🎙️ Welcome to Season 3: New Beginnings, New Brand, Same Mission

In this special season premiere, we unveil our new brand positioning as The African Pre-seed Podcast Powered by 54 Collective. While our mission remains the same—delivering rich insights for Africa-focused founders and investors—this season reflects our partnership with 54 Collective, a venture capital firm redefining investing across Africa. Together, we aim to help founders to build without boundaries.

This episode, recorded live in September at Nairobi’s Capital Club ahead of the African Fintech Summit, features a dynamic discussion on the types of capital early-stage startups need. Our host, Loraine Achar,, Investment Manager at 54 Collective, is joined by Djiba Diallo, Steve Biko, and Andreata Muforo to explore critical topics like bootstrapping, venture capital, and grants.

As Africa’s tech ecosystem recalibrates after the 2020-2021 funding wave, local investors are stepping up to focus on sustainability, unit economics, and tailored capital opportunities for founders. This conversation offers valuable insights for navigating the evolving funding landscape in Africa.

Some key take aways:

• Bootstrapping vs. Venture Capital: Founders must define their success goals—venture capital drives rapid growth, while bootstrapping offers more control, each with unique challenges.
• Beware of the Bells and Whistles of Grants: Grants can power innovation but may lead founders off strategy or come with heavy reporting requirements—understand expectations clearly.
• Aligning Incentives with Investors: Ensure alignment with investors whose success metrics match yours, understanding their return expectations and risk appetite to avoid future conflicts.

💡 Top five insights unpacked in this episode:

• Understanding the right type of capital for your business [11:34]
• Is debt investing the way to go? [17:59]
• What banks look for in partnering with startups [20:38]
• How to balance securing the right kind of equity [30:08]
• Audience Q/A : How early stage startup can effectively demonstrate their growth potentials and scalability to attract investors? [38:12]

CONNECT VIA SOCIAL MEDIA:

• Djiba Diallo, the Senior Fintech Advisor at Ecobank Transnational,
• Loraine Achar, Investment Manager at 54 Collective,
• Steve Biko, Co-founder and CEO of Zanifu,
• Andreata Muforo, Partner at TLcom Capital LLP

Tell us...

• What was your favourite quote or lesson from this episode?
• What topic would you like for us to feature on a future podcast?

Let us know via the hashtag: #AfricanPreseedPodcast

🎙️ This month's episode takes us to Tunisia, speaking to Mariem Sellami, a founder and former program manager at Startup Tunisia to understand what it’s like running a venture in Tunisia. 🇹🇳

Like most nascent tech ecosystems, the government plays an important role in the Tunisian ecosystem, with legal frameworks like the Startup Act—passed in 2019—helping founders get indirect funding and promoting the ecosystem on a regional and international level.

There are quite a few interesting things about the Tunisian ecosystem:

• It has a strong technical skill base because tech and digital literacy skills are a key focus for the country.
• As a result, 47% of founders are engineers, while 13% hold PhDs in various disciplines. Its proximity to Europe has also been useful for exposing the country’s technical talent to gain experience and skills beyond its ecosystem.
• Remember InstaDeep, the Tunisian startup acquired for $549 million? Its success is spurring a new class of dreamers with similar dreams of groundbreaking startups that make outsized impact.

💡 Top five insights unpacked in this episode:

• Making Tunisia a startup friendly nation [01:15]
• Tunisia's startup ecosystem developments over the last 10 years [08:34]
• Leveraging international culture diversity [09:06]
• Factors driving innovations within the Tunisian tech ecosystem [11:28]
• Addressing some oversimplifications and stigmas about entrepreneurship [15:20]

CONNECT VIA SOCIAL MEDIA:

• Connect with Mariem Sellami on LinkedIn

Tell us...

• What was your favourite quote or lesson from this episode?
• What topic would you like for us to feature on a future podcast?

Let us know via the hashtag: #AfricanPreseedPodcast

🌍 Creating impact in the African tech ecosystem takes many stakeholders, and while venture dollars might grab the biggest headlines, foundation and impact partners also play a crucial role. You might even argue—correctly—that these impact partners have influenced traditional VC players and shaped how they think about investing on the continent.

🚀 This month’s podcast is a conversation with Dr. Nina Smidt, the Spokesperson for the Board and the CEO of the International Siemens Foundation, an independent non-profit organisation that has been promoting and investing in sustainable social development for the last fifteen years.

The Foundation focuses on three key topics: access to essential services, connected societies, and climate and sustainability.

At the heart of this conversation is the importance of sustainable social enterprise. Another key theme is the importance of working with local stakeholders in specific regions because they know best what will create the most significant impact on their work and impact in their communities.

It’s a particularly valid point when foreign VC players in Africa have received criticism for their poor understanding of the landscape and lack of knowledge of sustainable business models. In 2021 and 2022, a time when foreign VCs poured money into Africa, there was a sense that partnering with local players familiar with the lay of the land would have led to better investments.

But it’s not all about divergence. VCs and impact foundations also have notable points of convergence. Impact foundations can, for instance, invest in late-stage social enterprises that may not receive follow-up VC funding but serve very important purposes.

💡 Here’s a quote from Dr. Smidt that drives the point home:

Enough spoilers for one episode. Please listen and share what you found the most impactful in this episode! - Olumuyiwa (Contributor and Writer, African Pre-seed Podcast).

💡 Top 5 insights unpacked in the episode:

• The International Siemens Foundation's point of view on impact and social entrepreneurship [03:37]
• The foundation bridges funding gaps for social enterprises in the "missing middle" stage, supporting them until they become self-sustainable [08:34]
• The importance of local understanding in driving innovation and change [11:30]
• Monitoring and evaluation methods to assess programs and continuous improvement [17:22]
• Investing in research and development, empowering local innovators to pilot and scale solutions [24:06]

CONNECT VIA SOCIAL MEDIA:

• Connect with Nina Smidt.
• Connect with Adam Wakefield.

Tell us...

• What was your favourite quote or lesson from this episode?
• What topic would you like for us to feature on a future podcast?

Let us know via the hashtag: #AfricanPreseedPodcast