the Senior Vice President of Special Projects at the Nigerian-American consultancy, NeuBridges. Formerly the CEO of Pulse.ng, Rich continues to be the Ringier-owned online media platform's brand ambassador. Prior to that, he spent three years working at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) in Ghana as a senior faculty member and headed up Africa operations for Seedstars. In this conversation with Andile Masuku - taped at Afrobytes Tech Conference 2017 - Rich speaks on some of the gaps he perceives within Africa's innovation culture and factors in on issues that he reckons make doing business in Africa a tricky proposition for naive outsiders. He also comments on the massive growth potential of Nigeria's commercial digital media scene.

French-born Cameroonian Alec Fokapu is the founder and CEO of FiftyFor, a B2B rating platform for African companies. FiftyFor uses an algorithm to compute ratings on governance structure, financial strength, operational capability, and the social and environmental impact of African companies.  Alec has 10 years of experience working as a financial analyst in international infrastructure projects at Total and Crédit Agricole CIB. Prior to launching FiftyFor in 2014, he founded an investment firm dedicated to financing promising African SMEs and entrepreneurs. In this conversation with Andile Masuku - taped at Afrobytes Tech Conference 2017 - Alec explains why business rating not only helps big business interests vet prospective African investees and suppliers but can also assist local SME’s in improving their investibility and bridge the entrepreneurial culture gap between them and the developed world.

By this time last year, Africa's tech and innovation media community had started to go into hibernation for the Festive Season. But this year’s different… Bitcoin is doing the thing, America’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is poised to put net neutrality out of its misery, Uber is bracing for a severe regulatory backlash after trying to conceal a 2016 data breach affecting 57 million users, and complex corruption allegations continue to dog the JSE-listed IT service management giant, EOH, as well as Naspers (who now indirectly own a piece of Spotify thanks to the streaming service’s recent mini-merger with Tencent Music). The tail-end of Q4 2018 has also featured some encouraging local tech ecosystem developments— like several promising African startups landing much needed early-stage funding and key ecosystem stakeholders (founders, investors, policy makers and innovation hub runners) participating in vigorous public debates about maximising the creation and exchange of solid business value withi

2017 has seen Maya Horgan Famodu transition from overseeing efforts to assist corporations and investors integrate into the African tech ecosystem via Ingressive's market entry and operations services, to becoming an early stage tech venture capitalist at Ingressive Capital. In this conversation with Andile Masuku, Maya explains how she's leveraging her Nigerian-Swedish-American heritage, her bullet-proof professional reputation and the insights she's continuing to glean via Ingressive's legacy activities to take on the challenge of participating in the continent's emerging early stage investment scene.

This Medium blog entitled, "Startups4Africa: This is NOT OUR MANIFESTO" by Co-Creation Hub Nigeria Co-founder Femi Longe has caused quite a stir on social media: http://bit.ly/2AxCEMv. In this chat with Andile Masuku, Femi explains why he couldn't keep his pen still after he returned to Nigeria following the recent EU-Africa Summit, where a "collaborative" document entitled "Startups 4 Africa: Manifesto for the development of a thriving community of African-European startup ecosystems" was presented.

Khaled Ismail is the Chairman and Founder of two Cairo-based angel funds— KI Angel and HIM Angel. He also serves as advisor to Algebra Ventures, Egypt’s leading technology venture capital outfit, which focuses primarily on Series A and Series B investments in Egypt and the MENA region. In this conversation with Andile Masuku - taped at the fringes of African Angel Investor Summit 2017 (www.AAIS2017.com) - Khaled relates how he went from being a career technologist to founding seven tech ventures since 1991 (including a 4G mobile tech firm which was acquired by Intel) before accidentally falling into structured angel funding activities. Khaled also explains how he’s acting on his idealistic desire to tear down trade barriers linked to Africa’s colonial past. He's determined to normalise the interchange of both angel funding and startup founding talent across the continent.

Israeli investor Ido Sum is a Partner at TLcom Capital— a venture capital firm with a presence in Nairobi, Lagos and London. Since 1999, the firm has invested in Telecom, Media and Technology (TMT) companies in Europe, Israel and Sub Saharan Africa and currently manages total commitments in excess of €200 million. In this conversation with Andile Masuku - taped at the fringes of African Angel Investor Summit 2017 (www.AAIS2017.com) - Ido fields questions regarding the prevalence of investor bias, the appropriateness of certain VC approaches on the continent, and of course, TLcom's participation in one of 2017’s most well-publicised startup investment deals— Andela’s $40 million Series C, led by South African Pule Taukobong of CRE Venture Capital. Here's a link to Ido Sum's crowdsourced African Investment Landscape Database: http://bit.ly/2Abm8lj. If you are actively involved in early-stage investment efforts on the continent, Ido welcomes your contributions to the spreadsheet.

In this conversation, Andile Masuku asks PesaCheck.org Managing Editor, Eric Mugendi, to reflect on the unprecedented leveraging of digital technologies by leading actors in Kenya's controversial elections, and to factor in on how the country's emerging tech ecosystem is doing in the aftermath.