Bootstrapped OneKitty tackles crowdfunding transparency with WhatsApp chatbots
Manny Anyango, a Kenyan digital communications and social media strategist, runs a chama through a WhatsApp group. Chamas are informal micro-savings and lending groups popular in Kenya and East Africa. Like Nigeria’s ajó or South Africa’s stokvel, members pool money together to invest, save or lend to individual members at little to no interest. Beyond micro-savings, these groups also form small closely-knit communities where members often fundraise for social causes or to support members in times of loss. Most of these groups operate on social messaging apps like WhatsApp and track member contributions there. According to Anyango, manually updating names and contributions, as opposed to utilising crowdfunding apps like M-Changa and GoFundMe, poses a headache. “People join, leave, or change numbers, and keeping track of who has paid is a constant struggle,” says Anyango. “You need to remember how much you had (in your mobile money wallet) or eventually trace to the first amount you received and from whom and add the total manually countless times,” says Eddie Saroni, a social media marketer who runs an Arsenal FC fan WhatsApp group of 258 members and often manages contributions for funerals, birthdays, and hospital bills. “Updates stream in, people call asking why you are yet to add their names and balances, etc. It’s messy.” Still, WhatsApp offers more transparency and accountability to the crowdfunding process in a low-trust market like Kenya. In 2023, 23-year-old university student Danche Nganga came upon the idea to create a crowdfunding alternative that worked on Telegram and WhatsApp where people were already trying to keep track of communal fundraising. Nganga, who was studying Applied Physics and Computer Science at Multimedia University of Kenya at the time, first saw this as an opportunity while discussing with his then partner, who was trying to support a fundraiser for a late cousin. “I suggested to her that we create a payment kitty (an informal term for a pool of money raised communally) where you can send money and automatically [receive] the funds in your wallets,” Nganga says. “We argued a little, but I recalled that contributors also like to track the contributions being raised via WhatsApp. That was the starting point,” he says. A real-time chatbot OneKitty, the product which resulted from that conversation, is a crowdfunding app integrated with social messaging chatbots that provide real-time updates of contributions to every member in the group. This not only eliminates the hassle, confusion, and delays in managing contributions manually, it also lends transparency to the process, giving every member of a fundraising community equal insight into the communal pot. Crowdfunding platforms like M-Changa and GoFundMe are popular in Kenya, but monitoring the progress of crowdfunding campaigns in ways that contributors can track did not happen in real-time on either service, Nganga claims. M-Changa, Kenya’s Mobile Money Crowdfunding Platform, is Raising Capital for Growth As the startup’s technical lead, Nganga sought operational proficiency in 28-year-old Shem Maina, who joined the business as chief finance and operations officer. “My background is not in IT and Computer Science like many techies,” says Maina, who holds an MBA in Strategic Management from the same university. Once they had a product, the two partnered to conduct AB tests with friends and classmates at their university and church, attracting responders both organically and through referrals. Some of their initial challenges were building a platform that was simple and worked end-to-end, the co-founders said. They also struggled with market entry and earning user and partner trust. “Taking someone through how the product works was not enough, as most Kenyans are sceptical when sending money online,” Nganga says. The app, through partnerships with banks and telcos, allows payments from mobile money wallets M-Pesa and Airtel Money, but it is the integration with peer-to-peer services like SasaPay, that has led to the company’s success so far, according to Maina. To mitigate fraud, OneKitty’s co-founders say that an inbuilt AI monitoring system, as well as dedicated financial fraud personnel, are among several safety measures it employs. Its chatbot also allows a group to set as many or few signatories as possible to authorise withdrawals to avoid embezzlement. Since its launch, OneKitty—whose team of seven hybrid employees work out of a head office in Nairobi—says it has facilitated over 10,000 fundraising campaigns for over 200,000 Kenyans on its platform. Differentiating from competitors OneKitty’s co-founders say they’re differentiating from their competitors with its WhatsApp chatbot integration. They are yet to roll out a chatbot for Telegram. “Our competitors, most of them; actually, all of them are not on WhatsApp,” Maina says. According to Statista, the number of Kenyans who use WhatsApp, which has steadily grown over the years, is estimated to reach 15.31 million of the country’s 22.7 million internet users in the next four years. With the chatbot integration, not only can a fundraising community see contributions as they come through in real-time on a messaging app they use frequently, they can see when withdrawals are made and by whom. OneKitty is also the most affordable option in the market at the moment, according to Maina. While GoFundMe charges a fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per donation, deducted from the total amount raised, and M-Changa charges a standard platform fee of 4.25% of the total funds raised, OneKitty charges 2.5% of the total contributions upon withdrawals. For chama contributions, the company charges 2% of all withdrawals, and 5% for events—the WhatsApp bot can be integrated into a group and used to sell event tickets, the co-founders say. In addition to M-Changa and GoFundMe, OneKitty is also competing with platforms like Thundafund, Kickstarter and even Safaricom’s M-Pesa whose Paybill and Short-Term Paybill products offer long term and short term crowdfunding solutions for institutional and individual projects respectively. Most of these platforms employ an all-or-nothing fundraising model which means campaign managers can only receive their funds if they meet their target fundraising goals. OneKitty does not use this model, offering flexibility and allowing projects to receive any funds raised, which is beneficial for
Read MoreWhy data centre investors are flocking to Lagos’ coastline
To get a slice of Lagos’ booming data centre market—projected to reach 70 megawatts (MW) by 2027—global investors are pouring capital into Victoria Island and the Lekki Peninsula, two of the city’s most affluent urban neighborhoods. Thanks to its proximity to eight submarine internet cables, Lagos Island is positioned to become Africa’s second-largest data centre hub, trailing behind Johannesburg’s 200MW capacity. But the scramble for Lagos’ coastline reveals the promise and pitfalls of betting on Africa’s fragmented data economy. The closer a data centre is to a submarine cable landing station (CLS), the faster data can travel, reducing delays. Coastal data centers are built near these landing stations to improve speed and efficiency. They also serve as backup hubs, keeping networks running even if inland connections go down, said Ayotunde Coker, CEO of Open Access Data Centre (OADC). “It is the availability of infrastructure and proximity to landing stations and typical site selection parameters that make investors elect to build data centres in Victoria Island,” Coker told TechCabal. Google’s Equiano submarine cable, with a massive capacity of up to 144 terabits per second (Tbps), lands directly at OADC’s Tier III-certified, carrier-neutral facility in Lekki. Similarly, the MainOne submarine cable with a 10 Tbps is directly connected to the MDXi data centre, MainOne’s Tier III-certified facility in Lekki, Lagos. Nigeria’s eight submarine cables—including Google’s Equiano and 2Africa—make landfall along the Lagos Island coastline, connecting to terrestrial fiber-optic networks for broader distribution. Ten of Nigeria’s 16 data centres are already concentrated in Victoria Island, Lekki, and Eko Atlantic City, and operators are racing to add more capacity. Projects under construction include Equinix’s 5MW facility, Kasi’s 5MW centre, Nxtra by Airtel’s 38MW data center, and Open Access Data Centre’s 24MW facility—all slated for completion by 2027. These new data centres, alongside ongoing developments across the country, will expand Nigeria’s total capacity from 64MW to approximately 200MW. By bringing data processing closer to users, these facilities will reduce delays, enhancing the performance of cloud services, streaming, and online gaming. The increased capacity will also improve network reliability, minimizing downtime and ensuring more stable connectivity. Power, water, and urbanisation Investors are drawn not just by connectivity but by Lagos’ improving power infrastructure. As key urban hubs, Victoria Island and Lekki are designated “Band A” service areas, ensuring 20 to 24 hours of electricity daily—critical for data centre operations. “Power infrastructure in the Lekki Corridor today and in the future is more robust than other parts of Lagos,” said Wole Abu of Equinix West Africa. Another reason for choosing coastal areas is access to water for cooling systems, which prevents overheating and maintains efficiency. In 2023, data centers globally consumed an estimated 309 million gallons of water per day—enough to supply 3.3 million people—and this demand is expected to rise to 468 million gallons daily by 2030 as more AI-driven data centers emerge. The increasing investment in Lagos’s data centres reflects a global urbanization wave. A recent Bank of America Institute study identifies urbanization, aging populations, and evolving consumer behavior as key drivers of digital infrastructure expansion. The United Nations projects that by 2050, about 66% of the global population will live in cities, rising to 87% in developed nations, with Asia and Africa contributing 90% of this urban growth. One of the ultra-urban areas, Eko Atlantic, is envisioned as a cutting-edge smart city with world-class infrastructure, high-rise buildings, luxury real estate, and advanced flood protection systems. Though still under development, it has attracted major data centre investments, hosting two hyperscale facilities—Africa Data Centres’ Tier III data centre and Nxtra by Airtel. For now, Lagos’ coastline remains the hottest ticket in town if investors can navigate its tide. Here’s an opportunity to tell us how you feel about TechCabal. Join other readers to take this 10-minute survey now. Fill it via this link.
Read MoreNigeria’s cNGN stablecoin seeks listings on Yellow Card, Roqqu to drive adoption
The Africa Stablecoin Consortium (ASC), the developers of Nigeria’s first regulatory-approved stablecoin, cNGN, have held early talks with Roqqu and Yellow Card, two prominent African crypto exchanges, to secure listings for the Naira-backed token. While both companies confirmed the discussions, neither platform has committed to listing the stablecoin. ASC did not immediately respond to a request for comments. cNGN has secured listings on Busha and Quidax, the two provisionally licenced Nigerian exchanges. Yet, expanding to more platforms—especially those with a pan-African presence—is critical for its remittance use case. Without firm commitments from major exchanges, its growth remains uncertain. The reluctance poses a challenge to cNGN’s adoption, which hinges on exchange support, but exchanges are hesitant to do so without proven demand. The stablecoin, designed to facilitate remittances and cross-border transactions, risks stagnation in a market where digital Naira transfers are already widely accessible. “We have a lot of respect for any project that has been admitted to Nigeria’s SEC Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme (ARIP); we take it seriously,” said Jason Marshall, Yellow Card COO. “But we are very selective about the coins we list.” Yellow Card currently lists 14 tokens, six of which are stablecoins. Marshall cited market demand, financial backing, and compliance as key factors in the company’s listing decisions. “Before we would consider a coin most times, they would have raised the equivalent of ₦50 billion ($32.5 million) in capital reserves and have an accounting firm sign a document saying it validates those reserves,” said Marshall. “We would expect them to be well-capitalised to back the coin.” While ASC envisions cNGN as a bridge for African remittances, allowing users to swap it for other stablecoins like a Kenyan Shilling-backed token (cKES), Marshall remains unconvinced about its domestic use. “I think of the cNGN as a two-way street,” he said. “For domestic use cases within Nigeria, I’m not sure because the Naira is already digital. The Nigerian bank transfer system is very advanced; transfers are instant and low-cost, but we’re open-minded to domestic use cases—we’re just unsure as of yet.” Eseoghene Onomor, CEO of Roqqu, a Nigerian crypto exchange, confirmed discussions with cNGN’s developers but echoed concerns about market demand. “These things take time,” said Onomor. “It’s not enough to list a coin or token on your platform. It has to be something that people want. Not everyone is seeing the value of the cNGN right now, because adoption is low, but I see its value.” The ASC faces a chicken-and-egg problem: cNGN needs exchange listings to drive adoption, but exchanges want proof of demand before listing it. Without stronger institutional backing and clear utility, Nigeria’s first compliant stablecoin could struggle to gain a foothold in a market where crypto users remain sceptical.
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Quick Fire 
with Aderayo Adesokan
Aderayo Adesokan shapes how Moniepoint is seen and understood, leading its brand and communications across markets. She manages external messaging, campaign production, global experiential activations, and corporate brand perception, ensuring consistency in how the company presents itself. With experience spanning banking, finance, FMCG, BNPL, insure-tech, and entertainment, she focuses on narratives that reflect business priorities and connect with key audiences. She works closely with senior leadership to align communication with strategy, ensuring Moniepoint’s presence remains clear and trusted as it serves over 10 million businesses and individuals in its ecosystem. If you were explaining your work to a 5-year-old, how would you describe what you do? I’d say I’m like Blossom from the Powerpuff Girls – the one who keeps things organised and makes sure everyone’s doing what needs to be done. It’s a bit like being a headgirl for a school, making sure everything’s in order, representing the school in the best way, and ensuring the students are updated with the latest news. I also like being organised, making sure everyone is on the same page, and ensuring everything runs smoothly. And of course, I try to keep it relatable and impactful. How did you transition from working on digital strategies to leading communications for Moniepoint, one of Africa’s fastest-growing brands? I spent a lot of time in creative advertising, working with transformative technologies like augmented and virtual reality, helping big brands communicate in innovative ways. But I found myself wanting to focus more deeply, rather than hopping between industries. I realised my strength was in strategic thinking, ideation, and project management. After researching the tech space, I saw a great fit for my skills in roles like digital communications. When a role at Moniepoint opened up, I knew it was the right opportunity. Fast forward, here I am, leading brand and communications for one of Africa’s rapidly growing financial brands, and I don’t regret the decision for a second. What does it take to build a brand presence that not only stands out but also resonates globally in such a competitive tech landscape? It takes grit, intentionality and clarity. When I joined Moniepoint, we had almost no digital presence, so I had to build it from the ground up. The key was creating storytelling that resonated locally while also being globally recognised. Had to hack showing trust, impact, and connecting with real people. From the start, we knew we were shaping something bigger than just a payment system or financial solutions. It was purposefully creating value that felt genuine and belonged in people’s lives. It’s not always easy, and it takes persistence, but with the right direction and consistency, people will notice. You’ve worked on strategic communications that attracted investor interest in startups. What’s your approach to crafting messaging that inspires trust? It’s two words for me: impact and relatability. Investors want to see the value in what you’re doing but also want to feel a connection to the brand and its journey. Crafting a message that shows how your product or service can make a difference and speak to real needs is super crucial. Of course, numbers are important, but at the heart of it, investors want to know that the brand aligns with their values and has a clear, positive impact. There is a lot of critical thinking that goes into weaving even a sentence or a report to align with specific messages to a certain audience. Storytelling is central to your work. How do you balance the need for compelling narratives with driving measurable business results? Everything we do has to be measurable (Let’s not do things for vibes or because it’s cool). I’m fortunate to work with amazing colleagues like Tosin and Didi at Moniepoint, who have helped me refine the art of data-driven decision-making. We don’t create content just for the sake of it – I may sound like a broken record to people cause this is my mantra. Each story has a purpose. Each piece of communication, be it digital, a campaign, hard paper, or whatever, has to have a purpose or something you want people to take out that falls within the context of the business direction at the time cause we yield the perception. I always ask, and it’s embedded in my subconscious: Why are we telling this story? How does it connect with the brand and the audience? Does the data support it? In the end, it’s not just great storytelling; it’s important to align that storytelling with the company’s broader goals and making sure we can measure its impact. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about shaping a company’s public perception, and how has it shaped your career? “Thank you very much for that question” *breaths in* … my biggest lesson- is it takes time to knock a narrative into people’s heads – I know that sounds a bit rough. So many theories tell you the what and the hows, but not how important it is to be a brand that people see themselves in. Experiences are great but ensuring your audience can relate to the brand’s journey. This has shaped my approach to communications, teaching me to be patient and deliberate. The longer you nurture a narrative, the more people will connect with it. It’s not always instant, but with consistency, people begin to see themselves in your brand story. What advice would you give someone starting out in communications who wants to follow a similar career path? Find what you’re truly good at and build on it. Communications is vast, and there are many paths to take. Start by focusing on what sets you apart, then think globally while staying locally relevant. Don’t be afraid to try new things, and remember that there are no bad ideas- only bad execution. Make sure you’re always learning, and don’t limit yourself to the boundaries of your current environment. The world is wide open. What excites you the most about the future of communications, especially in the African
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TechCabal Daily – AI for hands and brains
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Eid Mubarak. Welcome to Q2 2025, where the moon’s fresh and the vibes are high. But for folks in Nigeria, it’s a bittersweet moment—plenty to celebrate, yet much to mourn. Adetunji “TeeJay” Opayele, CTO of Bumpa, a Base10-backed e-commerce startup, was killed by a reckless driver who walked away with little more than a slap on the wrist. Over 70,000 people have signed a petition demanding real justice. Here’s TechCabal’s profile of Teejay—read it to see why his life, and now his death, matter so much in this world. AI agents are getting better at doing our jobs MTN launches uncapped internet for $0.27 per day The path to exits, the support VCs provide, and Africa’s hottest sectors World Wide Web 3 Opportunities AI AI agents are getting better at doing our jobs Image Source: Botscrew How long should it take to go from idea to product? Before you answer that, artificial intelligence wants to make sure the answer is simply “minutes.” Cue in AI agents. AI agents are changing how software is built. Instead of developers spending days or weeks writing code, debugging, and setting up infrastructure, AI tools can now generate entire applications, deploy them, and manage backend operations in real-time. Need an MVP? An AI agent can spin one up in hours. Deploying updates? AI can automate that too. Even DevOps—once a highly specialised role—is now seeing AI-driven automation handle cloud configurations, monitoring, and scaling. This rise of “vibe coding,” where developers rely on AI to generate, refine, and deploy software, is shaking up the industry. For founders, this means lower development costs, faster time-to-market, and fewer technical bottlenecks. For engineers, the skills in demand are shifting—less manual coding, more strategic thinking, and a deeper understanding of how to work with AI systems effectively. It’s not a question of if AI will change software development as we know it, but how fast it will happen. And if AI gets its way, the answer to that opening question could go from “minutes” to “faster than you think.” Read our feature on Stakpak, a0dev, and Vzy—startups helping early-stage teams become multi-efficient. Freelancers & remote workers, we want to hear from you! Fincra is exploring the challenges Nigerian freelancers and remote workers face with international payments. Share your experience and help contribute to building better payment solutions. Take the survey now! Telecoms MTN launches uncapped internet for $0.27 per day Image source: MTN On March 18, Telkom, the South African-owned telecom operator, announced that it will raise its telecom tariffs by April 1, 2025. But guess who seized the opportunity to launch an uncapped internet service for just $0.27 per day? Its competitor, MTN South Africa. While competitors were expected to react to Telkom’s tariff hike, no one expected MTN to move this quickly. Its new product, GigZone, offers 5Mbps (megabytes per second) internet for just R5 ($0.27) a day. The speed isn’t exactly fast—streaming high-definition videos or downloading large files may be a challenge—but at that price, it’s hard to complain. For many people in township communities, this could be the most affordable way to stay connected. Other telecom players are also looking at the low-cost internet market, but most of the competition so far has come from fibre-based providers like Riot Network, Vumatel, and Wire-Wire Networks. These companies have been working to bring affordable fibre to South African townships, but they face a major hurdle: rolling out last-mile infrastructure is expensive and takes time. MTN, on the other hand, already has mobile towers in these areas, allowing it to launch GigZone without building new infrastructure first. This means it can expand much faster than traditional fibre operators. Right now, GigZone is only available in parts of Gauteng and the Western Cape, but if the pilot is successful, MTN could quickly scale it across the country. South Africans are facing price hikes for different services that improve their livelihoods: electricity (Eskom), internet (Telkom), and streaming service providers (like MultiChoice) have increased prices—almost at the same time—making downsizing a likely option for many of them, especially those in lower-income areas. A $0.27 uncapped internet per day looks like a good deal, and only Wire-Wire Networks previously offered internet service at this amount. Yet, with more people joining its network, it became slow. From the pilot test, MTN’s GigZone doesn’t appear to have that problem. Commercially, it remains to be seen. Paystack introduces its first consumer app, Zap! Zap by Paystack is an app for secure and fast payments via bank transfers in Nigeria. Download Zap on iOS and Android → Venture Capital The path to exits, the support VCs provide, and Africa’s hottest sectors Image source: Wunmi Eunice for TechCabal In an ideal world, venture capitalists cash out via initial public outings (IPOs) or blockbuster acquisitions. But in the past five editions of TechCabal’s Ask an Investor, where fund managers from Oui Capital to Launch Africa were grilled, we see that in Africa, securing funding is only half the battle—investors must also creatively extract returns for their LPs. With IPOs and acquisitions scarce, secondary sales have become the go-to exit. Take Oui Capital: In 2021, they bet $150,000 on a 1.2% stake in Nigerian fintech Moniepoint. Three years later, with Moniepoint a unicorn, they sold part of that stake for $8 million—enough to return their first fund twice. HoaQ, meanwhile, scored a 6x return flipping a Raenest stake at Series A. Olu Oyinsan of Oui Capital admits secondaries aren’t the gold standard, but “any liquidity is better than no liquidity.” Nonetheless, while secondaries are a practical workaround, favourable terms do not come easy either. So whether it is secondaries, IPOs or acquisitions, squeezing returns in Africa requires patience, discipline, and sometimes building the exit yourself. Read TechCabal’s recap to see how these five VCs pull it off, the hands-on support they give founders, and which sectors are the hottest on the continent right now. Get notified when the Moonshot
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The Life and Times of Teejay, according to people whose lives his code touched
On March 4, 2025, Adetunji ‘Teejay’ Opaleye, Bumpa’s chief technical officer, was returning from a gym in Victoria Island, Lagos, when a careless driver hit him. He died in the early hours of the following day from a lack of timely medical intervention, a cruel end for the 32-year-old engineer, whose startup worked to digitise e-commerce for thousands of informal traders across the country. The general public learned of Teejay’s death after the “Get Teejay Justice” petition went viral online. It detailed the negligence of the perpetrator, Biola Adams-Odutayo, the hospitals that denied him treatment, and the levity of the ensuing punishment for the driver. It also lists several demands, including that Adams-Odutayo, who was previously arraigned on March 12 and released on bail, be charged with manslaughter, rather than the lesser offense of reckless driving. Over 68,000 people have signed the petition and are closely following the case, furious that systemic failures within the country’s healthcare and justice systems directly contributed to the death of a promising innovator. Opaleye’s legacy extends beyond the algorithms he engineered. He had a voracious appetite for life and a generosity that those closest to him described as bordering on selflessness. “Teejay was the sort of person who would give you his last ₦200,000 ($130) if you told him you needed it for a flight,” an extended family member who asked not to be named due to privacy concerns, told TechCabal. Teejay’s early years Opaleye’s life unfolded in Lagos, with a childhood marked by a quiet curiosity and a proclivity for solving problems, foreshadowing his later life as a software engineer. A relative, who asked to remain unnamed to protect their privacy, recalls him retrofitting cardboard boxes with rotors and tyres from toy cars, and making his skateboard with wheels from worn luggage. “People with mobile phone issues would queue at the gates of their house; he would fix their problem and they’d be on their way,” recalled the extended family member, who lived with Opaleye’s family for some years. Despite his tinkering, Opaleye opted to study law at Obafemi Awolowo University, and on the side, began learning programming languages like PHP and Linux. A little over a year into his degree, he landed a job as a website developer at the school’s radio station, Great FM. A relative recalls him putting up flyers advertising his web development services. “He was super intelligent, even among his law peers,” says Femi Fadahunsi, a faculty mate who first met Opaleye in 2011. Towards the end of that year, he was only sporadically attending classes, Uyoyo Ogedegbe, another coursemate, recalled in an interview with TechCabal. Fadahunsi suggested this stemmed from disillusionment with university education. “I guess he saw the light earlier than I did; that studying law was eventually a dead end,” says Fadahunsi, who now works as a marketing specialist. Ogedegbe, studying law to follow in his father’s footsteps, attributed it to Opaleye’s personality as an independent thinker who “wanted more.” Opaleye eventually dropped out but remained on campus. “He was always going somewhere with his HP backpack, containing a large laptop, as he often carried then, and his glasses, just heading to the computer lab to program all night, and you’d mostly only see him in those places,” Fadahunsi recalled. By his third year, when peers like Ogedegbe also started dabbling into tech, learning to build e-commerce platforms, Opaleye was already far ahead, securing paid gigs and supporting himself financially. During this time, in 2013, Opaleye met Kelvin Umechukwu, who’d become his co-founder eight years later. Umechukwu recalls how quickly they bonded during their first meeting somewhere close to the Student Union Building (SUB). “I decided that we should not eat anything, and we just sat talking about our work and exchanging ideas,” Umechuwku told TechCabal in an interview. Both were similar: optimistic about technology, building their ideas, and popular for supporting others in their tech journeys. They had gained campus-wide fame as innovators: Umechukwu’s most popular platform at the time was Voice of Informed Student Social (VOISS), a Facebook-like social app that allowed students to connect and access lecture notes in PDF, audio, or video formats. Opaleye had also built several things, including a platform known at the time as “I Rep OAU”, Umechukwu recalled. Adetunji ‘Teejay Opaleye, wearing a blue shirt and glasses, and his PayPanda team members in 2015. Image Source: Techpoint “He always had ideas, and one was for a reverse marketplace where the buyer, having the demand and money, could post a description of the item they wanted, and sellers could bid for their purchase,” Umechukwu said. Beyond ideas, Opaleye also possessed staggering gumption. Umechukwu recalls a back-and-forth Opaleye had with the university administration about the official student platform. Opaleye believed he could build something better and told the university they would have to overhaul the entire legacy system, as it was obsolete, Umechukwu said with a hint of amusement in his voice as he recalled the incident from over a decade ago. They didn’t budge, but it was one of many instances that demonstrated Opaleye’s desire to improve things. Opaleye’s bravado wasn’t all talk. In 2015, Paypanda, an eight-person team he was part of, won first place and ₦1 million ($5,000*) in a competition co-organised by Oracle. Their technology was an online escrow service that held funds paid for merchandise until the buyer was satisfied, based on the seller’s terms of agreement. After the competition, Opaleye secured another job as a software engineer at E-Settlement Limited, where he helped build fintech and mobile money solutions. Building Bumpa By the time Umechukwu finished university, Opaleye had taken another leap forward and founded a hosting service, HostCabal. Umechukwu says Opaleye started the business due to dissatisfaction with local cloud providers at the time. He hired Umechukwu, who had built a community of developers (HostCabal’s target customers) at Consonance, to attract users, while he managed the backend. Adetunji ‘Teejay’ Opaleye with Kelvin Umechkwu and some friends in a promotional video for
Read MoreAsk an Investor: The path to exits, the support VCs provide, and Africa’s hottest sectors
Five weeks ago, we rebooted our Ask an Investor column, and in that time, we spoke to the heads of investment at Oui Capital, Antler Nigeria, Capria Africa, HoaQ, and Launch Africa. Scattered from Nairobi to Lagos, these fund managers told TechCabal how they find startups, guide founders, and, more importantly, how they land or think about exits in Africa. This week, we are publishing a recap that highlights the three biggest questions that have come up in our conversations so far: How do you deliver successful exits in Africa? What kind of support can startups expect? Which sectors are most likely to produce big wins? Exits and how to deliver them Secondaries are the practical path to liquidity In our first episode back, Oui Capital’s Olu Oyinsan told TechCabal that secondaries—where an investor or founder sells some or all of their stake in a company to other investors—are not the gold standard for investors, but “liquidity is better than no liquidity.” In 2021, Oui Capital invested $150,000 for a 1.2% stake in Nigerian fintech Moniepoint, and three years later, when it became a unicorn, Oui Capital partially exited its $150,000 investment to other investors and returned $8 million—enough to return its first fund twice to investors. All five investors we spoke to echoed Oyinsan’s thoughts: Africa’s exit landscape is still evolving as full acquisitions and IPOs remain relatively rare. Consequently, secondary sales have emerged as the “path of least resistance for liquidity,” according to Launch Africa’s Uwemakpan. His firm has observed significant demand from later-stage VCs or strategic investors who want to buy out early investors in successful startups. Given the relative scarcity of large-scale M&A or IPOs, secondaries are a practical exit lever for seed-stage funds like theirs. HoaQ experienced this firsthand when it used the secondary strategy to secure a 6x return on Raenest at the Series A stage. Despite being a small cheque, the partial exit was enough to deliver substantial gains to their angel syndicate members. How Oui Capital made a 53x return on an early $150,000 investment in Moniepoint Patience and discipline bring exits Across the board, the VCs caution that the best exits in Africa require patience. They also emphasised that the best way to achieve a good exit—whether via acquisition, secondaries, or even an IPO—begins with strong governance and rigorous reporting from day one. At Capria, startup founders are told that the importance is on staying focused on good governance, strong financial controls, and local resilience from the earliest stages. Good fundamentals, Mobola da Silva argued, will always be an exit magnet. However, the discipline cuts both ways. Oyinsan told TechCabal that investors also need to understand the importance of “portfolio construction discipline” and “thinking about the exit math” as early as the seed round. In their Moniepoint deal, they deliberately sized their cheque so that if (and when) the startup reached a lofty valuation, their stake would be large enough to return the fund. Antler’s Anil Atmaramani, who invests extremely early in Nigerian startups, explained that “inception-stage” bets take time to mature. His approach is to help founders pivot fast if needed, build disciplined habits early, and keep them on a pathway towards eventual acquisition or robust follow-on rounds. “Most African companies don’t need VC” – Launch Africa’s Uwem Uwemakpan Sometimes, investors have to create their exits Exits are hard, and investors often have to be proactive in securing exits in Africa. Oui Capital helped Moniepoint set up “a data room and the entire due diligence process,” specifically to make the company more legible to future growth-stage VCs. They also facilitated partial buyouts of an early stakeholder who opposed the startups’ pivot to retail customers. All of these steps smoothed the road for bigger rounds—and, in turn, a lucrative partial exit. Launch Africa designs their follow-on strategy and constantly coaches founders to meet the diligence expectations of Series A and B investors. They have also repeatedly teed up secondaries that bring in new investors and grant Launch Africa partial liquidity. With $100,000 per startup, Antler VC enters Nigeria to back startup ideas The type of support startups get from VCs Deep operational support and networks While money is crucial, all five investors stressed that African founders need robust operational support. Launch Africa, a VC firm with over 140 startups in its portfolio, identified two main support areas for founders: strategic support and operational support. The firm uses what it calls a “coverage model,” where each partner oversees a handful of startups deeply. They also run weekly office hours and “actively coach founders on pitch preparation, deck refinement, cap-table management, and investor targeting” while also leveraging their network of corporate partners. The ultimate goal is to make each startup “Series A–ready” as soon as the metrics allow. HoaQ stressed giving founders “hands-on, founder-first” guidance on everything from recruiting to forging corporate partnerships. Because it operates both a syndicate and a fund, it has built a large community of angels, founders, and micro-VCs. Startups that take their cheques get introduced to this crowd for co-investments, pilot customers, or future hires. It’s a distinctly community-driven form of support, with a big emphasis on curated introductions. Antler provides a structured “day zero” approach and provides “pre-company” support. They recruit aspiring founders—often with domain expertise—and match them with co-founders, provide a monthly stipend so they can focus on building, and host them in a structured residency program. They continue with board-level guidance through future rounds, basically “staying in the trenches” until Series C. Capria maintains an in-house AI team that can partner with portfolio companies on product development. This offering is optional yet highly valued by founders looking to implement advanced technologies without hiring entire engineering teams. They also employ a local partner model, investing in local VCs with on-the-ground insights. This dual model ensures that startups receive not just a global vantage point but also hyper-local, daily operational guidance. After securing exits for its angel network, HoaQ is expanding with a dedicated VC fund
Read MoreAI agents make early-stage startups more efficient but developer jobs could be at risk
Opinions about AI rightly remain divided. Builders and innovators in the sector who have championed the technology’s growth, see it as the future—the future of work, and the future of saying no to the mundane, repetitive tasks. Users, on the other hand, are split into pro-AI adopters, and those who fear how deeply the bleeding-edge technology will impact jobs. Yet, this hasn’t stopped AI’s rapid advancement—which has been anything but accidental futurism. In Africa, this innovation wave is quickly gaining ground, thanks to ChatGPT and open-source large language models (LLMs), which have sparked startup ideas that sit on the borderline of displacing jobs while also removing mundane tasks for businesses. The rise of AI-powered “Swiss Army” tools In Nigeria, a few of these startups have popped up recently: Vzy, a Nigerian AI-powered website builder, launched in 2023, allows anybody to prompt their way to building a new website; a0dev, another Nigerian startup which joined Y Combinator in 2025, allows you to create a React mobile app from scratch using prompts; and now, Egypt’s Stakpak, through the use of AI agents, helps software and DevOps engineers set up production-ready infrastructure much faster. “At least 45% of developers use six core tools to ship their products, but configuring them is complex,” George Fahmy, Stakpak CEO told TechCabal. “Each tool speaks its own language, requiring teams to stitch them together by going through hundreds of documentation pages just to ship a product to customers. Only about 3% of developers have the skills to manage this full-time.” Globally, there is a shortage of DevOps engineers, making the few existing professionals high-maintenance. According to salary aggregator, Payscale, the average Nigerian engineer earns ₦250,000 ($163) monthly. This overhead cost is in addition to the software engineering teams that companies have to hire. In an infrastructure-heavy payments company like eTranzact, entry-level DevOps engineers earn between ₦250,000–₦400,000 ($163–$260) monthly, while mid-level professionals earn over ₦600,000 ($390), depending on performance and negotiation. Some companies opt to hire the services of cloud engineering consulting firms to offset the expenses of paying full-time salaries. Yet, according to Clutch, these firms charge between $10,000–$50,000 on a project basis. With the fast-rise of platforms like Stakpak, a0dev, and Vzy, founders could become the startup equivalent of a Swiss Army knife, shipping products faster, hiring fewer talents and saving money on staff overhead costs, thus extending runway. AI development tools are making it easier to turn startup ideas into real products, but the trade-off is that talents may struggle to keep up—forcing them to evolve or pivot. Building upside, scaling downside Due to the high cost of retaining DevOps talent, some startups train their software engineers to take on a hybrid role. In the short term, this can work, especially as startups ship fewer features and often use serverless technology, reducing the need for hands-on infrastructure management. Yet, as workloads increase, engineers will need more control over infrastructure. For example, transitioning from serverless to managed Kubernetes or other scalable architectures requires strong DevOps skills. If they make it past that hurdle, growing infrastructure demand can disrupt the workflow of engineers who are splitting time between development and DevOps, slowing down product iteration and increasing time-to-market. To ease this burden, some startups are turning to AI-powered DevOps tools. These tools help automate infrastructure setup and management, reducing the need for dedicated DevOps engineers in the early stages. For example, Stakpak has gotten early traction from early-stage startups in Egypt, such as Credify, Paymob, and Zammit. Its AI agentic development tool costs only $50 monthly. Stakpak’s clear benefit is being a sidekick to early-stage engineering teams, however, its use case for large enterprises is still in doubt. Stakpak’s AI is used for critical DevOps work, thus ensuring reliability is crucial—mistakes in infrastructure setup could lead to security risks, downtime, or high cloud costs. “It might take a longer time for bigger companies to adopt agents in deployment,” said Aaron Adetunmbi, a Nigerian software developer. “They often have complicated processes for this, and as the technology is new, there is nowhere for them to learn. LLMs can ‘hallucinate’ and this can lead to costly mistakes.” Fahmy claims that Stakpak was built using a mix of closed-source and open-source LLMs, but the startup sets its own evaluation benchmarks for its data sets, making sure its AI agents are reliable. Running manual evaluation checks cost about $400 per experiment, according to Fahmy, making AI-powered platforms expensive to build. But he admits that it has been difficult selling to large enterprises, so the startup is focused on early-stage startups, with a potential to onboard bigger clients in the future. Launched in 2024, Stakpak has already started generating revenue, said Fahmy. “Our tool is niched, so we’re still validating who our best clients are,” said Fahmy. “We’ve not hit product-market fit, but we’re iterating our product and generating revenue from customers who have been paying us for over a year and a half since we released our earliest version. The next milestone for us is to hit $100,000 in annual recurring revenue with Stakpak.” Presently, Fahmy, who splits his time between Cairo and San Francisco, sees a market in the US due to its developed startup ecosystem. He says that adoption of agentic deployment tools like Stakpak may take a while in Africa. Are jobs heading down the drain? A 2024 Stack Overflow report, based on a survey of over 30,000 software developers, found that most of them expect AI tools to impact their workflows in 2025. About 79% believe AI will play a major role in how they document, write, test, and deploy code. Meanwhile, the term “vibe coding” has gained traction, referring to entrepreneurs rapidly building and deploying software-as-a-service (SaaS) apps using prompts. This trend is spreading beyond software development to areas like marketing, DevOps, design, and animation, showing AI’s growing versatility. Beyond their utility, there’s investor confidence around these startups. Stakpak raised $500,000 in pre-seed funding from P1 ventures, with participation from investors Digital Currency Group, 500
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TechCabal Daily – MultiChoice, mini dividends
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Eid Mubarak. We have one question for you: How much power should one company have? MultiChoice is tightening its purse strings, and Phuthuma Nathi shareholders are bracing for a much smaller payday. Meanwhile, South Africa’s competition watchdog is not backing down on Vodacom’s big fibre play, and Cleva just unlocked a key licence to move your money faster. Let’s get into it. MultiChoice money woes hit Phuthuma Nathi shareholders South Africa’s Competition Commission says Vodacom-Maziv deal is anti-competitive Cleva secures IMTO licence World Wide Web 3 Job Openings Companies MultiChoice money woes hit Phuthuma Nathi shareholders Image Source: MultiChoice MultiChoice is warning investors to expect a much smaller dividend this year, and that’s bad news for shareholders in its Phuthuma Nathi scheme. Phuthuma Nathi is a black economic empowerment (BEE) investment fund that allows South Africans to own a stake in MultiChoice South Africa—a total of 25%. It has been a strong performer in the past, paying out good dividends to its investors. Phuthuma Nathi has paid R19.1 billion ($1 billion) in dividends from 2006 to 2023, with annual payouts reaching R1.5 billion ($81.4 million) in 2020. But now, MultiChoice says those payouts will drop sharply. The company is struggling. Fewer people are paying for DStv—which led the pay-TV to increase prices in its key market—and outside South Africa, the business is battling weak currencies and unreliable power in key African markets. MultiChoice hasn’t said exactly how much smaller the dividend will be, but it will finalise the decision in June. This comes as the company is in the middle of a takeover bid from Canal+, the French media giant. Canal+ is offering R125 ($6.78) per share, and its deal with MultiChoice has been extended to October while regulators review it. MultiChoice’s stock price dropped to R11,060 ($600) on Friday, declining by 0.81%. In the past month, it has held steady because of the Canal+ offer. But for Phuthuma Nathi shareholders, who rely on dividends rather than stock price movements, this year’s payout will be disappointing. It’s a tough time for South Africa’s biggest pay-TV company, and shareholders are feeling the pinch. Freelancers & remote workers, we want to hear from you! Fincra is exploring the challenges Nigerian freelancers and remote workers face with international payments. Share your experience and help contribute to building better payment solutions. Take the survey now! Telecoms South Africa’s Competition Commission says Vodacom-Maziv deal is anti-competitive Image Source: Vodacom How much power should one company have? The answer is simple: not too much—or at least enough to ensure it plays fair, allowing participation (and innovation as a by-product) in the industry. But when the power becomes unchecked, that company is said to display “anti-competitive” behaviour. Companies do this by showing monopolistic tendencies, cartel behaviour, or worse, undercutting competitors through unfair or predatory pricing strategies. Anti-competitive behaviour locks out smaller players, limits consumer choice, and slows industry growth—which is why competition watchdogs keep a keen eye for these trends across industries. Five months after blocking the Vodacom-Maziv merger deal, South Africa’s Competition Commission is standing firm on its decision to prevent the country’s second-largest telecom operator’s attempt to acquire a co-controlling stake in Maziv, the parent company of Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa. In a 350-page document released on Friday, the anti-competition watchdog argued that allowing Vodacom to take control would cement its dominance in mobile and give it undue influence over the fibre market—an industry where it previously had limited control. Owning a co-controlling stake in Maziv would let it dictate business decisions affecting independent internet service providers (ISPs)—some of which rely on Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa. Here’s what makes it worse: Vumatel partly owns Herotel, a South African ISP. Think of this Vodacom-Maziv deal as MTN acquiring ipNX—only Maziv is bigger, and there’s a whole web of ownership entanglements that benefits Vodacom. Another complication for the telecom operator is that it does not have any precedent to make an argument. Telecom operators with fibre businesses have created their vertical businesses from scratch. In 2015, Telkom spunned off Openserve as its subsidiary fibre provider, instead of buying an existing player. MTN also launched Supersonic, its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) business in 2018. A potential compromise for Vodacom could be to consider building a fibre business from scratch or reduce its stake in Maziv to a non-controlling position. That way, it could invest in fibre without wielding unchecked power over the market. That said, a Vodacom-Maziv merger is expected to open doors to more deals in South Africa’s telecoms market. But for now, the Competition Commission is holding its ground. The case will go before the appeal court in July. Paystack introduces its first consumer app, Zap! Zap by Paystack is an app for secure and fast payments via bank transfers in Nigeria. Download Zap on iOS and Android → Fintech Cleva secures IMTO licence L-R: Cleva CEO Tolu Alabi and Philip Abel, CTO/Image source: Cleva Cleva, the Y Combinator-backed startup offering USD accounts to Nigerians, has secured an International Money Transfer Operator (IMTO) licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The licence allows Cleva to facilitate inbound remittances—money sent from outside Nigeria into local accounts. Until now, Cleva focused on helping users—primarily freelancers and remote workers—receive USD payments and hold the funds in virtual accounts. With the IMTO licence, it can now process these international transfers directly rather than rely on third-party intermediaries. That move could lead to faster transfers, lower fees, and more control over the user experience. The IMTO licence is not easy to get. Companies must meet strict requirements, including a minimum share capital (₦1 billion for local firms or $1 million for foreign ones) and compliance with anti-money laundering standards. But it’s a crucial licence in Nigeria, which remains one of Africa’s top destinations for diaspora remittances. Cleva joins a short but growing list of startups with the IMTO licence. Flutterwave got its licence in 2022. Interswitch and Paga are
Read MoreSabi doubles down on TRACE for transparent mining of Africa’s mineral, agricultural wealth
Initially known for its multi-category approach, including a focus on fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), Norskenn-22-backed startup, Sabi, has sharpened its focus on commodities, especially mineral and agricultural commodities. Launched in 2021 by Ademola Adesina and Anu Adedoyin Adasolum, Sabi has developed a robust digital infrastructure and market intelligence that improves global market access for Africa’s informal sector. Its digital infrastructure now consists of a product called Market through which it will continue to manage FMCG businesses, and Technology Rails for African Commodities Exchange (TRACE), through which it manages mineral and agricultural commodities businesses. The startup will no longer operate in sectors outside these three. Sabi began its market segmentation in November 2023 with emphasis on its TRACE product as demand grew. Adedoyin Adasolum, Sabi’s CEO, said on a call that this focus reflects TRACE’s potential to help the startup meet its long-term objectives. Sabi’s decision to double down on its TRACE platform underscores the growing global scrutiny of ethical sourcing, aiming to address the persistent issues of unreliable supply chain and limited visibility in Africa’s resource-rich regions. Sabi aims to standardise small- and medium-scale mining operations to ensure commodities meet international standards. Transparency is key Similar to challenges with market access for FMCGs, Sabi’s foray into commodities, particularly minerals, stems from supply chain unreliability, limited visibility, and access. “But the difference here is that we’re orienting this for export, and commodities do work very differently,” Adedoyin Adasolum said. The commodities and mining industry in Nigeria and many parts of Africa is populated by small and medium, often informal, mining operations which, to be matched with large, global supply chains, demand commodities be supplied in more industrial quantities, meet higher degrees of quality control as well as stricter policy requirements, among several others. Sabi’s TRACE aims to simplify this process—not only for mineral commodities but for agriculture as well. “So, suppliers can list their inventory,” Adedoyin Adasolum said. “They can list their quality tests; they can plug into more quality tests; they can ask for samplers to come to site; they can access finance, and then, extremely importantly, we can trace the source of the supply.” Mineral commodities so far processed via the TRACE platform include lithium, tin, copper, monazite, and beryllium sourced from several African countries including Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania. These minerals, and agricultural commodities, reach global off-takers who supply to variously sized companies in several countries from the US, UK, and Netherlands to Singapore and other parts of Asia. These range from battery manufacturers to chocolate-producing companies—Louis Adun, Business Manager, Africa at COAF, a big offtaker for American multinational, Cargill, is one of TRACE’s clients. Adedoyin Adasolum argues that outside of precious metals and gemstones–which Sabi doesn’t deal in—African mining has not featured significantly in the global supply chain despite holding 30% of the world’s minerals reserves. “Basically, what we’re doing is helping these mines professionalise, learn to meet standards and then plugging them into these off-take opportunities,” she said. For many of the global companies it serves, Sabi’s TRACE offers much needed transparency throughout the supply chain, a factor that has become even more critical as the methods and politics of Africa’s mineral extraction comes under scrutiny globally and companies are put to test about their sustainable sourcing philosophies. If you followed the news cycle in late 2024, for instance, you may have learned of a lawsuit filed by the Democratic Republic of Congo against Apple Inc.’s French and Belgian subsidiaries. The DRC government, through its lawyers, accused the tech giant of sourcing what they referred to as “blood minerals”, “pillaged from the DRC and laundered through international supply chains,” to manufacture their devices. In response, the tech giant rejected the allegations and later, suspended sourcing gold, tin, tantalum, and tungsten from the DRC, telling the BBC that the company was “concerned it was no longer possible for independent auditors or industry certification mechanisms to perform the due diligence required to meet our high standards.” With its ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) compliance mechanisms, TRACE helps local suppliers understand and meet global standards requirements as they apply to different countries and buyers. This involves two key aspects: tracing the commodity’s origin, ensuring it meets ethical standards, and verifying that the commodity adheres to the quality specifications of the buyer. To achieve this, TRACE incorporates a system called Flare, which acts like a “passport” for each commodity, both mineral and agricultural. Integrated with blockchain technology, Flare tracks ESG data for every commodity, ensuring compliance at every stage of the supply chain and providing a transparent, traceable, and auditable record from sourcing to off-take. Standards-wise, each commodity is optimised to meet product-specific requirements like suitable sizes, moisture content, or processing levels for agricultural commodities. The verification process is multi-layered and adapts to the specific mineral, location, and quantity. While the initial step involves suppliers listing their information and existing quality reports, physical verification is a crucial element. Adedoyin Adasolum says Sabi’s network of samplers, testing labs, verification agencies, and ESG/traceability consultants visit sites to verify data and sourcing practices. The verification levels within the system depend on several factors including the quantity of supply, as well as the familiarity of the source location. “For instance, if you are supplying from a particular location and it’s a location we’re familiar with and it’s already been verified, then we wouldn’t need to send someone else out to verify all those pieces,” she said. Beyond the technological infrastructure, Sabi’s internal ESG framework, built on principles of shared value and prosperity, social impact through market access, and corporate stewardship lends to its long-term objective of sustainable and responsible commodity sourcing from the African continent. Since its piloting, Sabi’s TRACE has facilitated approximately 50,000 tons of mineral exports. A more sustainable way According to Adedoyin Adasolum, the company is focused on creating standard and sustainable supply chains in a world increasingly powered by technology. By working with its network of small and medium-sized operations and providing them with the necessary technology tools
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