TechCabal Weekly

Fundraising can be a difficult path to navigate, no matter what sector a startup operates in. For early-stage startups, in particular, understanding how to approach fundraising can be a major cause of headaches for their founders.   

Asides from fundraising, navigating good corporate governance as an early-stage startup is also critical, and we've particularly seen the importance of this year.  

On the 4th of November, 2022, for the second edition of the Ecobank Fintech Breakfast series, several industry experts spoke about the role of good corporate governance in the fintech industry and what fintechs need to know about securing investments.  The speakers at the event were Tosin Iyayi - Partner, Aluko & Oyebode, Yemi Keri - Co-founder, Rising Tide Africa, Yele Oyekola - Co-founder & CEO, Duplo, Lexi Novitske - General Partner, Norrseken22 and Chinedu Onuoha - Managing Director at Mzuri Solutions Limited.  

The Ecobank Fintech Breakfast series is brought to you by Ecobank Nigeria in partnership with TechCabal.

Fintechs dominate Africa's tech industry, and for good reason. For instance, in 2021, two-thirds of venture funding raised by African startups went to fintechs. 6 out of Africa's 8 unicorns are also fintechs.   

Although the entry of fintechs into African financial services first seemed like a threat to traditional players, particularly banks, that is fast changing. Today, banks are seeing fintechs less as competitors and more as partners as it has become clearer that collaboration is what the industry needs to enter into a new wave of growth.  

On Friday, April 22nd, for the first edition of the Ecobank Fintech Breakfast series, several industry experts spoke about what these fintech-bank collaborations entail and how they can benefit both sides. They included Tomilola Majekodunmi, CEO of Bankly, Gbenga Ajayi - Partner, QED Investors, Daniel Ahouassa -Co-founder and Co- CEO, Weblogy, Isaac Kamuta - Group Head: Cash - Payments, Cash Management and Client Access, Ecobank Group, and Tayo Oviosu, Founder and CEO, Paga Group.   

They discussed how to identify the right partners, how to structure partnerships that work, how to manage the challenges that may arise from partnering, and how to expand across the continent by leveraging partnerships

What is driving the cryptocurrency adoption in Sub-Saharan Africa and is there potential for crypto to become even more popular on the continent?

Those are the questions we're starting with on this week's TechCabal Weekly Podcast.

In the last week, 11 senior executives left Cars45, the online platform that trades used cars. There have been a lot of theories about the mass exits, but what we know now is that a merger is the reason for the exits.

We also talk about Facebook and how much people trust online platforms as news sources. The answers are pretty surprising. 

After the disappointing end to Tizeti's independent investigation, it's understandable that more than a few people are already skeptical of the outcome of independent investigations at WeJapa, another Nigerian startup that has found itself in some controversy.

The startup's CEO, Favour Ori, has been accused of underpaying developers and making false promises. While he denies wrongdoing, he has stepped down as CEO and one of the company's investors, Microtraction is doing some big talk on how it intends to stay out of the way of the investigation.

This week, we talk about Nigeria's attempts to move to a digital national identification, a big data breach at Experian, the South African credit rating agency, as well as a change of leadership at MTNThis week, we talk about Nigeria's attempts to move to a digital national identification, a big data breach at Experian, the South African credit rating agency, as well as a change of leadership at MTN

After a week of public backlash, the Lagos state government has now made significant changes to its guidelines for ride-hailing companies in the state. Also, we take a look at the second quarter earnings for the ecommerce company, Jumia. 

In Nigeria, regulatory uncertainty is almost a given, and last week, the new regulations were for the broadcasting industry. The NBC's sixth amendment is worrying for many reasons, as it ends content exclusivity and introduces a penalty for hate speech. 

In Oyo state, Nigeria, there are rumors of a proposed transportation licence for companies like SafeBoda and MAX. Outside Nigeria, Donald Trump's new executive orders are also causing some concern, with a 45-day deadline for American companies to round up all transactions with TikTok and WeChat. 

"Where are the exits" is a question that gets asked often by observers of the African tech ecosystem. While funding news is not in short supply, we're finally seeing some important exits. In May, Beyonic was acquired by MFS Africa and now DPO has been acquired by Network International for $288 million. 

There's also some recent excitement among investors for Jumia stock, which is now trading at around $12 after it slunk to lows of $3.95 in May 2020. What's got investors excited about Jumia? Find out in this episode!

In 2019, 86% of Nigerian organisations suffered cyber-attacks. It meant that globally, only India suffered more cyber-attacks. But it's hard to know how much these attacks cost businesses, thanks to under-reporting. 

Despite some sad news at the beginning of the week for the African tech ecosystem, there are lots of positives, like TradeDepot and Eversend backing their talk of expansion with much needed funding 

One of the easiest predictions for Q2 was that theere would be a decline in the number of smartphones shipped to Africa. But by how much did the predictions get it right and what OEMs are controlling the African market?