Hello and welcome to Africa BuiltA podcast on the stories and history behind some of Africa's most important mature companies. Brought to you by Olumuyiwa Olowogboyega, writer of the Notadeepdive newsletter, and Nnanna Ijezie, writer of the Fintech is Easy newsletter. Why does this existMost successful companies have a story they tell about themselves: the smooth, flattering version. Over time, that becomes corporate folklore, leaving out the parts that don't fit the narrative. Africa's tech industry has produced billion-dollar companies, landmark IPOs, and bitter rivalries, but very few extensive, honest accounts of how any of it actually happened are in the public domain. These stories exist, scattered across old interviews, conference panels, news archives, and newsletters, waiting to be pieced together into one place. Over the years, we've collaborated on multiple media projects and reports in various forms, and in the process identified the need to tell larger, more detailed stories of some of Africa's most successful companies. This is our attempt to finally step into the arena and plug a gap we have identified in African corporate storytelling. By going deep on the companies that built Africa's tech and business landscape, from founding to IPO and beyond, we're telling a researched story of how these companies actually got built: the strategies, pivots, competition, successes, and failures along the way. Occasionally, we'll have friends, guests, and insiders join us to add more detail to these stories. African startups of today are standing on the shoulders of giants before them. It's time to tell their story. We hope you enjoy this. Cheers, Muyiwa and Nnanna Africabuilt.xyz
