#84 - Dare Okoudjou - On Fundraising, Scaling a Pan-African Payment Network and Acquiring Startups

Building The Future Podcast

This season of Building the Future was made possible by Moniepoint

My guest today is Dare Okoudjou, Founder & CEO of Onafriq (formerly known as MFS Africa). Dare has built a long-running startup success streak on the continent, having started the business over a decade ago to become a multimillion dollar revenue company today.

Onafriq is building a “network of networks” to enable payments interoperability across the continent. After finding product-market fit, the company went through rapid expansion, completing four startup acquisitions in a two-year period (2020 - 22): Beyonic, Baxi, SimbaPay, & GTP (US), and increasing its headcount from 65 people to over 500.

In this episode, we explored:

• The philosophy behind Onafriq’s M&A, including post-merger integration (people, technology, & operations), how to manage growth, and long-term value creation
• Dare’s vision for Onafriq’s payment network, highlighting why interoperability is important, and the integration of online and offline components to align with purchasing behavior on the continent
• His growth as a leader, and how management and communication styles must evolve as a company grows
• Insights on successfully raising capital in the African ecosystem, including the role of timing, rhythm, and relationships in fundraising and business (“Fundraising can never be a stop-start project”)

Book Recommendations: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver and La Ambigu (English translation: The Ambiguous Adventure) by Cheikh Hamidou Kane

Bonus: Africa’s S-Curves by Stephen Deng. Link

Quote: “…you also have to remember that the game is dynamic and what the picture looks like today may not be what the picture looks like in two years, and not the picture looks like in five years.”

Transcript

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.

CREDITS

Host: Dr. Dotun Olowoporoku
Produced by: The Subtext
Editing: Osarumen Osamuyi, Chinedu Anatune
Show Notes: Grace Obaloluwa
Design: Jonathan Nwachukwu
Voice Overs & Project Coordination: Damilola Teidi
Season Intro Video: Chukwuka Ezeiruaku