Alternative Economic Models in Africa

It was an absolute joy to host 80+ African Fund Managers & LPs at my house last week for a conversation on the Future of African Fund Structures (and a few drinks while watching the sunset :). Working with these incredibly wise and resilient women and men is a true honor (and a lot of fun!). The evening closed out a four-week stretch of discussions across multiple countries — all circling around a core question: Is the traditional 10 + 1 + 1, 2/20, equity-only fund model actually fit for African markets? As you can probably guess, the short answer is not really. And thanks to the work of Alyune-Blondin Diop, Desirée Pettersson, Diego A. & Kartik Sharma we now have the data to prove it. Their powerful new whitepaper synthesizes insights from 50+ fund managers, deep interviews, and months of working sessions. I loved getting to convene several conversations with Alyune. Based on the whitepaper, we focused on four structural misalignments define African VC today: • Timelines: 60% of funds run 10-year models, but African companies often need 13–17 years to mature. • Capital Mismatch: Most startups are “phygital,” yet >70% of deals rely on pure equity, forcing founders to dilute just to finance operations. • Liquidity: 58% of GPs say fewer than a quarter of their companies have a clear path to exit; 40% of portfolios contain “zombies.” • Incentives: 2/20 + European waterfalls delay carry for 15–17 years and underfund the real operational work. From our discussions: African GPs overwhelmingly want longer funds — but timelines alone aren’t enough. We need to redesign everything: fee models, deployment rhythms, liquidity tools, deal structures, and the capital stack itself. LPs shared a crucial reminder: GPs must make a value-based case for alternative designs — not just ask for more time, but articulate how new structures create more value for both companies and investors. Hard work, yes. But collective work makes the lift lighter. 🚀 Emerging models already taking shape: • Evergreen + 13–15 year funds • Blended equity/debt and revenue-based instruments • Continuation vehicles & structured exits • Venture studios and ESO-linked funds • Corporate & institution-linked VC 🔮 Key insight: When asked what they’d build with a supportive anchor LP, African fund managers didn’t converge — they diversified: evergreen vehicles, dual equity/debt structures, venture studios, local-currency funds, deal-by-deal carry, copy-cat replication models, and more. Africa doesn’t need one new VC model. It needs a portfolio of fund architectures built for its market realities. I genuinely believe this is where collective action matters. When we build these arguments together, we make the lift lighter for individual GPs. And I will continue advocating for more openness to “non-traditional” structures. I truly believe we can do this. If you'd like to join us, the link to the Innovative Finance initiative is in the comments!

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐟 𝐰𝐞’𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐭 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞? 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧? Most people still think of Africa as a place to extract raw materials and sell back finished goods at premium prices. That was the old playbook. The new Africa is building value not just exporting it. 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝: Uganda’s Coffee Revolution For years, Uganda exported raw coffee beans while European companies like Nescafé made billions selling the final product. Now, Uganda has set up its own coffee processing plants, keeping the value chain local. It’s not just about coffee anymore it’s about ownership, branding, and profit retention. 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚 In Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda have their own automobile assembly projects are underway. Instead of importing fully-built vehicles, these countries are creating jobs and technical expertise by creating Bikes, Cars & Trucks locally. The automotive supply chain is no longer one-directional. 𝐄𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐕𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐬 (𝐄𝐕𝐬) 𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚 Africa isn’t just adopting EVs, it’s starting to manufacture them. This isn’t just about keeping up with global trends; it’s about ensuring Africa has a stake in the green economy. 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨𝐨. In Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Traoré is leading a bold transformation moving away from a resource-dependent economy toward productive industries that serve local needs first. This signals a new kind of leadership: one that focuses on value addition, industrial growth, and long-term prosperity. 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐰? Because the global economy is shifting. Supply chains are decentralizing. Energy systems are evolving. And the world needs new growth engines. Africa isn’t just next, it’s happening now. If we engage with Africa’s size, diversity, and potential intelligently, we won’t just do business in Africa, we’ll do business with Africa. And that’s the real future. #AfricaRising #BusinessStrategy #LocalProduction #EmergingMarkets #Leadership #EVManufacturing #CoffeeIndustry #SupplyChain #FutureOfAfrica #InvestmentOpportunities #SustainableGrowth

"Waiting for Silicon Valley to fund your African start-up is like expecting Nairobi traffic to end because you prayed." In the face of limited VC access, the African start-up ecosystem continues to punch above its weight. But the truth is, most of us are building without a lifeline. While headlines celebrate the few start-ups that raise millions, thousands more struggle to get even $5,000 in seed funding. It doesn’t have to be this way. We don’t need to wait for "international investors" to see our potential. We can build alternative, culturally-grounded funding pools that move money to innovation faster, smarter, and with less bureaucracy. Here’s my thought: 1. Decentralized Chama Investment Funds Let’s take the sacred chama, the savings group that’s built homes, funded weddings, and paid school fees, and flip it into a micro VC syndicate. How it works: Small groups of professionals pool money monthly. Evaluate and vote on start-ups to fund. Returns can be reinvested or cashed out annually. Estimated Pool: $10,000–$50,000 per chama. 2. County-Based Start-up Trusts Why do counties only spend money on wheelbarrows and workshops? Each of Kenya’s 47 counties can set up a Startup Innovation Trust Fund to support local entrepreneurs solving county-specific problems. Example: Kisumu supports agri-tech & lake economy ventures. Mombasa invests in tourism-tech. Turkana backs water innovation start-ups. Funding sources: budget reallocations, diaspora bonds, and donor partnerships. 3. Diaspora Co-investment Platforms Kenyans abroad send back $4B+ annually, yet most can’t invest in local start-ups securely. Worse still conned of their hard-earned money. Let’s create regulated, secure platforms where diaspora can: Invest from $50 upwards in vetted start-ups. Track progress. Convert investments into equity or returns. 4. University Innovation Endowment Funds Instead of just graduating job seekers, let’s help universities graduate founders. Each major university creates an endowment fund: Alumni contribute. The government matches. Annual pitching competitions decide disbursements. Think Y-Combinator, but in Multimedia University of Kenya 5. Faith-Based Investment Pools Churches and mosques raise billions. Imagine allocating 5% of tithes to: Health tech. Ethical fintech. Youth-run innovation hubs. "Whatsoever you do for the least of these start-up founders…" 6. Barter-for-Equity Platforms Cash isn’t always king, sometimes, skills are. Let’s build platforms where: A lawyer drafts your IP documents for 1% equity. A dev codes your MVP in exchange for future stock. A designer brands your app for convertible notes. Want to Collaborate? I’m working on co-developing these models. Let’s build Chumvi Invest.

Let’s be honest—Africa isn’t Silicon Valley, and no amount of slick pitch decks or buzzwords like "disruption" will change that. The latest Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) startup in Kenya is already on the brink of collapse just months after raising millions. This isn’t surprising. The model wasn’t built for us, and history keeps proving it. I remember my parents buying a Singer sewing machine from Amedo Cente, a company that mastered hire purchase in its time. Back then, businesses like Kenya Credit Traders and Africa Retail Traders (ART) thrived because they understood their customers—civil servants, salaried workers, people with predictable incomes. Even Fred Obachi Machoka’s iconic radio show, 'Sanyu Juu, Sanyu Tops,' was built around marketing hire purchase deals. It wasn’t just advertising; it was credible commerce. Compare that to today’s FM radio scams where celebrities peddle non-existent land, leaving families stranded. The old hire purchase model helped people build assets—furniture, appliances, even land. Today’s BNPL? It lures people into debt for groceries, airtime, and cheap electronics. Then there’s the solar "Malipo Ya Pole Pole" scheme, leaving rural families blacklisted by CRB, stuck with broken systems that become e-waste. Meanwhile, the CEOs hop from one conference to another, boasting about "impact" in glossy reports. Who really wins? Not the grandmother in Migori still waiting for her solar system to work after a year of payments. The truth is, Africa already has a BNPL model—one that works. It’s the shopkeeper who says, "Nikae na deni kidogo." No algorithms, no predatory interest, just trust. But VCs won’t fund it because it doesn’t fit their "scalable" Silicon Valley fantasy. Too many African startups today are just Special Purpose Vehicles—flashy pitches with no real roots in the problems they claim to solve. If you don’t have a white or "international" co-founder, good luck getting funding. Meanwhile, traders in Nyamakima and Gikomba move millions daily without a dime from VCs. Why isn’t that celebrated? At the end of the day, those who control capital control the narrative. And until that changes, we’ll keep watching startups rise on hype and crash when reality hits. We don’t need Silicon Valley’s playbook—we need solutions built to last.

In Ghana, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso, women in rural cooperatives produce some of the world’s finest shea butter- by hand, in conditions many global consumers will never see. Locally, it’s sold raw for $1 to $2 per kilogram. That same shea butter, once exported, repackaged, and labeled “organic” or “artisanal,” can sell in the U.S. or Europe for $30 to $50 or more. The difference? Branding. Packaging. Storytelling. Access to global markets. It’s not just shea butter. It’s coffee, cocoa, hibiscus, moringa, baobab oil- Africa exports raw, and imports wealth back in the form of marked-up goods. Meanwhile, the women who do the hardest work in the value chain often remain in poverty. This isn’t just an economic issue. It’s about power and narrative. The current system rewards ownership of the story, not just the substance. So what needs to change? 🔹 Investing in African-owned brands that can go beyond raw exports 🔹 Building infrastructure for local manufacturing and distribution 🔹 Creating access to retail markets, both on the continent and abroad 🔹 Shifting from “supplier” to brand owner, from “producer” to value creator Africa doesn’t need saving. It needs more control over its own value chains, and support for the people, especially women, who are the backbone of its raw material economy. Let’s stop asking why global brands profit from African goods and start asking what it takes to build our own. Image cred: @tanziehq #Africa #RawEconomy #ValueChain #Entrepreneurship #OwnTheNarrative

Can nature outcompete war? In eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, conservation often centers on loss: forests cleared, wildlife reduced, conflict spreading across landscapes that once held some of the richest ecosystems on Earth. At Virunga National Park, these pressures meet. The park, Africa’s oldest, spans glaciers, volcanoes, forests, and wetlands. It also sits within a region shaped by decades of instability, where armed groups, informal economies, and weak governance are part of daily life. Emmanuel de Merode, who has led Virunga since 2008, approaches this setting from outside traditional conservation. Trained as an anthropologist, he treats ecological decline as a result of underlying economic and social conditions. Forest loss, poaching, and insecurity, in his account, follow from how people earn a living and how authority operates. Around Virunga, choices are immediate. Charcoal production and small-scale agriculture provide income. Conservation, by contrast, offers benefits that are less visible locally and often realized elsewhere. This imbalance shapes daily decisions about land, fuel, and work. A turning point came in 2007, when seven mountain gorillas were killed during a period of intensified violence. Investigations linked the killings to the charcoal trade supplying Goma. The episode underscored a broader point: pressure on the park was tied to energy demand and livelihoods. Virunga’s response has been to build an alternative system. Small hydroelectric plants supply power to surrounding communities, supporting businesses such as milling, welding, and food processing. Financial services are linked to electricity use, allowing firms to access credit based on consumption data. Security efforts have been adapted to respond more quickly to threats to villages, often alongside economic projects. These elements form what de Merode describes as a competing economy. The aim is to shift incentives by creating viable alternatives to extractive and conflict-linked activities. The Green Corridor (Couloir vert Kivu-Kinshasa), established in 2025, extends this model beyond the park, linking eastern production with western markets while maintaining forest cover. The effort faces challenges. Conflict persists, infrastructure is vulnerable, and political dynamics remain unresolved. Even so, the approach tests whether conservation can be tied to an economic system that depends on keeping forests healthy and productive. 🌱 The interview: https://lnkd.in/g4Fi-jB3 📸 Silverback mountain gorilla killed in Virunga in 2007. Photo by Brent Stirton/Getty Images.

For decades, the investment model in Africa has been simple: extract resources, export profits, leave almost nothing behind. Mining companies strip the land. Big agriculture takes the yield. Foreign capital flows in, and the returns flow straight back out to London, New York, and Dubai. The continent has often been treated as a balance sheet to be optimised, not a place where people are trying to build lives. We opened our Cape Town office about two years ago. I'll be honest - when we first set it up, my thinking was mostly operational - better time zone coverage, that sort of thing. But having a team on the ground in Africa means that we also have a real responsibility to do something other than extract. GoCab is a good example of what that can look like. It's a London-based startup that sells vehicles to taxi drivers and couriers across Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal, and Morocco. Drivers pay daily instalments over 3 years, with maintenance and insurance included. At the end, the car is theirs. Before GoCab, most of these drivers had no path to ownership. They leased from hire companies, built zero equity, and owned nothing no matter how many years they worked. Now they're earning around $500 a month - roughly 4x the local minimum wage. Once the car is paid off, net monthly income can exceed $1,000. GoCab has over 120 staff across 5 countries, $17m in annual recurring revenue, and just closed a $45m round. Forbes covered it this week - link in the comments. I'm also pleased to share that the USD Income Fund at Cur8 Capital also deploys into this opportunity. Capital from our investors flows into a financing facility, which flows into a vehicle, which flows into a driver's hands in Abidjan - who then feeds his family, hires his cousin, and starts building real wealth for the first time. That is what ethical investing in Africa could look like. Not extraction. Capital that builds something and leaves people better off than it found them, and also generates a decent return for investors. If you're interested in learning more about investing into the USD Income Fund, the link is in the comments alongside the Forbes piece. As always, please keep me and rest of the Cur8 team in your prayers 🤲

African financial institutions (think pension funds and the like) hold a whopping $4 trillion. But they invest that money in things like US treasuries instead of African infrastructure. Samaila Zubairu, CEO of Africa Finance Corporation, sees that misalignment as the real crisis. And the foreign aid collapse? He calls it an opportunity. "I'm actually happy it happened," he told me last week. That's a jarring thing to say when hospitals lost funding and health workers lost jobs. He knows it. But his point cuts deeper: in his view, the aid model kept Africa dependent while African capital sat idle, financing someone else's development. Samaila’s focus is forward: redirecting African capital to roads, power grids, and other infrastructure that transforms economies. His prescription for multilateral banks and others? Stop trying to do everything yourselves. "Partner with us instead." That principle came up repeatedly last week at The World Bank and International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings. At InterAction, Tessie San Martin shared with me the need for a new model of development – African institutions leading complex deals, shared systems that eliminate duplication, competition based on cost per outcome. Perhaps a real conversation is shifting in this sector from "can Africa lead?" to "are multilaterals ready to really partner instead of control?” #development #finance #africa

There is a notable shift happening in how we see informal economies: from seeing them as deficient and as lab-like environments to launch experiments to seeing them as thriving ecosystems of existing solutions that work. African societies are experiencing an accelerating urbanization boom. Where will the necessary skills and jobs come from for the youth and the new migrants? We argue that solutions already exist, plenty of them, and they are to be found within informal economies of Africa's vibrant cities. In this article, we leverage and apply the Asset-Based Approach to Business in pursuit of Socio-Economic Vibrancy. Interested? Here are four opportunities to reframe our mindsets and tools. 1️⃣ Redirect the portfolio approach: Reframing the portfolio approach to be asset informed, rather than problem centered, opens an opportunity to identify a range of collective solutions that already exist in an informal economy. 2️⃣ Recognize human development in informal economies: Strengthening the ability of urban informal economies to absorb the large projected influx of migrants to African cities may mean investigating informal apprenticeship systems and identifying ways to enhance their capacity to train and accommodate more workers. 3️⃣ Build and collaborate with community-based organizations that prioritize research: We see an opportunity for long-term research capacity to be developed through research-driven, community-based organizations....As many such organizations already exist across the African continent, development efforts must therefore support these organizations as they build inductive research capacity, which can be more cost-effective than broad, multisite interventions and can also, importantly, generate critical and unexpected insights. 4️⃣ Demarcate formalization, professionalization, and growth: An asset-based approach is not necessarily at odds with formalization, business professionalization, or growth. Rather, these transformations should happen without undermining existing social and economic support systems. 🍀 Open access article: https://lnkd.in/eEkQSqeE Joint work with Joel Bothello published in Stanford Social Innovation Review where we synthesize our recent publications in Journal of Business Venturing and Organization Science. #informal #informaleconomies #cities #Africa #business #econdev

Last week, a #whatsapp making the rounds compared the number of #cows in #Netherlands (3.8m) to numbers in #Kenya- (23.5m) and #Nigeria (20.9m). What was particularly #depressing was that despite this, the Netherlands produces 14.5bn litres of milk, compared to 4.5bn in Kenya and 0.53bn in Nigeria! Milk yield per cow, per day is 29 lts, Kenya 8.5lt and Nigeria 2.3 lts. Netherlands is one of the world’s leading #exporters of #dairy products, around $10bn in 2021. In #Africa, we have the land, cattle, all the ingredients and yet are net #importers? It’s not that we didn’t have a plan. Looking at Sessional Paper No. 10 of 1965, which led to Kenya’s Vision 2030, #agriculture was defined as the backbone of the economy, with #industrialisation as a vital complement to agriculture, with #valueaddition, import substitution leading to #job creation etc. Look where we are today- huge unemployment, high food imports, hunger etc? Where do we go from here? With the added burden of #climate change? The Netherlands model, few large scale dairy farms producing milk efficiently, high productivity, economies of scale, export oriented market is difficult to replicate in Africa where majority of the farms are small-holders etc. Given land issues, cultural sensitivities, what can be the way forward? Perhaps going back to first principles, what worked for us before? Compared to the West, we are a more collective, #community driven society. Most of our pre-colonisation farming was extremely #sustainable, from simple irrigation systems in Taita Hills and the slopes of Mount Kenya, terracing to prevent soil erosion, natural soil regeneration, agro-pastoralism, crop diversity, chosen for resilience to local climatic conditions and nutritional value. What if we combined the old with the new? #Traditional, sustainable practices, community power combined with #youth and #technology? Imagine a #future where today’s #subsistence farmer is tomorrow’s #landlord, earning enough money and doing something they find interesting. Picture a young local #agripreneur managing several farms profitably, leveraging technology, driven by demand for #sustainable production, followed by industrialization and value addition. That image, of African agriculture instead of the poor, old mama farmer image with a sack on her back? Could this be the #third way? Not subsistence farming characterized by #unproductivity and #poverty, nor #largescale farming with its own set of issues, but something uniquely African, #sustainable, and #scalable?