The African Startup Teardown Podcast

In this episode, we had Tayo Oviosu, the CEO of Paga, who broke down the business behind the fintech company.

We discussed Paga's progress over the years, from simplifying payments to digitizing cash transactions and providing financial services to everyday people.

We also talked about Paga's go-to-market strategy in Nigeria, which combines offline and online channels.

Tayo shared some interesting facts and figures about Paga, including reaching ₦1 trillion annual total processed value (TPV) for the first time in 2021, with plans to double that by 2023.

He also shared valuable lessons learned from more than a decade of running a business and building financial products.

Don't forget to share this episode with your friends and colleagues. Subscribe to our newsletter, and follow us on Twitter @TeardownPodcast for more insightful takes and stories.

Timestamp

00:00 - 00:37 Intro

00:38 - 04:00 Stories from the trenches

04:01 - 05:15 Importance of good relationship with coworkers

05:16 - 08:09 What is Paga and how has it evolved over the years

08:10 - 15:00 What the first launch with Paga was like

15:01 - 17:47 How frequently Paga released products/pushed things to production

17:48 - 18:59 Building Micro-Services

19:00 - 22:55 Evolution of business model

22:56 - 28:50 Competitors and their adoption of the agency banking model

28:51 - 31:00 Processing 7 Trillion Naira in a year

31:01 - 32:45 How much margin they had to reduce for growth

32:46 - 34:38 Technology Inflection Point that unleashed the barrage of retail agency banking

34:39 - 39:11 Can the market support all the businesses that leverage retail agency banking

39:12 - 42:05 How to get started with a retail agency banking

42:06 - 42:45 Could an agency banking be built using Paga

42:46 - 44:23 Customer Acquisition Cost and agent commission

44:24 - 45:15 At what point will an idiot be able to run Paga

45:16 - 45:55 Outro

Welcome to this episode of the African Startup Teardown Podcast, where we have VytautasPaukstys, the CEO of Eskimi, breaking down the business behind the ad tech platform.

We start by discussing the evolution of Eskimi from its early days as a social media company to its foray into payments, ad tech, and every other business. Vytautas takes us through each era of product development and businesses, including the chat app, social site, payments, and ad tech platform.

We also discuss the components needed to create a successful social media product back then, and how that has changed compared to building a successful social media app now.

For our listeners who are building consumer products, Vytautas shares some of the experiments he tried to increase user growth and retention, including what worked and what spectacularly failed.  

Vytautas also shares his insights on the margins of digital ads and the economics of running a DSP.  

Don’t forget to subscribe and share the podcast with your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Twitter @TeardownPodcast and sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on the latest insights and stories from successful African entrepreneurs.

In this episode, the CEO and co-founder of Identity Pass, Lanre Ogungbe, shares the story behind the company and its mission to provide a world-class compliance and security infrastructure for Africa.

The company offers a variety of products, including biometric authentication, data and document verification, and compliance and data security solutions.

With over 1 million verifications processed since launch, Identity Pass charges between 10 and 20 cents per verification based on the number of endpoints a business connects to.

Yemi discusses with Lanre about the differentiation of Identity Pass from other players in the AML/KYC compliance space, the challenges of acquiring business customers, and the potential for future growth and expansion.

Subscribe to our podcast and share it with your friends and colleagues to stay up-to-date on the latest insights and stories from successful African entrepreneurs.

Timestamp

00:00 - Intro

00:31 - Story from the Trenches

04:41 - What is Identity Pass?

07:11 - Innovations enabled by products Identity Pass offers

10:16 - Why does identity verification have so many players

15:51 - Dynamics within the the industry that allows for multiple companies

20:51 - Opportunities for players in the industry to share APIs

23:56 - How would a customer know Identity Pass is the right one for them

27:31 - How does wide range of business product create better outcomes for Identity Pass

32:15 - Interesting stats worth knowing

36:06 - Components that had to be put together to make Identity Pass work

41:30 - How much Identity Pass makes per business acquired

46:06 - Business Margin for Identity Pass

52:51 - What a typical sales cycle looks like

55:06 - How Identity Pass got it's first customer

56:56 - Stereotyped faced being seen as Gen Z

59:56 - Bull Case for Identity Pass

1:02:16 - Outro

On this episode, we had a stimulating discussion with Olajumoke Kujero, Country Manager for ShopEx.

Olajumoke makes a case for ShopEx business model and how it compares to other traditional e-commerce platforms. She also shares her personal growth experiences having worked at Jumia and other leading Startups.

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Please leave a review, comment, share, and like whenever you listen. We want to hear from you and appreciate your feedback. Better ratings mean more people get to listen to the show, and it helps us grow.

Timestamp

00:00 – intro

00:30 – Elevator Pitch for Shopex

02:40 – Stories from the trenches

09:20 – Why does Tele-shopping matter in this age of online shopping

18:50 – Conversion rate of Tele-shopping/Tele-sales

21:50- How Shopex gets customers to make up their minds quickly and get potential customers who would have missed the airing of the ad on TV

27:01 – Shopex’s business model/Economics behind business model

30:50 – Shopex’s gross margin

31:57 – Shopex’s customer acquisition cost, marketing cost and retention

37:31 – Shopex’s margin performance of TV ad spend

40:51 – TV ads compared to other digital channels

46:01 – Lessons from running just TV ads

50:30 – Why manufacturers work with Shopex

53:41 – Difference in purchasing behaviors between users of Shopex and Jumia

59:12 – How long and average Tele-cell call lasts

1:00:37 – How could Shopex double or triple revenue in the next year

1:07:06 – How soon can Shopex run on autopilot

1:11:07 – Outro

On this episode, we had a great time talking to John Colson, CMO of Yellow Card.

John shares his personal life stories and lessons on building and growing Yellow Card to expand to 16 countries. He explained how the business operates, acquires and retains customers, and the outlook for the future.

To ensure you don’t miss any episodes, or updates, and for additional information on the hosts, follow @teardownpodcast on Twitter.

If you would like to get all the insider’s gist first, subscribe to our newsletter here: [africanstartupteardownpod.substack.com](http://africanstartupteardownpod.substack.com/)

Please leave a review, comment, share, and like whenever you listen. We want to hear from you and appreciate your feedback. Better ratings mean more people get to listen to the show, and it helps us grow.

*Timestamp*

00:00 – 00:39 – Intro

00:39 – 08:17 – Yellow Card early days/ How John joined Yellow Card.

08:17 – 10:26 – Breadth of Yellow Card products

10:26 – 12:00 – Yellow Card Customer pitch

12:00 – 18:09 – Yellow Card expansion

18:09 – 22:13 – How Yellow Card Scales

22:13 – 29:07 – Yellow Card Customer Acquisition Strategy

29:07 – 34:11 – Yellow Card Customer Acquisition philosophy

34:11 – 40:21 – Growth lesson

40:21 – 44:35 – Customer Relations

44:35 – 47:26 – Naira liquidity problem

47:26 – 50:42 – Yellow Card Bull case

50:42 – 53:01 – Yellow Card Resilience

53:01 – 58:30 – John’s Yellow Card stories/advice.

58:30 – 59:42 – Final words/Outro.

From giving loans to Nigerians at a low-interest rate to building a digital bank that offers free transfers, this episode tears down another Fintech company - Carbon.

Yemi is joined by the CEO & Co-founder of Carbon; Chijioke Dozie to share the story so far.

Chijioke shares his thought on Fintech, how Carbon evolved over the years, how they acquire/retain customers, and how they make money from offering financial services.

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If you would like to get all the insider’s gist first, subscribe to our newsletter here: [africanstartupteardownpod.substack.com](http://africanstartupteardownpod.substack.com/)

Please leave a 5-star review, comment, share, and like whenever you listen. We want to hear from you and appreciate your feedback. Better ratings mean more people get to listen to the show, and it helps us grow.

Timestamp

00:00 - 01:24 -  Intro

01:25 - 10:47 - How Carbon evolved over the years

10:48 - 13:59 - Carbon products and revenue

14:00 - 16:56 - How customers think about fees 

16:57 - 19:02 - Carbon transaction numbers and revenue 

19:03 - 28:31 - The boom of digital banks

28:32 - 47:23 - Economics of a Carbon user

47:24 - 49:07 - Key metrics for Carbon

49:08 - 52:23 - Lessons learned from building Carbon

52:23 - 55:49 - The future of Carbon

55:49 - 57:00 -  Final words/Outro

From Africans gaming referral programs to solving cross-border transfer problems in Africa, this episode tears down a Fintech company - Eversend.

Yemi is joined by the CEO & Co-founder of Eversend - Stone Atwine to explain what the business does and how it operates. 

Stone shares his thought on Fintech generally, how Eversend started, their value proposition to customers, and how they got to process $240,000,000+ transaction within 3 years. 

To ensure you don’t miss any episode, updates, and for additional information on the hosts, follow @teardownpodcast on Twitter.

If you would like to get all the insider’s gist first, subscribe to our newsletter here: [africanstartupteardownpod.substack.com](http://africanstartupteardownpod.substack.com/)

Please leave a review, comment, share, and like whenever you listen. We want to hear from you and appreciate your feedback. Better ratings mean more people get to listen to the show, and it helps us grow.

 Timestamp

00:00 - 01:00 - Intro

01:00 - 02:43 - What is Eversend

02:43 - 05:23 - Bundling and unbundling of financial services

05:23 - 09:24 - Building a differentiated product from others

09:24 - 13:00 -  How Eversend started

13:00 - 17:12 -  Eversend unique selling point

17:12 - 23:12 -  Eversend pricing and fees

23:12 - 28:21 - Eversend growth in transaction volume

28:21 - 31:58 -  Fintech customer LTV

31:58 - 39:30 - Eversend acquisition strategy 

39:30 -  48:00 - Lessons learned from building Eversend

48:00 - 51:03 - Eversend market expansion

51:03 - 54:20 Eversend competition

54:20 - 56:44 - Bull and bear case for Eversend

56:44 - 60:00 - Outro

In this episode, your favorite hosts, Yemi and Nnamdi, were joined by the General Manager, Nigeria of M-Kopa Babajide Duroshola.

Babajide talks about how M-Kopa helps the underbanked in 4 African countries access credit facilities with no collateral. He explained how the business operates, acquire customers, and the growth journey so far.

To ensure you don’t miss any episodes, or updates, and for additional information on the hosts, follow @teardownpodcast on Twitter.

If you would like to get all the insider’s gist first, subscribe to our newsletter here: [africanstartupteardownpod.substack.com](http://africanstartupteardownpod.substack.com/)

Please leave a review, comment, share, and like whenever you listen. We want to hear from you and appreciate your feedback. Better ratings mean more people get to listen to the show, and it helps us grow.

SHOWNOTES

0:00 - Intro

2:10 - Who is Babajide Duroshola

4:08 - What is M-Kopa

10:36 - How M-Kopa handles price inflation

13:15 - M-Kopa unique value proposition

16:44 - How M-Kopa achieve PAYG payment

20:30 - How M-Kopa acquires customer

29:47 - M-Kopa growth so far

37:07 - What assumptions is M-Kopa built on

39:40 - How M-Kopa retains customers

44:05 - Outro

Many conversations around Jumia focus on why eCommerce is hard or how it's hard to do deliveries in Nigeria, but they are often surface-level analyses of Jumia's opportunity.

We go in deeper and cover all of Jumia. How they make money, how they think about launching businesses, their growth prospect, and their strategic direction.

This is an episode you will love. Plus the audio on this is the best so far. You will love it!

We recorded this episode back in April 2021 and we discussed how we would think about growth for some of the early stage/series A VC-funded startups in Nigeria. We talked about Stears, EdenLife, Moove, Rise, and a lot of others. 

This episode is great in understanding how to think of user acquisition. 

We discuss why they are so many property listing websites in Africa. We reversed engineered how the biggest players in the space acquire renters and estate agents and how property listing sites think about retention and monetization.

If you have ever wanted to start a marketplace or listing site, this is a must-listen.

In this episode we reverse engineer how Jiji.ng grows and answer the question "Can they can become a $10m revenue company?". We go over their growth framework and share what we have discovered