The Trajectory Africa Tayo Akinyemi

On the previous episode of The Trajectory Africa, Wiza Jalakasi, Africa Market Development Director at EBANX suggested that infrastructure-building consumer payments businesses create value because of the sheer number of payment methods available, from mobile money to bank transfers and cards.
With all these options, businesses taking consumer payments need a neutral third party to provide a single point of aggregation. But what does it *actually* take to build this type of infrastructure? What are the mechanics behind aggregating and routing payments? Is tech the hardest part, or is it business, finance and operations? And how do you transition from aggregator to b2b super app? On this episode of The Trajectory Africa, we’re talking to Sassoum Niang, Director of Product & Marketing at InTouch about how you build pan-African “air traffic control” that allows businesses to collect payments in whatever form they come in. 
Tune in to hear about:

[1:25] From film and e-commerce to payments at InTouch
[5:34] About InTouch and the problems it solves
[11:54] InTouch’s core infrastructure
[30:36] How partnerships help adapt to market and distribute strategically
[46:02] The business of infrastructure building
[51:00] Pressing problems remaining to be solved for payments to be functional 
[1:05] Counterintuitive first principle for building a high growth payments infrastructure business
Recommendations:
Chasing Outliers. Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa, a report I co-authored on VC investing in Africa 
Connect on social media:
Sassoum Niang on LinkedInSassoum Niang on TwitterThe Trajectory Africa on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on Twitter

On this episode of The Trajectory Africa, we’ll hear from Wiza Jalakasi, Director for Africa Market Development at EBanx, a payments processor headquartered in Brazil. He’ll shed some light on why building payment rails in Africa is deceptively hard work—from why some payment methods work better in some places than others to whether infrastructure-building or enabling payments through APIs is the best way to create value.

Tune in to hear about:
[5:41] Key milestones in payments infrastructure creation
[11:53] Why certain payment methods gain traction in different areas
[15:39] How consumer payments work and what the infrastructure looks like
[26:11] Back end infrastructure builders vs. API players 
[33:30] VC leapfrogging logic vs. the path toward building a massive payments infrastructure business 
[46:34] Similarities in payments problems across emerging markets
[52:50] Pressing problems remaining to be solved for payments to be functional 
[1:00] Counterintuitive first principle

Recommendations:
Wiza Jalakasi. Wiza’s website, including his writing
Frontier Fintech, Samora Kariuki's newsletter, mentioned by Wiza
The Hard Thing About Subscription Payments in Africa. The piece Wiza referenced in this episode
The Subtext. A newsletter written by Osarumen Osamuyi, referenced by Wiza
Chasing Outliers. Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa, a report I co-authored on VC investing in Africa 

Connect on social media:

Wiza Jalakasi on LinkedInWiza Jalakasi on TwitterThe Trajectory Africa on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on Twitter

On this episode of The Trajectory Africa’s current series, "The Engine of African Venture: A Return to First Principles", we’re laying the foundation for a deeper exploration of fintech by stepping back to understand the system(s) that fintech creates and operates in. For that, we’re chatting with Samora Kariuki, Founder of the Frontier Fintech newsletter and Director at Sote, a company that’s building African supply chain infrastructure, about the goals and characteristics of Africa’s financial system(s). 

Tune in to hear about:
[3:03] Why Samora launched Frontier Fintech newsletter and the benefits of “writing out loud”
[7:09] What problems fintech solves 
[17:58] Characteristics of a functional financial system and the value it should deliver 
[23:25] Why Africa's financial system needs technology and how it works in cash-driven, informal economies
[36:00] How much of Africa’s financial systems remain to be built
[47:05] What infrastructure layer will catalyze the rest of the system
[51:56] Consolidation vs. integration in fintech
[55:53] First principle for understanding what Africa’s digitally enabled financial system will look like

Recommendations:
Frontier Fintech, Samora’s newsletter
The anatomy of a fintech stack: enterprise businesses in South Africa, a hypothetical fintech stack for an established enterprise business in South Africa
Chasing Outliers: Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa, a report I co-authored on VC investing in Africa 
Connect on social media:

Samora Kariuki on LinkedInSamora Kariuki on TwitterThe Trajectory Africa on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on Twitter

This is the first episode of Part 1 of a new series on The Trajectory Africa —The Engine of African Venture, A Return to First Principles. This series will explore what powers fundamental value creation and investability in sectors that drive the bulk of African VC opportunities.

Part 1 is focused on fintech, and this episode with Abraham Augustine, Comms & Programs Lead for Norrsken, tackles the premise that digitalizing African economies is the African investment opportunity. Abraham shares his perspective on how digital Africa’s digital economy can actually be and how this impacts the way venture capital is invested.  
Tune in to hear about:
[3:43] why Augustine authored a series on Africa's digital economy
[6:05] how Africa’s digital economy can defined and the venture-backable opportunity in digitalization
[18:40] the physical constraints of “digital” opportunities and investing for bytes vs. atoms
[30:20] market knowledge as a key to anti-fragility
[40:21] African unicorns hiding in the “crevices” of shifting markets 
[55:00] the systems effects of digitalization in digital economies
[1:03] why momentum fails as a first principle for investing in Africa’s digital economy
Recommendations:Read Abraham’s writing on Africa’s digital economy on Tech Cabal:
Next Wave: The social questions around Africa’s digital economy
The Next Wave: A data centre roadmap for Africa
The Next Wave: A digital economy is, above all, physical
The Next Wave: How Africa’s digital infrastructure gap manifests
The Next Wave: Africa’s power deficit is at odds with its digital economy goalsConnect on social media:

Abraham Augustine on LinkedInAbraham Augustine on TwitterThe Trajectory Africa on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on LinkedInTayo Akinyemi on Twitter

The Trajectory Africa’s second series, The Engine of African Venture: A Return to First Principles, is a two-part exploration of what powers fundamental value creation and investability in sectors that drive African VC opportunities. The first part is focused on fintech, starting from the premise that digitizing African economies is the African investment opportunity.
From this foundation, the series will explore fintech’s subsectors—from market opportunities to business models—to tease out why they are (or aren’t) destinations for venture capital.
For a recap of the previous series, check out The Trajectory Africa Rewind: Principles for Understanding African Venture.

Welcome to Episode 5, the next to last of Dans les Coulisses, a series exploring VC and tech entrepreneurship in Francophone Africa, brought to you by Impact Hub Dakar and The Trajectory Africa. 
For this episode, we have two guests: Birame Sock and Madji Sock. 
Birame Sock is a technology expert with over 20 years of experience as a tech entrepreneur and high-level executive in the digital space. She recently founded Kwely, a B2B wholesale sourcing marketplace that showcases products made in Africa. Birame is also a co-founder of Haskè Ventures, a venture-builder and investment fund focused on high potential Francophone companies. She has served on several boards, including a publicly traded company valued at over a billion dollars, where she helped develop digital strategies for major entertainment brands such as American Idol. Birame is the jury president of the Francophone Africa region for the Cartier Women’s Initiative Award; serves on the jury of the Jack Ma Foundation’s Africa Business Heroes competition; and is an ambassador representing Francophone Africa for the UNCTAD eTrade for Women program.
Madji Sock is a seasoned entrepreneur and senior manager. She is a co-founder and President of Haskè Ventures, a venture-builder and investment fund focused on high potential Francophone companies. She launched a consulting firm in Senegal, which later expanded to three other West African countries. Madji has also co-founded the Women’s Investment Club Senegal, from which WIC Capital, a fund focused on women-owned businesses in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, emerged. In addition to co-founding an incubator in Dakar, she has launched, and currently manages, a chain of cafés. Madji has designed numerous programs and initiatives to strengthen the private sector, drive policy change, and build partnerships.
In this episode, we discuss:
Birame’s entrepreneurial crossroads and what motivated her to return to Senegal [2:02]Why Madji returned, her professional journey, and the launch of Haskè Ventures [4:45]What need Birame’s company Kweli was launched to to serve [9:00]Why venture building makes sense when startups have to build infrastructure [14:30]How to characterize the regional opportunity in Francophone Africa [33:00]The role of blended capital and M&A in funding and exiting African businesses [41:30]How African founders and investors should navigate “winter” in global VC [51:10]