Akyire Ghana 👋

Gokada has realized $100 million in transactional value 16 JULY, 2021 IN PARTNERSHIP WITH Good morning ☀️ ️ Twitter is [getting rid of Fleets](. The stories feature was introduced to help lessen the anxiety that comes with having permanent posts but it seems everyone just uses the function to boost their tweets. They're working on something new, maybe the coveted edit button. 😅 In today's edition: - Ghana Chronicles - Quick Fire 🔥 - Gokada's ticket to super app stardom - TC Insights: Funding Tracker - SEED Award winners announced, and they're all Africans Ghana Chronicles Everything that has a beginning has an end. Yesterday was my last day in Accra, Ghana. I stayed indoors and followed up on a few conversations before heading for the airport. Yesterday was my last day in Accra, Ghana. I stayed indoors and followed up on a few conversations before heading for the airport. I spoke to [Daniela Kwegyir-Afful]( from the Fintech and Innovation office of the Bank of Ghana. After speaking to many companies it made sense to connect with the regulator. I also spoke to [Eli Hini]( Head of Mobile Financial Services for MTN Ghana. Mobile Money is a big deal in Ghana and MTN is the market leader with 17 million registered subscribers and over 200,00 agents across the country. Size of cars Why are there many ‘small’ cars in Ghana? When my box couldn’t fit into the non-existent boot of the Bolt ride I ordered to the airport, it reminded me of the first observation I made when I got into Ghana. Many of the cars used for taxi services are small. In Lagos most Uber or Bolt drivers use a Toyota corolla or camry but here it’s more of Toyota Vitz or Kia Picanto. Different drivers explained that the reason behind this is that the smaller cars are more fuel efficient. It makes me wonder whether they’re more fuel efficient than the ones the drivers use in Lagos and why smaller cars aren’t popular in Lagos. Thank You! It’s been two weeks of meeting different people and companies. I’ve been impressed by the talent and efforts being put into the tech ecosystem. Looking forward to telling these stories and seeing more success stories from Ghana. Thank you to everyone who showed up, reached out or helped out in one or the other. I’m sure I’ll still keep meeting more people and learning more about the tech ecosystem in Ghana. Thank you Ghana your food has been kind to my neck that’s started folding. Thank you and Goodbye Ghana. Till we meet again. Medaase and Akyire! Quick Fire 🔥 with freda yawson Explain your job to a five-year-old I have two jobs, both of which have to do with making the world a better place by improving people’s lives. With my first job, I help the government find solutions through research and policy. In my other job, through [Innovate Ghana]( I help young people come up with solutions using technology. What's something you wish you knew earlier in your career/life? To take nothing at face value! Sometimes you just don't know what you don't know. It's important that we take time to verify, validate and research the context of conversations, challenges, and solutions. Speaking to experts and people with diverse perspectives will give you a better picture of the challenge/solution. What's the best advice you've ever received in your career? One of my managers once told me, "Begin with the end in mind." Understand what your goals are, identify the type of people you want to be like, and don't be afraid to reach out. What (singular) achievement are you most proud of? My favorite Bruce Lee quote is: "Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do." It's been translating my engineering knowledge into practical useful experiences. I'm proud of the fact that Innovate Ghana has created an environment for young people to apply what they've learnt in school to change their communities. So far we've trained 300 students through our workshops and 650 through partnerships. Tell us something you love doing that you're terrible at. And tell us something you're great at but don't enjoy doing Go-Karting. I love racing but for some reason, I've never gotten on the top of the leaderboard, I'm always in the middle 😭. I also love playing soccer but I hate running. Most people tell me that I'm good at organizing events and bringing people together but I don't enjoy the process. The administrative part of getting people together is a chore! At the end of the day, I enjoy getting my friends together and being part of a community. What new ways of doing things will you keep from this past year? My mum will laugh at me for this because my whole life she's been telling us [my siblings and I] to be cleaner. We always laughed at her for washing her hands 20 times a day. When Corona came, we all looked at her and said she was right. From that experience, it's being more attentive to health and cleanliness. In terms of tech, it's the discussion on using digital innovation to solve problems like education or even blood donation. [Freda Yawson]( is an engineer, policy advisor and entrepreneur who is passionate about using innovations in STEM to improve lives in Africa. PARTNER CONTENT We're looking for an experienced Product Marketing Leader to help Paystack acquire, engage, and retain Africa's most ambitious businesses. Does this sound like you? [Apply here →]( THE FUTURE OF COMMERCE We’re hosting the biggest conference ever on the 24th of September! Yes, September, that’s right. We’ve moved the conference a couple of months forward because we have really big plans for you and everyone else who will be attending, so it’s important that we leave no stone unturned. The Future of Conference is limitless and we’re so excited and proud to officially welcome you into the next decade in the world of money and retail. You'll get to listen to and meet with some of the most forward-thinking minds on the planet. You may have met a few of them already - Ray Youssef, CEO of Paxful, Tracey Turner, Executive Chairman of Copia Global, Iyin Aboyeji - Co-founder of Flutterwave, Andela and Future Africa. But hang on tight to your seats because we haven’t even started. Need we say more? 🔔 [Sign up]( now while it's still free to attend. 🤝 Looking to partner with us on the Future of Commerce? Good call. Send an email now to favour@bigcabal.com PARTNER CONTENT Small business budget? Access affordable service and more on the FCMB Business Zone; a robust one-stop online platform that provides a wide range of services such as advisory, escrow, certified online learning, etc. to small and medium enterprises. Access it for free [here.]( Gokada's ticket to app stardom Eighteen months ago, Gokada transformed from a ride-hailing provider to a logistics company and now, its revenue has increased 10x and $100 million has been realized in transactional value. Here’s how they did it After facing an existential crisis late 2019, Gokada repurposed the tracking feature on its ride-hailing business to have drivers pick up and deliver packages in Lagos within two hours! They set up a goods-in-transit insurance policy to cover cases of damage or loss of items in their custody. Starting off as a service for sending individual packages, Gokada iterated to enable one driver to book and fulfill multiple deliveries. That iteration birthed ‘Gokada for business’ which helps enterprises create different user profiles for staff in various branches. The organization uses one Gokada account but each unit can monitor deliveries separately. This was how Gokada acquired Fan Milk and Jumia Foods as enterprise customers. Rather than invest in their own assets, these companies readily adopted Gokada’s logistics fleet of over 1,000 motorcycles which is already integrated with payments systems like Paystack and Flutterwave. Read more in Alexander Onukwue’s [Why food-on-demand can be Gokada’s ticket to super app stardom.]( PARTNER CONTENT The international forex broker has a perfect idea. Stay grounded, get the best in class forex trading tutorials and ace financial freedom in the process. Start your journey to mastery [here](. TC INSIGHTS: FUNDING TRACKER This week, $25.1million of the $26.1million raised, 96%, went to Egyptian startups. Fintech unicorn Fawry led a $10m [investment]( into another Egyptian startup: food discovery platform Elmenus. Luxor Capital and Marakez also participated in the round. The other deals for the week include: - Egyptian healthtech platform Yodawy [raised]( $7.5million from Middle East Venture Partners, Global Ventures, Algebra Ventures, CVentures, P1 Ventures, and Athaal Angel Investors Group. - iNNOHEALTH, a South African e-health startup, [closed]( a seven-figure seed round from unnamed Hong Kong-based VC - AIfluence, a Kenyan ad-tech platform, [raised]( $1million from EQ2 Ventures, Antler East Africa, Nigerian VC Oui Capital, and ArabyAds. - Egyptian edutainment platform Jeel [secured]( a S1.2million seed funding round led by Kuwaiti and Jordanian angel investors. Taager, an Egyptian social commerce startup, [raised]( $6.4million from 4DX Ventures, Raed Ventures, Beco Capital, Breyer Capital, and some individual investors PARTNER CONTENT Job Description Ajua is Africa’s first Integrated Customer Experience (#IntergratedCX) company driving business growth and giving consumers options on the continent. Ajua is searching for a competent Product Manager that has Experience as a manager of a top tier/premium quality Fintech product or a mobile app that was personally developed and scaled. One who is ambitious, experienced, energetic and highly talented Product Manager to take up the exciting role of pioneering growth and penetration in the Nigeria market. SEED Awards winners announced and they’re all Aricans! The SEED Awards for Entrepreneurship in Sustainable Development is “an annual awards scheme designed to identify the most innovative and promising locally-led start-up eco-inclusive enterprises in developing and emerging economies.” With over 900+ applications across 9 countries including Indonesia, India, and Zimbabwe, this year’s award winners were announced at the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. Eco-inclusive African startups from South Africa, Uganda, Ghana, Botswana, Malawi, and Zambia were announced as winners who will partake in SEED’s one-year [Accelerator programme](. The six startups are Regenize, Peec Energy, Wuchi Wami, Kalahari Honey, Eco-Gen, and JVL-YKMA Recycling Plant. Read about their work here: [Meet the SEED Award 2021 winners and runners-up]( What else we're reading - [22 Media Innovators Selected for the GNI Innovation Challenge for Africa, Middle East, and Turkey]( - [Microsoft launches its hybrid workspace, Windows 365]( - [Westa.Solar sets its sight on West Africa after debut in Nigeria]( - [That was fleeting; Twitter kills off ephemeral ‘fleets’]( HELP SHARE THIS! - - - - - mailto:info@example.com?&subject=&body=�Ÿ‘‹/ Written by - Daniel Adeyemi & Timi Odueso Edited by - Daniel Adeyemi Advertise To advertise with us, send an email to [ads@bigcabal.com]( [View this email in your browser]( You are receiving this email because of your relationship with TechCabal. Please [reconfirm]( your interest in receiving emails from us. If you do not wish to receive any more emails, you can [unsubscribe here](. 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