Digital Economy Bitcoin sells out? From peer-to-peer currency to Wall Street collateral: the maturation no one asked for Bitcoin needs institutional stability to fulfill its promise. But that stability requires exactly the gatekeepers it was designed to circumvent.
Venture Capital The Trajectory Africa Distilled #01: The Limits of Digitalisation in African Markets In the opening instalment of her seven-part email series, Tayo Akinyemi explores why African fintech companies opt to build physical infrastructure to enable digital solutions - and identifies five opportunities emerging from this constraint.
This Is Connectivity OP-ED - AI is dismantling consulting's oligopoly. If McKinsey's using ChatGPT, what are you paying for? Ten years ago, a social media agency owner told me my consulting ambitions were naive delusions. He wasn't entirely wrong. But neither of us saw what was coming.
Infrastructure OP-ED - GPUs to gigawatts: how Africa’s energy potential could re-shape the AI landscape As AI’s hunger for power grows, Africa’s untapped energy reserves could redefine the continent’s role in the global tech race.
Artificial Intelligence OP-ED - Africa's AI awakening: from Western brainrot to homegrown tech sovereignty As Gen Z in the West abandons social media's endless scroll for "meaning," Africa is laying internet connectivity infrastructure at scale. Will it import yesterday's engagement-maximisation playbook or build for actual human flourishing?
Market Intelligence OP-ED - What do SAG Ventures and Balloon Ventures have in common? The intermediary trap Prince Nwadeyi's published research and Joshua Bicknell's operational experience expose the same problem: entrenched incentive structures don't serve those closest to real economic activity.
Startups POD - Prince Nwadeyi on building financial services solutions corporates commission but won't execute themselves Prince Nwadeyi unpacks how aligning incentives across value chains turns corporate muscle and founder execution into profitable innovation, and why Mustard Finance Group's reported 99.9% repayment rate proves the model works.
Impact Investing OP-ED - M-KOPA’s decade of discovery: when patient capital buys time to pivot M-KOPA’s lengthy path to profitability shows how patient capital can buy the time (and permission) to pivot until the real business emerges.
Digital Transformation OP-ED - What can standing in an iPhone 17 queue in Tokyo reveal about digital power and control? Plenty. Scarcity and sovereignty play out differently in Tokyo and Nairobi, but the underlying lessons for Africa’s tech builders are strikingly similar.
Fintech OP-ED - The education of April Long: a Chinese entrepreneur's humbling lessons building for Africa's $286 billion trade gap After a decade in East Africa, fintech founder April Long reflects on the tough pivots, misread assumptions, and modest wins behind building Pyxis for Africa-China trade.
Digital Transformation OP-ED - Namibia’s telecom network disruptor wants your customers, whoever you are Paratus Namibia is tearing up telecom playbooks, eyeing 5G mobile markets and crossing industry lines. In a game of territory and tech, no customer is off-limits.
Digital Transformation OP-ED - Zero human error? What AI’s financial wins might be hiding AI promises fewer mistakes, leaner teams and more cost efficient businesses. But do these wins blind us to deeper ethical, societal, and economic trade-offs we must confront?
Artificial Intelligence OP-ED - The end of SEO as we know it? AI search and the future of discovery With AI reshaping how we find answers online, the rules of engagement are shifting. Here's what creators, founders, and strategists need to understand now.
Market Intelligence OP-ED - How routine township shopping in South Africa now buys you 'invisible' funeral cover through embedded insurance SAG Ventures’ Purchase Pal, underwritten by Sanlam, tucks funeral insurance into everyday grocery purchases. No forms, no intermediaries, no premiums. Prince Nwadeyi shows what happens when deep consumer research drives product design.
Career POD - Wabo Majavu on early AI, strategic foresight, and digital activism South African strategist Wabo Majavu traces her technical roots at CSIR, MTN, and Intelsat to reveal how they've informed her executive strategy work—balancing digital inclusion, AI innovation, and commercial success.
Fintech OP-ED - Stablecoins promise efficiency for Africa's fintech future, but at what cost? As stablecoins promise fast, cheap transfers, African businesses must weigh efficiency against surveillance risks and shifting gatekeepers in a new digital financial order.
Digital Transformation OP-ED - Can fibre optic manufacturing joint ventures like YOA Cable drive Africa’s next industrial wave? Pieter E. Viljoen, a physicist-turned-optic cable manufacturing boss, is betting that rethinking fibre from first principles could help restart Africa’s stalled industrial ambitions.
Ecosystem OP-ED - Alesimo Mwanga on why strategic partnerships are the secret to scaling African innovation beyond funding Ecosystem strategist Alesimo Mwanga explains how strategic partnerships unlock cross-border venture growth where funding alone falls short.
Artificial Intelligence OP-ED - Claude, deepfakes, and the death of 'real' As AI blurs the line between truth and fiction, our collective indifference to reality could prove more dangerous than the technologies reshaping our world.
Infrastructure POD - Carrier neutrality: Rob Bergman on Unicorn Factory's vision for digital infrastructure investment Dutch investor Rob Bergman and his partners at Unicorn Factory are driving a carrier-neutral strategy to deploy capital and scale digital infrastructure across Africa.
Impact Investing POD - Impact theatre check: Balloon Ventures' contrarian sensibilities to SME financing in East Africa Joshua Bicknell, co-founder of Balloon Ventures, discusses how the financial institution is challenging conventional investor logic by backing "boring businesses" to create sustainable employment in East Africa.
