African Tech Roundup Podcast

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NISK Capital's Sara Oon on providing turnkey startup and SME advisory in East Africa Apr 06, 2018

Show notes

The Kigali-based Sara Oon is Co-Founder and Partner at NISK Capital, a Nairobi-head quartered boutique advisory and investment outfit serving Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. Sara, a Singaporean, holds business degrees from Princeton University and the University of California, and in this conversation with Andile Masuku – taped at Africa Tech Summit Kigali 2018 (www.africatechsummit.com/kigali/) - she speaks on the challenge of helping East African startups and SME’s overcome the funding gap, and about assisting investors who struggle to identify investible prospects to sink their funds into.

RapidLion Film Festival's Eric Miyeni on African cinema asserting itself on the global stage Apr 02, 2018

Show notes

The runaway global success of the Marvel blockbuster sensation, Black Panther, has ignited debate about the influence and business potential of African cinema. In this Mapo Radio (http://bit.ly/MapoRadio) interview, Thembekile Malindi speaks with South African author, filmmaker and founder of the BRICS-focussed RapidLion Film Festival (https://filmfreeway.com/RapidLion), Eric Miyeni, about the state of South Africa's feature film industry and the need for Africans to master the business of marketing and film projects. Listen in to hear Eric's candid take on how African film producers might go about 'reclaiming the African narrative' and asserting themselves more confidently on the global stage.

Caine Wanjau of Twiga Foods on the challenges of scaling an actual business and why not to ICO Mar 26, 2018

Show notes

Caine Wanjau is the Chief Technology Officer of Twiga Foods, a Nairobi-based distributor of fresh fruit produce that's leveraging tech to introduce business efficiencies to one of Kenya's more logistically-challenged industries. Caine holds degrees from Monash University and Strathmore University specialising in Computer Technologies and Engineering (Hardware). In this conversation with Andile Masuku - taped at Africa Tech Summit Kigali 2018 (www.africatechsummit.com/kigali/) - Caine talks about what life at Twiga Foods has been like following the successful close of a $10.3 million Series A funding round in 2017. Listen in to hear Caine's advice for African diasporans who might be keen to emulate him in terms of leaving a comfy overseas gig at a leading bank in order to participate in Africa's emerging tech and innovation scene.

Insight Publicis Nigeria's Feyi Olubodun on his book The Villager: How Africans Consume Brands Mar 20, 2018

Show notes

Feyi Olubudun’s new book, The Villager: How Africans Consume Brands, puts forward a lens for helping Africa-focussed brands and businesses achieve commercial success by correcting their perception of the African Consumer, or as he posits, “The Villager”. Feyi is the CEO of Insight Publicis Nigeria, one of West Africa’s leading creative agencies, and in this chat with Andile Masuku he unpacks insights gleaned from observing many brands fail to crack "the African opportunity". Listen in to hear him share some of the most common mistakes that foreign international businesses make in approaching African markets and how you might avoid making the same ones yourself.

Lagos Angel Network's Collins Onuegbu on traditional angel efforts vs. business angel investment Mar 12, 2018

Show notes

Collins Onuegbu is the Nigerian Founder of Signal Alliance as well as a Director of the Lagos Angel Network. In this conversation with Andile Masuku - taped at Africa Tech Summit Kigali 2018 (https://www.africatechsummit.com/kigali/) - Collins frames the massive business opportunity that is Nigeria, explains the difference between business angel investment efforts and less disciplined traditional angel funding activities, and unpacks why he believes that Africa’s early-stage startup scene would be best served by indigenous money.

A Peek Under the Hood Of South Africa's Mobility Scene feat. Obakeng Morapeli Matlhoko Mar 08, 2018

Show notes

Back on the show for the first time since contributing his fair share of involuntary hot takes on Episode 109 entitled "Investor Bias Debate 2.0 + Should Africa Embrace Uberisation?" (http://bit.ly/investorbias) Tapsnapp Founder, Vije Vijendrenath assumes co-hosting duties in Musa Kalenga’s absence. Andile Masuku chats to him about the workarounds he's deployed to secure funding for two startups that he previously struggled to get investors to take seriously-- namely, www.tapsnapp.co and www.youbabyandi.com. Then, joining Andile and Vije on the show for a deep dive into South Africa's mobility scene is Obakeng Morapeli Matlhoko, the Founder of AftaRobot-- South Africa's ambitious "Uber for minibus taxis". Obakeng shares trench insights into his company’s audacious attempt usher in a new paradigm for the country’s notoriously fragmented minibus taxi industry. Music Credits: Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Andela's Wambui Kinya unpacks Andela's gig economy strategy and addresses common misconceptions Mar 05, 2018

Show notes

Wambui Kinya is the Chief Strategy Officer at Andela-- a startup helping companies overcome tech talent shortages by delivering high performing distributed engineering teams that leverage some of Africa's finest coding talent. Wambui joined Andela after spending over eighteen years working within the professional services space (spanning digital, mobile marketing and technology consulting) in North America, Europe and Africa for companies such as ThoughtWorks (where she notably served as Group Managing Director, Pan-Africa and South America), Praekelt Consulting and IBM Global Business Services. In her current role, Wambui has been tasked with developing partnerships with top tech organizations across the continent and with spearheading Andela's tech leadership recruitment efforts. In this candid chat with Andile Masuku, taped at African Tech Summit Kigali 2018 (https://www.africatechsummit.com/kigali/) she unpacks Andela's distinctive approach to capitalising on the global gig economy trend and addresses some misconceptions that outsiders tend to have about how things work at one of Africa's most-publicised startups.

Karabo Songo and Musa Kalenga of House of Brave on evolving creative agency models Feb 25, 2018

Show notes

Karabo Songo and Musa Kalenga are the savvy business minds behind FastGro-- the 100% black-owned investment firm which just acquired a 25.1% share of the independent agency, House of Brave (HOB). As part of the deal, Karabo has been appointed the business' Group CEO, while Musa has assumed the position of Chief Future Officer. In this conversation with Andile Masuku, Karabo and Musa share how they plan to go about applying platform thinking and leveraging technological innovation to thrive within an industry that's currently taking serious strain.

Venture Garden's Bunmi Akinyemiju on Sure Remit's ICO success and executing smart platform plays Feb 22, 2018

Show notes

Bunmi Akinyemiju is Co-founder and CEO of Nigeria's Venture Garden Group-- a global technology firm which owns several fully-developed SaaS intellectual properties. Bunmi has over 16 years of entrepreneurial experience in high-tech sales, solutions development and management, and has so far led the development of over 20 proprietary technologies in multiple sectors globally. In this conversation with Andile Masuku, Bunmi unpacks the platform strategy driving Venture Garden's approach to incubating, funding and operating early-stage tech firms, and shares the rationale behind what is now the biggest African ICO to date-- Sure Gift's $7 million raise to launch the Sure Remit remittance platform.

What's Trending at #ATRULive Meetup Kigali (Feb 13, 2018) Feb 19, 2018

Show notes

So, we invited friends of the African Tech Roundup podcast to join us for drinks at the Kigali Marriott's Iriba Bar between 4:30 PM and 6:00 PM on Feb 13th, 2018-- the day before the Africa Tech Summit Kigali conference. And when the homies demanded an impromptu podcast session, we gladly obliged. Listen in to hear what was trending at the recent #ATRULive Meetup Kigali.

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