Digital Africa

In today’s episode, we speak with Patricia Rinke, an investor at AfricInvest about the introduction of international capital to Africa, the key ingredients of a vibrant, innovative startup ecosystem across the continent, and advice for African entrepreneurs wanting to raise capital from VCs.

Keep up to date with innovations, tech trends, and entrepreneurs in Africa by subscribing to Digital Africa.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit digitalafrica.substack.com

In this episode, we speak with Itoro Inoyo and Jennie Nwokoye and of Clafiya, a startup working to expand access to affordable, quality primary health care.

Keep up to date with innovations, tech trends, and entrepreneurs in Africa by subscribing to Digital Africa.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit digitalafrica.substack.com

In this episode, we spoke to Karl Carter, Snake Nation's CEO, about the African creator space, its connection to culture, and its role in Africa's future economy.

Keep up to date with innovations, tech trends, and entrepreneurs in Africa by subscribing to Digital Africa.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit digitalafrica.substack.com

In this episode, we speak to Nitin Gajria, Managing Director - Sub-Saharan Africa at Google about how the company is increasing its intuition of Africa, helping grow the tech sector and expanding the supply of developers on the continent.

Keep up to date with innovations, tech trends, and entrepreneurs in Africa by subscribing to Digital Africa.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit digitalafrica.substack.com

In this episode, we explore marketing strategies from an investor perspective - what works, what doesn’t work, and other useful insights from a VC. Our guest today is Jessica Fortune Oguh of Ingressive Capital.

Highlights

💬 Telling your story and simplifying your pitch

👥 The importance of user groups when building communities and a userbase 

👍 The importance of user testimonials for gaining trust and credibility

📅 The need to have a well-thought-out marketing strategy that can be tested and improved upon

🎧 Talking to users and listening to them to help iterate your product

📣 Leveraging social media to build a brand and engage with users (current and potential)

🔭 Find where your audience is online, where they hang out

Keep up to date with innovations, tech trends, and entrepreneurs in Africa by subscribing to Digital Africa.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit digitalafrica.substack.com

With recent announcements of new early-stage venture funds entering the African landscape and the ecstatic response from the continent’s tech space, one may believe this to be a rare occasion.

But it’s not.

Rather, venture capital has consistently grown over the past few years, ramping up from US$400 million in 2015 to US$2.02 billion in 2019.

So why do so many people have the impression that the African tech sector lacks capital?

Perhaps it’s not that many people actually know what’s going on in the Africa tech sector — and this appears to be part of a broader problem that plagues Africa; lack of data.

Highlights

📱 How lack of data impacts the tech sector

📃 Legislative consequences of insufficient data

🏗️ Building better data infrastructure

📊 Market-based solutions

Keep up to date with innovations, tech trends, and entrepreneurs in Africa by subscribing to Digital Africa.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit digitalafrica.substack.com

In this episode, we explore the ways in which AI is being deployed in the eCommerce industry with Jean Marie Uwabeza Vianney, CEO and Co-Founder of Yuko.AI, a company focused on optimizing the skincare market by utilizing AI to create hyper-personalized shopping experiences. 

Highlights

💄 Using AI to optimize the skincare market

🔬 Complimenting the work of dermatologists with AI

❤️ Creating hyper-personalized shopping experiences

♂️ Enabling male consumers to come into the market by increasing recommendation speed and efficiency

🧑🏿‍🤝‍🧑🏽 The importance of team and data diversity to remove bias from AI

Keep up to date with innovations, tech trends, and entrepreneurs in Africa by subscribing to Digital Africa.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit digitalafrica.substack.com

In this episode, we speak with the CEO and Co-Founder of Chommie, CJ Dumeni about digitizing and expanding the last-mile delivery sector in Africa - a sector boosted by recent lockdown restrictions forcing both businesses and customers online; some of which for the first time ever. 

Highlights

🌐 Getting people online with convenience and keeping them there with good service

🛵 The expansion of last-mile delivery across Africa

📦 The importance of same-day delivery and keeping Africans shopping online

🔒 Fostering trust amongst African shoppers online

🦠 COVID shifting businesses and consumers online 

🚀 Building a startup team in Africa 

Keep up to date with innovations, tech trends, and entrepreneurs in Africa by subscribing to Digital Africa.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit digitalafrica.substack.com

In this episode, we explore the transition to eCommerce across Sub-Saharan Africa and how unique technology such as Airbuy (Co-Founder Njabulo Makhathini is today’s guest), is being used to include even the unbanked and unfamiliar with online shopping, in this economy-wide movement. 

Highlights 

💻 Africas shopping online in growing numbers 

💸 Fostering trust and familiarity with digital payments

✍️ Designing to effectively communicate value propositions

👥 Creating apps and products that resonate with its prospective users

📱 Product development - listening to customers and iterating 

🏦 Entrepreneurs building the future finance industry in Africa

🌍 Cross-continent collaboration and ecosystem development opportunities in eCom and the wider tech space

Keep up to date with innovations, tech trends, and entrepreneurs in Africa by subscribing to Digital Africa.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit digitalafrica.substack.com

In this episode, we spoke with Josh Chapman, Founding Managing Partner of Konvoy Ventures, a Colorado-based VC focused on the gaming sector with plans to expand throughout emerging markets, about the massive opportunities in the African economy when it comes to gaming.  

Highlights

🚀 What a ‘great team’ means for investors 

🌍 The repetition of globalization but through a virtual world 

💸 Massive opportunities for play-to-earn amongst emerging markets

🏠 The continuation of localized preference in gaming 

📱 The importance of mobile gaming in Africa 

🎮 Getting meta - gaming as an expression of human evolution 

🏫 Opportunities for innovation in education and governance by expanding the gaming space in Africa

Keep up to date with innovations, tech trends, and entrepreneurs in Africa by subscribing to Digital Africa.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit digitalafrica.substack.com