The Flip

In our first episode of this series on jobtech platforms and the future of work, we argued that the future of work is a tech-enabled portfolio of work. But what does a portfolio of work really look like? And what happens next? We know we need to create more formal jobs in Africa, and we need to boost the productivity of the informal sector. But how do we get there? Considering the context of the markets in question, the future of work isn’t going to be designed or endowed; it’s going to be bootstrapped. 00:00 - Intro 01:17 - Bootstrapping Development 01:53 - Bootstrapping a portfolio of work 05:48 - Pathways for jobtech users 06:45 - This is how development happens Watch the first episode of this series on jobtech platforms: https://theflip.africa/podcast/what-we-get-wrong-about-jobs-in-africa To learn more about the Jobtech Alliance, visit https://jobtechalliance.com Check out last year's podcast series on the future of work: https://go.theflip.africa/future-of-work Our Links - 🔔 Youtube - https://youtube.com/@theflipafrica 💻 Website - https://theflip.africa 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/theflipafrica 👥 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/theflipafrica/ 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/theflipafrica

In January 2024, we hosted a live show in Lagos with The Subtext's Osarumen Osamuyi on the relationship between the tech ecosystem and the media. It was a follow-up to a 2020 episode we published entitled Much Ado About the Media. A lot of founders still feel the media is acting in bad faith amidst more accountable media coverage. In this episode, we explore this tension and have an important discussion with the ecosystem players themselves. 00:00 - Intro 01:22 - Reflecting on 2020's episode 08:20 - Paga's Tayo Oviosu's founder perspective 12:20 - TechCabal's Tomiwa Aladekomo's media perspective 19:04 - What about business models? 22:20 - Stears Nchedolisa Akuma on subscriptions 24:58 - Moniepoint's Didi Uwemakpan's marketing perspective 28:14 - The global perspective from TechCrunch's Tage Kene-Okafor 30:49 - FT's Aanu Adeoye 36:20 - How to give local context to a global audience 42:02 - Local vs. global media 45:43 - Who keeps the media in check? 46:36 - Editorial perspectives from TechCabal's Olumuyiwa Olowogboyega 50:03 - Negative stories about advertising partners 53:03 - Osarumen & Justin's retrospective Much Ado About the Media, part one: https://theflip.africa/podcast/s2e9 Our Links - 🎥 YouTube - https://youtube.com/@theflipafrica 💻 Website - https://theflip.africa 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/theflipafrica 👥 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/theflipafrica/ 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/theflipafrica

Live from the BIG Summit, a platform hosted by investor and 2x NBA All-Star Baron Davis, at the 2024 NBA All-Star Game, a conversation with three operators connecting Africa to the world through culture and commerce. In this conversation, we're joined by Clare Akamanzi, the CEO of NBA Africa, Abdul Karim Abdullah, the Founder and CEO of AfroFuture music festival, and entrepreneur and private equity investor Tuyee Yeboah. 00:00 - Intro 02:38 - NBA Africa 05:32 - AfroFuture 08:34 - Investing across Africa and the US 10:55 - Basketball's role in Africa's development 12:20 - Changing perceptions about the continent 17:35 - How do we get more investors involved? 21:20 - African talent Episode Links - AfroFuture - https://www.afrofuture.com/ BAL - https://bal.nba.com/ BIG Summit - https://www.teambig.io/ Our Links - 🎥 YouTube - https://youtube.com/@theflipafrica 💻 Website - https://theflip.africa 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/theflipafrica 👥 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/theflipafrica/ 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/theflipafrica

The African continent has the highest levels of poverty, the lowest levels of formal employment, and its population is going to double in the next 30 years. African countries need to create more jobs. But what kinds of jobs? And how? What if I told you that the way governments and development organizations are trying to create jobs in Africa is all wrong? To make a dent in this problem requires an understanding of the realities on the ground and how that has impacted the preferences of the labor markets in question. The future of work, for Africans in particular, is not a formal job but a technology-enabled portfolio of work. 00:00 - Intro 01:36 - Informal is normal 03:14 - A portfolio of work 05:24 - Using jobtech platforms like Tendo for supplemental income 08:33 - To what degree can jobtech platforms address the underemployment issues across the continent? To learn more about the Jobtech Alliance, visit https://jobtechalliance.com Check out last year's podcast series on the future of work: https://go.theflip.africa/future-of-work Our Links - 🔔 Youtube - https://youtube.com/@theflipafrica 💻 Website - https://theflip.africa 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/theflipafrica 👥 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/theflipafrica/ 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/theflipafrica

Despite research showing that female founders outperform their male peers, startups with a solo female founder or an all-female founding team raised a mere 2% of all the funding in Africa last year. There is a huge gender funding gap. How do we close it? This episode is the last episode of a five-episode series on gender lens investing, co-hosted by Eloho Omame, Founding Partner of First Check Africa, an early-stage fund backing female-led startups. Each episode of this series will explore a different level of the fundraising value chain. In this episode, we're exploring ecosystem and capacity building with Jessica Espinoza, the CEO of 2X Global, an organization aimed at unlocking gender smart capital at scale. Jessica chairs the 2X Challenge which has raised more than $27 billion of gender lens investments since its launch at the G7 Summit in 2018. 00:00 - Intro 02:10 - Unlocking gender-smart capital at scale 03:43 - What is gender-smart capital? 06:46 - Applying the 2X framework to investing 10:25 - Building the gender-smart investing ecosystem 19:52 - The primary issue is bias 22:54 - Mainstreaming gender-smart capital 25:55 - What is success for 2X Global? 33:29 - A retrospective conversation with Eloho & Justin In Episode 1 of this series, we spoke to the founders: Bamboo's Yanmo Omorogbe & Uncover's Sneha Mehta: https://theflip.africa/podcast/why-is-only-2-of-funding-going-to-female-founders In Episode 2 of this series, we spoke to angel investor Yemi Keri, Co-founder of Rising Tide Africa: https://theflip.africa/podcast/this-angel-investor-is-closing-the-gender-funding-gap In Episode 3 of this series, we were joined by the fund managers: Alitheia Capital's Tokunboh Ishmael & TLcom Capital's Andreata Muforo: https://theflip.africa/podcast/investing-in-women-is-an-economic-imperative In Episode 4 of this series, we spoke to an LP investing in the fund managers: Sam Akyianu, Managing Director of the Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund: https://theflip.africa/podcast/mastercard-foundation-is-investing-150-million-into-20-gender-lens-funds This series is created under the ScaleX project: Co-designing Solutions to close the early stage gender-financing gap in Africa, an initiative of Make-IT in Africa. Make-IT in Africa promotes entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems across Africa for green and inclusive development. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH implements this project on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Our Links - 🔔 Youtube - https://youtube.com/@theflipafrica 💻 Website - https://theflip.africa 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/theflipafrica 👥 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/theflipafrica 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/theflipafrica

Despite research showing that female founders outperform their male peers, startups with a solo female founder or an all-female founding team raised a mere 2% of all the funding in Africa last year. There is a huge gender funding gap. How do we close it? This episode is the fourth of a five-episode series on gender lens investing, co-hosted by Eloho Omame, Founding Partner of First Check Africa, an early-stage fund backing female-led startups. Each episode of this series will explore a different level of the fundraising value chain. The Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund is a $150 million fund-of-funds initiative investing in twenty gender lens funds, with a particular focus on closing the financing and support gap for females. And in this episode, we're joined by Sam Akyianu, Managing Director of the Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund. 00:00 - Intro 01:54 - Investing $150m in 20 vehicles 08:06 - Fund evaluation & investment decisions 23:09 - Measuring success 31:25 - Overmentored and underfunded? 35:04 - Getting other LPs onboard 36:43 - A retrospective conversation with Eloho & Justin In Episode 1 of this series, we spoke to the founders: Bamboo's Yanmo Omorogbe & Uncover's Sneha Mehta: https://theflip.africa/podcast/why-is-only-2-of-funding-going-to-female-founders In Episode 2 of this series, we spoke to angel investor Yemi Keri, Co-founder of Rising Tide Africa: https://theflip.africa/podcast/this-angel-investor-is-closing-the-gender-funding-gap In Episode 3 of this series, we were joined by the fund managers: Alitheia Capital's Tokunboh Ishmael & TLcom Capital's Andreata Muforo: https://theflip.africa/podcast/investing-in-women-is-an-economic-imperative This series is created under the ScaleX project: Co-designing Solutions to close the early stage gender-financing gap in Africa, an initiative of Make-IT in Africa. Make-IT in Africa promotes entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems across Africa for green and inclusive development. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH implements this project on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Our Links - 🔔 Youtube - https://youtube.com/@theflipafrica 💻 Website - https://theflip.africa 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/theflipafrica 👥 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/theflipafrica 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/theflipafrica

Despite research showing that female founders outperform their male peers, startups with a solo female founder or an all-female founding team raised a mere 2% of all the funding in Africa last year. There is a huge gender funding gap. How do we close it? This episode is the third of a five-episode series on gender lens investing, co-hosted by Eloho Omame, Founding Partner of First Check Africa, an early-stage fund backing female-led startups. Each episode of this series will explore a different level of the fundraising value chain. In this episode, we're joined by the investors. Tokunboh Ishmael is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Alithea Capital, a $100 million gender lens private equity fund. Andreata Muforo is a Partner at TLcom Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund with a 60% female partnership. 00:00 - Investing in women is an economic imperative 02:12 - Introducing Tokunboh 04:04 - An Alitheia-led thesis 05:36 - What does gender-lens investing look like in practice? 11:49 - What about the financial returns? 13:35 - Impact targets 17:24 - Are there enough women founders in the pipeline? 19:54 - Women are over-mentored and under-funded 23:48 - Is a female investor backing a female founder a negative signal? 26:53 - What does success look like? 29:47 - Introducing Andreata 31:15 - Why is a traditional VC fund like TLcom trying so hard to invest in more female founders? 33:03 - How VCs make investment decisions 36:18 - Only 25% of the pipeline has a female co-founder 40:44 - Is there a fundamental mismatch with VC and gender-lens investing? 42:31 - What does success look like? Part two 46:47 - A retrospective conversation with Eloho & Justin In Episode 1 of this series, we spoke to the founders: Bamboo's Yanmo Omorogbe & Uncover's Sneha Mehta: https://theflip.africa/podcast/why-is-only-2-of-funding-going-to-female-founders In Episode 2 of this series, we spoke to angel investor Yemi Keri, Co-founder of Rising Tide Africa: https://theflip.africa/podcast/this-angel-investor-is-closing-the-gender-funding-gap This series is created under the ScaleX project: Co-designing Solutions to close the early stage gender-financing gap in Africa, an initiative of Make-IT in Africa. Make-IT in Africa promotes entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems across Africa for green and inclusive development. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH implements this project on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Our Links - 🔔 Youtube - https://youtube.com/@theflipafrica 💻 Website - https://theflip.africa 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/theflipafrica 👥 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/theflipafrica 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/theflipafrica

Despite research showing that female founders outperform their male peers, startups with a solo female founder or an all-female founding team raised a mere 2% of all the funding in Africa last year. There is a huge gender funding gap. How do we close it? This episode is the second of a five-episode series on gender lens investing, co-hosted by Eloho Omame, Founding Partner of First Check Africa, an early-stage fund backing female-led startups. Each episode of this series will explore a different level of the fundraising value chain. In this episode, we're exploring Angel Networks with Yemi Keri, co-founder of Rising Tide Africa, a women-oriented angel network in Nigeria. 00:00 - Intro 01:42 - Rising Tide Africa 05:06 - Mentoring, Investment, Networking, Education 07:25 - Growing the pool of female angels 12:15 - Where are the interventions needed to close the gender funding gap? 14:13 - Yemi's investment approach 18:07 - What does success look like? 22:04 - Exits? 26:40 - A retrospective conversation with Eloho & Justin Episode 1 of this series featured Bamboo's Yanmo Omorogbe & Uncover's Sneha Mehta: https://theflip.africa/podcast/why-is-only-2-of-funding-going-to-female-founders This series is created under the ScaleX project: Co-designing Solutions to close the early stage gender-financing gap in Africa, an initiative of Make-IT in Africa. Make-IT in Africa promotes entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems across Africa for green and inclusive development. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH implements this project on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Our Links - 🔔 Youtube - https://youtube.com/@theflipafrica 💻 Website - https://theflip.africa 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/theflipafrica 👥 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/theflipafrica 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/theflipafrica

Despite research showing that female founders outperform their male peers, startups with a solo female founder or an all-female founding team raised a mere 2% of all the funding in Africa last year. There is a huge gender funding gap. How do we close it? This episode is the first of a five-episode series on gender lens investing, co-hosted by Eloho Omame, Founding Partner of First Check Africa, an early-stage fund backing female-led startups. Each episode of this series will explore a different level of the fundraising value chain. In this episode, we're joined by the founders: Yanmo Omarogbe, the Co-founder and COO of the Nigerian investment platform Bamboo, and Sneha Mehta, the Co-founder and CEO of Uncover, a direct-to-consumer skincare brand in Kenya. 00:00 - Intro 02:00 - Yanmo & Sneha's fundraising experiences 13:19 - If tech companies raise more money, should more women start tech companies? 19:55 - What does "the ecosystem" need to be doing more of to help female founders? 25:26 - The added burdens for female founders 32:18 - What does success look like? 38:15 - Is money raised the right metric? 41:36 - The 2% Ceiling 47:30 - A retrospective conversation with Eloho & Justin This series is created under the ScaleX project: Co-designing Solutions to close the early stage gender-financing gap in Africa, an initiative of Make-IT in Africa. Make-IT in Africa promotes entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems across Africa for green and inclusive development. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH implements this project on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Our Links - 🔔 Youtube - https://youtube.com/@theflipafrica 💻 Website - https://theflip.africa 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/theflipafrica 👥 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/theflipafrica 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/theflipafrica

Today's guest is Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, Chairman of Coronation Capital and former Group MD and CEO of Access Bank. Aigboje is one of the most successful and esteemed businesspeople on the continent. In 2002, he led the acquisition of Access Bank, which under his 11-year leadership grew into the largest bank in Nigeria and one of the largest in Africa. This wide-ranging discussion with the Chairman took place during the 2023 UN General Assembly in New York at an event hosted by the early-stage VC fund Microtraction, in which we were joined in conversation with Microtraction's Founding Partner, Kwamena Afful. 00:00 - Intro 02:59 - Banks as vehicles for economic empowerment 06:28 - Africa's credit gap 13:08 - Aigboje's view on transition 16:50 - The infrastructure for Africa's comparative advantages 19:22 - Africa's risk premium 25:12 - "Africa will solve its problems when it starts producing in Africa" 29:54 - Building digital economies 32:09 - One African currency? 38:21 - Engendering Africa's potential Our Links - 🔔 Youtube - https://youtube.com/@theflipafrica 💻 Website - https://theflip.africa 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/theflipafrica 👥 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/theflipafrica 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/theflipafrica

Today's guests are Natalie Kolbe, Ngetha Waithaka and Lexi Novitske - Partners of the $205 million growth fund Norrsken22. In this episode, we'll talk about investment strategy, valuations, perspectives for the ecosystem, exits, and much more. 00:00 - Intro 00:48 - Norrsken22's $205m fundraise 09:36 - Investment strategy & process 12:43 - Investing in asset-light marketplaces 14:37 - Expansion 18:04 - Investment theses 27:26 - Macro perspectives 30:22 - What are the partners focused on and thinking about? 35:23 - Exits 40:49 - What does success look like? Our Links - 🔔 Youtube - https://youtube.com/@theflipafrica 💻 Website - https://theflip.africa 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/theflipafrica 👥 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/theflipafrica 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/theflipafrica

Today's guest is Perseus Mlambo, Co-founder and CEO of Union54, the developers of the social commerce app ChitChat. The company started as Zazu, an agtech startup, which pivoted to Zazu the neobank. After issuing virtual cards for their users and seeing the demand other fintechs had for virtual cards, they pivoted to Union54 the card issuing API, which after massive traction in the fintech ecosystem and subsequent issues with fraud, has pivoted once more to ChitChat. With many pivots come many lessons, and in this episode, Perseus shares his lessons and much more. 00:00 - Intro 03:01 - Perseus' Pivots 05:14 - Union54 and chargeback fraud 09:37 - Are Union54's problems solvable? 12:30 - Stakeholder management 19:03 - Alternative options for the company 22:27 - Perseus' conviction in the team & the opportunity 27:00 - Union54's newest product, ChitChat 30:18 - ChitChat's unique cap table structure 34:37 - What's the vibe in the ecosystem? 38:05 - The vision for the company Episode Links - Perseus' interview with TechCrunch Follow Perseus on Twitter Our Links - 🔔 Youtube - https://youtube.com/@theflipafrica 💻 Website - https://theflip.africa 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/theflipafrica 👥 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/theflipafrica 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/theflipafrica

Today's guest is Adia Sowho, one of the most experienced and thoughtful operators in the African tech ecosystem. After starting her career in consulting and telecommunications, Adia led growth at the digital credit startup Migo, before leading the turnaround as Interim CEO of the embattled agriculture finance company Thrive Agric. In this episode, we'll learn from Adia about her lessons working across both big and small companies, about the importance of sharing those lessons learned, and so much more. 00:00 - Intro 03:41 - Sharing is a must 07:19 - Lessons from the Thrive Agric turnaround 09:54 - Why join MTN? 17:47 - Where are the Sheryl Sandbergs? 20:32 - Lessons from every stage of company 31:24 - Nigeria is a hard operating environment 34:37 - More money, more problems? 35:34 - Wisdom for startups 37:53 - Sharing is a must, part 2 46:19 - Adia has a Substack References - The Anatomy of a Turnaround - https://theflip.africa/newsletter/the-anatomy-of-a-turnaround Adia's Substack - https://adia.substack.com/ Follow Adia - https://twitter.com/adiaspeaks Full episode transcript - https://theflip.africa/podcast/mtn-nigeria-s-adia-sowho-sharing-is-a-must Our Links - 🔔 Youtube - https://youtube.com/@theflipafrica 💻 Website - https://theflip.africa 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/theflipafrica 👥 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/theflipafrica 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/theflipafrica

Today's guest is Ham Serunjogi, the Co-founder and CEO of Chipper Cash. In 2021, Chipper raised $150 million Series C extension, valuing the startup at $2 billion, but has since cut its valuation, reportedly by 70 percent, has engaged in three rounds of layoffs, reducing its headcount by nearly 175 from its peak of 450, and has drastically pulled back from its aggressive growth and expansion strategies across the continent. This conversation with Ham comes at an interesting time for Chipper and in the market, in general. Tough macro conditions on the continent, a slowdown of funding, tech layoffs. And at the same time, a lot of new and significant product launches for the company. 00:00 - Intro 03:05 - Long-term perspectives & time horizons 06:13 - Challenges operating across Africa 08:20 - Reflecting on Chipper's growth strategies 11:25 - Chipper ID 15:40 - Full-stack vs. focus 19:40 - Zoona acquisition & agent networks 26:04 - What lessons has Ham learned? 30:15 - Layoffs 31:45 - Capital allocation going forward 34:24 - Zepz acquisition? 37:07 - More lessons 43:39 - What does the future look like for Chipper? 🔗 Our Links 🔔 Youtube - https://youtube.com/@theflipafrica 💻 Website - https://theflip.africa 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/theflipafrica 👥 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/theflipafrica 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/theflipafrica

Today's guest is Dare Okoudjou, the Founder and CEO of MFS Africa, which this week has rebranded to Onafriq. The new name represents a new chapter in the company, which is a very different looking company than when we first had Dare on the show back in 2020, after their acquisition of Beyonic. Since then, they've also acquired the card issuer, GTP in the US, and the agent network Baxi in Nigeria. This current period of the African tech ecosystem is one of increased consolidation and company shutdowns amidst a fundraising downturn. And in this environment, there's perhaps no better and more experienced founder on the continent to learn from than Dare. 00:00 - Intro 01:48 - What's in a name? 04:26 - Cross-border payments 13:51 - Banks vs. Fintechs 15:24 - Onafriq's role in the payment value chain 20:27 - The people aspect of acquisitions 24:08 - On fintech consolidation 29:55 - Dare's take on the state of the market 35:03 - On fundraising 37:56 - The next 5 years for Onafriq 39:19 - Exits? 🔗 Our Links 🔔 Youtube - https://youtube.com/@theflipafrica 💻 Website - https://theflip.africa 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/theflipafrica 👥 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/theflipafrica 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/theflipafrica

Today's guests are Michael Seibel, the Managing Director of Y Combinator, and Kwamena Afful, a Founding Partner of Microtraction. Michael has been an avid supporter of the African tech ecosystem. Since his first trip to Lagos in 2016, and since Paystack joined YC's winter batch earlier that year, the number of African startups that have participated in the global accelerator has grown to 89. And for Microtraction, the early-stage fund was founded in 2017, in part in relation to the increased global interest in the African tech ecosystem, where Microtraction's early financial support and local know-how could help fill the gap. In this episode, we hear from Michael and Kwamena about their shared perspectives on the opportunities they see and their bet on African talent. 00:00 - Intro 03:08 - Honorary Chieftan Michael Seilbel 04:28 - Supporting the African tech ecosystem 07:41 - Fintech deep dive 10:19 - Software companies crossing borders 14:49 - Solving African problems 22:24 - What about the continent's population growth? 25:47 - Investing in African talent 29:38 - Creating jobs 31:44 - Connecting African talent to the global marketplace 🔗 Our Links 🔔 Youtube - https://youtube.com/@theflipafrica 💻 Website - https://theflip.africa 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/theflipafrica 👥 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/theflipafrica 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/theflipafrica

Today's guest is Kiaan Pillay, the Co-founder and CEO of Stitch. My conversation with Kiaan comes on the heels of their recent fundraising announcement, a $25 million Series A extension led by the global fintech fund Ribbit Capital, which brings their total funding raised up over $50 million since the launch of the company in 2019. In this episode, we talk to Kiaan about how they've gotten here, the intangibles of company building, their vision for the next generation of payments, and much more. 00:00 - Intro 03:29 - Stitch's $25 million Series A extension 05:51 - Why take money from Ribbit Capital? 07:00 - Stitch's growth 09:03 - Building products for enterprise 11:38 - A developer-centric org 13:23 - What products has Stitch built? 15:50 - Building a "next-generation" PSP 19:06 - Specialization vs. building the full stack 22:36 - How deep is the South African market? 29:48 - Stitch's company culture as a reflection of Kiaan 32:28 - How Stitch has recruited so well 35:20 - The perception of startups and equity in South Africa 37:15 - How Kiaan hired Stitch's president 39:26 - Investing in product and engineering talent 42:17 - Kiaan's evolution as a startup founder to CEO of a 70-person company 44:30 - The future for Stitch and fintech in Africa Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theflipafrica https://twitter.com/just_norm

Today's guest is Olugbenga Agboola, better known as the one and only GB - the Co-founder and CEO of Flutterwave. It's been a trying last year or so for Flutterwave with issues of fraud, allegations of impropriety inside the company, regulatory hurdles, and the general challenges of scaling a fintech in a tough operating environment. Yet through it all, Flutterwave has "technology reach" in 34 countries, they've continued to ship new products beyond their core payments technology, including their rebranded remittance product Send App, and there are rumors swirling about the near-term timeline of their planned IPO. In this episode, we'll hear from GB about many of his recent lessons, his perspectives on product and expansion strategy, and we'll ask many of the questions we've been wanting to hear from him about, including the big one about Flutterwave's IPO. 00:00 - Intro 03:13 - When is Flutterwave going public? 04:56 - What about the allegations? 09:24 - Sharing more for the benefit of the ecosystem 11:17 - Growth and expansion 16:13 - Did Flutterwave grow too fast? 21:09 - Fundraising and the African growth story 27:11 - GB's angel investing activities 30:29 - Lessons from GB's banking and big tech background 32:08 - Why did GB start Flutterwave in the first place? 33:49 - Are payments still broken? 35:55 - The vision for the future 38:02 - Final words of wisdom Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theflipafrica https://twitter.com/just_norm https://twitter.com/techprod_arch

The future of work in the African context is going to be a lot of different things. It mimics the nature of work itself for many individuals on the continent. They're taking this portfolio approach to work. Even in more "developed markets" we're seeing work become less formal and more flexible, as work becomes unbundled from employment. And this evolution of work itself provides a whole set of new challenges and opportunities. So this episode is a retrospective on the entire season, in which we explore more of these questions about the future of work in this context. And joining The Flip's Justin Norman and Kandua's Sayo Folawiyo for this conversation is friend of The Flip, Chris Maclay, the Program Director for the Jobtech Alliance at Mercy Corps. 00:00 - Intro. 04:30 - Portfolio of work, earnings, stability, growth. 08:40 - Who gets to decide if a job is good or bad? 15:48 - Training, enablement, and platforms. 19:48 - The HustleOS and micro-franchising. 24:28 - The Future of Work is a portfolio of work. 29:54- Digital services for export. 32:57- Market sizing platform-enabled digital work. 41:39 - Should there have been an episode called The Future of Work is Universal Basic Income? This season of The Flip is sponsored by MFS Africa.

There is a perception that there's a tech talent shortage in the African tech ecosystem, and that it's hard to find high-quality local talent. There has been lot of conversation around the impact and role of Big Tech in the equation, which many felt were also culprits in driving up the price of talent in local marketplaces. In an environment of talent scarcity, there's been an upward pressure on salaries for talent of a certain caliber - which Big Tech can more readily afford compared to startups. And while the supply-demand equation may be changing a bit in the context of recent market downturns and layoffs, this talent question is an important one for the continued development of the tech ecosystem. So while we hear a lot from startups and founders in this episode, we're going to get a different perspective from the Big Tech companies themselves. 00:00 - Intro, there is a perceived talent scarcity problem in the African tech ecosystem. 04:37 - We start with Google, and their Managing Director for Sub-Saharan Africa, Nitin Gajria. 05:38 - Google is investing $1 billion in Africa over 5 years. 08:16 - Catherine Muraga is the Managing Director of the Microsoft Africa Development Centre in Nairobi. 11:49 - Talent scarcity and compensation. 13:59 - The competition for talent is global. This season of The Flip is sponsored by MFS Africa. Follow The Flip on Twitter @theflipafrica and subscribe to our newsletter The Flip Notes at https://theflip.africa/newsletter.