The Trajectory Africa Rewind: Principles for Understanding African Venture

The Trajectory Africa

Welcome to The Trajectory Africa: Rewind, the summary episode for the Trajectory Africa, a "pop-up" podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa.

Over the course of 11 episodes, the series has explored: the key characteristics of African markets; the opportunities presented by digital commerce, SME financing and fintech, and how they power the broader venture opportunity; what drives fund performance in terms of economics and structure; how funds raise money; and how LPs make investment decisions.

The Rewind features key insights from the series, distilling them into six “principles” (or principles in training) that help explain the emerging logic behind VC opportunities in Africa.

In this episode, we break down these principles:

1. Now is the time for Africans to solve their own problems and build their own future.

2. The future of African venture opportunities is digitizing African economies.

3. African consumers may have limited purchasing power, but it’s possible to increase and enable consumption.

4. Fintech is an important enabler for digitizing African economies because it provides foundational infrastructure.

5. SMEs power tech startups by buying from them, and funding and supplying SMEs is a VC-scale opportunity.

6. Africa-focused funds (as do most VCs), have an uphill battle to develop working business models.

It also presents some thoughtful observations about the challenges faced by African (women) GPs as they raise funds, and what impact the impending global slowdown will have on African VC opportunities.

"Guest Artists" Featured in this Episode:

• Abieyuwa Obaseki, Senior Associate, Stears Data
• Adenike Sheriff, Fund Operations, Future Africa | @AdenikeRaks
• Babacar Seck, Senior Investment Officer, Venture Capital & Private Equity, Proparco
• Barbara Iyayi, CEO & Founding Partner, Unicorn Growth Capital | @barbara_iyayi
• Danai Musandu, Senior Investor Relations Associate, HPE Growth | @DanaiMusandu
• Dotun Olowoporoku, Chief Commercial Officer, TeamApt | @DrDotun
• Eghosa Omoigui, Managing General Partner, EchoVC | @EghosaO
• Kuhle Mnisi Masilo, Associate, Transaction Management and Consulting, Roots of Impact
• Jake Kendall, Founder and Director, DFS Lab | @JakeKendall5
• Tony Chen, Partner, Verdant Frontiers | @tonyschen

Featured Resources and Recommended Track:

• Chasing Outliers: Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa (report)
  https://kinyungu.com/chasing-outliers/

• Way Less Sad. AJR
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlVhUbGa2pg
  
  

DJ Saphir’s Spotify Playlist:

• https://spoti.fi/2RS6hTc