Welcome to The Trajectory: Africa!

The Trajectory Africa

This is a brief introduction to The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. With the unique African landscape—market characteristics, business environment, goals, and culture—as a starting point, The Trajectory Africa aims to pinpoint a destination for African tech, and the signposts that signal direction of travel. It’s inspired by the concept of a mixtape, in which each episode, or “track” will feature a conversation with a “guest artist”. There is also a soundtrack for inspiration provided by (DJ) Saphir Esmail (bio below) via his Spotify playlist (link below). You can find more African tech and VC resources below as well. Enjoy!

About Me:
I've has spent several years working in African tech and entrepreneurship, with an emphasis on building enabling infrastructure such as tech hubs and accelerators. Recently, I have focused on conducting research, specifically on early stage investing in Africa with Kinyungu Ventures and thesubtext, the role of tech hubs in African startup ecosystems for the International Trade Centre, shared models of ownership for the Open Society Initiative for West Africa, and the future of work in Africa with the RSA. Prior to this I served as a Senior Consultant with infoDev/the World Bank Group for XL Africa, and as the first Executive Director of AfriLabs.

About Saphir Esmail:
Saphir is a dual degree MBA/MA candidate at The Wharton School and The Lauder Institute with a focus on Africa. He is from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Saphir graduated from Temple University with a degree in Finance. After graduating, Saphir went on to work for Deloitte as a consultant focused on the financial services industry. Saphir is passionate about entrepreneurship and venture capital in Africa. He has spent the past year working at Golden Palm Investments, an early-stage fund that invests exclusively in Africa across various industries. After Wharton, Saphir hopes to make his way back to the continent to work at an Africa-focused fund.

Spotify Playlist:
This playlist was originally used at the 2021 Lauder Institute Africa Symposium on the Future of Work.
https://spoti.fi/2RS6hTc

Chasing Outliers:
https://kinyungu.com/chasing-outliers/

African Tech and VC Resources:

Podcasts

• The Africa Playbook:
  A podcast and newsletter series that builds a blueprint for what African success stories could look like
  https://open.spotify.com/show/7dHItKVK9QzNChFJZa75Bb

• African Tech Roundup:
  Independent, Africa-focused, technology, digital, and innovation, insight and analysis
  https://www.africantechroundup.com/

• Building the Future:
  Conversations with innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, and thought leaders, who are shaping the African future
  https://drdotun.com/
  
  
• The Flip:
  Contextually relevant insights from entrepreneurs and investors changing the status quo
  https://theflip.africa/

• Invest in the Future:
  A live fireside chat series by Future Africa to learn from prolific angel investors who have invested in and built some of the world's most impactful technology companies
  https://anchor.fm/future-africa/

Newsletters/Substacks

• The Africa Playbook:
  A podcast and newsletter series that builds a blueprint for what African success stories could look like
  https://theafricaplaybook.substack.com/

• Africa: The Big Deal:
  A weekly two-minute read on the African start-up ecosystem, based on a curated database of deals from across the continent
  https://thebigdeal.substack.com/

• BriterEYE:
  A monthly compilation of deal, sector, and research insight, focused on underserved markets
  https://briterbridges.com/

• Movemeback Pulse:
  A weekly roundup of happenings in Africa
  https://www.movemeback.com/pulse/

• insiderPR:
  Company news, events, and interesting Twitter conversations, focused on emerging markets
  https://beaninsider.com/
  
  
• TCDaily: daily African tech newsletter:
  A comprehensive roundup of technology news on the African continent
  https://techcabal.com/category/tc-daily/

• Tech Cabal, The Next Wave:
  A newsletter that provides a weekly in-depth analysis of tech and innovation in Africa
  https://bit.ly/3fg8XSv
  
  
• The Subtext:
  Essays examining the mobile internet's impact, the causes of adoption, and mental models showing how [not what] to think about markets across the African continent
  https://www.thesubtext.io/
  
  
• Unevenly Distributed:
  A bi-weekly newsletter that tracks the diffusion of technology, entrepreneurship, and venture capital, in emerging markets
  https://derin.substack.com/

Live Sessions with Recordings

• Tech Cabal Live:
  A virtual event series that features experienced players in Africa's tech ecosystem sharing insights and experiences about topical issues
  https://www.youtube.com/user/TechCabal

• Untapped Global:
  A weekly show recorded live weekly, aiming to connect frontier market entrepreneurs with global angel investors
  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCee7y-Ktn0NAYyn1v057o_w