In 2010, a report by the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) revealed that out of 39.2 million financially excluded individuals in Nigeria, 54.4% were women. This alarming statistic prompted the rise of fintechs aiming to bridge this gap, among which Herconomy emerged as a “female-focused” fintech startup.

Herconomy’s roots trace back to the “AGS Tribe”, a community launched following the acceptance of Accessing Grants for Startups, a book authored by Ife. The book contained information on how to access grants, fellowships and scholarships. According to Ife, more people asked about new opportunities which led to the need to form a community for easier means of communication and sharing opportunities.

The community’s growth led to the development of an app for hosting savings challenges, marking the company’s pivot to financial services when integrating a savings API proved challenging. “I am a solo founder but I’ll say our community started Herconomy,” Ife said.

With an overall size of 23 staff members, the company operates a hierarchical structure, with Genevive Obi as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Dolapo Sanusi Ola as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Both report directly to Ife Durosinmi-Etti, founder and CEO. Genevive, who has experience in business operations, partnership growth and relationship management, shapes the company’s strategy. She manages performance and oversees annual operations planning. Dolapo, also a co-founder of Nest Agribusiness and Technologies, oversees Herconomy’s financial operations. 

The structure includes middle management, with Gbemisola Araba serving as the People Operations Manager. Gbemisola served as a Human Resources officer at Herconomy between 2020 and 2021. Anu Oyeleye, who has previous experience as a product management consultant at Begine Fusion and as a product marketing analyst at Access Bank, is the Product Manager at Herconomy. Both report to Genevive(COO) and Dolapo (CFO).

“We also have supervisors reporting to their managers, and at the operational level, staff who report directly to the supervisors,” Ife explained.

Driven by the belief that the community’s input is instrumental in shaping its path, Herconomy lives by the mantra “the community calls the shots,” as affirmed by Ife.

This TechCabal org chart details the leadership structure of Herconomy.

If you would like to showcase the leadership structure of your startup in this way, contact the author of this article: towobola@bigcabal.com.

Auto finance companies enable consumers to buy cars from dealers and be able to pay over a period of time. 

However, experts say shifts in vehicle pricing due to the FX crisis and market dynamics have significant implications for vehicle financing. 

Three companies that TechCabal spoke to said they are prioritising financing vehicles in areas of preference. This means measuring the demand for a particular vehicle, deciding whether the vehicle serves a commercial purpose, and assessing how affordable it is for consumers. 

“Ultimately, these changes reflect a dynamic adaptation within the vehicle financing sector to accommodate shifting market conditions and consumer preferences,” said Ojurongbe Damilola, head of technical services, Cars45.  

Max, for example, which historically financed motorcycles, bicycles, three-wheelers, and mini-buses (four-wheelers), said it has recently done more three-wheelers and motorcycles in the 11 Nigerian states where it operates. It has financed 33,000 vehicles so far. Max plans to finance 70,000 vehicles in 2024. 

For Carima, a B2B marketplace that allows dealers to make requests from other dealers for cars they don’t have in their lots, financing dealers is the better route to profitability. The company said it has financed dealers’ requests worth N400 million since January this year and has received back 100% of the loans. The platform has 3,000 registered dealers and overall access to 30,000 dealers. 

“We are financing dealers because they see cars as an asset while the normal individual sees cars as a liability. The dealer is buying a car because he wants to resell and make a profit,” Adebayo Tomiwa, CEO of Carima, told TechCabal. With 100% repayment done so far, Carima is now looking to expand the service. 

While prices of cars are on the rise, experts say the factors driving consumers towards vehicle financing include the ability to access a wide range of vehicles that financiers can now provide. Ojurongbe Damilola of Cars45, told TechCabal that this variety now allows individuals to select vehicles that meet both their preferences and financial realities. 

Another factor attracting consumers is expanded financing options due to more financing companies entering the market. This means that customers can now make their choices from a broader range of car loan providers. This also has led to more people embracing the concept of financing vehicles as they are more willing to consider vehicle loans as a viable option for buying cars due to the financial burden it takes off them. 

“This increased competition among financiers has made financing more accessible to a larger segment of the population,” Damilola said. 

However, there are concerns as to how the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will affect loan interest rates, including car loans, if they continue to increase the benchmark interest rate. On March 26, 2024, the MPC hiked the benchmark interest rate by 200 basis points to 24.75%, from 22.75% recorded a month ago. Most of the financing companies often collaborate with financial institutions to access the funds they disburse as loans; an increase in base interest rate can also necessitate an adjustment in the rates offered by these companies. 

Strategy sets the course for startups, but without team alignment and pragmatic action, a business will fail. After ten years of building capacity for thousands of entrepreneurs in Africa, Asia, and Europe, the one thing I know to be true is that smart-thinking founders who favour pragmatic action and team alignment over everything else win.

Starting, running, and growing a successful business is not an easy feat. Founders navigate the first year facing the dreaded statistic of a 70% potential failure rate. If a startup is lucky enough to make it through the first year, the chance of not making it drops to 35% by year three.

The cruel truth as to why so many emerging businesses die? Poor execution, bad execution, and focusing on the wrong thing to execute rank high among the reasons. But there’s a lot that founders can do about this. 

Execution is a competitive differentiator

In a volatile, uncertain, unpredictable world, strategies too often live on a server somewhere. Having an idea is the easier and less valuable part of the business. Marshalling the resources and humans needed to execute the business strategy is a completely different story. This is the hardest thing to do in business, which is why founders who have teams that nimbly execute well on strategy harness a major competitive differentiator. 

Clearly defining the roles and responsibilities in a fast-moving, growing business is masterful. Ensuring that the metrics, targets and rewards are in place to empower this is important. Great communication is the lubrication that turns strategy into united action. Not every company excels at communication, people management, and culture. Which is why execution is hard.

Founders set the tone

Outsourcing execution is disastrous – about as disastrous as trying to get someone else to realise your dreams or to live your life for you. And when it comes to execution, founders are the leaders who set the tone and create the culture that supports this.

Founders and CEOs shape the flow on a Monday morning for how the rest of the week will pan out. Leaders set the tone with a new client when we sign the deal. And we set the tone with our team when the chips are down. Accepting how much we as founders set the tone for the present and future, is how we change this.

Rituals and rhythms

What helps good communication and activates action in teams are the rituals and rhythms of good leadership, communication, and project management. In business, feedback is the breakfast of champions and regular rituals that champion and measure execution are a massive difference maker. Companies that make the time to properly execute project management and enable an adult culture where teams take accountability, innovate, and own things go a long way to building businesses.

I asked Mamela Luthuli, a leader in the technology industry—the best trailblazers I know when it comes to leadership and execution—what her secret to execution is. This go-getter recently won the IT Personality of the Year Award from the Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa for her achievements. 

Luthuli told me, “Execution is when the rubber hits the road. The best way to execute is to keep it simple and actionable. It is also important to be an example to your team because they will follow suit by becoming doers.”

“Execution works hand in hand with strategy — the real trick is to ensure that everyone buys into the strategy and is aligned about what needs to get done in the business,” she adds. “Execution needs great leadership with effective communication. Leaders must communicate the purpose and vision of a company convincingly and consistently. This isn’t a once-off but is a process. It is something you do repeatedly to get buy-in from your team. To drive great execution, communicate clearly and create a culture of getting things done on time and done well.”

Execution is a people thing; it is about culture and relationships. When founders get this consistently right it becomes a compounding force that truly scales sustainable businesses.

Catherine Young is the founder of Thinkroom Consulting and Managing Partner of Grindstone; and Grindstone Ventures. As the founder of Thinkroom, Young is involved in entrepreneurial ecosystem development across Africa and has grown businesses in Southeast Asia and the UK. An SME ecosystem influencer in Africa, Young works with clients in the space of entrepreneurship development across the continent.

The new licences will put Kuda in direct competition with startups like LemFi and Nala, which style themselves as global neobanks for Africans in the diaspora. 

This is not Kuda’s first crack at the remittance market. In 2022, it secured a payment licence in the United Kingdom and rolled out a subscription remittance offering with a flat fee of £3 and a transfer limit of £10,000. One person with knowledge of the company’s business told TechCabal that the product has now been discontinued, theorising that the market was not ready for a subscription-based remittance offering.

It makes it likely that when the neobank rolls out its offerings in Canada and Tanzania, it will not go the way of subscriptions. 

The remittance market has become more attractive to investors as more Nigerians and Africans seek greener pastures abroad. In 2022, Nigeria was Canada’s fourth largest immigration source country, welcoming 22,085 Nigerian immigrants, making 5.06% of Canada’s total number of permanent residents. At the same time, over 100,000 Canadians of Nigerian descent call Canada home. In 2022, remittance inflows into Africa totaled an estimated $100.1 billion, accounting for 3.4% of Africa’s GDP. 

By focusing on markets like Canada and the UK where the number of Nigerian migrants continues to grow, Kuda has an opportunity to grow its foreign exchange revenue at a time when the FX rates are decimating the profits of startups. 

One cryptocurrency exchange told TechCabal that operators received the draft proposal on Friday. The SEC first shared the draft on virtual asset providers in 2022 and, at the time, proposed N500 million in minimum paid-up capital.

“Our SEC has indirectly told the community that this game is for the big boys,” said Rume Ophi, a crypto expert. 

A crypto exchange operator who asked not to be named told TechCabal believes local operators should unanimously reject the proposal. 

“This proposal locks out a lot of local players. I suspect at the end of the day that the foreign-owned companies will dominate the crypto space in Nigeria,” said Tim Akimbo, a Bitcoin expert. 

Apart from the N1 billion minimum paid-up capital, virtual asset companies must also provide current Fidelity Bond covering at least 25% of the minimum paid-up capital.

A fidelity bond is a type of insurance that offers business protection against losses caused by employees who commit fraud, theft, and forgery. The rules also allow the SEC to, at any time, impose additional financial requirements on the digital asset operator commensurate with the nature, operations, and risks posed by the company. 

The commission also increased the number of additional documents required for registration. The new rules require “a sworn undertaking that the applicant will be able to operate an orderly, fair, and transparent market in relation to the securities including derivatives that are offered or traded, on or through its platform.” 

Mugovi is one of the many startup founders who have forged on with building startups, despite the unfriendly operating environment in Zimbabwe fuelled by sanctions and hyperinflation.

Zimbabwe has been under economic sanctions from the US, the European Union and most Western countries since 2003. The country has also been experiencing hyperinflation since 2008, with inflation rates going as high as 80,000,000% in some periods. 

Mugovi tells TechCabal that access to funding is one area that has been mostly impacted by the country’s macroeconomic challenges. “Foreign investors consider us a pariah state, so getting access to patient venture capital is next to impossible.”  

Despite all the challenges that have been presented by hyperinflation and sanctions, startups in Zimbabwe are still alive and kicking. Some have built products serving a significant local market, while others have scaled to neighbouring countries after achieving product-market fit in the country. Stakeholders who spoke to TechCabal state that although the operating environment has been less than desirable, it has also presented opportunities for tech entrepreneurs.

According to data by venture funding tracker Africa: The Big Deal, Zimbabwean startups collectively raised only $2 million in 2022. In the same period, startups in neighbouring South Africa raised almost $500 million in venture capital funding. Some startups have resorted to borrowing from microfinance institutions to address the funding challenge. However, in addition to high rejection rates because of lack of collateral, this capital is usually too expensive for startups, with interest rates averaging between 20% and 40%.

Leonard Sengere, the editor of the technology publication TechZim, adds that a poor population also adds to the unattractiveness of Zimbabwe as a venture capital destination. “When a startup finds a problem, the business model falls apart when they realise customers can’t pay what’s needed to warrant the business.” 

To traverse through the funding problem, startups are looking to diaspora remittances to fund their ambitions. According to data from the World Bank, remittances by Zimbabwe’s diaspora community reached $1.66 billion in 2023, or 11% of the country’s GDP.

Startups are resorting to their fellow countrymen abroad as foreign investors who may not understand the challenges of operating in the country, push them away. “The diaspora community knows the ability of innovators in Zimbabwe, so they are open to angel investing in startups in the country,” another founder told TechCabal.

In 2021, the government also launched the National Venture Capital Fund (NVCF) and assigned ZW$300 million (~$3 million then) at its inception. Additionally, the treasury also introduced tax incentives for VC firms, announcing that they would not be liable for income tax. 

B2C startups are impacted the most

Zimbabwe’s macroeconomic factors have mostly affected B2C startups compared to B2B startups, according to stakeholders who spoke to TechCabal. “It is extremely hard to move money out of Zimbabwe because of a combination of our policies and other countries’ policies concerning us,” said one founder of a B2C payments startup who requested anonymity. As a result, most startups find it hard to scale their products beyond Zimbabwe, making them unattractive to growth-oriented VC purses. 

Zimbabwe currently employs a multi-currency financial system comprising the US and the Zimbabwean dollar. However, because of waning confidence in the Zimbabwean dollar, data shows that nearly 80% of local transactions are done in US dollars.

Unlike B2C startups, enterprise-oriented startups have access to a customer base which can pay in US dollars, managing to hedge against the Zimbabwean dollar’s instability. “Accepting payments in the local currency is hard because sometimes rates change by multiples of 10 per day, so we pivoted to a B2B model,” said a founder of a B2B fintech startup who also preferred to speak anonymously. 

Another factor working against B2C startups in the Zimbabwe ecosystem is negative consumer sentiment about digital wallets or any form of non-cash transactions as a result of hyperinflation. “People here believe more in cash because, in the past, they have seen their savings in more stable currencies converted to Zim dollars by the government,” said Njabulo Sandawana, a Zimbabwean technology entrepreneur.

For startups looking to change consumer sentiments and increase adoption of their products, they would have to spend a significant amount of capital on marketing and community outreach.

Signs of brighter days ahead for Zimbabwe startups

Despite the multiple challenges brought about by Zimbabwe’s macroeconomic environment, they have also presented some opportunities. “Because of difficulty in accessing and paying for foreign-made enterprise software, we have seen an increase in demand for our products,” said the founder of an ERP software startup.

For B2C startups, as a result of a limited addressable market in Zimbabwe, some have been forced to think outside the country’s borders. Instead of making products primarily for the Zimbabwe market, some startups use the country as a sandbox to verify their theses and product market fit.

These include Cashlinq and Tano Digital who have expanded to Zambia and Botswana, respectively. Some other preferred expansion destinations include South Africa, Malawi and Mozambique.

Zimbabweans are also gradually being attracted to alternative financial technologies away from the traditional banking systems as a result of being burnt in the past. Technologies like blockchain and digital wallets by fintech are gaining prominence as the citizenry looks for alternatives.

“When people look back to the early days of hyperinflation when savings would evaporate, they look at offerings by fintechs and think, surely these can’t be any worse,” said Tinodashe Dubayi, head of digital transformation at fintech startup ClickNPay.

Some of these offerings include Innbucks, which allows customers to receive loose change at restaurants; Ecocash, a digital wallet; and O’Mari, a superapp which includes mobile money, insurtech and investech products.

With the US having recently relaxed its sanctions on Zimbabwe, innovators are excited about what that could mean for the ecosystem in the country.

Having experienced two decades of sanctions, Zimbabwean technology entrepreneurs are ready to take on the continent on a more level playing field, armed with the experience of innovating in a harsh operating environment. “The last two decades have built tenacity into Zimbabwean entrepreneurs, and they are ready for whatever challenges they face,” concluded Mugovi.

Rwandan-based startup Kasha, Kenya’s Maisha Meds, and Egypt-based startups Dawi Clinics and Chefaa cumulatively raised $52 million across 33 deals, and were responsible for a 2,000% increase in funding to women-led companies in Africa’s healthtech industry. 

According to Jessica Vernon, CEO of Maisha Meds, her company’s funding came from solving problems with a business model that’s different from competitors. “We’re meeting people where they first go to get care: at private drug shops, pharmacies, and clinics. And we’re using technology to make those places more digital, efficient, and accessible,” Vernon told TechCabal. 

In 2022, women-led companies in healthcare were only able to raise $2 million across 26 deals representing 1.4% of all healthtech funding. The report from Salient Advisory noted that Kasha’s $21 million Series B funding was the largest investment ever made in a woman-led health tech company in Africa. Additionally, funding to mixed-gender founding teams rose to 21% in 2023 from 10% in 2022. 

The funding in these companies follows what the Salient Advisory report described as an impressive year for the general healthtech space, which received $167 million in 2023. While the general healthtech funding was 2% lower than what investors deployed in 2022, it was better than the broader African tech ecosystem, which saw a 39% funding decline. 

Women-led startups in Africa have, over the years, been largely overlooked by venture capital and private equity investors. But 2023 was a relatively good year for gender financing. Women-led startups raised just above $200 million, a +7% positive growth on a year-on-year basis, data from Africa: The Big Deal showed. 

The 2,000% funding growth is the first time the gender financing gap in health tech startups —and the ecosystem in general— is narrowing. The funding accounted for 31% of the total investment in health tech companies in 2023.

Investors in Maisha Meds and most of the other women-led companies include global development institutions such as USAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Funding from these institutions is mostly grants. 

Maisha Meds raised $5.25 million in scale-up stage 3 funding from USAID Development Innovation Ventures (DIV). Stage 3 grants are DIV’s highest level of funding awarded to innovators who have demonstrated the ability to scale up their proven solutions to critical challenges. 

Grants from institutions like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, MSD, Cencora, Microsoft, and Chemonics have contributed to setting up women-led companies in health tech and the space in general. The report noted that over half (52%) of the 145 deals for African healthtech innovators in 2023 were grants indicating the important role that grants play in bridging funding gaps for early-stage healthtech innovators. This stands out as the largest source of grant funding on the continent. However, the total ticket size of grants was only 7% of the funding raised, with the average being $168,000. 

Equity funding in comparison, accounted for 91% of funding raised, with an average ticket size of $3.2 million. Experts say there are still barriers women founders or CEOs face in accessing private equity or venture capital funding.

These barriers are not necessarily from investors’ bias against female founders or CEOs, but they could stem from these women prioritising things like family over their business, hence they don’t show up enough for investors to see them, according to Ibijoke Faborode, founder of Africa Female Founders Collective (AFFC).  

AFFC which launched in February is planning a programme in 2024 that helps women founders or CEOs create more time for their startups and meet more investors who are interested in investing in their sectors. The goal is to help these startups focus on building the innovations that make them attractive to investors and also address problems in society.

Vermon pointed out that the specific women-led startups that were funded in the DIV round are those that are innovating on unique models for healthcare delivery, including a major emphasis on the last mile and underserved populations.  

Amaan Khalfan, CEO of Goodlife Pharmacy, East Africa’s largest private retail pharmacy chain, said investors would largely fund a business that has good record keeping and can position itself in a way that identifies the opportunities in the health tech space.

Jenne Nwokoye, founder of Clafiya, a digital health platform that has raised  $610,000 to date mainly from venture capital, said women-led startups are not raising much from VCs because there is little intentionality behind funding women-led businesses. 

According to Nwokoye, it would help if more VC funds were run by women entrepreneurs. However, she notes that women need to be more open in sharing funding opportunities. 

“For the next funding cycle, I’m going to be more intentional with the investors I want, i.e. finding investors who understand health, consumerism, and finance in Africa or in general,” she said. 

The fact that you exist is not news…

Occasionally, a crisis or controversy in the African tech ecosystem ignites debates among founders and influencers about the merits of local versus international media coverage. While it’s undeniable that sensational headlines can spread like wildfire, accusing the local tech media of a sole focus on the negative is neither fair nor accurate.

At Wimbart, after eight years in the industry, I’ve come to understand a fundamental truth that also happens to be Wimbart CEO’s Twitter cover story: The fact that you exist is not news. Whilst raising over a million seed in funds could guarantee you coverage, whether you’ve launched a new product or expanded, journalists will always ask, “So what?” What’s the impact, the innovation, the human story?

The African tech market is brimming with startups eager to share their narrative. At Wimbart alone, where we represent a modest fraction of African-focused companies, we often find ourselves amongst at least three different teams pitching to the same journalist in any given week. It’s important to recognise that journalists’ inboxes are inundated with up to 50, sometimes hundreds of pitches, on any given day. Recognising their hard work is crucial—they are the storytellers who have elevated our narratives, making international media platforms not only notice but also hire local teams to push the narrative further. When I began working in PR for African tech, capturing the attention of international media was a formidable challenge—it was H-A-R-D. We owe much to local publications that have tirelessly championed our stories; they deserve our gratitude, or “flowers,” if you will.

Pitching a story that will resonate and secure media coverage is an intricate art. For those with in-house communications teams or a PR agency like Wimbart, there’s support to sculpt the narrative. Yet, we are aware that not all, especially early-stage startups, have these resources. If your pitches happen to be met with a rate card, it‘s an indicator that what is being pitched is perceived more as promotional than editorial content. There lies the distinction between what is known as “earned media” and “paid media”. In layman’s terms, earned media is akin to a badge of honour, granted for its intrinsic worthiness, whereas paid media is a lot more straightforward; it’s coverage that you pay to secure—zero thought required. Each serves a purpose but they are not interchangeable. 

So, you’re set on securing earned media coverage without resorting to financial outlay? Excellent decision. Below are some actionable steps that can elevate your story from just another pitch that ends up unread to headline-worthy news:

Research publications and journalists 

Finding the right journalist for a media outlet to share your startup’s story should mirror the process of choosing the perfect business partner or founding team. It involves aligning your startup’s mission with the outlet’s editorial focus where possible, ensuring there is mutual interest and goals. This due diligence involves thorough research into their past work and identifying the journalists within a specific publication who champion themes that resonate with your venture. Whether it’s your company’s innovative approach to sustainability, significant funding achievements, or the founder’s unique profile, finding that match means you’re ready to pitch.

Pitching to the right person transcends mere coverage; it becomes an opportunity to weave your story into their ongoing narrative. It’s about creating a partnership where your startup’s achievement and aspirations complement their storytelling, ensuring that your narrative gets shared and truly resonates with their audience, creating a meaningful impact. 

Attention-Grabbing Subject Email

Your email’s subject line is the gateway to capturing a journalist’s attention, so make every word count. Imagine you’re crafting the editorial for tomorrow’s newspaper, it should be compelling enough to make anyone pause and take notice. Take inspiration from the impactful stories you see on major platforms titles like “How [innovation/company] is changing [industry]” are not just headlines, they are calls to curiosity. Use this approach to mirror each publication’s storytelling style in your email subjects. This not only piques interest but also shows you’ve done your homework and understand what resonates with their readership. 

Keep it punchy and to the point 

Keep your pitch concise and riveting. As highlighted above, journalists sift through a mountain of pitches daily, so you need to make yours stand out by hitting the key point right from the start, much like you’d share a piece of irresistible gossip with a friend. Highlight the most compelling aspect of your story immediately to grab their attention otherwise you risk losing it before the second paragraph—this could include striking data, a customer story, etc. If there’s depth to add, consider bullet points or a summary after your email signature. Alternatively, you could keep it in reserve for a follow-up, which is often required. Reading lengthy pitches can be daunting, but this strategy respects journalists’ time and piques their curiosity, significantly enhancing the chances of your story being featured. It’s about striking the perfect balance: being informative yet engaging, ensuring your message is not just another in the huge pile but a must-read.

Build a relationship before pitching 

Fun fact: My path to landing my first big feature was paved not just by an intriguing story, but more so by the relationship I had nurtured with the journalist well ahead of the time I needed to pitch my client’s news. It’s crucial to start building these connections early, long before the urgency to disseminate your news arises. This can be done by demonstrating a sincere interest in their work, engaging in meaningful conversations, and extending your assistance, such as connecting them with a speaker, without immediately anticipating a return; it can remarkably shift your stance from that of an outsider to a respected collaborator. I’ve found that the most fruitful relationships are those where communication can be as simple as sending bullet points over WhatsApp. Yet, reaching this level of informality and trust with journalists requires an investment of time and genuine interaction, moving you from just another contact in their inbox to a trusted and familiar figure.

As we’ve established, the art of pitching is nuanced, requiring more than just presenting facts—just because a publication is considered “local” or regionalised, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t practice the art of pitching. Truthfully speaking, you could tick all of the right boxes with your pitch and due to timing or resources, it doesn’t get picked up. But if your pitch is compelling and memorable enough, the journalist will come back to you at the appropriate time. Journalists seek stories that captivate their audience and bring significant attention to their platforms, therefore pitching must be strategic. By following these tips, founders can not only refine their failed approach but also build respectable, productive relationships with African tech media. This foundational work is crucial for when it’s time to scale up efforts and introduce a PR expert *cough, Wimbart* to the fold. Let’s turn your innovation into news that matters.