Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business – Details, episodes & analysis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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