Investing in Africa's Digital Future, Lexi Novitske, GP @ Norrsken22

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spk_0 welcome to another episode of RIDER Unicorns. Today we're joined by Lexi Nivitsky, general partner

spk_0 at Norskin22. Lexi thank you so much for joining me. It's great to have you on. Maybe you could

spk_0 introduce yourself and Norskin22 for our audience. Yeah happy to so nice to be here with James

spk_0 and all of your your podcast listeners. So I have been an African investor. I guess like

spk_0 one to years now but I moved out to Nigeria about 13 years ago. Really thinking that Nigeria was a

spk_0 market that especially Americans were we're not paying enough attention to at a massive population.

spk_0 Very young middle class growing and at that time the economy was going through a lot of real

spk_0 positive waves. So moved out here started working in private equity but

spk_0 soon saw that there was this whole other opportunity that I hadn't even been on my radar

spk_0 where tech companies were being started by incredible founders that had maybe worked in the US.

spk_0 It's some of the tech companies are you know maybe some of the traditional industries and seeing

spk_0 big opportunities locally that tech could solve and moving back to start businesses. And that was

spk_0 kind of the early days of tech in Nigeria. And I started just getting involved as an angel investor

spk_0 here but eventually that moved into me setting up a venture capital firm. I had a couple of

spk_0 early stage vehicles where we backed some of the companies that have now really become the tech

spk_0 historians and the Africa tech ecosystem overall. And let's see back in 2021 decided to join our

spk_0 team with a couple of incredible partners that were looking to leave another Africa focused shop

spk_0 called Actis which was one of the leading private equity firms investing on the continent but they

spk_0 were also seeing this huge opportunity to do something in more venture and tech related. And

spk_0 so just a bit on Northkin 22 we're backed by the Northkin foundation as well as about 35 plus founders

spk_0 of a billion dollar plus tech companies in Scandinavia but also across Europe and the US and even

spk_0 some in Africa. And to invest our 205 million dollar fund in the companies that have really shown

spk_0 incredible product market fit and just really need a bit of capital to scale that up and grow and

spk_0 hopefully become the next success stories on the continent. So that's where we've been investing.

spk_0 We're quite unique in that we're spread out across the major tech hubs on the continent so

spk_0 I'm based here in Legel still we have a partner in Johannesburg and a third in Nairobi and

spk_0 recovering all of those you know pan-African sub-Sahara market ecosystems but also

spk_0 covering North Africa as well. But yes very very commercial driven fund I mean I think you'll see a

spk_0 lot of venture funds on the continent really strive for impact mandates we believe that you need to

spk_0 show strong commercial returns to really drive investment to come into the continent.

spk_0 And apparently most of the business models we are investing in are quite impactful in the local

spk_0 markets that they operate in but we're here to make money for our investors and for the founders

spk_0 that we back. Awesome and what stage do you guys invest at? Yeah so we typically invest

spk_0 series A through C so sweet spot for us would would probably be a pretty mature series A company.

spk_0 Our initial check size and so I can usually four to ten million dollars can go up to 15 for

spk_0 you know those later stage deals as well. We have done a couple of early stage investments early

spk_0 in our fund cycle but we're much more focused on kind of the the growth stage given we are where we

spk_0 are in our fund cycle at this point. Awesome and what are the what are the big misconceptions of

spk_0 African tech? Yeah but look there's a lot there's some that I would say are

spk_0 are there for a reason such as you know having to deal with volatile regulatory environments or

spk_0 corruption or difficult business operating environments so those all those problems

spk_0 absolutely exist in our markets but at the same time you know those are opportunities.

spk_0 Other misconceptions are I would say is that you can't make money in Africa. A lot of people see

spk_0 Africa as a charity case you know foundations, charities, non-profit organizations that's

spk_0 when putting money into Africa for very long time and tend to see it as a market where

spk_0 you send money but you don't make money and that absolutely isn't the case and some companies

spk_0 are making some of the most healthy unit economics that I think we've seen everywhere because even if

spk_0 you don't have that higher income customers certainly do have very large businesses and you do

spk_0 have huge populations that are digital first. I mean there's not a lot of other options for things

spk_0 like access to credit, even quality education or healthcare and so everybody's looking to digital

spk_0 solve those problems. I'm sure there's many more but maybe one is that exits are hard to come by.

spk_0 I do think a lot of private equity firms have had a hard time for decades realizing strong

spk_0 exits largely because they've been up against currency evaluations on companies that are driving

spk_0 their revenue growth and local currency. It's a little bit different in tech. I mean a lot of our

spk_0 companies have hard currency revenue. They are structured in international jurisdictions.

spk_0 They're of course much more capital efficient and scaling much quicker. They don't have those hard

spk_0 assets. So you know the exit potential for these companies I think is a lot more attractive especially

spk_0 as you see global companies kind of run into growth headwinds in their own markets. They are

spk_0 looking to expand into Africa to drive some of that growth. Awesome. Well it's a great topic.

spk_0 The art of also selling your portfolio and DPI is not talked about enough really within the industry.

spk_0 They lose it DPI. It's obviously the most important thing and to what extent are you seeing

spk_0 companies that are creating completely new business models versus maybe the temptation to sort of do

spk_0 Uber for Africa. You know, Nico Health for Africa. Just replicating business models in the local market.

spk_0 How do you see that and how do you kind of try and judge those comparisons and are you looking

spk_0 for completely unique or are you happy to take models that have proven to be successful and

spk_0 and kind of apply them to the local market? Yeah well I think that there is kind of this

spk_0 late-comer advantage. I mean Africa has laid every almost every other market globally. One of the

spk_0 benefits for us as investors as we can see how those models have scaled in other markets

spk_0 understand what you can and economics should be understand you know the learnings that they might

spk_0 have had and apply those lessons to companies that we're looking at. I think it's more interesting

spk_0 though to look at other emerging markets for copycat models rather than Silicon Valley. I mean

spk_0 living daily life in emerging markets is very different than in any cities in the US. So I would say

spk_0 we absolutely love to look at models that have been success towards elsewhere but

spk_0 tackling hyper-local problem set and usually you know there's a shift in that model that will work

spk_0 locally. I mean for example we've been looking at a company in Egypt in a market where there really

spk_0 is no mortgage for secondary properties but most Egyptians invest their money into gold and

spk_0 property just as a store value. So even in shelves of property where they won't live it's

spk_0 and it's become an investment class but there's only financing available to buy brand new properties

spk_0 often developers. So this company is looking to take that sort of you know model that customers

spk_0 are already familiar with but package it you know as more of a mortgage product to allow financing

spk_0 for secondary purchase of properties. So these sorts of problems you know there's definitely

spk_0 uniqueness in each market on how things work and look there's a difference in how Nigerian consumer

spk_0 might see a product versus a Moroccan customer. So there's even nuances in our own market

spk_0 but I think we'd absolutely love to take learnings that we've seen in other ecosystems and

spk_0 compare them with what we're seeing on the ground here. Yeah and Europe is often sort of challenged

spk_0 by the fact that we have multiple languages across the continent. How does that play out in Africa?

spk_0 Is there you know if it's English and French you're pretty much good or do you compete with the

spk_0 sort of language barrier challenges across such a big market? I think that the harder challenge

spk_0 rather than language barrier is currency barrier and just the ability to flow funds and trade across

spk_0 markets. I mean traffic Africa trades with heavily with markets across the continent whether that's

spk_0 an oil gas to retail to even workforce but it's still extremely inefficient to move capital

spk_0 deal with regulation everything across these borders. Another solution that certainly tech

spk_0 companies are looking to solve but we have seen a lot of success stories that originate in one of

spk_0 the major anglophone markets like Nigeria expands successfully to Kenya and South Africa and likewise

spk_0 we've seen the kind of Frank of Phelan West Africa block. There's been many companies that operate

spk_0 across the region and I think really just this last couple of years you're starting to see a lot more

spk_0 of that overlap now where African companies are looking to North Africa as an expansion market.

spk_0 Those companies are looking southward there's a lot of cross-pollination in West Africa between the

spk_0 anglophone and the francophone markets but still there's a lot of difficulty that I think you know some

spk_0 of these digital solutions again are trying to solve whether that's enabling capital flows across

spk_0 borders to stablecoin rather than having to convert CFA to dollar and then dollar to Nyra for

spk_0 example if you're trading within these markets there's a lot of those companies I think that are

spk_0 gaining a lot of speed and really understanding now how to operate in these much more complex regulatory

spk_0 environments that are bringing all those markets together and look actually that's one of the themes

spk_0 that we're really watching is kind of this integration across African continent whether that's

spk_0 trade or workforce but also the integration of Africa into more global economy and a huge trend

spk_0 that we're investing on right now. Yeah and obviously you guys do sort of series ABC so more of a

spk_0 growth fund are there enough sort of precedence seed funds to really get the companies going like

spk_0 how's that part of the funding chain working are we seeing more have you seen more since you started

spk_0 pop up that have now become good feeder funds to you? Yeah I mean actually I think we're

spk_0 quite lucky in that there are a lot of early sage funds and a lot of early sage funds that have

spk_0 been pretty well capitalized by investors whether it's that development finance institutions or

spk_0 foundations that are kind of regional specific so some of them you know focus just on Nigeria

spk_0 West Africa South Africa focus ones East Africa focus ones but really

spk_0 plenty of seed stage investment capital to really catalyze some of these early sage stories

spk_0 but then we're also you know in an interesting spot that there's not a lot of growth stage capital

spk_0 there was a lot more before kind of the venture ecosystem pulled back quite a bit

spk_0 around like 2021 levels but since an international investors have mostly

spk_0 retrenched and looked toward towards their you know local us or European markets so it's actually

spk_0 been a great space for for us I think it's you know kind of a buyers market in the growth stage

spk_0 landscape right now and now you're kind of slowly seeing some of those international investors come

spk_0 back but wanting to work with local players on the ground and just again kind of dipping their

spk_0 teal in so yeah I think that they're absolutely is fantastic deal flow I would say more so than we

spk_0 you know we see great companies that maybe just are not you know quite there yet in terms of

spk_0 scalability that we pass on but definitely no shortage of deal flow were very apting especially

spk_0 this year and I've seen a lot of pretty incredible companies come through the pipeline

spk_0 yeah yeah that's great and I just wanted to double click on the bit about international investors

spk_0 coming in and then get your opinion really on how that is perceived and how it works for you

spk_0 commercially because I guess there could be a lot of positives to international investment flowing

spk_0 in at growth stage but there could also be a sort of negative connotation of sort of

spk_0 vulturing off the hard work of you know the early stage investors and founders getting the

spk_0 business to that point and then coming in late quite heavy maybe with aggressive terms or preferences

spk_0 or whatever and and kind of coming in and sort of muttling in you know when all the hard work

spk_0 sort of being done so how do you see all of that and how has it played out in reality when

spk_0 when working with local investors versus internationals that kind of dip in closer to maybe an IPO

spk_0 I mean look one of my greatest frustrations is that even though you know our local economy

spk_0 is couldn't be more separate from what's happening in the US and you know generally not

spk_0 very related whatsoever how much that the local African venture ecosystem

spk_0 reacts or has to react because our valuations inherently are driven by what's happening over

spk_0 in the US but in terms of international investors coming in I mean I think it I think it's

spk_0 hard to generalize I think that there is some international investors that have you know domain

spk_0 expertise in a certain sector like fintech or payments that have seen us play out markets

spk_0 all around the world that are hugely valuable investors and you would love to have them on the

spk_0 cap table or maybe even investors that lend their their brand to kind of driving some of these

spk_0 success stories but I do think that international investors also just have a very different view on

spk_0 risk and return profiles and and and then what that means for valuation I mean there are

spk_0 valuing companies in a Silicon Valley landscape and taking those valuation metrics to lay over on

spk_0 some of these Africa deals which you know have incredible revenue growth top line is looking good

spk_0 but maybe don't deserve the 10 to 15 x revenue multiples that they would put on US sort of companies

spk_0 so I think that's the biggest challenge is is really educating them especially if you know they're

spk_0 co-investing with us on the appropriateness of evaluation just given where we have seen currency

spk_0 fluctuations again where we see the real exit profiles and the need to really make those 10x

spk_0 returns what things need to be priced out in this market yeah yeah I can see both sides there

spk_0 positives and negatives and then you know we talked a little bit about you know the the

spk_0 opportunity to exit the companies obviously one of the avenues that that can come through is through an

spk_0 IPO in the UK and Europe we're often a little bit conflicted about where we want our companies to go

spk_0 public because it feels like the right thing to go public in the UK or in our local market but the

spk_0 reality is that you probably have a better outcome and prognosis if you if you go to the US

spk_0 is that is that the same challenge for African companies is is is is kind of the ideal that they go

spk_0 public in the US it is and most of our companies that we're investing in are structured in the US

spk_0 I would say we're probably when we're thinking about exit profile we mostly think about international

spk_0 strategies acquiring them and you know if had those conversations with some of the potential

spk_0 acquires on what they're looking for what they would price things at so I have a pretty strong idea

spk_0 there are some cases where we do think our exits will come through IPO we have a portfolio

spk_0 company called Time Bank for example which we're actually expecting probably them to look at a listing

spk_0 in another non-US market but more likely to buy a Singapore you'll also see a lot of North Africa

spk_0 companies look to expand to Saudi for our growth market and that's actually pretty attractive

spk_0 listing destination for them as well but we have had you know limited

spk_0 companies exit pretty successfully in the US and there's a North that are planning their listing

spk_0 but it'll probably take a couple years until we see more of those come through any sort of volumes

spk_0 yeah yeah makes sense and we all evolve as investors over time the more deals we do the more

spk_0 experience we gain what is one thing that you've really changed your mind about since you started

spk_0 investing maybe you used to do one thing one way and now you do it different way or maybe you

spk_0 perceives something that you use as the as a positive or negative and you know see it the other way

spk_0 yeah um I mean I can talk a little bit about I mean when I initially started investing here I kind

spk_0 of really understanding the thing that consumers behave differently is a very low trust environment

spk_0 you know with that is is quite capital constrained that success stories are you know largely driven on

spk_0 the stage at which you're you know you can't for example nose first investing I was looking at some

spk_0 gaming companies and ad tech companies without really realizing that you needed to have the solid

spk_0 infrastructure for payments or KYC and I did your identity in place for those to really work

spk_0 appropriately um and so I think that that has shifted my view a lot is is first invest in the

spk_0 infrastructure even if the margins are slimmer because that infrastructure at scale can control 70

spk_0 percent plus of the market and then the kind of nice to have layered on top will come later

spk_0 well let's see I mean so is that sort of a sort of I don't know respecting the maturity of the market

spk_0 that you're in and it's kind of like taking the context of where you're investing not just what

spk_0 you're investing into that's absolutely yeah a great way to say it I mean I understand it not

spk_0 just from the numbers but actually being embedded in it understanding the real stories and why

spk_0 consumers and businesses behave the way they do a lot of times it's not because they're not

spk_0 digitally savvy but it can mean a whole bunch more other things you know it's kind of a catch 22

spk_0 in this market where sometimes you have to build out the physical rails to make digital work as well

spk_0 a lot of B2B commerce platforms that had to build their own logistics networks and warehouse networks

spk_0 to be able to properly serve their customer base you can't just build a marketplace like you'd be

spk_0 able to do in the US that rides off of everybody else's hard infrastructure so those sorts of things

spk_0 I think you really have to understand in a local market level before you can start investing in all

spk_0 of those sexy things like AI solutions or or gaming or you know any any model that seems

spk_0 a no brainer I think there's lots of pieces that you have to make sure in place for that to work

spk_0 at least there yeah and we as sort of local investors we often have an aisle on

spk_0 larger companies entering our market but we don't always see companies from our own market how they're

spk_0 expanding and going to different territories so which are the companies from like the US and Europe

spk_0 that have actually been really successful at growing through Africa as well that you've maybe not

spk_0 an investor in but have seen kind of their proliferation through the market yeah I mean an easy

spk_0 one is a lot of cross-border companies I mean wave has done an incredible and incredible job here

spk_0 tap tap send these companies for obvious reasons have done a lot of work in opening up some of these

spk_0 markets in our are very aggressive on acquiring companies as well by the way other companies like

spk_0 Stripe has been you know active doing some acquisitions I would say in largely like you've seen a

spk_0 lot of international companies in the financial services in payment space but you've also seen you

spk_0 know some software providers like some stuff in k yc digital identity space of where other SaaS

spk_0 providers certainly have rolled out a lot in Africa the the problem always is besides they

spk_0 and the price point because a lot of the customers aren't a bit more price sensitive here is how do

spk_0 build your tech solutions into local rails to be able to really collect payments and do business

spk_0 locally so a lot of them will you know opt for a by strategy rather than build it out on their own

spk_0 and you know that's what we're also expecting with a lot of our investing companies

spk_0 yeah make sense and so you mentioned payments there is a as it can be a challenge but how else does

spk_0 sort of go to market different in Africa I mean are there are there localized like social platforms

spk_0 and things like that that that have a greater significance in your local market than than we would

spk_0 expect look that there's less social networks I think most Africans are kind of on you know

spk_0 Twitter Instagram all of the the normal platforms but I but users do consumers do tend to still get

spk_0 a lot of their information and content from things like TV and radio outlets so while you know

spk_0 I think Nigerians and be are some of the most mobilized countries in the world where people are

spk_0 getting spending hours on their phones and getting most of their information and entertainment

spk_0 commerce everything just from their mobile devices some other markets are still quite analog

spk_0 and you know we in and another interesting nuance also is literacy is also quite low I mean you'll

spk_0 see a lot of people engage with platforms that will provide education just through voice for example

spk_0 because they they can't read but they're trying to learn how to make their crops more efficient and

spk_0 what sort of fertilizer to use etc so that's an interesting nuance I mean

spk_0 certainly the all of the normal ease of doing business aspects are quite a barrier to I

spk_0 think to understand whether that's tax how you have to actually be structured locally

spk_0 in climate standards all of that boring but it's it's certainly probably one of the biggest

spk_0 struggles that I think companies have yeah and again different markets have different nuances I

spk_0 mean a Nigeria for example has a real interest in trying new platforms you know they're they they're

spk_0 very adventurous they'd love anything that kind of comes across a radar they're willing to try at

spk_0 least once whereas you go to Kenya and it's much more conservative usually you have to

spk_0 have referrals from other people they trust in their network co-ops are quite big for example

spk_0 so yeah there's different dynamics in each of these just sounds like there is a bit of nuance to

spk_0 each individual market which I guess is is the same for European you know founders who are

spk_0 growing into different territories as well and then is there a company from your portfolio maybe

spk_0 one of your more recent investments that you can tell us a little bit about and tell us kind of

spk_0 the rationale behind investing yeah so one company that we are closing a deal in now I'm sure it'll

spk_0 be closed by the time you launch your this episode is a company that does termination and very

spk_0 difficult to reach the countries for remittance companies so the likes of world remitt we've all of

spk_0 these that are collecting agreements capital from centers in Europe and the US but don't have a way

spk_0 to get them into the hands of users on the ground in markets like Gambia Sierra Leone DRC some of

spk_0 these much more difficult markets to reach so it seems like there an easy problem to fix but actually

spk_0 managing the agent network to make sure that this capital is able to flow into the hands of all these

spk_0 people that need it is a is a pretty complicated problem and this company's unlocking that it's

spk_0 some super attractive margins I also mentioned time bank earlier so I think one of the success stories

spk_0 in our portfolio that has expanded from an African market in South Africa to the Asian market so

spk_0 they're now expanding they've successfully had expansion into Indonesian Philippines and are

spk_0 growing extremely rapidly there really doing agent led retail banking so acquiring customers at

spk_0 the point of retail and doing a deposit first neo bank but they've done incredibly well also

spk_0 yeah and did the founders of those companies share any similarities they're obviously

spk_0 you know both you know hopefully successful companies in your portfolio is there any like common

spk_0 thread between the founders or the businesses that you can sort of pin your hat on and say yeah

spk_0 actually maybe we invest in people like that or businesses like that I mean I think that the

spk_0 common theme between businesses like these two and many of the others in our portfolio is their growth

spk_0 is hugely dependent on a large mass market population in kind of an underserved communities so where

spk_0 you know traditional banks don't look to bank retail because it's not not a profitable segment for

spk_0 them that where they can't properly KYC users or you know can't do anything as scalable as some of

spk_0 these digital solutions can that's I think where the big opportunity is I mean certainly the tenacity

spk_0 and resilience is the huge factor I mean operating in some of these markets is not for the Fahar and

spk_0 and you had to have to really get your hands dirty you know coming out of nothing against any

spk_0 of the consulting shops but coming out of McKinsey and trying to do something on the ground and

spk_0 some of these markets could be you know very mismatched skill set so I think we love founders that

spk_0 are really deeply integrated know the problem very well maybe from corporate experience or maybe

spk_0 they've been built a tech company before this and this is their second go around yeah and maybe

spk_0 a bit of a abstract one bit of fun but if you if you could only invest in one African country

spk_0 that wasn't one of the ones where you have a partner in for the rest of your fund which which

spk_0 country would you be putting your chips on and obviously this is not financial advice to anyone but

spk_0 just like which country are you really excited about which maybe isn't one of the sort of three main

spk_0 hubs that you're in so I'll give you an easy one that I think most people would agree with but where

spk_0 we don't yet have a partner and that's Egypt we've all been spending quite a bit of time there

spk_0 but it's an interesting very interesting time for Egypt they've just gotten out of a way the

spk_0 currency devaluations which means there hasn't been a lot of investment capital coming in

spk_0 but some incredible companies now in a very stable economic environment big opportunities there

spk_0 across you know retail with a large growing middle class certainly access to finance rather that

spk_0 whether that's you know credit card is auto financing property financing really some incredible

spk_0 opportunities and again a market where you can easily expand into other markets like the Middle East

spk_0 but leverage off of that lower cost labor environment to grow you know your local team build out the

spk_0 product and then expand into some of these other Middle East markets that are higher revenue

spk_0 per customer generating but the more contrarian one that I'm I'm actually quite excited about is

spk_0 DRC the Dominican Republic of Congo and mostly because I feel a lot of similarities between

spk_0 Kinshasa and Legos very large urban area young population very digitized but what else makes it

spk_0 interesting is that the currency is paid to the dollar and actually most trades and transactions are

spk_0 dollar-based you know still a rocky environment obviously because of conflict and political reasons

spk_0 but one that I think will see a big transformation over the next 10 years with a lot of incredible

spk_0 talent moving back digital certainly solving a lot of problems there as well yes exciting that's

spk_0 really interesting insight and obviously as investors we're always conscious of a sort of macro

spk_0 environment even in the UK you know it feels like it's been very unstable but we have relative

spk_0 stability here for you how much does the macro play into the decision-making you know who's in power

spk_0 what conflicts are happening that must have a huge bearing on your risk profile of companies no

spk_0 matter how exciting the tech or the growth so do you think you have to pay more attention to that

spk_0 in your market than maybe we do in in the UK or Europe so I think we have to pay attention to it

spk_0 but we also expect it so I think that there it's always picked into kind of our analysis expecting

spk_0 that every five years we'll probably have some sort of economic shift and are you know taking a

spk_0 look and discounting our revenue growth expectations given that so we we certainly are very

spk_0 conservative when we're looking at investments expecting that we'll be having some sort of volatility

spk_0 but look these markets you know they they they grow through it every couple of years and then

spk_0 they come out strong the other side there's a couple of you know another five years of very strong

spk_0 growth and then there's a correction it's just kind of like the the waves that we understand that

spk_0 we have to deal with it's obviously never something that's fun when you're going into it but it's

spk_0 also I think something that keeps you quite grounded when you understand how good things are going

spk_0 and that you might be near the top and things can go back down again um so you know it's it is

spk_0 important here to I think invest a little bit on the cycle and to really be cognizant of that

spk_0 and yeah look we do keep our finger very closely as you would expect on government changes

spk_0 currency environments what macro economics in each one of our specific markets might look like

spk_0 but you can only predict so much I mean I think that the share prediction is that it will be bumpy

spk_0 but the general trend is still up and to the right yeah awesome and I just want to ask one more

spk_0 question to to try and leave on this positive note like that um have you got any sort of general

spk_0 stats or data on like with you know the continent how it is going is it you know it's obviously got

spk_0 this very young and growing and you know strong workforce amongst it but what what are the sort of

spk_0 top level exciting points about why Africa yeah I mean look the maybe I'll start at the workforce

spk_0 you mentioned that in Africa the average age is under 20 years in China just as a comparison that's

spk_0 39 years old and you know with the population growth by the end of the century 40% of the world's

spk_0 population is going to live in Africa and that by itself is a superpower I mean young people

spk_0 essentially born with a phone on their hand mobile first generation with data costs falling and a lot

spk_0 of solutions being built for the first time that never existed in you know physically very

spk_0 little hospitals very little schools and all that now is available through those mobile devices

spk_0 so yeah I mean that by itself makes it a huge opportunity but obviously a big opportunity to

spk_0 improve lives for this one and a half billion population that calls Africa home um

spk_0 yeah that's amazing I mean yeah what what what year was it that 40% of the world would be in Africa

spk_0 right did you say um by the end of the century oh right okay well yeah so right now I think we're

spk_0 sitting at about 20% of the world's population wow that's amazing well that's a great

spk_0 great positive note to end on that and so we're just going to move through to our final two questions

spk_0 Lexi's because it's been so interesting learning more about the Africa market but our final two

spk_0 questions are just a couple of bits of you know fun to get to know you and some of your investments

spk_0 and ideas as well so the first one is a future unicorn prediction you're very welcome to pick

spk_0 one of your portfolio companies but is there a company that you've seen at the early stages that

spk_0 is on your radar that you think might go all the way and become a unicorn yeah well I'm

spk_0 mentioning this one not because it's a you know not because it's a portfolio company but because

spk_0 we're very excited about it so a company called Orca which is currently focused on a product

spk_0 around transaction fraud monitoring using AI solutions incredible AI team at this company

spk_0 still very early stage but I see this platform as something that'll expand into not only

spk_0 fraud monitoring which by the way has a huge need in this market but something that becomes kind of

spk_0 the data network across multiple trust layers in the African ecosystem huge potential for that

spk_0 here I mean I mentioned earlier it's a very low trust environment and yeah something we're very

spk_0 excited about that sounds awesome sounds like a sort of company that visa might buy one day

spk_0 very cool and then our final question is again just a bit of fun to wrap up the show

spk_0 and it's our dinner party guest game if you could have dinner with any three people who would they be

spk_0 yeah so I think probably it would it would be Kevin Kelly the futurist and co-founder of Wired

spk_0 mostly because I think he has the most outlandish but oftentimes quite

spk_0 accurate or potentially realistic expectations of what the future could look like certainly

spk_0 somebody I like to read a lot of and I'd love to hear how he's seeing

spk_0 everything in his future predictions especially around AI and robotics and what that world is

spk_0 going to look like in the next 100 years I also would love to meet Nelson Mandela I mean somebody

spk_0 that is obviously hugely inspiring but I think has represents moral courage and has the

spk_0 experience of driving transformation in a very difficult political social market and somebody you

spk_0 generally I think to my my number one hero who I would look up to and and lastly this is much more

spk_0 of a personal one but I I am a bit of a explorer adventure myself so I would love to meet

spk_0 Gertrude Bell the 20th century British adventure who spent a lot of time in the Middle East

spk_0 was also a mountain near herself doing a lot of incredible things far before

spk_0 you know it it was normal for women to do so I think she would be an incredible person just to hear

spk_0 her stories and hopefully get some of that courage that she had traveling the world during that time

spk_0 period yeah awesome there I mean that's a great answer I mean it's so interesting

spk_0 we obviously ask every guest this and it's amazing how much it tells you about the person

spk_0 it like in such a positive way because you get to learn so much about people's interests and

spk_0 and you know what they're curious about and passionate about so that that's really great thank you so

spk_0 much obviously we've had Mandela mentioned by a few people previously by I think Kevin Kelly and

spk_0 Gertrude Bell are both unique answers so yeah we love love it when there's a unique answer well

spk_0 Lexie thank you so much it's been really amazing to learn so much more about the African

spk_0 tech scene and what you're doing with Nelskin 22 sounds like some amazing companies in your portfolio

spk_0 particularly strong in the FinTech space I think and we hope it goes from good to great over the next

spk_0 few years and keep up the good work and yeah it's been so insightful learning more about it so thank

spk_0 you thanks James that's it for this week thanks very much for listening to stay up to date with

spk_0 the latest episodes please follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform we also have a

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spk_0 inbox please tell your friends about it and engage with us on social media and we'll see you on

spk_0 the next episode this episode is proudly sponsored by Cooley Cooley is the go-to law firm for

spk_0 high-growth disruptive tech startups and their venture capital investors Cooley is a Silicon Valley

spk_0 originated global law firm and advisors startups on all of their legal needs including formation

spk_0 financing scaling towards M&A and IPOs and ongoing counseling check out Cooleygo.com for a range of

spk_0 free resources developed by Cooley to propel your business at every stage including legal document

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Investing in Africa's Digital Future, Lexi Novitske, GP @ Norrsken22

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