Fintech OP-ED - An engineer and his team of AI agents have a quarrel with your bank card Part three of three on Francois Rautenbach, an engineer using AI to do the work of five while making the case for a way to pay that hangs on proof rather than trust.
Entrepreneurship OP-ED - Companies in pain pay best Part two of three on hardware-software specialist Francois Rautenbach captures his doctrine of the willing customer and follows the trail from a coffee chat at Novell's Utah HQ to the Payment Pebble.
Career OP-ED - He read the software off a Moon-mission computer. Now he's wary of the rush to skip the basics. First in a three-part series on Francois Rautenbach, a South African engineer who has caught every wave of computing from Apollo-era hardware to AI coding agents, and what his career climb says about learning to build when the machine seems to write itself.
Digital Transformation OP-ED - Big Money, done properly? A well-travelled South African chartered accountant with an M&A background reckons he's seen what the African investment scene is missing. His fix for Big Money's blind spots? More Big Money.
Artificial Intelligence OP-ED - The badge says "fully human"... Substack's scanner couldn't see the four AI tools I'd used. New EU rules, a public AI detector and an invisible watermark land in a flurry.
Venture Capital OP-ED - Two readings on the same deal... a second look at Aboyeji's big week He said I'd misread him, then sent me the tape. He was right, from where he was standing.
Investments OP-ED - Inside the 'money room': global health funders on who capital still can't see Open-sourcing a closed-door panel I moderated at the iFHP Biennial in London. A UBS banker, an ex-CEO of Switzerland's largest health fund, a seasoned digital-health founder and the incoming president of the International Diabetes Federation, circling one question: whose interests reach the room?
Venture Capital OP-ED - Reading Aboyeji's big week: making sense of Africa's competing investment theories When the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) backs two very different fund managers in the same announcement, and a new philanthropic venture-builder launches with an ambitious manifesto within a fortnight, the question isn't necessarily which intervention is right.
This Is Connectivity OP-ED - AI tools are taking us somewhere no human has ever been. Just not in your voice. A study involving Google DeepMind researchers and a festival-shortlisted short film surface two persistent anxieties in my journalism practice.
Market Intelligence POD - Russell Southwood on monopolies, M-Pesa, and candid framings of Africa's digital economy Analyst and author Russell Southwood reflects on a quarter-century of observing Africa's digital transformation. From yellow pages cold calls to fibre-to-the-home rollouts, Southwood makes the case for holding optimism and realism in the same hand.
Social Media OP-ED - X marks the spot: your platform is someone else's country Open-sourcing a candid disagreement with Future in the Humanities (FITH) Founding Chair Prof Iginio Gagliardone about Mastodon and X. What are the tradeoffs of building an African intellectual project on platforms that might extract more than they give?
This Is Connectivity OP-ED - Video podcasts are just chatshows with visible microphones Twenty-five years of podcast evolution has come full circle. Adam Wakefield argues audio's so-called limitations are actually its greatest edge in the attention economy.
Artificial Intelligence POD - Natasha Blycha on why AI without law is just code without conscience Emerging technology lawyer Natasha Blycha unpacks why smart legal contracts may be AI's most important guardrail, how Africa's slower adoption could become a strategic advantage, and what a Mennonite community taught her about choosing the right technology.
Career OP-ED - AI augmentation in 2025: what Accenture's layoffs and a homeless Nigerian app founder reveal about the future of work The question isn't whether you're augmented. It's whether you can deliver.
This Is Connectivity OP-ED - Self-driving VC: Boardy, QuantumLight, and the end of the warm intro? AI is automating the art of the warm introduction. What happens when connectivity becomes a product rather than a relationship?
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.
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 - Lessons from 25 Years of Africa’s internet story: a preview of Russell Southwood’s reflections Drawing from an upcoming African Tech Roundup podcast, this op-ed unpacks Russell Southwood’s reflections on lessons, blind spots and enduring questions.
Market Intelligence OP-ED - Who controls the narrative? First-party data, truth and power in Africa’s digital economy As powerful actors spin persuasive stories, the challenge is documenting reality with first-party evidence, resisting myths, and shaping narratives that serve more than self-interest.
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 (rebranded Waka) for Africa-China trade.
Banking OP-ED - KCB Group builds on groundwork laid by 'Gov-preneurs' in Ethiopia as banking liberalisation accelerates Following Safaricom's lead, KCB's imminent Ethiopian entry leverages policy frameworks informed by 'Gov-preneurs' who embedded with government to safeguard 'fin-sovereignty'.
Career POD - From Maputo to Shopify and why Guidione Machava says 'African Designer' is a career-limiting label Guidione Machava argues that leading with geographic identity in a global market can unconsciously devalue your talent. He shares how he's built a cross-continental product design career, from founding Mozambique’s top dev community to working at Shopify and 23point5.
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.
