Squord Academy: Recent Episodes
Dapo Omoniyi and Edosa Obaseki
Squord Academy is the part of the Squord initiative. Our goal is to bring awareness to Africa by getting every day investors and entreprenuers to share their stories on elevating the african economy and collecting tips on how to make an impact with that space.
This week, we spoke with Jude Omodon, a private equity associate at Neuberger Berman about the infrastructure sector and its intersectionality with technology and AI.
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This week, we discussed the following:
- Thoma Bravo's $1.8billion bid to acquire enterprise software company, Everbridge.
- Reddit's IPO that performed well within its first two days of trading.
- Fed holds interest rate steady.
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We're back from our short break! Hope you like the new approach we are taking with the podcast.
This week, we discussed the following:
- Bill H.R. 7521 that recently passed the house of rep which could eventually see to Tiktok getting banned in the U.S.
- Reddit's plan to go public on the NYSE this year.
- Apple's $490million settlement with investors following a class action lawsuit.
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*This episode was recorded on Feb 18 and FX rate could have since changed*
This episode, we discussed the very pressing issues around the Naira devaluation, the goverment policies to boost FX and what can be done to further stabilize and the currency and boost dollar inflow.
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We had our first in-person recording!!
This week, we discussed the following:
- Jumia Foods shutdown and their journey towards profitability
- Astrotwig, music and social network tech startup, scammed of $20,000 by Angel investor
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This week, we discussed the following:
- Flutterwave POS agent's unauthorized transfer of $24million to about 6000 customers and their hunt to recoup those funds.
- Wasoko, a Kenyan B2B e-commerce platform, and their internal issues being faced due to their merger with Egyptian firm, MaxAB
- Multichoice's settlement with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to pay $37.3million in taxes owed.
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This week, we brought on Oke Ehirim to discuss the fundraising process, how VCs operate and what they lookout for when investing in tech startups.
Oke is a senior investment analyst at Oui Capital, an early stage fund that's focused on tech startups in Africa.
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This week, we brought on Ginika Obioha to shed some light on the African tech ecosystem. Ginika is an experienced and accomplished Investment Associate who works across two funds, Factor[e] Ventures and Equator VC. We covered the following
- Tech Investment Landscape
- 2024 Predictions
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Happy New Year and welcome to our first episode in 2024. This week, we discussed the following:
- Nigerian Tech Startup funding stats for 2023
- Iyin Aboyeji and Mia von launch the YC of Africa
- Blackrock's acquisition of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) led by Adebayo Ogunlesi
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This week, we discussed the following:
- Police arrest Wilfred Bonse, former Cross River gubernatorial candidate, in relation to the $2million Patrica hack
- Binance CEO, CZ, stepping down and the platform being fined $4.3billion
- GetEquity COO, Temitope Ekundayo Arrested
- Dangote Refinery's plan to IPO on the NGX in 2024
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This week, we discussed the following:
- Access Bank expanding to Asia
- OkadaBooks shutdown
- Sam Altman reinstated as OpenAI CEO
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This week, we discussed the following:
- Flutterwave CTO exits only after 18months of joining the firm
- Paystack lays off 33 employees from EU and UAE regions
- Bolt food exits Nigeria and South Africa
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You can follow Squord on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, join our community on our website or email us at info@squord.com
This week, we discussed the following:
- Patricia partnering with DLM capital to pay customer funds
- Due diligence in African tech
- Irokotv reportedly shutting down operations
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You can follow Squord on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, join our community on our website or email us at info@squord.com
References
Eloho's linkedIn post
This week, we discussed the following:
- Recap of the Squord event, "The Impact of Capital and Community in African Tech", at Afrotech in Austin TX
- Crowdyvest proposes converting debt of about N5.5 billion to equity shares
- Sam Bankman-Fried being found guilty on all seven counts of fraud and faces up to 115 years in prison.
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You can follow Squord on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, join our community on our website or email us at info@squord.com
This week, we discussed the following:
- Bridge Network co-founders leaving after some internal crisis
- Dash, Ghanian fintech, shuts down after raising $86.1million over the past 5 years
- Paystack expanding to offline payments
- Stears transition to B2B model
- Mavin records potential sale
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You can follow Squord on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, join our community on our website or email us at info@squord.com
This week, we discussed the following:
- Risevest acquires Chaka
- 54gene, genomics start up, shuts down after raising $45 million in three rounds.
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You can follow Squord on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, join our community on our website or email us at info@squord.com
This week, we discussed the following:
- Payday up for sale just 6 months after raising $3million
- Presidents Tinubu and Ruto seek investment from Wall Street and Silicon valley respectively to booster their economies.
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You can follow Squord on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, join our community on our website or email us at info@squord.com
This week we discussed the following:
- WhoGoHost's acquisition of SendChamp
- Sendy's Shutdown
- Flutterwave's expansion to India
- Chams and NIN
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You can follow Squord on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, join our community on our website or email us at info@squord.com
We're officially back after a month break! It was great getting your messages while we were away and it's great to be back doing what we love.
This week we discussed the following:
- Nigeria-India Meeting and $14 billion pledge to invest in Nigeria
- Bosun Tijani's AI and Nipost plan
- Patricia's plan to repay their customers affected by the $2million hack
- The float fiasco
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You can follow Squord on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, join our community on our website or email us at info@squord.com
This week we discussed the following:
- The Niger coup that saw the current President, Mohamed Bazoum, get captured as the military took control of government
- OPay co-CEO, Olu Akanmu, stepping down just after 2 years of running the fintech startup
- Meta's Threads losing half of its active users less than two weeks after it becoming the fastest startup to reach 100 million users/signups.
Feel free to share this with your friends and network and let us your thoughts.
You can follow Squord on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, join our community on our website or email us at info@squord.com
This week we discussed the following:
- Patricia partners with Deimos Security to boost customer account security
- CBN offers direction to banks to unfreeze 440 personal and company bank accounts
- eNaira failure acknowledged 2 years after public launch
- Growth of availability of financial services between Nigeria and Ghana
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You can follow Squord on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, join our community on our website or email us at info@squord.com
This week we discussed the following:
- Fuel price increase
- FX update
- Starlink launch in Kenya
- Update on CBN and Nigerian government protecting consumers against loan sharks
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You can follow Squord on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, join our community on our website or email us at info@squord.com
This week we discussed the following:
- Meta's launch of Threads to compete against Twitter
- Payday's co-founder and COO stepping down after 18months
- Nigeria's FDI turning negative for the first time since 1995
- Wave being on the only African startup on Y Combinators list of top 50 companies by revenue
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You can follow Squord on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, join our community on our website or email us at info@squord.com
This week we discussed the following:
- The Nigeria Data Protection Commission, NDPC has said it will be investigating online lending firms, also known as loan sharks, as well as some other institutions due to customer complaints.
- The CBN set daily transaction limits of N50,000 for contactless payments and other guidelines to ensure a seamless rollout of this technology.
- The reported Eyowo shutdown, which was debunked by the CEO, within 24 hours. Eyowo a fintech company that unifies all the financial tools you need to pay, receive, budget and save money in one place
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You can follow Squord on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, join our community on our website or email us at info@squord.com
This week we discussed the following:
- Nigeria officially floating its naira currency after years of sticking with a hard peg that spooked investors and drained dollars from the economy.
- President Bola Tinubu on Monday, 6/12, signed into law a bill to establish a Students Loan Fund (SLF) to provide interest-free loans to Nigerians seeking higher education.
- Termii and Eze recent fundraise of $3.65 million and $3.7 million respectively to expand their business within and beyond Africa
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You can follow Squord on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, join our community on our website or email us at info@squord.com
This week, we discussed:
- Chipper Cash's third round of layoffs within the span of a year
- SEC issues warnings against Binance Nigeria and the company being unregistered and not licensed to solicit investments from Nigerians
- Uber drivers complain about the unfair terms being proposed by Moove, the company that provides the car financing option for Uber drivers
- Hindenburg Group published a report about questionnable practices at Tingo Group and their fraudulent operations.
- The CBN governor was initially suspended and arrested due to an ongoing investigation with the Naira redesign and rollout that happened between last year and earlier this year
Feel free to share this with your friends and network and let us your thoughts.
You can follow Squord on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, join our community on our website or email us at info@squord.com
These past few weeks have been quite a rollercoaster ride! Let's dive into the action-packed highlights we covered. Brace yourself!
First on the list, Patricia, a Nigerian-based crypto trading platform, got hacked! And guess what? They lost a whopping $2 million of their customers' hard-earned cash. Ouch!
But wait, there's more! Nestcoin, a blockchain company specializing in cross-border payments, made a mind-boggling announcement. They decided to shake things up by pivoting their entire business strategy to Onboard. Why, you ask? Well, it turns out they took quite a hit from the FTX collapse and needed to make a major comeback.
Next, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) revoked the licenses of 132 micro-finance banks as they attempt to crack down on the fintech space and cover the loopholes.
Lastly we dove into the gripping saga of Healthlane. A debt-ridden company with a shaky balance sheet, and to top it all off, a serious lack of transparency towards its customers. But here's the juiciest part: insiders are buzzing with speculation that the CEO, Alain Nteff, might just be cooking up a brand new venture. What could it be?
You can follow Squord on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, join our community on our website or email us at info@squord.com
This week was quite eventful as we delved into three interesting topics. First up, Autochek, an auto tech company, went on another acquisition spree and acquired Autotager in Egypt. This move is part of their strategic plan to expand to North Africa.
Next up, the Guardian published a report that had our jaws dropping! Apparently, Mr. Eazi sold his capital firm, Zagadat Capital, for a whopping $1 billion. Can you imagine that?
On a more serious note, we also took a closer look at the Q1 breakdown of startup funding. The numbers were released this week and we found some concerning as well as positive trends.
To wrap things up, we chatted about the recent news of Tony Elumelu and Femi Otedola acquiring massive shares of Transcorp. Interestingly, Otedola exited his position shortly after acquiring his shares and we had a lively discussion on the potential reasons behind his decision.
You can follow Squord on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, join our community on our website or email us at info@squord.com
Temitope Coker, an enterprising healthcare writer, had a brilliant idea in 2021 - to gather all her healthcare reports she had crafted over the years and create a platform to raise awareness about the health industry. This gave birth to TC Health, and with her unwavering dedication and persistence, she has successfully grown the platform to great heights. TC Health has now partnered with big names such as WellaHealth, Wefill, and 7RL to spread the word about vital healthcare industry concerns.
In this fascinating episode of Squord Academy, Temitope generously shares her insights on the healthcare industry in Nigeria. From her thoughts on the recent migration of healthcare workers to the issues that plague the healthtech space, she provides a valuable perspective on how technology can help to address some of these problems. Enjoy this episode as you hear from this visionary leader, who is making a real impact in the world of healthcare.
You can follow Temitope on LinkedIn and TC health on LinkedIn and on their website.
You can follow Squord on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, join our community on our website or email us at info@squord.com
This week we interviewed Reni Odetoyinbo, a content creator who is passionate about strategic marketing, social justice, women’s empowerment, career development and financial literacy. Reni is a Nigerian, based in Canada who has managed to rapidly grow her brand over the past couple of years to where she now has a major following across the globe.
With the rapid growth of creator economy and the opportunities that lies within that space to individuals and investors, we brought Reni on the podcast to share her experience growing her brand and her thoughts as an African entrepreneur within this space.
To follow up with Reni, you can find her on:
Website: www.renitheresource.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reniodetoyinbo/
Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok, YouTube, Pinterest - @xoreni
"Don't go broke Trying" available on all podcast platforms.
Welcome to season 2 of Squord Academy! We thank you all so much for following us through our journey with our first season and we look forward to putting out more impactful and educative content this season. This week we are discussing:
- Silicon Valley Bank collapse and its impact on the Nigerian startup ecosystem
- Nigerian gov't launched a $672 million tech fund to back young founders
- WHO published a report in March that highlighted 55 countries (Nigeria included) having less than 49 healthcare workers per 10,000 people due to mass migration to more developed countries. We shared our thoughts on how the healthtech sector can help mitigate this.
If you are interested in being a guest on our podcast, kindly email us at dapo.o@prairie-crossing.com or edosa.o@prairie-crossing.com. Thank you again for listening and feel free to share your comments.
Chude is the Co-Founder and CEO of Venco, a software management platform and digital toolkit for multi-household communities.
Venco was launched in January 2022 after it was spun off from its parent company and closed its first round of funding in Q1. We brought Chude on the show to share his story and how he founded one of the most exciting and fastest growing prop tech startups in Africa.
Christiana is not your typical fin-tech entrepreneur - she started off in the Agric-tech space with Indigi foods but decided to pivot to fin-tech after a huge realization during a brainstorming session with her team.
After some time deliberation with her partners on how difficult it was for Nigerians to save money, they decided to launch a platform that would enable Nigerians save money while earning interest. This is what led to MyStash, a company that was launched last year and has recently closed its $150,000 angel round. Although she's a co-founder, she operates as the COO of the company and they have managed to exponentially grow the team over the past year. MyStash has huge goals for the future and have set strong targets for themselves. They aim to raise their seed round to expand and reach more people later this year.
She has also taken time to educate herself about the fin-tech space and recently graduated from the DreamVC program which is designed to educate those looking to break into the VC space.
Since the outbreak of the war, several sectors and countries have been affected. On this episode we discuss the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on the Nigerian economy and what to expect in the next couple of months/years. We have already seen a dramatic increase in the price of oil, wheat, fertilizers and other products that Russia and Ukraine export and market experts believe these prices will continue to soar as long as the war and sanctions persist.
This episode was recorded on March 13th.
Liz Grossman is an entrepreneur who works with world leaders, nonprofits, companies and academic institutions to create inclusive programs, develop successful brands, build community and facilitate meaningful connections to scale their impact. She has spent the past twelve years studying, working and living in Sub-Saharan Africa, with experience in over 15 countries. She is a sought after speaker on topics such as entrepreneurship, education, the future of work, intercultural communications and women’s leadership in Africa, who challenges audiences to consider the importance of intercultural collaboration and to accelerate equitable business and development projects.
In 2016, Liz launched Baobab consulting with her co-founder, Tayib Fall, as a way to support American companies looking into to break into the African market and African startups looking to expand into the American economy. They do this by providing strategic advisory & research, public relations and communications and intercultural programming. Liz continues continues to grow her company while impacting multiple areas (women's rights, tech, education, youth empowerment, etc) and believes the creative and entertainment industry have a huge role to play in the revolution of the African continent.
Joshua Okpata is a Nigerian innovator and investor who has been influential to the entire African continent. As a youth, while in church, he birthed the idea of a platform that could make renting cars and equipment a lot simpler and safer for companies and individuals. He then pursued this idea with grit and determination and built it into what is known as Eazyhire today. Building a company like this in a growing economy, comes with a lot of risks but Josh was able to navigate a lot of them while building his company into a million dollar enterprise.
In 2016, Eazyhire was recognized as the technology startup of the year by the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA). In 2019, Josh was recognized for his innovative skills and hardwork by being inducted as a Forbes 30 under 30 alumni. Also, in 2020, he was named one of Africa's 40 young and emerging business leaders under the age of 40 by Business Elites Africa.
After his exit from Eazyhire, the decided to use his knowledge and skills to help kickstart other interesting projects. He has since funded and supported impact-driven startups as an angel investor and in Venture Capital, managed a portfolio of over 60 companies from across Africa.
Currently, Josh serves on the innovation team at the UN World Food Programme and he spends his spare time volunteering as a tutor at the Chibuzor Okpata foundation.
Uzo who is often referred to as the Taco lady, was raised in Los Angeles in the United States, where she picked up her love for food as a kid. This passion led her to become the general manager of Chick fil a and Pieology Pizzeria before deciding relocate to Nigeria in 2017 to pursue her dream of starting a food business. After several deliberations, she decided to launch a mexican restaurant called El padrino with her little twist on it; all ingredients and materials would be sourced locally in Nigeria. El padrino, which is now seen as a lifestyle, has managed to build a loyal fanbase through their popups and well known “taco tuesdays”. Last year, during the pandemic, Uzo launched Su casa which is a software that provides tips on how to make several dishes.
Uzo’s ultimate dream is to transform the experience of residents and visitors in Nigerian that’s why the idea of Exp Lagos came natural to her. Exp lagos is a chance to experience a good night life in Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos, while maintaining the originality and the feel of what it takes to be Nigerian. Customers pay a flat fee and they get to drive around in a classic bus known as "danfo" while visiting several areas like bars and clubs in the city.
We brought on Uzo to the podcast to share her story on how she got started and what her experience has been so far as an entrepreneur in Nigeria.
We often underestimate the role that legal services plays in a startup ecosystem. Whereas in reality, the legal framework in a society, along with the quality of legal service available serves as the grease that lubricates the startup ecosystem and allows things to seemingly run smoothly. This is why it is important for us to speak to professionals in the industry and hear from them - their outlook, their concerns, and some secret sauce. In today's episode, we discuss with Oyeniyi Immanuel, a young legal luminary.
Like many, Niyi chose to study law because he felt it was a good fit with his persona - witty, savvy, and critical. A decision that is paying off well. He shares his views of the legal framework across the continent, startup-lawyer relationships, and legal tidbits for startup investors. His legal advise and experience covers a wide range of sectors such as financial services, fintech, oil & gas, and real estate. He can be contacted via LinkedIn or Twitter (@moballerg)
In 2009, during the peak of the global financial crisis, Michael realized how bad the youth employment was in Nigeria. Although, his job as a Project Manager in Houston was safe. He began reading about global crisis to get a good understanding of how to make the best of the bad situation by capitalizing on it. After a couple of conventions and forums, he started LoftyInc Allied Partners with his friends to invest in early stage Nigerian startups with the sole aim of aiding the technological and economic growth of the nation. In 2011, few things happened and he formed Wennovation hub to train unemployed youths in Nigeria mainly to become software engineers.
After a couple of years, he and his partners decided to launch a capital management firm under advisement of his mentor. This firm has since made investments in over 30 startups. LoftyInc Allied Partners and LoftyInc Capital Management. LoftyInc was one of the early investors in startups like Andela, Flutterwave, Printivo and many other disruptive african companies.
Outside of LoftyInc, Michael runs Owonikoko Ranch & Farms, which is his agriculture business that specializes in cattle rearing, meat processing, maize and vegetable farming.
Squord Academy is the part of the Squord initiative. Our goal is to bring awareness to Africa by getting investors and entreprenuers to share their stories on elevating the african economy and collecting some tips on how to make an impact with that space. This episode, we spoke with Tomi Ogundipe who is an IT professional in the U.S. to share his experience on investing in early-stage startups in Nigeria.