Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about Paystack - the African payments infrastructure company that was acquired by Stripe in 2020 October. We’ll give some context of the Nigerian payments sector before 2015, Paystack's founding, early history, acquisition by Stripe & end with our views on its future outlook. This episode was recorded on January 10th, 2021. Companies discussed: Paystack, Stripe, Flutterwave, Interswitch & Y Combinator (YC) Business concepts discussed: Payments infrastructure strategy, low-end disruption, product-market fit (PMF), capital fundraising (Angels, Strategic investors, VCs), Corporate venture capital (CVC) strategy, payments infrastructure & payments M&A strategy Conversation highlights: (01:00) - Why we’re talking about Paystack (03:12) - Payments landscape before Paystack (06:15) - Founders’ background - Ezra Olubi and Shola Akinlade (17:00) - Paystack products and services (22:46) - Paystack fundraising - Y Combinator, Angels, Seed & Series A (31:18) - Broader payment ecosystem in Nigeria, transaction volumes, etc (43:30) - Stripe’s acquisition of Paystack in 2020 October (52:10) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and future outlook (58:17) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and future outlook (1:14:02) - Recommendations, small wins and open questions Olumide’s recommendations, small wins & open questions: Recommendation: Intelligence Trap (Why smart people make dumb mistakes) Recommendation: Matt Levine (Money Stuff): Awesome Bloomberg columnist back from paternity leave Small win: Using Project Gutenberg for free eBooks. Used it to get Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations. Other content: Paystack fundraising, valuations & founders ownership (detailed spreadsheet estimates) Other content: Paystack is joining Stripe video announcement Open question: What will be the biggest impact of the Stripe acquisition on the Africa tech ecosystem when we look back in 2025? Bankole’s recommendations, small wins & open questions: Recommendation: Pinduoduo and Vertically Integrated Social Commerce , by Turner Novak Recommendation: Wolf Warrior 2 the movie - highest grossing Chinese movie of all time Recommendation: Shola's interview on the YC podcast link Small win: First run of the year yesterday. Open question: Re: Paystack’s exit to Stripe. Do you think the Paystack exit is the exception or a sign of more exits to come? It's tempting to think that this is validation, or a cynic would say - yes, it had to be them. We’d love to hear from you. Please email info@afrobility.com to share feedback or propose topics you’d like to hear. Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes at Afrobility.com

Overview: Today, we’re going to discuss the future of the African tech ecosystem. We’ll discuss our hopes for African entrepreneurs, startups, investors & tech businesses in 2021 and end with a quick discussion of future podcast plans. This episode was recorded on December 27th, 2020. Companies discussed: Naspers, Mono, OnePipe, Okra, MTN, Airtel, Paystack & Interswitch Business concepts discussed: Platform businesses, government impact / investments in tech, corporate venture capital (CVC), investment portfolio diversification, private market investments & scaling startups Conversation highlights: (01:14) - Bankole’s wishlist for 2021 Africa tech (12:48) - Olumide’s wishlist for 2021 Africa tech (24:52) - Olumide -> Bankole: Rapid fire Afrobility-related Q&A (27:40) - Bankole -> Olumide: Rapid fire Afrobility-related Q&A (34:02) - Olumide -> Bankole: Rapid fire general Q&A (39:24) - Bankole -> Olumide: Rapid fire general Q&A (42:17) - Podcast plans for 2021 (48:22) - Recommendations and small wins Olumide’s recommendations, small wins & open questions: Recommendation: Modern monopolies (by Alex Moazed) Recommendation: Index companies (article by Elad Gil) Small win: Hanging out with friends who visited (good to see people in person) Small win: Watched original Rocky from 1976 & Rocky 2 from 1979. Fabulous! Planning to watch Creed soon. Bankole’s recommendations, small wins & open questions: Recommendation: The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn Recommendation: You and your research by Richard Hamming Small win: Division 1 in EA Sports FIFA online seasons Other content: The Journal by Wall Street Journal We’d love to hear from you. If you have feedback, topics you’d like to hear, or just want to say hello, please email info@afrobility.com Join our mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes at Afrobility.com

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about Flutterwave - the African payments infrastructure company - we’ll give some context of the Nigerian payments sector before 2014, Flutterwave's founding, early history, growth over time & end with our views on its future outlook. This episode was recorded on Dec 13, 2020. Companies discussed: Flutterwave, Y Combinator (YC), Fora.com, Interswitch, Adyen, Visa, MasterCard, Stripe, Shopify & Paystack Business concepts discussed: Payments ecosystem, payments partnerships strategy, startup accelerators, payments infrastructure, low-end disruption, banking regulation & payments M&A strategy Conversation highlights: (1:35) - Why Flutterwave is important (04:10) - Background on Iyin “E” Aboyeji (11:38) - How payments worked before Flutterwave (before 2014) in Nigeria (16:40) - Flutterwave closed beta and Y Combinator 2016 (19:36) - Flutterwave growth and product launches (30:15) - Fundraising - Series A, Series B and valuation (42:50) - Partnerships - Visa, AliPay & WorldPay (48:00) - Payments landscape and competition (57:56) - Flutterwave today (1:02:42) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook (1:06:10) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook (1:14:29) - Recommendations, small wins and open questions Olumide’s recommendations, small wins & open questions: Recommendation: Millionaires Unveiled podcast episode 47: $40K salary and $1.4M net worth. Loved the story of happiness and perseverance and being contrarian to live a unique life Small win: Drinking Kale/berry smoothie mix (vs 2 blending vegetables and berries separately) Open question: What are the next FinTech platforms? What can be built on top of flutterwave? Bankole’s recommendations, small wins & open questions: Recommendation: Productive Uncertainty | Reaction Wheel - link Small win: Getting to Division 2 in FIFA 21 Online seasons Other content: Flutterwave on Y Combinator Open question: What do you think are potential exit options for Flutterwave? We’d love to hear from you. If you have feedback, topics you’d like to hear, or just want to say hello, please email info@afrobility.com Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes at Afrobility.com

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about Interswitch, the African fintech payments company. We'll discuss its founding, early history, growth, place in the broader African fintech ecosystem & end with our views on its future outlook. This episode was recorded on Nov 29, 2020. Companies discussed: Interswitch, Telnet, Visa, Helios Investment Partners, Stripe, Flutterwave, Paystack & Jumia Pay Business concepts discussed: Nigerian Payments ecosystem, payments partnerships strategy, card networks, payments infrastructure, low-end disruption, banking regulation & payments M&A strategy Conversation highlights: (02:40) - Why Interswitch is important (10:50) - Nigeria payments ecosystem and pre-Interswitch context (18:12) - Interswitch founding (22:40) - Interswitch fundraising from Helios, Visa etc and expansion (34:24) - Interswitch competition across Nigeria’s payment landscape (40:34) - Interswitch today - size, financials, margins (45:17) - Interswitch relative to competitors (56:37) - Bankole’s general thoughts and outlook (1:02:15) - Olumide’s general thoughts and outlook (1:04:15) - Recommendations, small wins and open questions Olumide’s recommendations, small wins & open questions: Recommendation: Reddit FATFIRE thread: "What asymmetric bets are you currently placing? Good discussion. A little bit of crypto, a little bit of leveraged investments, some talk about options, individual stocks, etc Small win: Using Fitbit Inspire 2 for sleep tracking (switched from Oura ring) Other content: Visa's 2020-Feb Investor day (slide 124) (from Visa's investors site) Open question: What can we learn from the founding of interswitch? Bankole’s recommendations, small wins & open questions: Recommendation: Invest Like The Best podcast ft Nick Kokkonas Small win: Easy does it in my Fantasy Premier League this season. Not doing exceptionally or doing well. Other content: Interswitch 2019 Bond Prospectus Open question: What do you think? Are you bullish on Interswitch vs the competition? Why? Let us know via email / twitter. We’d love to hear from you. If you have feedback, topics you’d like to hear, or just want to say hello, please email info@afrobility.com Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes at Afrobility.com

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about IROKO TV, the Nollywood video platform, we'll give some background on the Nigerian cinema industry, talk about IROKO's founding, early history, different businesses over time and our views on its future outlook. This episode was recorded on Nov 15, 2020. Companies discussed: IROKO TV, Rok studios, iROKING, Netflix & Spark Capital Business concepts discussed: Entertainment Technology, Backward integration, media distribution, Streaming Video on Demand (SVOD) & African streaming video Conversation highlights: (03:10) - Why we’re talking about Iroko TV (03:40) - Market context for Iroko founding: Nollywood, media consumption, etc (17:02) - Jason Njoku and Iroko TV: founding and early history (27:05) - Iroko TV and fundraising (29:03) - Spark Capital - investments and exits (30:05) - ROK Studios - founding, growth and exit / closure (34:20) - iROKING - music label (40:00) - Iroko TV 2015 pivot to mobile and focus on product (45:25) - Iroko TV 2020 layoffs and pivot to NA / Europe (52:20) - Iroko TV and competitive landscape (59:20) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook (1:04:15) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook (1:10:00) - Recommendations, small wins and open questions Olumide’s recommendations, small wins & open questions: Recommendation: "Earnings calls" by Borsa Finance --> It's earning season! Great app to listen to earnings calls Recommendation: Maximum achievement (by Brian Tracy) Small win: Standing during all meetings experiment (going well so far) Other content: Jason's TED talk: Failing All the way to success Other content: Jason's talk: Be Experimental & Find New ways to create things (1m to 10m) Open question: What lessons did you learn from Jason's approach to running IrokoTV? Bankole’s recommendations, small wins & open questions: Recommendation: Shape up - A book about a differentiated approach for product teams to ship high quality products often. Recommendation: Trust The Process - Resignation from Sam Hinkie, former GM for the Philadelphia 76ers Small win: Lots of walking first thing in the morning Open question: Is there hope for an African content business? Or are African consumers going to be subsumed by the global behemoths e.g., Netflix or Spotify? We’d love to hear from you. If you have feedback, topics you’d like to hear, or just want to say hello, please email info@afrobility.com Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes at Afrobility.com

Overview: Today we’re going to talk about Orange - The 2nd largest telco in Africa, we’ll discuss its French founding, global expansion, success in Africa, non-telco businesses & end with our views on its future outlook. This episode was recorded on Nov 1, 2020. Companies discussed: Orange S.A. (France Telecom), Orange Africa, Airtel Africa, Bharti Airtel Group, Celtel, Zain, MTN, Reliance Jio, Safaricom, Sonatel, Orascom, Mobinil, Ivoiris & Meditel Business concepts discussed: Telco developing markets growth strategy, mobile money, telco M&A strategy & developing markets growth strategy. Conversation highlights: (01:22) - Why we’re talking about Orange and why it’s important to African tech (05:19) - History of Orange Group and France Telecom (10:22) - History of Orange Africa (17:56) - Europe's historical influence in Africa tech (vs Indian and Chinese influence today) (29:10) - Orange Africa’s non-telco businesses (primarily Orange Money) (41:58) - Orange Africa today and growth opportunities (47:18) - Orange expanding to South Africa and Nigeria? (53:55) - Bankole’s thoughts and overall outlook (1:01:27) - Olumide’s thoughts and overall outlook (1:05:59) - Recommendations, small wins and open questions Olumide’s recommendations, small wins & open questions: Recommendation: Millionaires unveiled podcast Small win: Standing during all meetings experiment (going well so far) Other content: “Cell C is not an MVNO” article Open question: What other non-telco businesses should Orange consider? Bankole’s recommendations, small wins & open questions: Recommendation: Hey Email Small win: Spent the weekend visiting White Salmon, Washington Other content: Minitel, the open network before the Internet - The Atlantic Other content: Signal v Noise - Blog by the founders of Basecamp Open question: What other companies that are dominant in North Africa or French West Africa should more people be aware of? We’d love to hear from you. If you have feedback, topics you’d like to hear, or just want to say hello, please email info@afrobility.com Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes at Afrobility.com

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about the opportunity for technology to make a difference in African healthcare. We'll start with the context of health in Africa, deepdive into health verticals and African companies, investigate Health Tech in other developing countries & how technology can help. This episode was recorded on Oct 18, 2020. Companies discussed:  Babyl, MobiHealth, mPharma, BIMA, Helium Health, Ilara Health, Zipline, Life Bank, 54gene, MTN Ayo, Ping An Good Doctor, Dr. Consulta, Practo & PharmEasy Business concepts discussed: Healthcare technology, African Access stack, Health care coverage, Health insurance, Health platforms & Public policy. Conversation highlights: (01:40) - Central role of Health care to economic development (03:40) - Africa’s under-resourced and under-staffed healthcare system statistics (11:50) -  Health care challenges in African countries (15:55) - Healthcare verticals by target customers: Patients, Payers, Providers, Manufacturers, Distributors & others (17:10) - Companies in Africa HealthTech across verticals (41:06) -  Health tech in non-Africa emerging markets (53:00) - What’s needed to spur HealthTech innovation across African markets (55:04) - New business models and innovation for Africa HealthTech  (58:10) - Potential business models for African healthcare providers (1:01:10) - Lessons from other governments (1:06:50) - Olumide’s thoughts overall outlook (1:07:50) - Bankole’s thoughts & overall outlook (1:13:50) - Recommendations, small wins & open questions Olumide: Recommendations: The Halo Effect, The Little Book of Lykke & Paired app Small win: Watched video of professor telling colleague they had won the Nobel Prize (really nice) Small win: Watched Paystack CEO video about Stripe acquisition. Made me so happy. Biggest exit for young technical African founders? Other: World Bank database & Zipline mechanics Question: How can we balance impact of health tech between the private & public sector? Special thanks: Aisha Kasali & Nour Sharara Bankole: Recommendations: How to get promoted & How Normal Am I? Small win: Working out more thanks to my Whoop band Other: Africa Renewal - UN, Ping’An Good Doctor article & India Health Blueprint Question: Can Africa have a step change in healthcare outcomes without govt involvement? If you have feedback or just want to say hello, please email info@afrobility.com All episodes at Afrobility.com

Overview: Today we’re going to talk about Airtel - The third largest telco in Africa (& second largest telco in the world), we’ll discuss its founding, early history, success in India, expansion into Africa, non-telco businesses & end with our views on its future outlook. This episode was recorded on October 4, 2020 Companies discussed: Airtel Africa, Bharti Airtel Group, Celtel, Zain, MTN, Reliance Jio, Safaricom, Econet Wireless & Vmobile Business concepts discussed: Telco diversification (voice vs data vs emerging businesses), VOD (video on demand), mobile money, telco M&A strategy & developing markets growth strategy. Conversation highlights: (02:10) - Why we are talking about Airtel today (04:47) - Bharti Airtel founding, Sunil Mittal and early history (14:45) - Airtel Africa - early origins from Celtel and then Zain (21:00) - Zain acquisition of Celtel (22:54) - Nigeria naming journey - from Econet to Airtel (27:02) - Airtel Africa + MTN attempted merger / acquisition (36:31) - Airtel Africa IPO in 2019 (39:50) - Airtel Africa’s non-telco businesses (48:45) - What Airtel Africa looks like in 2020 (59:56) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook (1:05:32) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook (1:10:23) - Recommendations and small wins (1:16:05) - Open questions Olumide’s recommendations, small wins & open questions: Recommendation: Hotel Sweet Home (by Libby Rome) - Fun book about living in a hotel. For travel & point nerds Recommendation: The Treasury of Quotes by Jim Rohn - Amazing book of various smart & insightful quotes from one of my favorite personal development coaches Small win: I listened to Owl City - Unbelievable (ft Hanson) while I wrote script for Health Tech episode Small win: I used background ambient sounds from  Mynoise.net to focus while I prepared for this episode Open question: What can entrepreneurs today learn from Mo Ibrahim or Sunil Mittal? Bankole’s recommendations, small wins & open questions: Recommendations: Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino Small win: FIFA 21 released! A veritable time sink has a new installment! [YouTube trailer] Other content mentioned: Chillhop jazzy lofi - YouTube live channel with good background music to work Other content mentioned: Opomulero by Ruggedman feat 9ice [YouTube] - entry music by UFC athlete Israel Adesanya Open question: What other examples can you think of where events outside Africa dictate an African company’s strategy or market outcomes? We’d love to hear from you. If you have feedback, topics you’d like to hear, or just want to say hello, please email info@afrobility.com Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes at Afrobility.com

Overview: Today, we discuss how African innovation hubs are nurturing entrepreneurship, the history of CCHub / iHub & end with our views on the future outlook of African innovation hubs Companies discussed: CcHub, iHub, Entrepreneur First, Y Combinator (YC), TechStars & Station F Business concepts discussed: Innovation Hubs, sustainable business models & Entrepreneurial support/financing Conversation highlights: (01:07) - Why innovation hubs / entrepreneur support organizations are important  (02:45) - What are innovation hubs (04:37) - Different types of innovation hubs (15:24) - Private vs Government innovation hubs (18:15) - Challenges faced by  innovation hubs  (19:58) - Problems that African innovation hubs solve  (27:10) - iHub, Kenya - founder, history, incubated startups (31:11) - CcHub - founder, history, incubated startups (40:30) - CcHub acquisition of iHub  (43:30) - Trends across Africa’s innovation hubs (48:50) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook (53:52) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook (58:15) - Bankole and Olumide’s recommendations, small wins & open questions   Olumide’s recommendations & small wins: Recommendation: The Psychology of Money (by Morgan Housel): Great book about finance & decision making Recommendation: Reddit summary post about book: Great group focused on financial independence Recommendation: Personal Information Management Assistants: Proposes idea of PIMAs - summarizers + curators of high quality content (e.g., podcasts, articles & books) Small win: Played Stadia games: Spiritfarer & The Turing test Open question: What successful business models have you seen work well for corporate & government innovation hubs in Africa?   Bankole’s recommendations & small wins: Recommendations: Anatomy of a Swipe by Ahmed Siddiqui - A book about how payment systems work Small win: The weather got much better and I was able to resume going out on walks.  Open question: What kind of innovation hubs would you like to see? Something like Entrepreneur First, or “traditional” hubs like ccHub? Other content: Invest Like the Best episode with founder of Entrepreneur First, Matt Clifford - link Other content: Afrilabs and Briter: Tech Hubs Report Q4 2019 - link We’d love to hear from you. If you have feedback or just want to say hello, please email info@afrobility.com.  All episodes at Afrobility.com

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about Byju's & Edtech in Africa. We'll start with some context about African education, discuss Byju's success in India as a reference point, major edtech African players & the future of the African edTech ecosystem   Companies discussed: Byju’s, Naspers, uLesson, Kio Kit / BRCK, Gebeya, Ubongo, M-Shule, BeBlocky, Elham Inspire, MySkoolPortal, Tuteria, MTN, Vodacom & ZEduPad   Business concepts discussed: Educational technology, Africa infrastructure development, product localization, new product development, technological leapfrogging & equity fund raising    Conversation highlights: (02:21) - Why the Byju’s story is important to Africa (03:35) - What is “EdTech” & what are the different segments? (05:41) - Context of education in Africa pre-colonial and colonial influence (08:44) - Challenges with formal education in different African countries (18:12) - Challenges for EdTech in Africa (20:35) - India education & Byju's background  (25:53) - Byju’s growth, localization, expansion & fundraising (33:31) - Byju’s today (35:20) -  How can EdTech be adapted to African conditions? (39:54) - Profiles of EdTech companies in Africa (55:45) - uLesson overview & similarity to Byju’s (01:05:17) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook (01:11:55) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook (01:17:41) - Bankole’s recommendation and small wins (01:23:08) - Olumide’s recommendation and small wins   Olumide’s recommendations & small wins: Recommendation: TEDx - The Importance of Education | Edna Adan Ismail Small win: Spending hours getting lost on Byju's YT channel   Bankole’s recommendations & small wins: Recommendation: The Book of Why by Judea Pearl Small win: Got a Whoop Band this week - it is an always-on, no-display, no notification wristband that tracks performance and recovery metrics and transmits to your phone. Other content mentioned: How Indian Tutoring App Provider Byju’s Got So Big | EdSurge News - link Other content mentioned: Lagos and Manila: A Tale of Two Cities | bankole.org - link Other content mentioned: 94 companies from Y Combinator’s Summer 2020 Demo Day 2 | TechCrunch - link Other content mentioned: Electricity and education: The benefits, barriers, and recommendations for achieving the electrification of primary and secondary schools | UNDESA - link   We’d love to hear from you. If you have feedback, topics you’d like to hear, or just want to say hello, please email info@afrobility.com Find more episodes at Afrobility.com