Thread by @eajene, 1/ Here’s a recap of last week’s notable business & innovation events [...]

1/ Here’s a recap of last week’s notable business & innovation events across Africa & beyond

Chipper Cash's raise + Egypt's week + other deals

How to design your company & other strategy reads

News, Podcasts, & Tweets you missed

& more https://afridigest.substack.com/p/afridigest-week-in-review-no-fees

Afridigest Week in Review: No-fees, no-fuss 💸

+Egyptian deals +Unicorn or popcorn +Designing companies & board meetings +3 awesome podcasts +Top phone brands in Africa +Essays, news, and reports

https://afridigest.substack.com/p/afridigest-week-in-review-no-fees

2/

• @ChipperCashApp raised a $13.8M series A

• A "Cash App for Africa", it offers no-fee P2P payments in

,

,&

• “We’re now at over 1.5 million users and doing over a $100 million dollars a month in volume”

• Congrats to @HSerunjogi, @DrJid & team

3/

• Chefaa's raised a 7 figure pre-Series A round

• Zedny raised a $1.2M pre-seed round

• Sakneen raised $150k from @ycombinator

Congrats to @idoaaaref, @irasharady, @BasilKhattab, @RamyKhorshed, & their teams

Strong showing for Egypt so far in 2020 overall

4/

• @PayGo_Energy developed hardware for cooking gas, allowing for pay-as-you-go models & gas-as-a-service

• @Saisan_PR liked it so they made a strategic investment & PayGo's smart meter will soon be deployed across Asia

• "Reverse innovation" ➠ From Africa to the world

5/

• @TroveFinance, a Nigerian micro-investing Robinhood-esque platform, raised an undisclosed amount from angel investor networks @EkoNetwork @sseangels & @DiasporaAngels

• Congrats to @tomisuave & the team

- time to work

https://nipc.gov.ng/2020/06/20/micro-investments-startup-trove-raises-funding-from-3-angel-networks/

Micro-investments Startup Trove Raises Funding From 3 Angel Networks

Nigerian micro-investing platform Trove has secured funding from three local angel networks as it prepares for expansion. Trove has built a simple micro-investing app that allows users to invest sm…

https://nipc.gov.ng/2020/06/20/micro-investments-startup-trove-raises-funding-from-3-angel-networks/

6/

Busy week, including funds raised by:

• @planet42_int, an Estonian vehicle financing provider that operates in

• @CongoNuru, an off-grid solar company in DRC

• @Mobiz_RSA, a South African 'Mailchimp for SMS marketing'

• @GETITRwanda, a Rwandan food distributor

7/

Read of the week

• This paper from @KevinJBoudreau that applies academic research to startups and tells you how to design a company

• "Strategy is about overall patterns or combinations of decisions throughout the value chain..."

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2784718

8/ Read of the week 2

Want to transform your (board) meetings? Be Like Bezos

• This article from @ttunguz gives the keys to the kingdom for more strategic, more effective & shorter board meetings

(Also applicable to non-board meetings w/ minor tweaks) https://tomtunguz.com/written-board-meetings/

How to Transform Your Board Meeting with Written Narratives • Tomasz Tunguz

Written materials transform board meetings. With most of us working remotely, many startups have thrown out Google slides and replaced them with Google sheets. It’s a fundamental change, and one I...

https://tomtunguz.com/written-board-meetings/

9/

Other things to read/save:

• On building for Africa vs the world. @timigod: https://medium.com/timigod/build-for-the-world-2df4501a9270

• On marketplaces. @sarahtavel: https://medium.com/@sarahtavel/the-hierarchy-of-marketplaces-introduction-and-level-1-983995aa218e

• On strategy. @sriramk: https://sriramk.com/strategy

• On seeing the future. @morganhousel: https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/same-as-it-ever-was/

Same As It Ever Was

This is a few short stories about things that never change in a world that never stops changing. Things that never change are the most important things to pay attention to. Change gets most of the...

https://medium.com/timigod/build-for-the-world-2df4501a9270

10/

Speaking of seeing the future, this case study is highly recommended.

(Ask me for a promo code)

https://gum.co/casestudy-wmg

How to see the future: Len Blavatnik & the 2011 purchase of Warner Music Group — a business case...

"Acumen comes from learning from other people’s successes; wisdom comes from learning from their mistakes.". Build your business acumen & get smarter about business decision-making with this case s...

https://gum.co/casestudy-wmg

11/ Podcasts of the week

@SimShagaya stopped by the @InvestAfrica1 podcast & dropped some gems

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8xNjM2ZGIyOC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw/episode/OWY2MGQyMTgtMzJlNi00Y2FlLThiYTYtZDI0ODEzNTVlODE0

Can't listen right now? No worries, my notes are here

https://twitter.com/eajene/status/1273381348192014337

12/ Podcasts of the week 2

@AndrewKuper on the @ImpactAlpha podcast:

“We have every reason to believe that the thesis of investing in companies serving emerging consumers is going to amplify in the coming years, especially taking digital into account” https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL2ZlZWRzLnNvdW5kY2xvdWQuY29tL3VzZXJzL3NvdW5kY2xvdWQ6dXNlcnM6MTkxNzQzMjcyL3NvdW5kcy5yc3M/episode/NjBkYmUxNWYtM2Y1Yi00ZTY1LTk5NjMtMTllMTFmNzJiZTQy?ved=0CAkQzsICahcKEwiop7SThpXqAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQCg

Impact Alpha Podcasts - ROI Interview: Andy Kuper

Leapfrog’s Andy Kuper on impact, exits and scaling growth in emerging markets through the COVID crisis --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/impact-alpha/message

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL2ZlZWRzLnNvdW5kY2xvdWQuY29tL3VzZXJzL3NvdW5kY2xvdWQ6dXNlcnM6MTkxNzQzMjcyL3NvdW5kcy5yc3M/episode/NjBkYmUxNWYtM2Y1Yi00ZTY1LTk5NjMtMTllMTFmNzJiZTQy?ved=0CAkQzsICahcKEwiop7SThpXqAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQCg

13/

Job(s) of the week

• @myAgroFarms is creating alternative savings system for smallholder farmers via mobile - very innovative layaway system

•

They're looking for Mali & Senegal Country Directors / General Managers https://www.myagro.org/join-our-team/

Join Our Team - myAgro

Career Opportunities General Manager – Mali General Manager – Senegal Product Manager – Senegal

https://www.myagro.org/join-our-team/

14/

Other cool things last week:

• @TheEIU's report on Fintech in Nigeria was published: https://eiuperspectives.economist.com/financial-services/state-play-fintech-nigeria

• @Sam_Ajadi's GSMA report on digital health came out & it's thoughtful & very well done: https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/resources/digital-health-a-health-system-strengthening-tool-for-developing-countries/

(I need an autographed copy, Sam

)

Digital Health: A health system strengthening tool for developing countries | Mobile for Development

Digital solutions have proven to be excellent tools to address systemic challenges, particularly by enabling communication within and between various parts of the healthcare value chain. Our research...

https://eiuperspectives.economist.com/financial-services/state-play-fintech-nigeria

15/

In case you missed this thread on Twitter last week, it's worth a read-through https://twitter.com/LeslieFeinzaig/status/1272975489645207552

https://twitter.com/LeslieFeinzaig/status/1272975489645207552

16/ That's the Twitter recap of Week 25's notable events

Click through to the newsletter for the juicy details & subscribe to get it in your inbox every Monday

If you've read this far & enjoyed it, go back & like and retweet the 1st tweet. Thanks

https://afridigest.substack.com/p/afridigest-week-in-review-no-fees

Afridigest Week in Review: No-fees, no-fuss 💸

+Egyptian deals +Unicorn or popcorn +Designing companies & board meetings +3 awesome podcasts +Top phone brands in Africa +Essays, news, and reports

https://afridigest.substack.com/p/afridigest-week-in-review-no-fees

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