The Trajectory Africa Distilled The Trajectory Africa Distilled #08: A Light Unpacking of Asset-Zero Models in African Digital Commerce If digital distribution only pays at scale, something has to carry it until then. Tayo Akinyemi looks at two asset-free players and asks: scaling to what end?
Venture Capital The Trajectory Africa Distilled #07: The Asset Intensity Question in Digital Commerce The market needs African B2B e-commerce to be asset-heavy, but the venture money was raised for asset-light.
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.
The Trajectory Africa Distilled The Trajectory Africa Distilled #06: Digitalisation, Its Limits, and the Problem of Stuck Money The real(est) African infrastructure gap is money that won't move.
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.
The Trajectory Africa Distilled The Trajectory Africa Distilled #04: Cross-Border Payments—Stablecoins vs. Instant Payment Systems Instant payment systems like the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) offer a state-sanctioned alternative to stablecoins, but face structural constraints that are ultimately political, not technical. Tayo Akinyemi works through the trade-offs.
Fintech POD - Nikolai Barnwell on building PawaPay without the VC machine, and why mobile money beats cards PawaPay CEO Nikolai Barnwell on why payments, not "fintech", is the real problem worth solving, what a decade at 88mph taught him about funding, and why he is betting the continent's rails on mobile money over cards.
Fintech The Trajectory Africa Distilled #03: The Infrastructure Behind Productive Lending Open banking regulation, fragmented data, and punishing cash reserve ratios explain why creditworthy borrowers and affordable capital so rarely find each other in African markets.
Digital Transformation OP-ED - What good navigation looks like: no machine sails itself From Block's standing ovation to Monday.com's manifesto to a South African consultancy that started with the social system, Part 3 asks what good AI navigation actually looks like when you prioritise the human element and demand results over rhetoric.
Fintech POD - Seyi Ebenezer on why African startups should stop chasing cheques and start building books Payaza's co-founder and CEO Seyi Ebenezer makes the case for debt over venture capital, explains why credit ratings are the ultimate negotiating weapon for African founders, and passionately advances the idea of a pan-African credit rating agency built by the continent, for the continent.
Digital Transformation OP-ED - The mine, the machine, and the intern From post-WW2 coal mines to modern codebases, history suggests AI transformation will rise or fall not on technical capability alone, but on whether organisations deliberately redesign the social systems that surround the machine.
Artificial Intelligence OP-ED - How solo sailors sleep Solo sailors don't forecast the ocean. They set an alarm and pay attention. In the age of AI disruption, that pragmatic sensibility turns out to be rarer and more valuable than anyone is admitting.
Digital Transformation OP-ED - After the launch party: who actually benefits from AI? What gets measured depends on who builds the scale.
Venture Capital OP-ED - Cupid's cash flow: the matchmakers have marriage problems too When venture capitalists push portfolio consolidation, they're not just playing cupid. They're managing their own performance pressure.
Fintech The Trajectory Africa Distilled #02: Infrastructure-building Opportunities in Fintech Trade credit, stablecoins, neobanks — where the smart money is heading next.
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?
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.
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.
Fintech POD - April Long on why chasing 'impact' almost killed her fintech whilst bulk traders quietly transformed Africa-China trade Pyxis (rebranded Waka) CEO April Long reveals how her obsession with serving SMEs blinded her to the aggregators actually moving $286 billion in trade - and why accepting this reality saved her venture.
Market Intelligence OP-ED - Boring is beautiful, but can $50 million pyrethrum flower power fuel a natural insecticide industry revival in Kenya? When development finance meets agricultural nostalgia, the unit economics must be interrogated.
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.
