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Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
Olumide Ogunsanwo and Bankole Makanju
81 episodes
3 days ago
Stories and analyses of African technology companies
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Technology
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All content for Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business is the property of Olumide Ogunsanwo and Bankole Makanju and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Stories and analyses of African technology companies
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Technology
Episodes (20/81)
Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
#80: The End of the Afrobility Podcast - Until We Meet Again…

Overview:  Today, we’re going to talk about Afrobility. We’ll explore the Afrobility story across the following areas:

  1. Why we started Afrobility

  2. Lessons from past episodes

  3. Behind the scenes of Afrobility

  4. Future plans after Afrobility

  5. Closing thoughts


This episode was recorded on June 8 & 14, 2025


Companies discussed: All of them :) - Jumia, Flutterwave, Paystack, Andela, Chipper Cash, Safaricom (M-Pesa), Wave, Reliance Health, M-Kopa, Naspers, Interswitch, Kuda, Yoco, Tyme Bank, Twiga Foods & many more…

Business concepts discussed: Market Creation, Business Model Innovation, Cross-border Expansion, Fintech Infrastructure, Informal Economy Digitization, Agent Networks, Platform vs Vertical Strategy, Talent and Outsourcing, Unit Economics, Scalability, Offline-to-Online (O2O), Acquisition & Exit Strategies

Conversation highlights:

  • (05:50) - Afrobility Founding Story

  • (19:07) - Review of all Afrobility episodes

  • (03:50:12) - Lessons across episodes

  • (4:00:10) - Bankole’s overall thoughts 

  • (4:05:00) - Olumide’s overall thoughts

  • (4:10:00) - Recommendations 



Olumide’s recommendations:

  • Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com

  • Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)

  • Recommendation: How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World (Harry Browne) - Independent thinking and freedom 

  • Recommendation: FIREDOM: Financial Independence stories of immigrants, expats, underdogs, outsiders, nomads or minorities (Olumide Ogunsanwo & Achani Samon Biaou)- Book about creating and living the life you want. I love it because I wrote it.

  • Recommendation: Maximum Achievement (Bryan Tracy) - Self belief & Self development


Bankole’s recommendations:

  • Recommendation: Anything you want (Derek Sivers)

  • Recommendation: Book of Why (Dana Mackenzie & Judea Pearl)



Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com
Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

Show more...
2 weeks ago
4 hours 13 minutes 44 seconds

Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
#79: Cellulant - How the FinTech payments platform is providing financial services across Africa

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about Cellulant, the African payments infrastructure  company. We’ll explore the story across the following areas

  1. African financial sector context 

  2. Cellulant’s early history

  3. Product & monetization strategy 

  4. Competitive positioning & potential exit options

  5. Outlook


This episode was recorded on  Jan 20, 2025

Companies discussed: Cellulant, Flutterwave, Interswitch, DPO Group (Network International), Paystack, Stripe, Moniepoint, MTN & Airtel.

Business concepts discussed: Payments platforms, payments partnerships strategy, card networks, payments infrastructure, low-end disruption, banking regulation & payments M&A strategy

Conversation highlights:

  • (01:00) - What is Cellulant and why we’re talking about them

  • (07:25) - Context of African Banking Opportunity and Neobanks

  • (15:07) - Cellulant founding and early history

  • (36:16) - Fundraising

  • (41:17) - Growth and Geographical Expansion

  • (58:12) - Product and Monetization Strategy

  • (01:15:12) - Competition and Options for Exit

  • (1:21:26) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (1:28:18) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (1:32:45) - Recommendations and small wins


Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com

  • Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)

  • Recommendation: Titan - Rockefeller's autobiography. Solid and thorough look at the fascinating life of an incredible person. Incredible read.

  • Recommendation: Areté: Activate Your Heroic Potential. Personal development book filled with ideas, as it compiles insights from other renowned books.

  • Recommendation: The 38 Letters from J.D. Rockefeller to his son: Letters from Rochaleller to his son with timeless stories and life principles

  • Recommendation: Google Notebook LM. Game changer for researchers, Incredible resource to research information when you have sources.

  • Small win: Stretching and yoga in the mornings before weight lifting workouts

  • Small win: Went to south pointe picnic with friends


Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: Podcast: Francois Chollet, Mike Knoop - LLMs won’t lead to AGI - $1,000,000 Prize to find true solution & Video: 20 Mechanical Principles in One Lego Machine

  • Small win: Early in the year, but working out everyday

  • Other content: Ken Njoroge's Entrepreneurship Journey: Overcoming Tragedy and Building Success 


Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com


Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

Show more...
5 months ago
1 hour 45 minutes 14 seconds

Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
#78: MNT-Halan - How the lending platform is providing financial services across Egypt and other developing markets

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about MNT-Halan, the Egyptian lending & financial services company.  We’ll explore the MNT-Halan story across the following areas

  1. African and Egyptian financial sector context 

  2. MNT-Halan’s early history

  3. Product & monetization strategy 

  4. Competitive positioning & potential exit options

  5. Outlook


This episode was recorded on  Dec 11, 2024

Companies discussed: MNT-Halan, Mashroey, Tasaheel, Halan, Raseedy, Talabeyah, Advans Pakistan, Fawry, Swvl, Gojek, Paymob, & Tam Finans

Business concepts discussed: Asset-backed Financing, Microfinance Lending, Super App Strategy, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), Digital Wallets and Payment Solutions, B2B E-commerce, Corporate Venture Capital, Incubation, Financial Inclusion, Banking Infrastructure, Payroll Lending, Salary Advances, Agent Banking Networks, Revenue Models in Fintech, International Expansion



Conversation highlights:

  • (00:00) - Intro and why we're talking about MNT-Halan

  • (06:46) - Egypt country context

  • (16:17) - The opportunity for African neobanks

  • (26:15) - MNT Halan Founding and Early History

  • (57:55) - Growth and Geographical Expansion

  • (1:14:50) - Product Strategy and Monetization

  • (1:35:52) - Competition and options for exit

  • (1:47:20) - Bankole's overall thoughts and outlook

  • (1:54:22) - Olumide's overall thoughts and outlook

  • (2:06:32) - Recommendations and small wins



Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com

  • Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)

  • Recommendation: The Intel Trinity: How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove Built the World's Most Important Company: Solid book about the story of Intel, the microprocessor, and the Silicon Valley industry, focusing on Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove

  • Recommendation: Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI (by Yuhal Noah Harari):  Nexus is a solid book that I would recommend, especially if you enjoyed his previous works like Sapiens. While it may not appeal to everyone, particularly those who didn’t enjoy his other books, it's an engaging read that offers a counterpoint to views like Marc Andreessen's, particularly on AI’s future impact.

  • Recommendations: Awardtool and PointsYeah:  Help you find award bookings but with a better user experience. For example, if you want to fly from Lagos to Paris, you might use Google Flights or Kayak for cash fares, but for award bookings with points, you'd traditionally need to visit individual airline sites like United.

  • Small win: I found a way to host my website on GitHub pages for free instead of paying Squarespace outrageous fee. Started doing yoga and stretching exercises every morning


Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendations: Article about research challenging the common belief that "buying experiences makes you happier than buying possessions" & YouTube 41-shot rally video from Commonwealth Games featuring Chagun Toriola (Nigerian table tennis player)

  • Small win: Finally set up my home office with a streamlined single-cable setup for multiple computers



Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com



Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

Show more...
6 months ago
2 hours 6 minutes 5 seconds

Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
#77: PiggyVest - How the savings and investment platform is providing financial services across Nigeria

Overview: Today, we’re going to explore PiggyVest - the Nigerian savings and investment platform. We’ll discuss the story across the following areas:

  • African Banking & Neobank context 

  • PiggyVest’s early history

  • Product & monetization strategy

  • Competitive positioning & potential exit options

  • Overall outlook


This episode was recorded on Oct 30, 2024


Companies discussed: PiggyVest, Chipper Cash, Kuda Bank, Paystack, Flutterwave, FairMoney, Paystack, Brass, Cowrywise, Carbon, Chipper Cash, Interswitch, GTBank, Sterling Bank & UBA.


Business concepts discussed: Neobank / Challenger bank / digital bank strategy, remittances Neobank monetization & Consumer Lending, consumer FinTech monetization strategy, consumer lending, retail banking strategy, customer segmentation strategy & low-end disruption


Conversation highlights:

  • (00:30) - Introduction

  • (05:50) - African Banking & Neobank context

  • (30:16) - PiggyVest's Founding Story

  • (41:15) - Fundraising and Growth

  • (53:30) - Geographical Expansion and Partnerships

  • (01:18:52) - Product and Monetization strategy

  • (01:35:20) - Competition and options for exit

  • (01:54:35) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (02:05:15) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (02:15:45) - Recommendations and small wins


Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: Sisqo - Got to Get it video - Insane shit. Sisqo singing and dancing his heart out. So dope.

  • Recommendation: Rob Berger's Personal Finance YouTube channel

  • Recommendation: The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy. Excellent book. A little bit of everything, entrepreneurship - History, politics, family life & hollywood. 

  • Small win: I spent the week in Cusco & Lima, it was magical and fun. Some sand, some llamas, lots of dancing. Epic shit


Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time Podcast & Active - Asake

  • Small win: Running 25 miles a week

  • Other content: These Nigerian universities produced the most startup founders - Nairametrics 


Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com


Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

Show more...
7 months ago
2 hours 24 minutes 47 seconds

Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
#76: IHS Towers - How the telecom infrastructure company is building and managing towers across Africa and beyond

Overview: Today, we’re going to explore IHS Towers - the African telecommunications infrastructure company. We’ll discuss the story across the following areas: 

  1. Telecom tower infrastructure context 

  2. IHS Towers' early history

  3. Product & monetization strategy

  4. Competitive positioning & potential exit options

  5. Overall outlook

This episode was recorded on May 5, 2024

Companies discussed: IHS Towers, MTN, Airtel, Telkom, Orange, Etisalat / 9 Mobile, American Tower Company, Globacom, Libancell, Helios Towers Nigeria, Telkom, Vodacom, Goldman Sachs, (IFC), Public Investment Corporation of South Africa, Ecobank, Investec, Standard Bank.

Business concepts discussed: Tower Infrastructure, Shared communication infrastructure, Tower Leasing and Ownership Models, Market Expansion, Sale and Leaseback, Local vs Global Strategy, Capital-intensive business models, Currency devaluation

Conversation highlights:

  • (01:50) - What IHS does and why we’re talking about it

  • (04:37) - How Towers work

  • (12:47) - How Telcos work with Towers in Nigeria and parts of Africa

  • (23:22) - IHS Founding and Early History

  • (34:19) - Funding

  • (39:32) - Growth and International Expansion

  • (47:26) - IHS IPO and trends post IPO

  • (55:50) - Product Strategy & Monetization

  • (1:08:30) - Competition

  • (1:16:22) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (1:24:06) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (1:30:24) - Recommendations and small wins


Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com

  • Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)

  • Recommendation: Incredible Dance routine video to Sisa Song by King Promise: I love it so much I'm not sure how to put it into words. 1 minute of greatness

  • Recommendation: Chris Brown “Sensational” live performance : Watching Chris Brown dance is watching a master of his craft.

  • Recommendation: J. Cole - Let Nas Down

  • Recommendation: Nas - Make Nas Proud

  • Recommendation: Nas & Eminem - EPMD 2

  • Recommendation: Nas - Rare

  • Small win: Went back to reading older books to reset my reading palate


Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: The Search for the Perfect Door - YouTube && Unusual Electric Car Features in Nigeria - Bloomberg

  • Small win: Running sprints 

  • Other content: Palito FM Autoscan Radio

Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com


Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

Show more...
1 year ago
1 hour 42 minutes 25 seconds

Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
#75: eTranzact - How Nigeria's pioneering payments and switching platform is serving businesses and governments across Africa

Overview: Today, we’re going to explore eTranzact - the African payments and switching platform. We’ll discuss the story across the following areas:

  1. First, Nigerian payments context 

  2. Second, eTranzact's early history

  3. Third, Product & monetization strategy

  4. Fourth, Competitive positioning 

  5. Fifth, Overall outlook

This episode was recorded on Feb 11, 2024

Companies discussed: eTranzact, Interswitch, Unified Payment Services Limited (UPSL), Systemspecs (Remita), Paystack, Flutterwave, Moniepoint, Paga, OPay, MTN & Airtel.

Business concepts discussed: Mobile money, Payments Collections, Payments ecosystem, payments partnerships strategy, card networks, payments infrastructure, low-end disruption, banking regulation & payments M&A strategy



Conversation highlights:

  • (00:57) - What is eTranzact and why we’re talking about it

  • (07:43) - Context of Nigeria’s payment sector before eTranzact

  • (16:45) - eTranzact founding story

  • (35:46) - Growth and geographic expansion

  • (45:10) - Product strategy

  • (01:02:56) - Monetization strategy

  • (01:20:41) - Competition

  • (1:31:10) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (1:34:38) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (1:43:20 - Recommendations and small wins

Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com

  • Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)

  • Recommendation: Never Enough (Loren Allred). Incredible. I can listen to it on repeat for the whole day. 

  • Recommendation: La Bachata (Maniel Turizo). Dope shit.

  • Recommendation: "Someone You Loved". Not the original but a fabulous cover. Best line, "I was getting kinda used to being someone you loved". Listen to the 3rd verse when they sing simultaneously. Incredible!

  • Recommendation: A Million Miles Away movie. It is a biographical drama film about the life of José Hernández, a Mexican-American migrant farm 

  • Small win: Booked Cirque Du Soleil show. Looking forward to it.


Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: Comma - Burna Boy && Wolfram|Alpha as the Way to Bring Computational Knowledge Superpowers to ChatGPT

  • Small win: Clean shaven + the Nigerian AFCON semifinal win only to lose in the final a few hours after recording :( 

  • Other content: History of Web Acquiring in Nigeria && Atlas Copco on Invest Like The Best && An Empirical Examination of Why Mobile Money Schemes Ignite in Some Developing Countries but Flounder in Most 



Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com


Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

Show more...
1 year ago
1 hour 48 minutes 53 seconds

Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
#74: Moove - How the mobility fintech is providing vehicle financing to mobility entrepreneurs across Africa and the rest of the world

Overview: Today, we’re going to explore Moove, the mobility fintech. We’ll discuss the story across the following areas:

  1. African mobility and transportation context

  2. Moove's launch & early history

  3. Product & monetization strategy

  4. Competitive positioning & potential exit options

  5. Our overall outlook.

This episode was recorded on Jan 14, 2024

Companies discussed: Moove, Uber, Lyft, Autochek, Cars45, GoKada, Creditas, Swvl, Lori, Sendy & FairMoney

Business concepts discussed: Revenue-based financing, asset-based lending, Ridesharing & Mobility entrepreneurship

Conversation highlights:

  • (01:20) - What Moove does and why we’re talking about it

  • (06:57) - Context of mobility and public transportation in Nigeria

  • (21:50) - Founders’ background

  • (27:50) - Moove founding and early history

  • (32:16) - Fundraising

  • (43:20) - Growth and Geographical Expansion

  • (48:15) - Partnerships

  • (1:07:26) - Product and Monetization Strategy

  • (1:28:44) - Metrics

  • (1:33:50) - Competition and options for exit

  • (1:53:10) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (2:09:07) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (2:26:12) - Recommendations and small wins

Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com

  • Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)

  • Recommendation: The Gap and The Gain (by Benjamin Hardy & Dan Sullivan: Book about mindset and approach to life, measuring success, fulfilment and happiness.

  • Recommendation: Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life (Arnold Schwarzenegger): Great book by the legend about principles to approach life to get what you want. At this point, I've read all his books and can recommend them all. Arnold records the audiobook end-to-end by himself so be ready for awesomeness

  • Small win: Completely revamped by Body Skincare after getting deep into research about this


Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: Money Maze Podcast - Interview with the CEO of De Beers && We are different from all other humans in history && The Reality of the Danish Fairytale 

  • Small win: Successful visa application to South Africa

  • Other content: Nigeria’s Secured Lending Opportunity - bankole.org 

Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com


Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

Show more...
1 year ago
2 hours 43 minutes 4 seconds

Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
#73: AFEX (Africa Exchange) - How the commodities exchange is facilitating commodity trade by offering training, credit, storage to farmers & providing investment solutions to financial partners

Overview: Today, we’re going to explore AFEX, the African commodities exchange. We’ll discuss the story across the following areas:

  1. African Agriculture context

  2. AFEX's launch & early history

  3. Product & monetization strategy

  4. Competitive positioning & potential exit options

  5. Overall outlook.

This episode was recorded on Dec 24, 2023

Companies discussed: AFEX, EAX (East African Commodity Exchange), Tony Elumelu Foundation, Heirs Holdings, Apollo Agriculture, NCX, Cargill, Louis Dreyfuss, 50 Ventures & Berggruen Charitable Trust

Business concepts discussed: Agriculture technology (AgTech, AgriTech or AgroTech), Agribusiness marketplaces, farming financing, Farmer market access opportunities, Agriculture insurance strategy, Commodity trading & Internal Entrepreneurship (Incubated company strategy).

Conversation highlights:

  • (01:10) - What Afex is and why we’re talking about it

  • (08:36) - Context of agriculture in Africa

  • (21:49) - AFEX Founding story

  • (33:28) - Fundraising

  • (39:56) - Growth, geographical expansion and partnerships

  • (49:42) - Product strategy, monetization and growth

  • (59:14) - Cost structure, revenue and margins

  • (1:10:00) - Business and user metrics

  • (1:13:14) - Competition and options for exit

  • (1:21:02) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (1:34:25) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (1:47:45) - Recommendations and small wins



Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com

  • Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)

  • Recommendation: I went back and re-read some of my classic books: How I found freedom in an Unfree world (Harry Browne), Don't Sweat the Small Stuff and It's All Small Stuff (Richard Carlson) & A Guide to the Good Life - The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William B. Irvine)

  • Small win: Hiking with new friends in St Thomas. Cool


Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: FiveBooks.Com - FiveBooks.com shares lists of the best five books on many topics, chosen by experts in that area

  • Recommendation: Jeff Bezos on Lex Fridman Podcast. A rare Jeff Bezos long form interview. 

  • Small win: Running while listening to Big 7 - Burna Boy

  • Fact check: Tony Elumelu narrates How He Went from Second Class Lower Degree to Nigeria's Billionaire

  • Other content: FT ranking: Africa's Fastest Growing Companies 2023 & AFEX Nigeria loses maize worth N85m to 'police raid' 



Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com


Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

Show more...
1 year ago
1 hour 55 minutes 51 seconds

Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
#72: Nomba (Kudi) - How the Nigerian FinTech is providing Point-of-Sale, agency banking and payment solutions to merchants across Africa

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about Nomba (formerly known as Kudi) , the FinTech payments solutions provider. We’ll explore the story across the following areas:

  1. African & Nigerian SME context

  2. Nomba's early history 

  3. Product & monetization strategy

  4. Competitive positioning & potential exit options

  5. Our overall outlook.

This episode was recorded on December 3, 2023

Companies discussed: Nomba (Kudi), MoniePoint (TeamApt), Yoco, Kuda Bank, Flutterwave, Paystack, Stripe, Safaricom, Brass Banking, TradeDepot, Sabi, Paystack, Flutterwave, MTN, Airtel, Bumpa, Vendease, Orda, OPay, OnePipe, Paga, FairMoney, Omnibiz, Interswitch & Kippa

Business concepts discussed: SME Agency Banking, Informal retail, banking, Open banking & Mobile Money, Merchants solutions, Points-of-Sale devices, SME Lending & hardware and software bundling

Conversation highlights:

  • (01:25) - Nomba context

  • (06:29) - Context of African SMEs and Informal retail

  • (19:10) - Founding story and founders’ background

  • (29:02) - Fundraising

  • (43:07) - Partnerships, Geographical expansion and Team

  • (47:55) - User metrics

  • (52:55) - Product and Monetization strategy

  • (1:02:24) - Competition and options for exit

  • (1:12:35) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (1:18:50) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (1:24:40) - Recommendation and small wins 


Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com

  • Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)

  • Recommendation: Jay-Z at Madison  Square Garden. Incredible. He performs so many of his hit songs with an ensemble of other artists. I was jumping of my chair rapping along.

  • Recommendation: Charlie Munger died last week.. What a hero. What a legend. What a mind. I love the guy. I can recommend all his books and videos


Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: Constellation Software on Business Breakdowns

  • Small win: Running in Paris and Ray-Ban Meta glasses



Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com

Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

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1 year ago
1 hour 36 minutes 25 seconds

Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
#71: TymeBank - How the South African Neobank is integrating digital and physical experiences to provide holistic financial services across emerging markets

Overview: Today, we’re going to explore TymeBank - the South African neobank. We’ll discuss the story across  the following areas:

  • African & Nigerian banking context

  • TymeBank's launch, early history, growth & fundraising

  • Product & monetization strategy

  • Competitive positioning & potential exit options

  • Overall outlook.

Companies discussed: TymeBank, African Rainbow Capital (ARC), MTN, Kuda Bank, Chipper Cash, FairMoney, Carbon, Discovery Bank, Branch, Pick N Pay, TakeAlot, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Bank Zero, Naspers & NuBank

Business concepts discussed: International expansion, Startups and Distribution, Deposit banking, International expansion, Data sovereignty,

Conversation highlights:

  • (00:30) - TymeBank context

  • (08:15) - Context of African Banking 

  • (24:20) - TymeBank founding story

  • (52:20) - Fundraising

  • (55:01) - Growth and geographical expansion

  • (1:20:03) - Product & Monetization  Strategy

  • (1:50:08) - Competition and options for Exit

  • (2:00:33) - Bankole’s  overall thoughts and outlook

  • (2:10:38) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (2:15:00) - Recommendations and small wins


Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com

  • Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)

  • Recommendation: AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future (Kai-Fu Lee): Great book about the potential of AI told across 10 stories

  • Recommendation: Dangote (song by Burna Boy). Incredible song

  • Recommendation: Good Bad Boy (song by Lil Kesh). Catchy and smooth chorus. With a deeper meaning about searching for companionship 

  • Small win: I was in NYC book launch for FIREDOM Book launch. Dope.



Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: Plunder by Brendan Ballou - A book on the excesses of Private Equity. PE is an example of well-intentioned policy having (unintentional?) downstream impact.

  • Recommendation:  Business Breakdown Podcast on Mobile Gaming: The uneven distribution of paying customers in mobile gaming reminds me of emerging market telco companies

  • Small win: Quest 3 Headset! VR is coming along nicely.

  • Other content:  TymeBank Holdings 2022 Financial Statement & Substack on the history of Tyme Global


Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com


Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

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1 year ago
2 hours 30 minutes 55 seconds

Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
#70: Carbon - How the credit-led neobank is providing loans, BNPL and financial services across Nigeria and Africa

Overview: Today, we’re going to explore Carbon, the credit-led Neobank. We’ll discuss the Carbon story across the following areas:

  1. African lending & consumer credit

  2. Carbon's founding & early history

  3. Product & monetization strategy

  4. Competitive positioning & potential exit options

  5. Overall outlook

This episode was recorded on Oct 15, 2023

Companies discussed: Carbon (PayLater, One Credit, OneFi, One Finance), Diamond Bank, Cafe Neo, Kaizen Venture Partners, FairMoney, Branch, Paga, Kuda Bank, GTBank, Access Bank, Chipper Cash, NuBank, Lesaka (NET1 UEPS), Lendable, Interswitch, Visa, RenMoney, Tala & Safaricom (M-Pesa)

Business concepts discussed: Smartphone credit assessment, consumer lending, unbanked population, Neobank strategy, Personal Finance OS & Buy Now Pay Later

Conversation highlights:

  • (00:48) - Carbon context

  • (08:15) - Consumer lending in Africa and Neobanks 

  • (15:32) - Background on African banking and Neobanks

  • (32:02) - Founding story of Carbon & Founders’ background

  • (54:04) - Fundraising 

  • (1:01:15) - Growth and Geographical Expansion

  • (1:08:03) - Acquisitions and investments

  • (1:15:54) - Team and organisation

  • (1:19:35) - Key metrics

  • (1:40:46) - Product strategy and monetization

  • (2:00:08) - Competition and options for exit

  • (2:10:33 - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (2:20:38) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (2:30:15) - Recommendation and small wins

Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com

  • Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)

  • Recommendation: Lil Kesh - Shoki Remix. Song is beyond nice. I probably understand 15% of it. Lil Kesh was 19 years old when the song was released. The power of young people to Incredible things. Wow!

  • Recommendation: Lil Kesh - Don't Call Me (feat. Zinoleesky) [Lyrics Visualiser]. 

  • Recommendation: Ruger - Ruger. The song literally starts with “Man, I spit fire…”. How can I not love it?

  • Small win: Switched to Instacart (from Amazon Fresh) for groceries. Not going back


Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: Fair Isaac Company on Business Breakdowns, MTN on Business Breakdowns

  • Small win: New phone

  • Other content: Building Magic - The Cafe Neo story & Chipper Cash AI Day



Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com


Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

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1 year ago
2 hours 37 minutes 53 seconds

Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
#69: FairMoney - How the credit-led neobank is providing consumer loans and financial services across Nigeria, India and other developing markets

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about FairMoney, the credit-led Neobank in emerging markets.  we’ll explore the FairMoney story across the following areas

  1. African lending & consumer credit

  2. FairMoney's founding & early history

  3. Product & monetization strategy

  4. Competitive positioning & potential exit options

  5. Overall outlook

This episode was recorded on Oct 1, 2023

Companies discussed: FairMoney, Branch, PalmPay, Kuda Bank, Carbon, 54Gene, GTBank, Access Bank, Ecobank, PalmPay, Carbon, PiggyVest, Upstart, Tala, Visa, Mastercard Safaricom (M-Pesa), PayForce & Chipper Cash

Business concepts discussed: Smartphone credit assessment, African customer segmentation strategy, Consumer lending, unbanked population, smartphone credit assessment, Neobank strategy & Personal Finance OS

Conversation highlights:

  • (03:01) - Intro

  • (07:19) - African consumer lending & neobank context 

  • (18:35) - Neobanking context and background

  • (20:00) - FairMoney founding story and Founders’ background

  • (39:40) - Fundraising

  • (45:46) - Geographical expansion

  • (49:05) - Partnerships

  • (50:16) - Acquisitions

  • (55:42) - Team & Location strategy

  • (58:03) - User metrics and traction

  • (1:04:27) - Product and monetization strategy

  • (1:24:04) - Competition and options for exit

  • (1:35:44) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (1:47:30) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (1:55:17) - Recommendations and small wins

Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com

  • Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)

  • Recommendation 1: Arnold Schwarzenegger book 1: The Education of a Bodybuilder  

  • Recommendation 2: Arnold Schwarzenegger book 2: Total Recall - My Unbelievably True Life Story

    Recommendation 3: Richard Feynman's book: What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character (Feynman Book 2). I already read and recommended "Surely, you're joking Mr Feynman which was extraordinary)

  • Recommendation 4: Finnaus YT channel tells stories about financial companies and investors. Awesome. I watched the history of JP Morgan, Howard Marks, Jamie Dimon, Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, Vanguard and on and on. I must have spent over 10 hours in the past week on it

  • Small win: Hanging out in Rio de Janeiro. It was fun!


Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: Zealot by Reza Aslan, Remember Me - Fireboy (FAEM remix) & Lonely At The Top - Asake (FAEM Remix)

  • Small win: Exercising after recovering from an injury

  • Other content: Laurin Hainy on TechPoint Africa, We Rich People Will Not Tell You How We Make Our Money - IG Reel, Moneylender licensing in Nigeria , Examples of spurious correlations & Titan: A Golden Case in Indian Retail


Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com


Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

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1 year ago
2 hours 18 minutes 7 seconds

Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
#68: Branch - From Kiva to providing consumer loans and FinTech services across Africa and other developing markets

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about Branch, the FinTech lending company and Neobank. We’ll explore the story across the following 5 areas:

  • African lending & consumer credit

  • Branch's founding early history

  • Product & monetization strategy

  • Competitive positioning & potential exit options

  • Overall outlook

This episode was recorded on Sep 10, 2023


Companies discussed: Branch, Kiva, Kuda Bank, Chipper Cash, Earnin, Paga, FairMoney, MFS Africa, GTBank, Access Bank, Ecobank, PalmPay, Carbon, PiggyVest, Upstart, Tala, Visa, Mastercard & Safaricom


Business concepts discussed: Smartphone credit assessment, Consumer lending, neobank strategy, Personal Finance OS, unbanked population, smartphone credit assessment & Pan-African Banking


Conversation highlights:

  • (01:00) - What Branch is and why we’re talking about it

  • (07:40) - Africa consumer credit context and background

  • (19:17) - Branch International founding

  • (23:31) - Founders’ background

  • (39:12) - Fundraising and Growth

  • (51:40) - Geographical expansion 

  • (1:02:01) - Acquisitions and Team overview

  • (01:15:14) - Product strategy

  • (1:33:20) - Monetization strategy and Costs

  • (1:41:58) - Competition and options for exit

  • (1:57:08) - Bankole’s overall thoughts 

  • (2:10:59) - Olumide’s overall thoughts

  • (2:30:20) - Recommendations and small wins

Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com

  • Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)

  • Recommendation: Eminem - Rap God (OMFG I’m 12 years late, my mind exploded. WOW!)

  • Recommendation: Can’t Hurt Me (David Goggins). Incredible book about challenges David went to from parental abuse, racism to make something of himself. I went through waves of intense emotions while reading the book. At some points, I was crying in pain with David and other times I was in pure shock about what I was listening to.

  • Small win: Hosted FIREDOM book launch event in London. Amazing conversations about life, managing money and growth. Dope shit.



Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: American Prometheus by Kai Bird, A/B Testing with Fat Tails & Remember Me - Fireboy DML

  • Small win: Chin-chin from a recent trip to Lagos

  • Other content: Mobile overdraft facility Fuliza outshines Silicon Valley-backed lending apps in Kenya- TechCrunch & Inside Branch’s 20 percent interest investment push to beat Nigerian bank offerings - TechCabal


Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com


Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

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1 year ago
2 hours 47 minutes 46 seconds

Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
#67: Sabi - How the B2B retail platform is providing business services to informal SMB retailers, distributors, suppliers and manufacturers in Nigeria and Africa

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about Sabi, the B2B retail & supply chain services platform. We’ll explore the story across the following areas:

  1. Africa’s and Nigeria’s informal retail sector

  2. Sabi’s early history

  3. Product & monetization strategy

  4. Competitive positioning & potential exit options

  5. Overall Outlook.

This episode was recorded on July 23, 2023

Companies discussed: Sabi, Rensource, TradeDepot, Twiga Foods, Wasoko (Sokowatch), Omnibiz, Alerzo, & Marketforce

Business concepts discussed: Informal retail penetration, SMB retail OS, B2B Operating systems, Equity carve-outs, Power as a service, Channel margins & Supply chain logistics

Conversation highlights:

  • (01:00) - Sabi context

  • (06:30) - Africa and Nigeria informal retail context and background

  • (20:39) - Background on the founders

  • (30:04) - Quick Rensource detour - overview and background

  • (37:05) - Background on Sabi founding

  • (47:52) - Fundraising

  • (56:40) - Geographic expansion, partnerships and metrics, and growth

  • (1:10:15) - Product Strategy

  • (1:21:17) - How Sabi makes money

  • (1:32:06) - Competition and options for exit

  • (1:46:16) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (1:55:59) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (2:07:49) - Recommendations and small wins


Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com

  • Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)

  • Recommendation: Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity (book by Peter Attia)

  • Recommendation: I Don't Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression (book by Terrence Real)

  • Small win: Organized House party with friends yesterday, it was fun.

  • Small win: Got a new backpack for future travelling, very nice.


Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: Invest Like The Best with the co-founder of FIGS & Spiderman Song - Nigerian Remix

  • Small win: New keycaps!!!

  • Other content: How Equifax became a private IRS, Mission.org podcast episode with CEO Sabi  & Norrsken22-Backed Nigerian Startup Plans $125 Million Round


Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com


Join our substack mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

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1 year ago
2 hours 18 minutes 24 seconds

Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
#66: TradeDepot - How the B2B retail platform is improving the supply chain for informal SME retailers and consumer goods producers across Nigeria and Africa


Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about TradeDepot. We’ll explore the story across the following areas:

  1. Africa’s and Nigeria’s informal retail sector

  2. TradeDepot's early history

  3. Product & monetization strategy

  4. Competitive positioning & potential exit options

  5. Overall Outlook.

This episode was recorded on June 25, 2023

Companies discussed: TradeDepot, Twiga Foods, Wasoko (Sokowatch), Omnibiz, Alerzo, Marketforce, Sabi, Multipro, FMCG Distributions Limited & Kellogg

Business concepts discussed: Informal retail penetration, SMB retail OS, B2B Operating systems, Informal markets, B2B retail, Buy Now Pay Later, Trade Finance & last-mile distribution

Conversation highlights:

  • (01:00) - TradeDepot intro and why we’re talking about them 

  • (06:50) - Africa’s informal retail sector

  • (20:55) - Differences in informal retail across Africa 

  • (25:43) - Founders’ background and early history

  • (36:45) - Launch strategy

  • (42:54) - Fundraising and Growth

  • (49:55) - Growth and geographical expansion

  • (1:02:33) - Product strategy and evolution

  • (1:15:26) - Monetization strategy and costs

  • (1:13:11) - Competition

  • (1:25:05) - Options for exit

  • (1:32:52) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (1:42:22) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (1:53:03) - Recommendations and small wins


Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com

  • Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)

  • Recommendation: Eleven Rings (Phil Jackson). Great book about the unbelievable career of Phil Jackson who won rings with the Bulls (Michael Jordan) & Lakers (Shaq & Kobe).

  • Recommendation: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse movie. Best movie I’ve seen in years. Remarkably good. Great story. Great visuals. Fun!

  • Small win: Friends together for a birthday party on a boat and at the club. It was incredible.

  • Small win: FIREDOM book launch party in Washington DC. I wasn't even there but I felt the energy all the way from here in Miami.


Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: Voyager Playlist, Basquiat - Asake & Iya Eba’s Legacy

  • Small win: Switched to a new keyboard - the Keychron K2 


Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com


Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

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2 years ago
1 hour 59 minutes 39 seconds

Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
#65: Wasoko (Sokowatch) - How the B2B retail platform is providing services and improving the supply chain for informal retailers across Kenya and Africa

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about Wasoko (Sokowatch) We’ll explore the story across the following areas:

  1. Africa’s and Kenya’s informal retail context 

  2. Wasoko's early history

  3. Wasoko's Product & monetization strategy 

  4. Competitive positioning & potential exit options

  5. Overall outlook.

This episode was recorded on June 11, 2023

Companies discussed: Wasoko (Sokowatch), Twiga Foods, TradeDepot, OmniBiz, Alerzo, mPharma, Nestle, Unilever, Multipro, Marketforce, Udaan & Flipkart

Business concepts discussed: Informal retail penetration, Agency banking adoption, B2B Operating systems, Informal markets, & last-mile distribution

Conversation highlights:

  • (00:40) - Sokowatch background and why we’re talking about it

  • (08:35) - African informal retail context

  • (16:11) - Founder background and Founding story

  • (29:55) - Fundraising and early growth

  • (36:56) - Geographic expansion, growth and partnerships

  • (45;12) - Team strategy

  • (54:00) - Product strategy and monetization

  • (1:10:00) - Competition and options for exit

  • (1:23:13) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (1:33:05) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (1:43:30) - Recommendations and small wins


Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com

  • Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)

  • Recommendation: The Slight Edge. Amazing Personal Development book about a mental framework to apply daily actions to get what you want in life. I have read it about 6 times at this point.

  • Recommendation: Temu.com. Started using it for shopping. It has some cool gamification ideas to nudge ecommerce purchases

  • Small win: Hosted house party with friends. It was great to see everyone together


Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: Artificial Intelligence, a guide for Thinking Humans by Melanie Mitchell  & Would You Sell Your Extra Kidney - Dylan Walsh 

  • Small win: won my physical activity mini-league

  • Other content: FT fastest growing companies 2022 & Modularity Theory - Christensen Institute


Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com


Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

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2 years ago
1 hour 55 minutes 55 seconds

Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
#64: Twiga Foods - How the AgriTech supply chain company is connecting SMB retailers and smallholder farmers to improve food logistics across Kenya and Africa

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about Twiga Foods. We’ll explore the story across the following 6 areas

  1. Africa Agricultural context

  2. Kenya farming & market access context

  3. Twiga Foods’ early history

  4. Twiga Foods’ Product & monetization strategy 

  5. Twiga Foods’ Competitive positioning & potential exit options

  6. Future outlook.

This episode was recorded on May 28, 2023

Companies discussed: Twiga Foods, Apollo Agriculture, Vendease, Kibanda, Kellogg, Tolaram, Multipro, Olam, Dangote, Coca-Cola, Shoprite, Cargill, Nestle, Unilever & Safaricom (M-Pesa)

Business concepts discussed: Agriculture technology (AgTech, AgriTech or AgroTech), Agribusiness marketplaces, farming financing, Farmer market access opportunities, SMB Retail, B2B solutions and Agriculture Logistics.

Conversation highlights:

  • (01:00) - Twiga Foods context

  • (08:53) - Africa Agriculture context

  • (18:30) - Kenya background and agriculture context

  • (23:34) - Market access context in Africa

  • (31:20) - Market access context at Twiga Foods' founding

  • (40:12) - Founders’ background and farming context

  • (56:10) - Fundraising

  • (1:04:10) - Geographical expansion, Partnerships and Hiring

  • (1:15:00) - Metrics

  • (1:20:15) - Product & Monetization strategy, Cost structure

  • (1:32:58) - Competition

  • (1:35:00) - Options for exit

  • (1:45:50) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (1:58:58) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (2:06:31) - Recommendations and small wins

Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: Berkshire Hathaway story on the Acquired podcast. It has multiple parts and is really good. The Acquired podcast is like the non-African version of Afrobility. They tell stories of companies in developed markets. Alternatively you could say Afrobility is the African version of Acquired.

  • Recommendation: Exxon-Mobil analyses on Business Breakdown podcast. Business Breakdowns is like a more serious suit-and-tie version of Acquired. As you can tell from my recommendations I like podcasts that analyse businesses.

  • Small win: Sao Paulo trip. It was fun. 

  • Small win: To physically touch and hold the Firedom (financial independence) book. I and Samon released the paperback and hardcover versions in May and I just received my author copy. It feels magical, the book is beautiful and bright red.

Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: Article about end of Life Dreams, Hallmarks of Good Product Sense & This Company Will Give You A Free TV In Exchange For Your Data | AdExchanger 

  • Small win: The EPL season is over, and the suffering of being a Chelsea fan is on pause…

  • Other content: Winning in Africa’s agricultural market, After 18 Months, Your Investment Probably Isn’t Getting Marked Up - Angellist & Kellogg purchases 50% of Multipro for $450M


Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com


Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

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2 years ago
2 hours 12 minutes 35 seconds

Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
#63: Yoco - How the South African FinTech is scaling Point-of-Sale and other payment solutions to merchants across Africa

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about Yoco, the South African Point-Of-Sale FinTech company. We’ll explore the story across the following areas:

  • South African payments context

  • Yoco’s early history

  • Yoco’s Product & monetization strategy

  • Yoco’s Competitive positioning & potential exit options

  • Overall outlook.

This episode was recorded on Apr 9, 2023


Companies discussed: Yoco, Square, Flutterwave, PayFast, PayThru, PayU, DPO, Flutterwave, Paystack, Stripe, Ikhokha, MTN, Safaricom, Zapper, Visa, Interswitch, Nedbank, ABSA, FNB (First National Bank South Africa) & Wave


Business concepts discussed: Merchants solutions, Points-of-Sale devices, SME Lending & hardware and software bundling

Conversation highlights:

  • (01:30) - Yoco context

  • (07:30) - Africa / SA payments context

  • (23:11) - Yoco Founding Story and Founders’ background

  • (40:45) - Fundraising and Growth

  • (51:52) - Partnerships,  Acquisitions, and Team

  • (59:20) - Key metrics

  • (1:02:16) - Product Strategy

  • (1:19:42) - Monetization strategy

  • (1:30:50) - Competition

  • (1:36:42) - Options for exit

  • (1:49:06) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (1:57:01) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

  • (2:07:14) - Recommendations and small wins


Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: I released my book called Firedom = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. It was an incredible journey to get it out and I’m very excited about it. I think many people will really enjoy it. You can buy the audiobook, ebook or print here. Here's an excerpt from the full blog post announcement:

    • Book Creation context: Around the end of 2022, I made a new friend when I met Samon, we instantly got along because we shared a lot in common: African immigrants who moved to America/Europe, worked in Management consulting and are in love with personal finance. We decided to embark on a project together and write a financial independence book we are calling Firedom!  

    • What is Firedom book about? Living life intentionally + Personal finance + Financial independence + Personal Development + Freedom + Exploring your own unique path in life + Life adventures of two African immigrants

    • Who is it for? Underdogs, outsiders, expats, nomads, minorities, immigrants interested in :

      • Living their lives more intentionally to achieve Financial Independence

      • Learning about people's life stories (turning points, challenges, flameouts, etc)

      • Changing their mindset and psychological relationship with wealth


  • Recommendation: Owl City - Unbelievable. I love the song so much because it reminds me of adventures and experiences growing up 

  • Recommendation: Good Hair - Documentary by Chris Rock. Good shit. Reduced my ignorance level about African women hair

  • Small win: Virgin Voyages cruise - First ever cruise. Very cool.

  • Small win: No scrubs Karaoke on cruise. Too much fun. It was an experience.


Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: Economist Article on Nitrogen & Asake - 2:30

  • Small win: Moderating a panel at the Harvard Business School Africa Business Conference

  • Other content: The Prosperity Paradox by Efosa Ojomo, Karen Dillon, Clay Christensen, Adyen pricing page & PayFast pricing page


Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com


Join our substack mailing list where discuss more & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

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2 years ago
2 hours 24 minutes 8 seconds

Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
#62: DPO Group - How the FinTech payments platform went from bootstrapping for 8+ years to strategically acquiring multiple companies, and exiting to Network International for $288M

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about DPO Group. We’ll explore the story across the following areas

  1. African payments context
  2. DPO group’s early history
  3. Product & monetization strategy
  4. Competitive positioning & potential exit options
  5. overall outlook.

This episode was recorded on Mar 5, 2023


Companies discussed: DPO Group, Network International, Apis partners, Flutterwave, Paystack, Interswitch, Safaricom, MTN, Airtel, Takealot.com, Superbalist.com, Safaricom, Yoco, PayPal & Chipper Cash


Business concepts discussed: Bootstrapping, Payments ecosystem, payments partnerships strategy, payments infrastructure, low-end disruption, banking regulation, Mobile Money, E-commerce payments, Virtual cards & payments M&A strategy


Conversation highlights:

  • (04:40) - Africa Payment Context at time of DPO’s founding
  • (12:46) - DPO Group Founding and early history
  • (14:05) - Founder Background
  • (25:57) - Fundraising and Growth
  • (29:48) - Acquisitions and Partnerships
  • (51:30) - Product and Monetization Strategy
  • (1:00:05) - Competition
  • (1:08:35) - DPO’s exit to Network International
  • (1:27:15) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook
  • (1:39:10) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook
  • (1:47:01) - Recommendations and small wins


Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: The War of Art: Book for creators and artists to get over the hump and release their inner creative expression to the world
  • Recommendation: Naval Ravikant podcast with David Deutsch talking about Physics. Amazing episode. Having two of them together is incredible. Like having a rap collabo.
  • Recommendation: Fela in Versace. Shit is too nice. I love songs that combine unrelated ideas
  • Small win: Soul Cycle  for the First time. Dope shit.


Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: Stratechery Podcast - Eric Seufert and Ben Thompson & Mike Munger on EconTalk on Decision-making
  • Small win: I signed up for a gym membership for the first time ever


Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com

Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

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2 years ago
1 hour 46 minutes 14 seconds

Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
#61: MFS Africa (Onafriq) - How the payments network hub is connecting telcos & financial institutions to increase interoperability across Africa and beyond

Overview:  Today, we’re going to talk about MFS Africa. We’ll explore the MFS Africa story across the following 5 areas:

  1. African payments context
  2. MFS Africa’s  early history
  3. Product & monetization strategy
  4. Competitive positioning & potential exit options
  5. Overall outlook.

This episode was recorded on Jan 29, 2023


Companies discussed: Onafriq (MFS Africa), Safaricom (M-Pesa), Opay, Flutterwave, Paystack, MTN, Airtel, Orange, Chipper Cash, Ecobank, Safaricom, Homesend, TransferTo, MasterCard & Visa


Business concepts discussed: Financial interoperability, mobile money (agency banking), banking regulation, acquisition strategy, payment processing, payment gateways & closed-loop payment networks


Conversation highlights:

  • (09:50) - Africa payments context and background
  • (20:26) - MFS Africa founding and early history
  • (22:06) - Founder background
  • (31:40) - Fundraising and early growth
  • (38:44) - Partnerships and M&A
  • (1:02:15) - Product Strategy
  • (1:06:30) - Monetization Strategy
  • (1:13:59) - Competition and Options for Exit
  • (1:28:51) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook
  • (1:34:00) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook
  • (1:47:00) - Recommendations and small wins


Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com
  • Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com
  • Recommendation: Be Happy 35 Powerful Methods for Personal Growth & Well-Being. Talks about practices for a positive mental health. Fun short read that you can refer to time and time again
  • Small win: Birthday celebrations with friends in Miami, NYC & SF. It was epic!


Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: Accidental Gods by Anna Della Subin
  • Small win: I read 3 books in January
  • Other content: Afrobility Chipper Cash episode , Inside the MFS Africa acquisition of Beyonic  & Follow me on Goodreads


Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com

Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

Show more...
2 years ago
1 hour 52 minutes 56 seconds

Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business
Stories and analyses of African technology companies