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Equity Merchants dives deep into various issues around investing in African startups. We’ll cover topics such as conducting due diligence, employee stock options, and valuation. If you’re looking to understand venture capital from an African perspective, you would love this.
43 Episodes
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On this episode of the podcast, FoodCourt CEO Henry Nneji takes us behind the scenes of their journey to profitability, from bootstrapping to joining Y Combinator and scaling operations across Lagos. Henry shares insights into the challenges of operating in a market where infrastructure issues, inflation, and consumer behavior heavily influence business decisions. From navigating early setbacks, such as landlord disputes, to embracing data-driven strategies for efficiency and menu design, this episode dives deep into the complexities of building a sustainable food tech startup in Nigeria.We also explore FoodCourt’s expansion plans, the role of technology in enhancing customer experience, and their focus on maintaining consistent quality while scaling.
Corporate venture capital is relatively new in the African venture capital space, but it has increasing potential. This week on the podcast, we sit with Benjamin Toulouze, the head of Corporate Venture Capital & Managing Director at Axian Group, a pan-African group with a presence in 15 countries.
Benjamin is an experienced corporate venture capitalist and in this episode, we discuss the intersection of corporate and traditional venture capital, and how both can complement each other to drive startup success.
We dive into the importance of stability and regulatory harmony in Africa's growth and explore promising sectors such as fintech, e-commerce, health tech, and the transformative potential of artificial intelligence.
This week, we sit down with June Angelides MBE, partner at Levare Ventures and one of the Financial Times’ Most Influential Tech Leaders. With over 13 years of experience spanning venture debt, venture capital, and entrepreneurship, June has carved a niche in backing startups across Africa and Europe. From launching the UK’s first child-friendly coding school, Mums in Tech, to investing in startups like Chowdeck, Raenest, and Ruka Hair, June's career exemplifies her belief in doing impactful work while having fun.In this episode, she shares her journey from Thomson Reuters Bank to venture capital, her approach to spotting resilient founders, and why she’s passionate about fostering diversity in tech.
In this episode, we sit down with Chikodi Ukaiwe, CEO of Salad Africa, to explore the differences between conviction and resilience in entrepreneurship.
Drawing from his experiences at Salad Africa and previous roles at Jumia and Konga, Chikodi argues that conviction — knowing your "why" — is essential for founders aiming to tackle big problems.
He shares insights on how rigid resilience can hinder growth, the value of a no-code approach to early-stage problem validation, and the importance of cultivating team alignment.
For all the progress recorded in Africa's fintech sector, cross border payments remain a significant challenge for businesses and individuals.
In this conversation, Austin Okpagu, Country Director for VertoFX shares his thoughts on some of the challenges innovators in the space battle with. He notes that a coordinated approach is required to ease cross border payments across Africa and highlights the role of partnerships in achieving this.
Nigerians spend more than half of their earnings on food. In recent years, a slew of startups have sprung up looking to ease the process of purchasing food for Nigerians.
One of this startups is Pricepally founded in 2019 by Luther Lawoyin, Deepak Bansal, Jummai Abalaka, and Mosunmola Lawoyin.
In this conversation, Luther who is on his fourth startup and serves as the startup's CEO shares why he chose entrepreneurship over salaried employment, the challenges of building a successful grocery delivery platform, and the importance of a strong co-founder relationship.
How important is it for a startup founder to understand marketing? Extremely important, according to Princewill Akuma, a B2B Digital Marketer.
On this episode of the podcast, we discuss his career journey, including moving from being a DJ to becoming a digital marketer. He also talks about some of the steps he took during the process as well as lessons for startup founders looking to boost their marketing efforts.
In this episode of the podcast, we dive into the world of entrepreneurship with Tamara Posibi, Chief Consultant at Irtus Business. Tamara has worked with over 100 businesses across four continents, helping them scale, raise funds, and develop sound business strategies. Drawing from her experience, she discusses the common mistakes young entrepreneurs make, like focusing on branding before securing customers or assigning leadership roles too early.Tamara also shares insights on how to balance being a first mover and how to stay patient through tough business decisions. She emphasises the importance of customer interaction and why startups should prioritise market validation over early fundraising.
What do getting a PhD and building a startup have in common?
For both, you're usually trying to create things that don't exist. But you also have to convince people to believe in your idea.
After completing a PhD in Design and Computation from MIT, Kenfield Griffith started mSurvey which later rebranded to Ajua. In 2023, he co-founded tappi, a startup working to bring African SMEs online for as low as $2 a month.
On the podcast, we discuss his transition from academics to startups, choosing to build a startup targeting SMEs, and how to think about creating exit opportunities for investors.
Mary Ekemezie is the founder of ME Academy and a seasoned corporate law expert. On this episode of the podcast, she shares her insights on the importance and consequences of equity distribution. We touch on some principles that should guide equity allocation, considering factors like financial investment, time commitment, and skills. We also dive into allocating equity to co-founders, employees, and advisors, and the importance of legal guidance.
Our guest on the podcast today is Feyi Olubodun, CEO and Managing Partner of Open Squares Africa.Feyi is a seasoned marketing executive, speaker, and author of The Villager: How Africans Consume Brands. Before starting Open Squares Africa, he was the CEO of Insight Publicis, a leading marketing agency in Africa, where he oversaw campaigns across banking, FMCG, telecommunications, and entertainment.On the podcast, Feyi argues that the African consumer is different from the European or American consumer and insists that successful businesses must recognise that. Using a blend of data and field experiences, he shares some things that influences how the average African uses brands. REGISTER FOR PITCH FRIDAY: https://bit.ly/feyiregSUBSCRIBE TO EQUITY MERCHANTS: https://bit.ly/EQFO
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In 2007, Tokunboh Ishmael co-founded Alitheia Capital with Jumoke Akinwunmi, pioneering a new era of investment in tech-enabled businesses across Africa. Since then, the continent's investment landscape has undergone a significant transformation, with startups emerging as highly sought-after investment opportunities. Today, Tokunboh joins us on the podcast to share her insights on the importance of diversity in startup teams, the need for regulatory reforms, and the role of media in shaping the startup narrative. Subscribe to the Equity Merchants newsletter for more content like this. https://techpoint.africa/series/equity-merchants/
In this episode, we sit down with Kristin Wilson, a seasoned entrepreneur and investor, to discuss the challenges and opportunities of building startups in Africa.Kristin shares her insights on the common mistakes co-founders make, the importance of transparency and accountability, and the need for founders to tackle tough problems in Africa.She also talks about her journey, from deciding not to pursue a career in medicine to becoming a key player in the African startup ecosystem, and emphasises the need for capital to flow into smaller markets and for policy changes to unlock barriers to growth.
Understanding your market and executing a well-planned strategy can be the difference between startup success and failure.
At June's edition of Pitch Friday, Temitayo Ekundayo , Co-founder at GetEquity led an insightful session dedicated to crafting and refining your go-to-market strategy.
Too many times, regulations are released that hurt startups, but Olufemi Oyinsan, General Partner at The Continent Venture Partners, argues that innovators and regulators don't always have to be at loggerheads.
In this episode of Equity Merchants, he shares some thoughts on how regulators and innovators can work together harmoniously.
Not having tech skills should never be a reason to abandon your dreams to build a technology business.
During the May edition of Pitch Friday, Oluwatobi Odukoya, CEO of CDcare, joined us to share how he navigated the challenges of building a startup without technical experience. His startup has over 500k downloads on the Play Store and has delivered products to users in more than 25 Nigerian states.
Link to the course Tobi mentioned: https://www.udemy.com/course/flutter-bootcamp-with-dart/?couponCode=OF52424
And the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SantosEnoque
Find us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok @TechpointAfrica
Kendall Ananyi bought his first stock at the age of 12, the same year he started learning how to code.
Today,he has made 40 investments in startups such as Paystack, Flutterwave, Reliance Health, and Chowdeck.
In this interview, he shares the story behind investing in Paystack, how he determines what startups to invest in and why he believes rejection is normal for every entrepreneur.
Six years ago, Olu Oyinsan left his job as a Vice President at Ingressive Capital to start a fund targeted at early-stage African startups.
In that time, Oui Capital has made over 20 investments across Africa, including into Moniepoint, one of the continent’s fastest-growing fintechs. In this interview, he shares some of the lessons learned along the way and some thoughts on building a startup in Africa.
Twelve years ago, Sim Shagaya launched Konga as he bid to build Africa's Amazon. However, he would leave the startup just five years later after investors opted to stop funding the startup despite its impressive growth.
He has since launched edtechs uLesson and Miva University as he sets his eyes on providing quality education to Africa's teaming youth. In this tell-all interview, he shares stories from his early days building Konga and lessons he learned from the process.
In 2021, Kennedy Ekezie co-founded Kippa with Duke Ekezie and Jephthah Uche. The startup, which provides financial management tools for more than 500,000 businesses, has raised over $11 million.
In this interview, Ekezie shares his experience raising venture capital as a first-time founder, insights from serving Africa's SMEs, and his tips for first-time founders.
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