Equity Merchants Techpoint Africa

Twelve years ago, Sim Shagaya launched Konga as he bid to build Africa's Amazon. However, he would leave the startup just five years later after investors opted to stop funding the startup despite its impressive growth. 
He has since launched edtechs uLesson and Miva University as he sets his eyes on providing quality education to Africa's teaming youth. In this tell-all interview, he shares stories from his early days building Konga and lessons he learned from the process. 
 

In 2021, Kennedy Ekezie co-founded Kippa with Duke Ekezie and Jephthah Uche. The startup, which provides financial management tools for more than 500,000 businesses, has raised over $11 million.
In this interview, Ekezie shares his experience raising venture capital as a first-time founder, insights from serving Africa's SMEs, and his tips for first-time founders.

African Web3 and blockchain sectors raised $5.1 million in 2021, rising to $88 million in 2022. This year, they've struggled with raising capital and have been victims of the global web3 slowdown.
Against this backdrop, Adaverse is betting heavily on African web3 startups and Vincent Li, the firm's Founding Partner joins us in this episode to share his thoughts on the space and why there's room for disruption in Africa.
 
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In 2022, Oyin Solebo joined Techstars as the Managing Director of the ARM Labs Lagos Techstars Accelerator.
Early this year, the first cohort of 12 startups graduated from its three-month program designed to provide founders with learning resources, community, and mentorship.
On this episode of Equity Merchants, Solebo shares tips for founders applying to the accelerator, while giving her thoughts on building in public. She also shares how the team was able to increase participation by female founders in its last cohort.
You can also read the article here: https://techpoint.africa/2023/06/28/oyin-solebo-techstars/
Timestamps00:00 - Tidbits01:04 - Intro01:41 - We meet Oyin02:51 - How ARM Labs Lagos Techstars Accelerator came to be03:25 - Journey to Managing Director05:43 - From investment banking to venture capitalism07:45 - Criteria for getting into the accelerator11:53 - Gauging passion and coachability15:23 - The Techstars advantage18:38 - Benefits of an accelerator to the economy21:53 - Bringing women in28:00 - Learnings from entrepreneurship29:39 - Building in public vs building in private31:46 - Investor due diligence34:28 - Becoming a really good investor37:30 - Outro
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Our guest on the podcast today is Susana Garcia-Robles. Before joining Capria Ventures as a senior partner in 2021, Susana spent more than 15 years working at the Inter-American Development Bank where she spearheaded the development of local startup ecosystems in Latin America.
An experienced investor, she explained how stakeholders can work together to build a vibrant ecosystem and how to drive local venture capital participation. She also shares three tips for emerging fund managers. 

Dr Ikpeme Neto founded WellaHealth in 2014. The startup helps Africans get affordable healthcare coverage for illnesses like malaria. Since its inception, the startup has provided its services to more than 90,000 people. 
In this episode of Equity Merchants, Neto joins me to discuss his reason for leaving his medical practice to set up a healthtech startup, how he picked up dancing as a hobby and why he thinks founders should bootstrap their startups for a while. 
We also discuss the role investors should play in a startup's success and why a collaboration between the business and academic community is necessary. Finally, we talk about the gender funding gap in Africa and Neto's thoughts on it. 
This was an interesting conversation and I'm certain you would love it. 
Please share this episode with your friends, co-workers, and family. Also, send your thoughts, questions, and reactions to chimgozirim@techpoint.africa. 
See you in the next one.