Equity Merchants

On this episode of the podcast, FoodCourt CEO Henry Nneji takes us behind the scenes of their journey to profitability, from bootstrapping to joining Y Combinator and scaling operations across Lagos. Henry shares insights into the challenges of operating in a market where infrastructure issues, inflation, and consumer behavior heavily influence business decisions. From navigating e

Corporate venture capital is relatively new in the African venture capital space, but it has increasing potential. This week on the podcast, we sit with Benjamin Toulouze, the head of Corporate Venture Capital & Managing Director at Axian Group, a pan-African group with a presence in 15 countries. Benjamin is an experienced corporate venture capitalist and in this episode, we discu

This week, we sit down with June Angelides MBE, partner at Levare Ventures and one of the Financial Times’ Most Influential Tech Leaders. With over 13 years of experience spanning venture debt, venture capital, and entrepreneurship, June has carved a niche in backing startups across Africa and Europe. From launching the UK’s first child-friendly coding school, Mums in Tech, to

In this episode, we sit down with Chikodi Ukaiwe, CEO of Salad Africa, to explore the differences between conviction and resilience in entrepreneurship. Drawing from his experiences at Salad Africa and previous roles at Jumia and Konga, Chikodi argues that conviction — knowing your "why" — is essential for founders aiming to tackle big problems. He shares insights on how rigid

For all the progress recorded in Africa's fintech sector, cross border payments remain a significant challenge for businesses and individuals. In this conversation, Austin Okpagu, Country Director for VertoFX shares his thoughts on some of the challenges innovators in the space battle with. He notes that a coordinated approach is required to ease cross border payments across Afric

Nigerians spend more than half of their earnings on food. In recent years, a slew of startups have sprung up looking to ease the process of purchasing food for Nigerians. One of this startups is Pricepally founded in 2019 by Luther Lawoyin, Deepak Bansal, Jummai Abalaka, and Mosunmola Lawoyin. In this conversation, Luther who is on his fourth startup and serves as the startup's C

How important is it for a startup founder to understand marketing? Extremely important, according to Princewill Akuma, a B2B Digital Marketer. On this episode of the podcast, we discuss his career journey, including moving from being a DJ to becoming a digital marketer. He also talks about some of the steps he took during the process as well as lessons for startup founders looking

In this episode of the podcast, we dive into the world of entrepreneurship with Tamara Posibi, Chief Consultant at Irtus Business. Tamara has worked with over 100 businesses across four continents, helping them scale, raise funds, and develop sound business strategies. Drawing from her experience, she discusses the common mistakes young entrepreneurs make, like focusing on branding

What do getting a PhD and building a startup have in common? For both, you're usually trying to create things that don't exist. But you also have to convince people to believe in your idea. After completing a PhD in Design and Computation from MIT, Kenfield Griffith started mSurvey which later rebranded to Ajua. In 2023, he co-founded tappi, a startup working to bring African SME

Mary Ekemezie is the founder of ME Academy and a seasoned corporate law expert. On this episode of the podcast, she shares her insights on the importance and consequences of equity distribution. We touch on some principles that should guide equity allocation, considering factors like financial investment, time commitment, and skills. We also dive into allocating equity to co-founde