Startup Couches

I had Michael on the couch and we spoke about Vently, an event platform, combining social media with events, basically building a community around events. He wants to make events more fun, providing value for event organizers, vendors and event attendees too. He shares lessons he has learned on the journey and what he plans for the year.

On the couch with Toyin, we talk about Woodcore, a cloud banking enterprise infra platform that provides services covering bank back-office, enterprise systems, KYC offerings, bank transfers, etc. They cater to traditional MFBs, traditional with digital channels MFBs, fully digital MFBs, fintech, asset managers, e-commerce platforms, ride-hailing platforms, etc. He also talked about the impressive connector Hub they now have and the massive plans for the year.

Ronald and I had a conversation on the couch about TwaMeRequest, a platform to revolutionalize the requisition process. Making it easy to make payment request to anyone such as employers, friends, family. He talked about where the product is at the moment and the future plans for the product.

I had a call with Oreoluwa on the couch today to talk about a trackable prepaid debit card for teens and kids and comes with a planner app for parents to guide the spend and set boundaries called Little. It is aiming to develop good money habits for kids as early as possible. He shares why parents are an integral part of this movement and the ambitious plans for 2022.

On the couch with Ritchie, he shares about Getly, a social gifting platform that lets users send and receive gifts from their favorite online stores. You can send gifts to people, send out a Wishlist, gifting service. Anything can be a gift, any link can be a gift, people who work at startups. He also talks about expanding to India after Nigeria, and a lot more!

Great chat with Israel and Marcel about the Insurtech space and Mizala an insurance product. With Mizala they are bringing back trust in the insurance space and changing the narrative of how insurance is run in Africa. Mizala has started with retail insurance starting with car insurance, previously catered to the unemployed market but pivoted through insights from user feedback after underwriting themselves. The product process claims in a whopping 48 hours!

John is the CEO of this amazing fintech startup in Tanzania building payment solutions for businesses in Africa to accept mobile money and international card payments. Swahilies already has 7,000 customers and 70 businesses up to $8k/mo. They have almost gotten their Payment infrastructure license in Tanzania and plan to raise VC money and target 500k people by expanding to Kenya this year. John also shares about challenges faced by founders in East Africa and how peculiar and distinct these problems are compared to other markets in Africa.

Oscar sits on the couch to share about Africacomicade, a platform celebrating the works of creatives in games, comics and XR. Showcasing the talent and connecting them to opportunities, jobs, capital through creative initiatives including multiple events and partnerships and creating a community in Africa with a physical presence. He talked about the metaverse and how early the technology is and how Africa is already being a part of its early days.

Natalie and Nigel both talk about New Comma, the social media platform for African creatives all over the world to connect, learn, create, earn money. They shared how it all started, the vision, and the exciting plans for the year.

I had a great call with Nana, he told me all about the new online-only digital banking app and web platform, you can deposit and save, budget, analytics, investing and lending, and get a virtual and physical card. It also has a credit rating platform built for the Underbanked, unbanked people that are tech-savvy. He shared some valuable lessons too like never putting all your eggs in one basket and many more.