African Tech Roundup

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 addresses some misconceptions that outsiders tend to have about how things work at one of Africa's most-publicised startups.

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.