Inside the Rise of Convertible Notes and SAFEs in African Venture Deals
On a hot Wednesday afternoon in Lagos, a young founder sits across from a potential investor at a café in Lekki. Between the hum of air conditioning and the clatter of coffee cups, they’re arguing, quietly but firmly, over a single clause in a document. “It’s just a simple agreement
Why African Startups Struggle with Scaling and How to Fix It
Somewhere between a founder’s first seed cheque and their big dream of expansion, something tends to break. It’s rarely a single thing. Sometimes it’s cash flow. Sometimes it’s regulatory quicksand. And sometimes it’s simply that what worked well in Lagos makes no sense in Nairobi. The result is a familiar
The Rise of Remote Founding Teams in Africa
Imagine your startup is based in Nairobi. Your founding product lead is in Lagos, the operations co-founder is in Accra, and the head of engineering is working from Addis Ababa. Your team never meet in a central office every week. Instead, you coordinate across Zoom, Slack and WhatsApp, pulling together
What It Really Costs to Build a Startup in Africa This Year
In cafés, co-working spaces and late-night WhatsApp threads, founders are rethinking what it means to launch a startup in Africa this year. The continent’s ecosystem is no longer just about bold dreams, it’s increasingly about hard numbers, stretching scarce capital, and calculating cost in ways that reflect unique local realities.
How African Founders are Adapting to the Startup Funding Slowdown
It is early morning in Lagos. Twenty-somethings in hoodies sip coffee at a small coworking space, checking dashboards and Slack messages. They’re trying to raise money, scale something, build something with real impact. But the world they’d expected, in which global venture capital flows into Africa like fresh rain, isn’t
How Entrepreneurs can Leverage Open Banking APIs in Africa
In 2018, when Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem was still finding its rhythm, few could have predicted how quickly Africa would embrace digital finance. Mobile money had already taken root in East Africa, but something deeper was brewing, a quiet shift toward openness. Today, Open Banking has become one of the most
10 Mistakes African Founders Make in their First Year
Starting a business in Africa is thrilling and brutal. There’s this rush of optimism at the beginning: you’ve got the idea, the drive, maybe even a co-founder or two who believes in the dream. You’re sketching plans in cafés, posting your “coming soon” teaser on LinkedIn, and imagining the press
Bootstrapping Business Growth Through WhatsApp Commerce
Picture this: you have a small e-commerce or service business. Budgets are tight. You don’t have millions to throw at marketing, yet you want to build real, steady growth. What if I told you there’s a channel sitting in the pockets of your customers right now, one that’s personal, immediate,
Blueprint for Building a Pan-African Edtech Business
Across Africa, classrooms are changing — not just in how students learn, but where and who teaches them. Edtech startups are breaking barriers that once kept millions from quality education. Yet, building an edtech business that truly scales across Africa, not just within one country, is a different challenge altogether.
From Idea to MVP: A Founder’s Guide to Fast Testing in Africa
Every great business in Africa began as an idea. But what separates those who build lasting startups from those whose ideas fade? The answer lies in one critical step: turning an idea into a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and testing it fast. In Africa’s fast-changing startup scene, where internet access
