Matt and Premal first met one another through a shared passion for microfinance and co-founded kiva.org in 2005. In this special episode, they take a look back to hear from many of the staff who helped to launch, sustain, and scale Kiva in the early days and years. Thank you to everyone who played a role in getting Kiva off the ground. Thanks also to those from the early days who weren’t able to participate in this episode. And sincere gratitude to all the Kiva lenders around the world who continue to make Kiva possible. For those of you who are curious to learn how Kiva got started and want to hear stories from the early days, we hope you enjoy this episode!

Below is the list of Kivans in roughly chronological order in those early days….

02;11 - Carl Haynes

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlhaynes/

05;52 - Jeremy Frazao

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyfrazao/

12;15 - Fiona Ramsey

https://www.linkedin.com/in/fionaramsey/

16;33 - Ali Price

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicarrollprice/

18;05 - Jonny Price

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonnyprice/

18;43 - Ben Elberger

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-elberger-5094347/

20;22 - Rupa Tejura

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rupamodi/

22;08 - Sam Mankiewicz

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sammankiewicz/

24;16 - Aldi Haryopratomo

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aldi-haryopratomo-434455/

27;42 - Karen Little

https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenelittle/

29;13 - Bennett Grassano

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bennett-grassano-20335a/

34;24 - Gerard Niemira

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerard-niemira-aaa9b73/

37;35 - Justin Renfro

https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinrenfro/

39;22 - Bennett Grassano performs his original Kiva song “Jonny Got His Fun”

You can download the song here: https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/QeXZMjbUPX9ZGF3H6 (https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/QeXZMjbUPX9ZGF3H6)

Babs is the co-founder and CEO of Kuda. Babs and his team are pioneering the expansion of financial inclusion, and the concept of neobanking in Nigeria. The Kuda Andriod app has been downloaded over 1 million times.

A few years ago, Babs and a small team of people determined to transform banking launched a savings app for Nigerians. That app was the first step toward Kuda.

Today, Kuda is even more determined and they’ve built a Central Bank-licensed, microfinance bank to help Nigerians get the best out of their money without overcharging them. Kuda includes tools for tracking spending habits, saving more, and making the right money moves.

Kuda knows the pain that comes with using a traditional bank and they’re on a mission to make things work better for everyone.

John Oke is the Founder and CEO of Wallets Africa. Wallets.Africa is based in Nigeria and helps Africans and African owned businesses send money, receive money, make card payments, and access overdrafts.

After working in the digital financial services sector for about a decade, the founding team came to the realization that customers' main gripes with traditional financial institutions always boiled down to poor customer service, accessibility, and unreasonable fees.

The team looked at these problems and saw a future where people and businesses can make their bank app a key part of their daily life not only because it was easy to use, but mainly because it actually helped them become more healthy financially by providing basic banking services for cheaper, making it easier to budget spending and providing investment opportunities that enrich the everyday person. Wallets Africa was ultimately born out of this desire to make lives better.

Wallets Africa is a Y Combinator alumni. They were recognized as one of 100 leading global innovators in financial services, the best electronic payment website in Nigeria in 2019 by NIRA, and one of the top 100 SMEs 2020 in Nigeria by Business Day.

Odunayo Eweniyi is the Co-founder and COO of PiggyVest - a pioneering savings and investment app in Nigeria. https://www.youtube.com/redirect?redir_token=QUFFLUhqbllWQU1ZRnlNWEc2ZGMyb25rYzVOcU5oVFZ2Z3xBQ3Jtc0ttWkpiMk45M1d4WnFyRjNWZlV3N3JxaER6a2I4QVVFM1JnUnlkcUxWZEM4Y29ucFQwT0gwVVFVRllYQ1dnSmZkX0RPVGFKRlNsQ0ZPaUVicFdhRWxnWEFUU2xSSmJldFI3VDRCLVY5bDNLOGVtbm54dw%3D%3Dandv=qVUlUlcw1Xoandq=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.piggyvest.com%2Fandevent=video_description (https://www.piggyvest.com/)

PiggyVest is the first online “Savings and Investment” app in all of West Africa. They first launched as “Piggybank.ng” on the 7th of January 2016 as a savings-only platform.

PiggyVest is a simple app that helps you save and invest with ease. With PiggyVest, you can stop spending excessively and put away (and grow!) funds that you do not want to touch.

You can choose to save little amounts of money periodically (Daily, Weekly or Monthly) towards a specific target OR lock away funds for a specified period of time.

PiggyVest takes away the stress by combining simplicity, discipline, convenience, and flexibility to enable you to manage your finances better and achieve financial freedom.

For 3 years, they offered only savings to its users. Then in April of 2019, they rebranded to “PiggyVest” and began offering direct investment opportunities to users in addition to savings.

4 years on, they have continued to deliver excellent service to over 1,000,000 users and counting, helping them manage their finances with simplicity and transparency. Combined, their users save and invest billions of Naira every month that they would have instead spent.

PiggyVest is on a mission 'to give everyone the power to better manage and grow their finances', and they intend to be the best at this.

A company that Odunayo is inspired by is Welathfront (https://www.youtube.com/redirect?redir_token=QUFFLUhqbDhBc09HQ1dxcld3Q0VKbURFLWgzek1KNnJPZ3xBQ3Jtc0trUHl0WDB3blFlckR3QjMycUsyS2ppRDk0SS1XNWlQLS1OTWFoN0MydW0xNU1xSmVZQk1NcHh2ei1PSlpidXFYNDZZOTAtQ1FUdWZLY3pHTjhPWl9sc2VIbWl5azBOcktQNXhQOE91U2VrSjJHdlNzSQ%3D%3Dandv=qVUlUlcw1Xoandq=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wealthfront.com%2Fandevent=video_description (https://www.wealthfront.com/))

You can find Odunayo on LinkedIn: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?redir_token=QUFFLUhqbWRMNkJKV2RKdlBsaXVlazZkZFNVTGxkSFd2Z3xBQ3Jtc0tuZFhMOEJIRzFjVExKOGhfcVRSbTN2b3JkNzV6TTJpUnZ3a2JDWjJKS1BnVnJHM0tRVjZGdmY2SHlBTWFEbnNQMmNRSUU4bXRFMjJSX19jZzdRano4Vkh6b0gzSENxdEh4LUlXak5PZ05qTUg3dmRoTQ%3D%3Dandv=qVUlUlcw1Xoandq=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fodunayoeweniyi%2Fandevent=video_description (https://www.linkedin.com/in/odunayoew...)

Jonny Price is originally from the UK, where he started his career in strategy consulting with Oliver Wyman. In 2011, he joined Kiva.org as the Founder of its U.S. lending division, leading that team for seven years. In early 2018, he joined Wefunder as Director of Business Development. His primary role is recruiting great companies that are excited to use crowdfunding to raise capital and gain customers. He serves on the Federal Reserve Board's Community Advisory Council, and has a degree in History from the University of Cambridge.

Maria Rotilu is a former Management Consultant at Deloitte who transitioned into helping technology startups scale in Sub-Saharan Africa. She did this in leadership positions at Uber as the Country Manager and as General Manager, West Africa at Branch.co. Maria is currently the Managing Director at Oxford Seed Fund.

Maria loves to help technology businesses reach global scale through her rich experience as a venture builder and also through her work at the Oxford Seed Fund - a team of select international team of entrepreneurs, investors, and industry specialists. The OSF invests up to £50,000 in the top Oxford-affiliated startups and provides them with the network and support they need to scale.

Branch.co is a global android-powered mobile lending company in Nigeria, India, Kenya, and Tanzania that uses cutting-edge data science on data from smartphones to credit score customers and disburse micro-loans and offer financial services. Branch has given out more than 15 million loans to over 5 million customers worldwide. Under Maria’s leadership, Branch Nigeria grew from $50k to over $100 million in disbursements and reached over 2 million customers. She also led the fundraising of an oversubscribed $10 commercial paper, and leads the business across several major functions including customer success, people operations, finance, legal and compliance, marketing, product localization and new product initiatives.

Maria graduated from Covenant University with a BSc. in Computer Science, and is also a Chartered Accountant with ACCA in the United Kingdom. Maria is also an MBA Student at Said Business School, University of Oxford and an Eni-Oxford Africa Scholar.

Maria believes supporting impactful businesses to reach global scale is the key to individual and collective economic prosperity.

You can find Maria Rotilu on Linkedin - https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fmariarotiluandevent=video_descriptionandv=X9oNYg-IeCkandredir_token=QUFFLUhqbmVWSkRtV2NYNkduWUp0NVFUcV9UeVBsVjBld3xBQ3Jtc0tuQW9ieUdfTEpWS05MWElxVTF5ZlB0VWRuSlBfV0libm9jekN3V1pqRkc5Q2JGTmlqdWdiejBMVUtKS1dNak1fczRFR0hDR2VZQ2c0dTdwWjQtUDBsV2pxUEd5alYzSklCaHI1TXNmczlhSGE0UFZUWQ%3D%3D (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariarotilu)

Sheel Mohnot helps to design, build, and improve human ecosystems through technology, as a creator or an investor/partner.

Sheel's been quoted in a number of publications, including the New York Times, New Yorker, Reuters, WSJ, Venturebeat, Forbes, Inc, Crains, HuffPo, and India Abroad.

He's interested in technology businesses that disrupt financial institutions or enable them to act more efficiently. He has a soft spot for companies that help those who feel abandoned by the current financial system but invests across the Fintech/Insuretech/Real Estate tech spectrum.

Sheel has had 2 successful Fintech exits of his own and has invested in and advised a broader set of companies.

Aside from fintech, Sheel co-founded the podcast "The Pitch" which was acquired by Gimlet Media (reaches ~100k weekly listeners), and a food company called Thistle that serves 10's of thousands of customers every week.

Matt and Premal discuss Fintech with Shola Akinlade.

Shola Akinlade is the CEO and Co-founder of Paystack, which was recently purchased by https://stripe.com/ (Stripe) for over $200 million in October.

Paystack is a technology company solving payments problems for ambitious businesses. Their mission is to help businesses in Africa become profitable, envied, and loved. They are breaking all barriers so that African businesses can quickly and easily accept payments from anyone, anywhere.

In this episode, Shola talks about what it takes to scale successfully. In September of 2020, Paystack did about 15 million transactions in one month, and in order to be successful, they need to execute 99.99 percent of those transactions without any issues. If they were only able to execute 99 percent without any issues, they would have had 150,000 problems.

Learn more at https://www.paystack.com (https://www.paystack.com)