The Global Startup Movement

This episode features a three-way conversation between Andile Masuku, Regis Umugiraneza, a budding Rwandan agro-processing entrepreneur and co-founder of a business called the CARL Group, and Roy Budjhawan, head of impact financing at ING, a Dutch banking and financial services corporation. Fun fact: Regis and Roy have in common a link to the humble sweet potato.Regis's live founder experience acts as a springboard for a discussion about effectively channelling entrepreneurial ingenuity and delivering market-relevant business innovation. Roy and his team at ING are actively financing innovative early-stage business ventures and his insights on the challenges faced by legacy financial institutions in delivering on such a mandate are worth listening out for.Editorial Disclaimer: This podcast is part of a seven-part podcast miniseries interrogating the progress being made in advancing entrepreneurship and job creation in some of the world’s most fragile regions. The series was taped at the fringes of SPARK’s 7th Annual IGNITE Conference in Amsterdam— a premier gathering of refugees, entrepreneurs, educators, private sector actors, government leaders, academics and NGOs.While SPARK is the presenting sponsor of the series, African Tech Roundup maintains complete editorial oversight. Opinions expressed by the host, Andile Masuku, and his guests, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the presenting sponsor, SPARK.Image credit: SPARK

In this instalment of the African Tech Roundup podcast, Andile Masuku and Osarumen Osamuyi are joined by Lucy Hoffman, co-founder and head of operations at the Cape Town-based, American mobile content development startup Carry1st.Listen in to learn why, as glitzy ecosystem trends like fintech and mobility continue to dominate headlines, Lucy and the rest of her team at Carry1st are quietly bullish about the mobile gaming industry’s low-key commercial case and “super-app/super-platform” potential.Lucy is an experienced American business operations specialist who, prior to joining Carry1st, spearheaded operations at impact investment facilitation startup Nexii and the African Leadership Academy. Before that, she interned for the global diversity and inclusion team at Credit Suisse and spent three and a half years embedded at Morgan & Stanley, where she worked on M&A and capital markets transactions for global power and utility companies.Head straight to the [11:52] to skip all the introductory niceties.Questions discussed in this episode include:What three words come to mind for Andile, Lucy and Osarumen when they hear the words “super-app” or “super-platform” and why? [11:52]Is the hype behind mobile gaming’s super-app potential worth buying into? [16:42]How are mobile gaming startups navigating the power dynamics of Africa’s mobile telco-controlled landscape in order to monetise? [21:32]How much time and effort do mobile gaming startups like Carry1st need to spend on solving for infrastructural and capacity-building frictions as opposed to working on actual product development? [39:50]Why might African mobile telcos do well to take on Google Play in seeking to own a meaningful share of the mobile gaming market? [49:00]What are the exit aspirations of a mobile gaming startup like Carry1st? [51:08]What is the difference between mobile gaming and mobile gambling? [58:23]Are African markets ready to jump on the global e-sports wave? [1:08:47]Resources referenced in this episode:The Mobile Economy: Sub-Saharan Africa 2019 by GSMA IntelligenceImage credit: Angelo Moleele

Andile Masuku and catches up with Binkabi CEO Quan Le to learn how his company is working to lower the world's reliance on the US dollar for imports and exports. Listen in to hear how Quan and his team are cutting out middlemen by turning agricultural commodities into tradable assets and automatically matching inbound and outbound trades which enable farmers to directly participate in global trade networks and retain more profits from their harvest.Binkabi is a London-headquartered cross-border physical commodity trading platform which primarily operates in developing countries. They leverage blockchain technology to solve for the complex frictions that characterise international agriculture supply chains.Quan is a finance professional who previously worked at PwC London as an auditor and later in merger acquisition advisory. During his 16-year-plus tenure at the firm, he worked with leading financial institutions in emerging markets in both Asia and Africa.Image Credit: no_one_cares (unsplash.com)

This brief firelighter conversation was taped live on-stage at SPARK’s 7th Annual IGNITE Conference in Amsterdam. It was a discussion provocatively themed “Shift The Power” – for which Andile Masuku (moderator) was joined by the Dutch Ambassador for Youth, Education and Work in the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tijmen Rooseboom, Evelijne Bruning, who is the Netherlands Country Director of The Hunger Project and the Executive Director of INJAZ Lebanon, Samar Dani.Tijmen is a recently-appointed Dutch policymaker whose mandate is to ensure that The Netherlands is optimising the use of public funds earmarked for advancing youth education and employment. Evelijne Bruning is a self-proclaimed “dragon and driver of change” whose high-profile #ShiftThePower activism efforts within Dutch NGO circles often puts her at odds with policymakers and even fellow practitioners in the space. And prior to inhabiting a senior role at one of Lebanon's most well-respected youth-focused NGO’s, Samar Dani led a storied career in her country’s consumer and retail industry.Listen in as the panel addresses growing calls to change power dynamics within development cooperation between the Global North and the Global South – this, in order to deliver on effective, market-relevant educational and entrepreneurship interventions.Editorial Disclaimer: While SPARK is the presenting sponsor of this series, African Tech Roundup maintains complete editorial oversight. Opinions expressed by the host, Andile Masuku, and his guests, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the presenting sponsor, SPARK.Image credit: SPARK

Michael Schlein is a huge fintech fan, and as the President and CEO of Accion, one of the world's largest nonprofit impact finance organisations, he's backing startups which seek to advance financial inclusion by giving people financial tools to improve their lives. In this candid conversation with Andile Masuku, Michael shares useful context about Accion's origins and makes a case for increased cooperation between the legacy financial institutions, governments and impact investment non-profit organisations like Accion to advance global financial inclusion. Listen in to hear him address sceptics who hold that the commercial and social impact incentives of the aforementioned parties are hopelessly misaligned.Michael is a MIT graduate who amassed nearly 30 years of international banking, management and public service experience before inhabiting his current role. Prior to joining Accion, he managed Citi’s network of Chief Country Officers as President of Citigroup’s International Franchise Management. He also previously served as Chief of Staff at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the Clinton administration and served in New York’s City Hall during the Dinkins and Koch administrations.Image credit: Eva Blue

In this podcast, Andile Masuku chats with Dr Salam Said, a seasoned Middle Eastern economics researcher who specialises in Arab economies, Arab trade policies and the political economy of Syria.Andile taps Dr Said's extensive professional and lived experience as he attempts to wrap his mind around some of the ways Arab identity and geopolitical dynamics (past and present) inform the socio-economic policies of nations that tend to dominate the global news cycle for all kinds of complex reasons.Listen in to hear Dr Said factor in candidly on how to properly gauge the economic empowerment of everyday citizens, particularly women, of Arab nations.Editorial Disclaimer: This podcast is part of a seven-part podcast miniseries interrogating the progress being made in advancing entrepreneurship and job creation in some of the world’s most fragile regions. The series was taped at the fringes of SPARK’s 7th Annual IGNITE Conference in Amsterdam— a premier gathering of refugees, entrepreneurs, educators, private sector actors, government leaders, academics and NGOs.While SPARK is the presenting sponsor of the series, African Tech Roundup maintains complete editorial oversight. Opinions expressed by the host, Andile Masuku, and his guests, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the presenting sponsor, SPARK.Image credit: Florian Wehde

African Tech Roundup and SPARK have partnered to produce a seven-part podcast miniseries interrogating the progress being made in advancing entrepreneurship and job creation in some of the world’s most fragile regions.The series uncovers pragmatic first-hand insights about the challenges of deploying market-relevant approaches to entrepreneurship, economic policy design and implementation, education interventions and the provision of business support.The first episode of the series features a relaxed diary session with Yengi Lokule, Co-founder and CEO of Rural Finance Initiative (RUFI), a South Sudanese microfinance and cross-border remittance firm which serves South Sudanese refugees in Uganda as well as rural and peri-urban residents in his fragile home country. Yengi holds degrees in Agriculture and Development Studies specializing in Micro-finance and has over 20 years’ of professional experience gained in post-conflict environments.This thoughtful conversation casually addresses some of the oversimplifications related to promoting financial inclusion in post-conflict environments while offering useful insight into displaced people are defiantly building futures for themselves and others in South Sudan and neighbouring Uganda.Editorial Disclaimer: This podcast was taped at the fringes of SPARK’s 7th Annual IGNITE Conference in Amsterdam— a premier gathering of refugees, entrepreneurs, educators, private sector actors, government leaders, academics and NGOs.While SPARK is the presenting sponsor of this series, African Tech Roundup maintains complete editorial oversight. Opinions expressed by the host, Andile Masuku, and his guests, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the presenting sponsor, SPARK.Image credit: SPARK

So, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll have noticed that a 'brick' several hundred million dollars heavy has descended on the continent in an unprecedented period of time, most of it venture capital earmarked for fintech startups in Nigeria.On this episode, Indian tech founder Arunjay Katakam joins Andile Masuku and Osarumen Osamuyi to extend our conversation about the implications of all the hype surrounding Africa's fintech scene and what the broader implications might be for the continent's tech ecosystem at large.We’re still vibing off of our last show, dubbed African Fintech Signal Check 2019: Nigeria's Killing It! (Part 1). That show, which guest featured Wiza Jalakasi, unpacked some of the most pertinent happenings in Africa’s fintech landscape and in legacy financial services arena over the last couple of months or so. If you haven't listened to that show (Episode 134), do that before you dig into this one.Arunjay Katakam is a former EY consultant who has co-founded three startups, exiting two— one of which eventually sold to Twitter. Today Arunjay is co-founder and CEO of a London-based cross-border remittance startup called Yooz and advises founders at DFS Lab. His extensive tech entrepreneurship experience spans work in developing markets in Asia and Africa, as well as developed markets in the Global North.Click here by-pass the pleasantries and skip straight to the main discussion.Topics discussed in this episode include:1) Arunjay suggests that there are three major cost factors/points of friction preventing mobile money from enjoying WhatsApp-level ubiquity and mainstream adoption. [18:50]2) Can ECOWAS's ECO currency plans lay the groundwork for smoother regional money flows? [26:25]3) Might the recent $20 million investment close by "credit-as-a-service" startup Migo (formerly Mines.io)— designated for taking on the Brazilian market,  spark a new trend towards African/Africa-focussed startups taking on key markets outside the continent? [31:54]4) In what ways might the dynamics of engineering fintech startup success in India be comparable with the same in African key markets? [35:53]5) Does "a rising tide raise all boats", or will large fintech startups like OPay and PalmPay stifle innovation by smaller players? [51:42]6) How might mobile network operators (MNOs) respond to the prospect of wholesale disruption as "Over-the-top (OTT) Application 2.0" takes hold, and what learnings might they draw from Chinese and Indian ecosystems to inform their strategies? [57:54]Bonus Topics: Can successful startups be built without having to tell lies, even apparently "harmless" ones? + Is RxAll Africa's ...

The last couple of months or so have been rather eventful for Africa's fintech scene— particularly in Nigeria where Interswitch notably attained unicorn status in November following Visa acquiring 20% of the company for a reported $200 million.Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey's much-publicised visit to Africa last month also did much to put a global spotlight on the continent’s fintech arena, and the subsequent capital raises by OPay (backed by Opera) and PalmPay (backed by Transsion) drew attention to the on-going race for platform dominance in the space.In this instalment of the African Tech Roundup podcast, Andile Masuku and The Subtext’s Osarumen Osamuyi are joined by Malawian mobile tech entrepreneur, Wiza Jalakasi, to unpack some of the most pertinent fintech industry signals and discuss their implications for the continent’s tech ecosystem at large. (To skip the introductory niceties, head straight to [11:58].)Wiza is a passionate USSD proponent who formerly headed up business development and international expansion at Africa’s Talking. He is currently the head of strategy and business development at Hover..Questions discussed in this episode include:Is the hype around Jack Dorsey’s recent Africa visit well-deserved? [12:38]Why might PalmPay’s $40 million seed round be the most significant China-related fintech startup play of late? [25:47]Are aspiring ‘banks’ like Google and Facebook well-positioned to dominate Africa’s fintech industry? [28:52]Is there credence to Jack Dorsey’s citing of Bitcoin as a key part of the future of African fintech? [37:55]How significant is the trend towards digital-first and digital-only banks? [50:46]Could the Zimbabwean mobile telco NetOne spark a continental trend by making mobile money transactions free? [1:01:57]How will Google’s new Play Store lending term restrictions for financial services apps impact microlenders on the continent? [1:07:34]Resources referenced in this episode:APP: Bit SikaJOURNAL ARTICLE: The hustle economy: Informality, uncertainty and the geographies of getting by Tatiana A. ThiemeJOURNAL ARTICLE: Demystifying the motivations towards hybrid entrepreneurship among the working populace in South Africa by Obey Dzomonda and Olawale FatokiARTICLE: $40 million from TECNO and a Visa Partnership: PalmPay’s bold Nigeria play by Alexander O. Onukwue for TechCabalARTICLE: Google Makes a Bid for Banking, Where Tech Firms Go to Stumble by Stacy Cowley and Tara Siegel Bernard for the New York TimesARTICLE: Facebook takes on Venmo with new payments tool that can be used across its family of apps by Annie Palmer for CNBCTWEET: Jack Dorsey cites Bitcoin as key part of  the future of African fintech via TwitterARTICLE: ...

For this podcast, taped at the fringes of the recent Africa Fintech Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Global Startup Movement's Andrew Berkowitz sat down with three local tech ecosystem players— namely Adam Abate, Co-founder and CEO of Apposit, Yemiru Chanyalew, CEO of Moneta Technologies, Habtamu Tadesse, Founder and CEO of both Zayride and Arifpay to get a sense of what's trending in Ethiopia's nascent fintech scene.This episode also features investment-focused insights about Ethiopia's fintech prospects from Saad Sheikh, who is Principal of Investments at TLG Capital. Listen in to learn the following:1) How an experienced mid-market equity investor in the sub-Saharan African region frames the Ethiopia opportunity right now, [17:36]2) Whether the M-Pesa model might be as successful in transforming Ethiopia's digital economy as it has been in Kenya, and [31:50]3) Why Telegram has emerged as the dominant messaging platform amongst Ethiopian youth. [40:15]This show is full of essential real-world anecdotes and in-trench insights for entrepreneurs and investors keen on pursuing Ethiopian business opportunities in 2020.Image credit: kaleab