African Tech Roundup

Following a sunny Johannesburg lunch al fresco, Nendo (https://nendo.co.ke) Founder and CEO Mark Kaigwa and Andile Masuku chat about a few consumer tech issues that are currently trending in their lives.

Listen in to learn why the music streaming service Boomplay is thriving in Africa, how Transsion's African digital domination strategy seems to be coming together nicely, why Xiaomi's Pocophone F1 smartphone is shaking things up in the global high-end mobile device market, and why Mark and Andile feel obliged to weigh the pros and cons of switching back to Android after several years of being iPhone users.

Resource referenced in this episode:

From Cyber Café to Smartphone: Kenya’s Social Media Lens Zooms In on the Country and Out to the World http://bit.ly/KenyaSocialMedia

This podcast is the first instalment of a three-part miniseries (http://bit.ly/atrudigitalassets) produced by African Tech Roundup (https://africantechroundup.com) to spark a broader debate about the nature and value of African digital assets within the context of the world’s emerging digital economy.

Joining Andile Masuku for this conversation are two distinguished Cape Town-based innovators. First, the Zimbabwean-born Professor of Intellectual Property at the University of Cape Town’s Faculty of Law and co-editor of the South African Intellectual Property Law Journal, Caroline Ncube. Caroline has authored a book called Intellectual Property Policy, Law and Administration in Africa: Exploring continental and sub-regional co-operation and co-edited another called Indigenous Knowledge and Intellectual Property. She is also a fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Society, a Shell Centenary Scholarship Fund scholar, an associate member of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society at the University of Ottawa and a co-leader of the Open African Innovation Research Partnership.

Also featured in this episode is Saidah Nash Carter, the African-American intrapraneur who serves as Head of Innovation at Thomson Reuters Africa. While at Reuters NewMedia, early on in her career, Saidah helped to build and launch some of the first online news services for early internet sensations like Yahoo! and AOL. Today, however, she heads up one of the seven innovation labs Thomson now runs globally (now branded Refinitiv Labs)— the only one so far based in an emerging market. Some notable successes in her current role include overseeing Thomson Reuters’ Africa Startup Challenge and getting her team’s agrotech financial inclusion initiative, dubbed Bankable Farmer, off the ground.

Listen in to gain a better appreciation of the historical approaches to dealing with intellectual property, in particular, as Africa undertakes to construct legal frameworks and set standards for the use of digital assets— that is, to figure out how to go about administering their creation, registering their ownership, determining their value, and regulating their exchange.

Editorial Disclaimer: Raise (https://getraise.io) is the presenting sponsor of this podcast, which is part of an African Tech Roundup miniseries focused on digital assets. Raise is a founding member of the African Digital Asset Framework aka ADAF (https://adaf.io). African Tech Roundup retains full editorial control over all published content. Opinions expressed by the host, Andile Masuku, and his guests, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the presenting sponsor, Raise.

Joining Andile Masuku and guest co-host Rushil Vallabh of Secha Capital on this African Tech Roundup podcast is Grant Phillips. Grant is the Founder and CEO of PhilTech Consulting and has partnered with both Convergence Partners and Stockdale Street (the Oppenheimer Family’s South African private equity outfit) to "build out technology ecosystems across Africa". He was previously the CEO and Chairman of the Nairobi-based credit reference bureau and debt management outsource organisation CRB Africa as well as CEO of TransUnion’s Pan-African business.

Listen in to hear Andile, Rushil and Grant unpack the provocative assertion that venture capital is a Ponzi scheme, recently made by the American-Sri Lankan Founder and CEO of Social Capital Chamath Palihapitiya. Head to [1:18:12] if you'd like to skip straight to that conversation.

Chamath - a bona fide billionaire - was an early senior executive at Facebook. Following that, Chamath founded Social Capital which he claims, its first 8 years, made double what Berkshire Hathaway made in its first 8 years of business. But now, apparently, he's done with the limited partnership VC model and with running a successful hedge fund. Hence, he's decided to reorganise Social Capital into a holding company that will pick investments on the basis of both solid business fundamentals and "value to humanity"— and offer investees all the finance and growth support they need to thrive.

Given media reports regarding Rocket Internet's puzzling plans to exit their investment in the struggling online shopping platform Jumia via a stock exchange listing in the US, Africa's early-stage investment ecosystem might do well to soberly reflect on Chamath's controversial aversion to the VC model largely popularised by Silicon Valley.

Topics discussed in this episode:

Somalia’s Premier Bank announces a USD1 million fund to invest in Somali startups [14:45]

Kenya earmarks just under USD10 million for local phone manufacturing [15:55]

Airtel Africa raises USD1.25 billion [18:14]

Update on MTN Nigeria's regulatory woes [21:36]

Rocket Internet set to list Jumia in the US [24.09]

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) could invest USD3 million in Kobo360 [30:26]

South Africa is getting Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centres [43:42]

Naspers is agressively reorganising its portfolio [48:03]

Angola Cables' South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) is live [52:06]

Zambia's Central Bank warns against trading cryptocurrencies [54:05]

Liquid Telecom completes acquisition of CEC Liquid Telecom (Zambia) [59:04]

Nexxus Ventures backs South African equity crowdfunding startup Uprise.Africa [1:00:57]

Education fintech Prodigy lands a billion dollar line of credit [1:03:32]

Standard Bank South Africa set to launch a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) [1:07:28]

Malawi plans to force businesses to accept digital payments [1:09:02]

Andela pays coders at least 50% less than Silicon Valley coders earn [1:09:40]

Facebook continues to lose top executives + Facebook data breach [1:10:55]

Apple & Amazon accused of having servers compromised by spyware-laden chips [1:12:32]

Apple and Samsung fined by Italy for planned obsolescence [1:13:17]

Uber keen to buy Careem [1:14:36]

Airbnb wants to share equity with home sharing listees [1:15:00]

Discussion: Is VC a Ponzi Scheme? [1:18:12]

Resources referenced in this episode:

The Africa Innovation Paradigm Whitepaper: http://bit.ly/AfricanInnovationParadigmReport

Chamath Palihapitiya This Week In Startups Interview: http://bit.ly/ChamathInterview

Social Capital 2018 Annual Letter: http://bit.ly/SocialCapital2018AnnualLetter

Paul Kent is Co-founder and Managing Director of Sureswipe, a South African payments solutions startup dedicated to making card payment acceptance easy and accessible for small and medium-sized retailers and service providers.

Sureswipe started out as a business division of the cloud-based clinical and billing practice management software firm, Healthbridge, before it evolved into the Point-Of-Sale (POS) product driven startup it is today. Since 2008, Paul has helped to grow Sureswipe into one of the more recognisable brands in South Africa's crowded payments market. The business currently services over 9,000 merchants and employs more than 100 people.

In this conversation with Andile Masuku, Paul sheds light on Sureswipe's growth strategy and provides pragmatic insight about the market intelligence and business partnerships required to succeed in South Africa's competitive payments industry.

South African Lyndsey Duff is the South Africa Country Manager at What3Words— a British startup which provides a precise physical location solution that has broken up the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares and assigned each one a unique 3-word address.

Prior to joining What3Words, Lyndsey oversaw inward investment at the South African High Commission UK, following stints at the Palace of Westminster and the South African Chamber of Commerce.

In this brief chat with Andile Masuku - taped at Africa Tech Summit Kigali 2018 - Lyndsey outlines What3Words' African business goals and unpacks the company's ambition to better tech heavies like Google by ushering in the "next global addressing standard".

On this podcast, Andile Masuku chats with two exceptional, Cape Townian entrepreneurs who are both actively involved in a youth-focused tech hub initiative called the Masakhe Techville Creative Technology Center in KwaLanga township, where they both grew up. The project is an initiative of the Masakhe Foundation.

Mpilo Ngcukana co-founded the Simon Deporres men’s clothing brand in 2007 - while studying Finance and Economics at the University of Cape Town, and is currently working to launch an art gallery in Langa. And Thulani Fesi is a street art curator and hospitality and entertainment innovator who was previously part of the independent record label, 021 Records, alongside notable stablemates DJ Fosta and Skullman.

In this conversation, Mpilo and Thulani let us into the grassroots struggle to bring disadvantaged youth in KwaLanga up to speed with advances in tech, in order to set them up for success in today’s increasingly digital world.

Editorial Disclaimer: Airbnb (https://airbnb.com) is the presenting sponsor of this podcast, which is part of an African Tech Roundup (https://africantechroundup.com) miniseries focused on inclusive travel and tourism— recorded at the Africa Travel Summit 2018 (https://africatravelsummit.com). African Tech Roundup retains full editorial control over all published content. Opinions expressed by the host, Andile Masuku, and his guests, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the presenting sponsor, Airbnb.

Image credit: Phi Hùng Nguyễn (https://unsplash.com/@hungnp92)

This podcast features two South African startup founders working the trenches of the emerging gig economy.

Human geneticist-turned-entrepreneur Aisha Pandor is the Co-founder and CEO of SweepSouth, an on-demand booking platform for home cleaning services. SweepSouth is quite notably the first South African start-up to be accepted into the 500 Startups Accelerator in Silicon Valley.

Velani Mboweni is the Co-founder and CEO of the ride-sharing service, LULA. This Global Fellow of the San Francisco-based Kairos Society and alumnus of the South Africa-Washington International Program is currently spearheading a mission to transform the way people commute by leveraging on the shared economy and mobile technology.

Aisha and Velani were both born into families with a rich political history and have inherited considerable privilege as a result. Aisha is the daughter of South Africa’s current Minister of Higher Education, Dr Naledi Pandor, and Velani is the nephew of former South African Reserve Bank governor, Tito Mboweni— who was just recently appointed Minister of Finance by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Listen in to learn what motivated these founders to forgo cushy professional paths in favour of becoming entrepreneurs, and to find out what it’s like to launch and run startups servicing two highly politicised industries.

Editorial Disclaimer: Airbnb (https://airbnb.com) is the presenting sponsor of this podcast, which is part of an African Tech Roundup (https://africantechroundup.com) miniseries focused on inclusive travel and tourism— recorded at the Africa Travel Summit 2018 (https://africatravelsummit.com). African Tech Roundup retains full editorial control over all published content. Opinions expressed by the host, Andile Masuku, and his guests, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the presenting sponsor, Airbnb.

Anita Mendiratta is the Canadian Founder and Managing Director of Cachet Consulting, a firm which services governments, multinational corporations and global NGO’s.

Anita has over two decades of tourism and economic development experience gleaned on almost every continent and possesses an enviable grasp of the economic, social, political and environmental dynamics impacting nations grappling with change. She is currently a Strategic Advisor to CNN International, a Board Member for the Thebe Group, a Strategic Resource to the World Bank and a Partner to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).

In this brief conversation with Andile Masuku, Anita reflects on the progress Africa's tourism industry has made since she first arrived on the continent in the 90's and factors in on the challenges and opportunities that remain.

Editorial Disclaimer: Airbnb (https://www.airbnb.com/) is the presenting sponsor of this podcast, which is part of an African Tech Roundup (https://www.africantechroundup.com/) miniseries focused on inclusive travel and tourism— recorded at the Africa Travel Summit 2018 (http://africatravelsummit.com/). African Tech Roundup retains full editorial control over all published content. Opinions expressed by the host, Andile Masuku, and his guest, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the presenting sponsor, Airbnb.

This super-chill conversation, taped at the fringes of Africa Tech Summit 2018, features Google South Africa’s Head of Communications and Public Affairs, Mich Atagana. Mich is an exceedingly well-travelled former-journalist who, as Editor of Memeburn and Ventureburn, previously covered emerging tech and startups on the continent.

Mich was a GSMA Global Mobile Awards judge for 4 years (from 2014 to 2017), and also formerly penned a column for CNN which featured insight about leading tech companies around the world.

In this chat with Andile Masuku, Mich reveals how Google is working to ensure that Africans coming online - as access to the internet improves - are equipped with relevant educational resources to help them thrive in digital terms, and are served with content that reflects their world.

Look out for some fun cameos in this episode.

Editorial Disclaimer: Airbnb (https://airbnb.com) is the presenting sponsor of this podcast, which is part of an African Tech Roundup (https://africantechroundup.com) miniseries focused on inclusive travel and tourism— recorded at the Africa Travel Summit 2018. African Tech Roundup retains full editorial control over all published content. Opinions expressed by the host, Andile Masuku, and his guest/s do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the presenting sponsor, Airbnb.

Honourable Najib Balala is Kenya’s Minister of Tourism and Wildlife. After previously serving in that cabinet position once before, from 2008 to 2012, and subsequently serving as Chairman of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, Hon. Balala was re-appointed as Kenya's Tourism Minister in 2015.

Following the establishment of Kenya’s new Constitution in 2012, Hon. Balala was responsible for delivering the country’s reformed Tourism Bill and providing the sector with a policy designed to promote growth and sustainability through public-private cooperation.

Listen in for insights from a man credited with steering Kenya’s tourism sector to recovery following the country’s tragic post-election violence in 2008, and for being the chief architect of what is widely considered one of the continent’s most progressive tourism policy and legal frameworks.

Editorial Disclaimer: Airbnb (https://airbnb.com) is the presenting sponsor of this podcast, which is part of an African Tech Roundup (https://africantechroundup.com) miniseries focused on inclusive travel and tourism— recorded at the Africa Travel Summit 2018. African Tech Roundup retains full editorial control over all published content. Opinions expressed by the host, Andile Masuku, and his guest do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the presenting sponsor, Airbnb.