PODCAST · business
The Trajectory Africa
by Tayo Akinyemi
The Trajectory Africa is a “pop-up” podcast exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. With the unique African landscape—market characteristics, business environment, goals, and culture—as a starting point, The Trajectory Africa aims to identify a destination for African tech, as well as the sign posts that signal direction of travel. It’s modeled on the concept of a mixtape, in which each episode, or “track” will feature a conversation with a “guest artist”, and a playlist for inspiration.
Episodes
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Goodbye for now, Trajectory Africa
The Trajectory Africa, is a "pop-up" podcast designed to explore the first principles of VC and tech entrepreneurship in Africa, as they emerge in real time. After a nearly four year run, the journey has come to an end. This conversation with Andile Masuku, Co-Founder and Producer of African Tech...
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First Principles: Towards a Thesis on Digital Commerce & Logistics
This episode of The Trajectory Africa features Lydia Idem, Chief Operating Officer of LoftyInc Capital and Managing Director of FM Capital Group. We discuss what “point B” looks like for digital commerce on Africa’s S-curve, why asset-heavy models are more necessary than investors like to admit,...
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Leta: Why AI Compounds Logistics Efficiency at Scale
This episode of The Trajectory Africa features Nick Joshi, Founder and CEO of Leta, a startup that uses AI to optimize delivery routes, track shipments in real time, streamline payments, and provide businesses with shipping insights. We discussed how the first generation of logistics players…
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Logistics for Trade: Why Paps is Building End-to-End Infrastructure
This episode of The Trajectory Africa features Bamba Lo, CEO and Co-founder of Paps, a technology-enabled logistics company operating across Francophone Africa. He explains how Paps delivers across the value chain— from freight and customs clearance to warehousing and last-mile delivery, while...
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Inefficiency the Income Thief: Lori and the Financial Story of African Logistics
The cost of moving goods across Africa remains one of the continent's toughest economic challenges. With logistics accounting for up to 75% of the price of goods—compared to just 9% in the US—solving transport inefficiency could be key to boosting affordability for African consumers. In this...
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Reflections on Sote: A Business Model for Freight Forwarding
On this episode of The Trajectory Africa, Samora Kariuki, CEO and Founder of Frontier Fintech and former Director at Sote, a digital logistics and supply chain infrastructure company, breaks down the fundamentals of logistics in Africa. He explains the relationship between the size of an economy...
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Talking to Trade: How Chpter Helps Businesses Sell Socially
In this episode of The Trajectory Africa, Mark Kiarie, Co-founder and CEO of Chpter, explains conversational commerce and how his company uses AI to help businesses serve buyers where they already are, on social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Instagram. Chpter enables them to respond...
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All in One: How Bumpa Aggregates Digital Services for BizOpps
This episode of The Trajectory Africa features Kelvin Umechukwu, Founder and CEO of Bumpa, a company that provides sellers with the tools needed for digital commerce, inventory and sales management, and customer engagement. Kelvin explains how Bumpa helps businesses by aggregating and integrating...
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The Full Stack Experience: Dukka's BizOpps Ecosystem for Merchants
This episode of The Trajectory Africa features Keturah Ovio, CEO of Dukka, a company that’s changing how small businesses operate in Nigeria (and beyond). Dukka integrates payments, inventory management, sales tracking, and business intelligence into a single platform. Keturah explains how she...
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B2B E-Commerce to Fintech: How Chari is Charting a Path to Profitability
In this episode of The Trajectory Africa, Ismael Belkhayat, CEO and founder of Chari, a b2b e-commerce and fintech platform for traditional retailers in French-speaking Africa, explains how fintech and digital commerce came together inside his company. He shares Chari's journey supporting...
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Asset Efficiency in B2B E-commerce: Maad’s Journey to Single Market Scale
In this episode of The Trajectory Africa’s series on digital commerce and logistics, Sidy Niang and Jessica Long, Co-founders of Maad, a retail platform connecting FMCG brands and retailers in Senegal, share how they think about asset efficiency as a way to own assets strategically, once demand…
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Premium "Informal" Retailers: How Sarafu Captures Value in B2B E-commerce
This episode of The Trajectory Africa features Firas Ahmad, CEO of Sarafu, a B2B e-commerce platform, and AzamPay, a payments platform, both in Tanzania. Firas shares his approach to running a digital commerce business—focusing on delivering premium service to customers who are willing to pay,...
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The “Banana” Company: How Twiga Made the "Impossible" Repeatable
On this episode of The Trajectory Africa, Kikonde Mwatela, former COO of Twiga, talks about how it tackled a fundamental problem in Kenya's banana supply chain—turning days of trapped working capital and high spoilage into ready-to-sell product. He also shares how Twiga balanced standardizing...
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Africa's S Curves: A Case for Realistic Optimism
In this episode of The Trajectory Africa, DFS Lab General Partner Stephen Deng introduces "Africa's S-curves," a framework that explains why technology transitions on the continent take longer, but are also characterized by dramatic adoption and big impacts on informal markets due to improvements...
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The Engine of African Venture: A Return to First Principles (Digital Commerce & Logistics)
The Trajectory Africa’s second series, The Engine of African Venture: A Return to First Principles, is a two-part exploration of what powers fundamental value creation and investability in sectors that drive African VC opportunities. The eleven episodes of Part I were focused on fintech…
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Finding Fintech's Future: Towards a Thesis on Investing in Africa
The Trajectory Africa’s first principles series was inspired by a desire to understand the drivers and assumptions underlying investable opportunities in key sectors hypothesized to be the engine of African VC, starting with fintech. Across 11 episodes, we explored the opportunities for, and…
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Building the "Boring" Stuff: Infrastructure for Money Movement & Trade
In Episode 1 of this series, Abraham Augustine, Research Partner of trendsAf and Comms and Programs Lead at Norrsken warned against “long arm, no mouth” syndrome and the risks of digitalizing one part of a system (distributed solar energy, for example) without considering where the barriers and...
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Captain MAX: Democratizing Access to Electric Vehicles
Back in Episode 7 of Trajectory Africa’s first series, Barbara Iyayi, CEO & Founding Partner of Unicorn Growth Capital made a strong statement about the ubiquity of financial services, arguing that every company should be a fintech company. Because as long as financial inclusion is a huge…
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Save Now, Buy Later: A Culturally-relevant Approach to Consumption?
In the previous episode of The Trajectory Africa, we explored the art and science of community lending to microbusinesses. In this episode, we turn from business lending to consumer savings, but as an antidote to a consumer lending model called buy now, pay later, or BNPL. BNPL emerged as a…
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Banking on Social Intelligence: A Community Model for Microbusiness Lending
In the previous episode of the Trajectory Africa, we heard from Kiiru Muhoya and Judith Bogonko at Fingo about the importance of cultivating Africa’s youth as the next generation of retail consumers of financial services. In this episode, we’ll hear how Femi Iromini, Co-Founder and CEO of Moni…
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Banking Africa's Ambitious: Anatomy of a Partner-Powered Neobank
According to research by global consultancy Simon-Kucher in 2022, fewer than 5% of neobanks were profitable. A recent update suggests that most are still loss-makers, although a path to profitability is emerging. Also in 2022, Tech Cabal’s reporting on Kuda Bank’s NPLs (non-performing loans)...
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B2B Payments: Unseating Cash through Value Chain Integration
This episode of The Trajectory Africa features Yele Oyekola, Co-founder and CEO of Duplo, a company on a mission to streamline financial operations for African businesses. We’re diving deep into the world of digitizing financial operations, from payables and expense management to reconciliation…
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Thinking Differently: A Case for Venture Building in African VC
On this special episode of The Trajectory Africa, we’re featuring “someone you should know”—David Ogundeko, Founder and Chief Vision Officer for Funema, a last-mile, impact-focused, alternative investment company. David has spent the last 7 years creating a model to engineer and invest in problem...
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Cross Border Payments and the Alchemy of Price and Volatility
On this episode of The Trajectory Africa, we’re talking to Ola Oyetayo, Co-Founder and CEO of Verto, the first "all in one" cross-border payments platform for corporate treasuries in emerging markets. He’ll help us understand the mechanics of cross-border payments, why they're so expensive in...
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A Wordline Playbook for Africa: from Payments Infrastructure to Solutions
On the previous episode of The Trajectory Africa, Wiza Jalakasi, Africa Market Development Director at EBANX suggested that infrastructure-building consumer payments businesses create value because of the sheer number of payment methods available, from mobile money to bank transfers and cards.…
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The Hard Thing about (Consumer) Payments in Africa
On this episode of The Trajectory Africa, we’ll hear from Wiza Jalakasi, Director for Africa Market Development at EBanx, a payments processor headquartered in Brazil. He’ll shed some light on why building payment rails in Africa is deceptively hard work—from why some payment methods work better…
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Beyond Fintech? On building financial systems in Africa
On this episode of The Trajectory Africa’s current series, "The Engine of African Venture: A Return to First Principles", we’re laying the foundation for a deeper exploration of fintech by stepping back to understand the system(s) that fintech creates and operates in. For that, we’re chatting…
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Long arm with no mouth: The physical limits of Africa's digital economy
This is the first episode of Part 1 of a new series on The Trajectory Africa —The Engine of African Venture, A Return to First Principles. This series will explore what powers fundamental value creation and investability in sectors that drive the bulk of African VC opportunities. Part 1 is…
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The Engine of African Venture: A Return to First Principles
The Trajectory Africa’s second series, The Engine of African Venture: A Return to First Principles, is a two-part exploration of what powers fundamental value creation and investability in sectors that drive African VC opportunities. The first part is focused on fintech, starting from the premise...
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Le ou La: Rightsizing Complexity when (Venture) Building in Francophone Africa
Welcome to Episode 5, the next to last of Dans les Coulisses, a series exploring VC and tech entrepreneurship in Francophone Africa, brought to you by Impact Hub Dakar and The Trajectory Africa. For this episode, we have two guests: Birame Sock and Madji Sock. Birame Sock is a technology expert...
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Popping Cristal: On How to Tap Unmet Need in Francophone Markets
Welcome to Episode 4 of Dans les Coulisses, a series exploring VC and tech entrepreneurship in Francophone Africa, brought to you by Impact Hub Dakar and The Trajectory Africa. This episode’s guest is Tijan Watt. Tijan is a Co-Founder and General Partner of Wuri Ventures, a pan-African venture...
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On Our Own?: Growing Francophone Startup Champions
Welcome to Episode 2 of Dans les Coulisses, a series exploring VC and tech entrepreneurship in Francophone Africa, brought to you by Impact Hub Dakar and The Trajectory Africa. Impact Hub Dakar is a Dakar-based incubator that supports early stage startups in Senegal, with a mission to help...
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The Trajectory Africa Rewind: Principles for Understanding African Venture
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...
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Tracing Roots: The Role of LPs in African Venture Ecosystem(s)
Welcome to Track 11 of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. This episode’s guest artist is Babacar Seck. Babacar is an investor passionate about projects that drive inclusive development, from education…
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Listening with Empathy: Fundraising beyond Spreadsheets
Welcome to Track 10 of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. This episode’s guest artist is Danai Musandu. Danai is a Senior Investor Relations Associate at HPE Growth, where she leads and supports the...
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Breaking Boundaries: Building Wealth & Community through African VC
Welcome to Track 9 of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. This episode’s guest artist is Adenike Sheriff. Adenike is the Co-founder of Future Africa, a fund manager that invests early in mission driven...
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Fun with VC Math: Designing Funds & Exits in Africa
Welcome to Track 8 of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. This episode’s guest artist is Eghosa Omoigui. Eghosa is the founder and Managing General Partner of EchoVC Partners, a seed and early-stage...
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Perception vs. Reality: How Fintech is Driving Africa's Digital Economy
Barbara Iyayi is an entrepreneur and investor with over 16 years of experience in venture capital, growth equity, and financial services. She has founded, invested in, scaled and advised, fintech and financial services companies globally. Currently, Barbara is the CEO & Founding Partner of…
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If You Build It, They Will Come: Creating a Lending Ecosystem for African SMEs
Welcome to Track 6 of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. This episode’s guest artist is Hilda Moraa. Hilda is the Founder & CEO of Pezesha, a holistic digital financial infrastructure powering embedded...
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No Enterprise Left Behind: The Role of SMEs in Africa's Venture Landscape
Welcome to Track 5 of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. This episode’s guest artist is Kuhle Mnisi. Kuhle is a Principal at Secha Capital, which she joined to marry her finance skill with a deep…
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One Step at a Time: Sizing Consumer Markets & Enabling Consumption in Nigeria
Welcome to Track 4 of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. This episode’s guest artist is Abieyuwa Obaseki, a consultant at Stears Data, a division of Stears Business. Stears’ mission is to make it easy…
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Hold the C.R.E.A.M.: Decoding Consumer Markets & Digital Commerce in Africa
Welcome to Track 3 of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. Jake is a Co-founder of the DFS Lab, an early-stage investor and accelerator that supports entrepreneurs to refine, grow, and launch digital...
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We Can Solve It Ourselves: The Case for African Startup Success
Welcome to Track 2 of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. It’s inspired by the concept of a mixtape, in which each episode, or “track” will feature a conversation with a “guest artist”. There is also a...
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Don't Start a Fund? Kinyungu's New Take on Chasing Outliers
Welcome to Track 1, the inaugural episode of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. With the unique African landscape—market characteristics, business environment, goals, and culture—as a starting point…
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Welcome to The Trajectory: Africa!
This is a brief introduction to The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. With the unique African landscape—market characteristics, business environment, goals, and culture—as a starting point, The Trajectory...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The Trajectory Africa is a “pop-up” podcast exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. With the unique African landscape—market characteristics, business environment, goals, and culture—as a starting point, The Trajectory Africa aims to identify a destination for African tech, as well as the sign posts that signal direction of travel. It’s modeled on the concept of a mixtape, in which each episode, or “track” will feature a conversation with a “guest artist”, and a playlist for inspiration.
HOSTED BY
Tayo Akinyemi
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Trajectory Africa have?
The Trajectory Africa currently has 45 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Trajectory Africa about?
The Trajectory Africa is a “pop-up” podcast exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. With the unique African landscape—market characteristics, business environment, goals, and culture—as a starting point, The Trajectory Africa aims to identify a...
How often does The Trajectory Africa release new episodes?
The Trajectory Africa has 45 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Trajectory Africa?
You can listen to The Trajectory Africa on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Trajectory Africa?
The Trajectory Africa is created and hosted by Tayo Akinyemi.
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