Bridging the Gap Between East and West: Tech, Investments, and Global Impact with Sherif Nessim

[00:00:00] You're listening to the Unlocking Africa podcast. Rise in the interest from the African diaspora to know more about their origins and start supporting entrepreneurs and founders in Africa. Stay tuned as we bring you inspiring people who are unlocking

[00:00:45] Africa's economic potential. You're listening to the Unlocking Africa podcast with your host, Terser Adamu. Welcome to the Unlocking Africa podcast where we find amazing people who are doing amazing things to unlock Africa's economic potential. Today, we have another special guest. We have Sherif Nessim,

[00:01:10] who is a technology professional with over 24 years of experience and is also founder of Jadar Capital, which is an Africa-focused VC firm focusing on early-stage startups from pre-seed to Series A. Welcome to the podcast, Sherif. How are you? Hi Terser. I'm good. Happy to be with you today.

[00:01:35] It's great to have you on the podcast. How's your day going? Yeah, good. Just starting the day so yeah, fresh and you know ready. Brilliant. As you know, I always like to start a podcast from the beginning. So I was hoping

[00:01:51] you could introduce yourself and tell us a bit more about Sherif Nessim. Yeah, so I'm Sherif Nessim. I'm born and raised in Egypt. I'm an engineer by education. So I've done electrical engineering back in Egypt. I've worked all my life in technology. It's my

[00:02:09] passion really. I mean, looking at technology and how we can solve our problems or help us lead a better life. I've been working in emerging markets since I graduated. I joined first a technology company. It's called RASCUM Telecom. It's in Egypt. Working in emerging markets in

[00:02:28] North Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh and some parts of Africa. So I joined them early on after graduation back in 1998. Sounds very old. So I spent like six or seven years in the enterprise sector first and then I moved to the telecom world in 2005, joining one of their subsidiaries.

[00:02:53] So I spent most of my career early on working and understanding emerging markets, different regions like Southeast Asia, North Africa, Middle East and Africa. But again, I developed my understanding for, I would say the underserved and how technology can help

[00:03:12] these communities that is definitely full of problems and infrastructure issues and so on where technology is key to solve problems there and definitely make our lives better. Thank you for that. So you've given us great insights in terms of born and raised in Egypt.

[00:03:31] You're an engineer, worked in technology with a focus on emerging markets, which has led you to what you're doing now. You've found out JIDAR Capital. Can you tell us about the company and the work that you're currently doing in Africa?

[00:03:48] Yeah, of course. I started JIDAR Capital back in 2020 when I moved to the States. So before that I lived all my life and worked out of Egypt, traveling a lot across emerging markets. But 2020, I decided to move from being a technology operator to a technology investor. So 2020,

[00:04:11] I started JIDAR Capital here in US when I moved. And in the beginning, it's not really a fund. It was more of a network connecting individuals that are interested to understand more about emerging markets and specifically Africa and invest into startups there. For me, it was more

[00:04:32] of a bridge between the West and I would say the global South in general, the emerging markets like Africa and Southeast Asia. And these essentially are the areas or the geographies

[00:04:45] where I used to work with Roscombe. So I wanted to capitalize on this and leverage on my network and connections and understanding of these regions and try to help the startups coming out of this

[00:04:59] area. So we've been operating as a syndicate for the past three years, focusing on early stage startups in different sectors. We were really sector agnostic looking at different areas and sectors across this geographies. And we've done already around 18 investments

[00:05:20] the past two years and a half or three years now. The majority are in Africa. So we've done maybe four or five in Southeast Asia and million Pakistan and Bangladesh, but the rest of the investments

[00:05:32] are focused all over Africa, Northeast, Southwest. So that's the focus now we're trying to shift and move into being a VC firm with a VC fund that we're currently raising. The focus will change

[00:05:47] a little bit so probably will focus more into exclusively on Africa rather than emerging markets in general. And we're looking at specific sectors as well. So that's about the company and how I shifted or moved from being into technology operator and transforming into

[00:06:07] technology investors. Fantastic. So you mentioned that you started a company in 2020 when you moved to the States. What was the motivation behind this move? The move was actually personal. So it wasn't like the plan to leave the region and come here

[00:06:24] to US and start the firm if I'm investing into back in the Middle East and the measure markets. So it was really family and personal reasons. But still, I see the silver lining behind it because

[00:06:37] again, my aim when I came here and started Jadak capital was to focus on trying to be the bridge as I said between the West and the East. And I think being physically here present in the

[00:06:53] States and trying to speak to a lot of people were interested to invest in the region back in Africa or even just understand them get to know more about what's going on in Africa and

[00:07:05] the tech startup scene and so on. I think being physically present here and maybe getting to meet people and so on apart from of course, I came during COVID. So maybe the first

[00:07:16] year it was online anyways. But I think later on when we started to get into in person again in 2021 or 2022, I think it made a difference when you're trying to speak to people and bring them

[00:07:36] like the experience of what Africa looks like now and what's going on there and why it is a region where I mean, everybody should consider like investing in especially if you're into

[00:07:50] emerging markets. So I think physically being here, it made a difference and I would say that yeah, that have been the silver lining for me moving here as well. Interesting. So how have you found

[00:08:02] it managing an Africa focus VC firm whilst being based in the States? It's actually during COVID it has proved I think that the model works most of the VCs and the investors I think

[00:08:17] when COVID happened, they thought that probably they would slow down because they're used to either the startup need to fly and we need to sit and speak together on the table in person or we have

[00:08:29] to go as well and explore different opportunities. But a lot of people actually or I would say all VCs, they didn't stop actually investing and they kept investing without meeting the founders.

[00:08:43] And this has been like now the norm. But again, I think an important factor for me is that I consider myself still there in the region. Again, having worked there for more than 25 years before moving to the States, my network is there, my connections is there, the understanding

[00:09:05] that I've built to the region, how business is operating there, how the scene is and so on. I think this kept me close. I think I'm still very close now. I mean, every morning when I got up,

[00:09:19] I mean my agenda is calls and zoom calls with the region. It's either I'm going to call with like a startup in Africa, Nigeria or in Kenya or in Egypt and so on. So I'm still very

[00:09:33] connected. So I don't think that yeah, being here is a challenge for me working with African startups or companies from the region. So outside of say some of the challenges of managing the VC

[00:09:47] firm outside of the continent, what challenges have you had to overcome in order to create a fund that is targeted at the African market? I had mixed I would say experiences in this regard. So again, I mean, it depends on who are you targeting in terms of investors.

[00:10:06] Again, working with investors here when I came in the beginning, I found out that yeah, people, they don't know about Africa. The word ends at Europe and then it's very hard and it's very

[00:10:18] great to find people who understand really what's going on in emerging markets and so on. So I think it was mixed experiences. There was this one on one side, there was this, I would say rise in the interest from the African diaspora to know more about their origins,

[00:10:36] look into Africa and start supporting entrepreneurs and founders in Africa again. And on the other side, there was the traditional I would say investors that I'm targeting to tell them about Africa and educate them. So it was a lot of education for this, I would say,

[00:10:54] letter group. And that was okay. I knew that this building this, it needs to have like a long-term approach when I was trying to build the network of investors in the syndicate, in JADAR Capital Syndicate. So at the beginning we were doing a lot of

[00:11:15] educational webinars. We're not presenting any startup, we're just discussing specific topics around Africa. So just to get them to know understand, I mean, we're discussing the mobile penetration and how for example, mobile money is in Africa is one of the

[00:11:32] leading regions globally. So it was more of educational sessions and webinar just to get them to understand more about Africa. And then later on, gradually, I mean, you get these investors excited about the regions and many of them actually have been doing the first investment

[00:11:53] outside the US through JADAR Capital in Africa. And this was one of my targets actually and one of the things that I was keen on. I wanted to be the bridge as I said, and they wanted to

[00:12:04] be the vehicle to enable people who are interested into the continent, but maybe they don't have access to come and be able to invest and look at startups and support startups in the region through this

[00:12:17] vehicle JADAR Capital Syndicate. So you mentioned one of the challenges is that people don't know much about Africa and a lot of education was required. So what's some common misconceptions or challenges you've observed when Western investors are looking at the African market?

[00:12:40] I think one of the things is they look at Africa as one big country. Yes. And they don't realize that they need to understand definitely the local culture and market in every country actually

[00:12:54] they will approach. Every country is different and even some people think that okay, I mean, we understand that regions are different and they start to look at main regions like East Africa,

[00:13:06] West Africa, North Africa, South and so on. And they think that each of these four main regions, they come with a common set of characteristics which is not true again even on the East side

[00:13:19] of Africa. I mean, every country is really different and they need to look at each country alone with the understanding that they need definitely to focus on the expansion. So it's looking into a specific country to start with and then trying to understand the natural expansion.

[00:13:38] And that's the edge of Africa as well is it's a huge population. So whenever you start in a single country, that's not the end that you're tapping into the entry point for the market

[00:13:53] that you are targeting and then later on you try to understand another country, different culture, adapt the product and expand. And sooner you I mean these startups can be operating in maybe

[00:14:06] seven or eight or nine countries or even more. Another thing is which I think it's a misconception as well that they think that ready and off the shelf products and solutions that maybe launched

[00:14:20] in elsewhere in the world like in Europe or US or maybe other emerging markets as well can work. I mean it's easily or without localization where I think that you need to look at the specifics of the

[00:14:35] country and adapt even proven business models or successful products in other areas. You need to adapt it because I think it's totally different. And that's why I think that most of the successful companies are actually homegrown solutions across Africa. And this is something

[00:14:55] I think that investors have started to realize and understand about the content. I agree. I guess a lot of the misconceptions are built around their perception to risk in Africa. So how do you approach risk assessments and risk management when considering potential

[00:15:14] investment opportunities in African startups? Again, it reflects as part of the due diligence that we do. So again, VC in general, so venture capital investments is risky by nature regardless of the place. So I mean, it's as risky as investing in Europe or anything. But definitely

[00:15:36] there are some specific that is reflected in the kind of diligence that we do given the specific challenges to Africa. So one of these challenges I think that is maybe specific into Africa is sometimes the lack of capital. So to mitigate this risk, you need to understand

[00:15:56] as well the kind of capital, this startup or the business model that this startup in Africa is adopting. You need to be very careful in I would say capital intensive startups because

[00:16:08] again, you need to think in the future and consider as well that capital can be scarce at any point of time as opposed to maybe other areas or other regions like in Europe or US. So I think it's

[00:16:22] part of I would say the risk management itself or the assessment is part of the due diligence where you look at the business model, the market size and so on and the details of

[00:16:34] the business model, the unit economics and how fast is this startup able to be kind of sustainable and not being too prone to I would say the need to keep going and raise more and more capital

[00:16:50] in the future to keep going. Definitely. I guess before you carry out risk assessment and management for investments, you need to have startups ready to invest in. So how do you tend to identify or build your pipeline of promising early stage startups for investment?

[00:17:09] I think the past three years working as a syndicate and investing as well. So we've invested, as I said in 18 startup the past three years, 14 of them actually are in Africa. So we have already

[00:17:22] developed a relation with a lot of founders. So the 14 founders that we invested in plus of course the other founders that we looked at before investing in these 14. So we have like a network of founders that bring us actually deals and refer deals 50% now or even more

[00:17:41] of the startups are actually furrows from within our network there, whether founders or other local VC firms or accelerators on the ground. Also I used to travel a lot. So I mean at least every quarter somewhere in Africa, some still very close to the ecosystem players in different

[00:18:01] areas. And I try actually every quarter to at least visit one new country in Africa that I've never visited before just to understand it spend some time on the ground connect to the local

[00:18:14] players there, which again feeds into the pipeline. And it's important. I mean to be sure that you have local partners or local people that you trust on the ground once you're starting to

[00:18:26] develop your pipeline. So that's yeah, that's how we went about it. And I think now we have access to a decent pipeline that is strong and initially vetted from local people across the continent where we focus with different countries where we focus at. Brilliant. So you mentioned that

[00:18:46] a lot of the startups in your pipeline come from your local partners and people on the ground. When you get to that stage of moving companies from pipeline to potential investments, what factors do you consider when selecting these companies that you're interested in supporting?

[00:19:06] Definitely founders. So it's always the people. So founders, founders, founders, we spend a lot of time trying to understand the personality and the people themselves before even looking into the product or what they're building. We need to understand how they operate. I spend the first

[00:19:26] call with any founder without them pitching the product. We just speak, I get to know them, they get to know me. And I always think that there is a far more important step before

[00:19:39] looking into product market fit and whether there is a need for this product or not, which is the investor founder fit. So it's very important to spend some time understanding the founders

[00:19:51] as and connecting to them as human beings. And also for them to get to know me as well and my journey and as an individual. I mean, it's not as as the dark capital, but I want them to

[00:20:04] understand and know more about Shiaif. And I want to know more about them. And we make sure that there is this chemistry that we can work together and look at specific traits as well of understanding

[00:20:18] whether this is a kind of person that can be resilient. Definitely, it's a tough journey building a startup and there will be a lot of downs. And you need to assess the founders

[00:20:31] on this aspect. So that's the first thing that probably I spend a lot of time in. And if we feel that yeah, there is this, I would say the investor founder fit, we move and look into the product.

[00:20:43] So definitely the business model is something we look at the unit economics, we need to look at the business that can be sustainable in the future. So maybe it needs funding for the first

[00:20:53] two or three years, but then it can reach where it can generate enough revenue to keep going. Maybe without funding, they will slowly grow, but still they can survive. And then you can

[00:21:05] put the capital just to help them grow fast. The market size as well. It's one crucial area that we look at. We don't like products that are built to address niche markets. We love the approach

[00:21:19] of building for the bottom of the pyramid or the masses. So we need to look at a huge target market, also the capability of this team as well as product to expand beyond the country where

[00:21:34] they started. So even if there's let's say starting in Kenya or Nigeria or Uganda or wherever, we assess a lot whether this solution can be replicated and it's not a problem specific to this country,

[00:21:48] but it's something that can actually expand into many countries across Africa. So these are the main factors that we look at once we get excited about a specific startup that we can consider investing in. Interesting. So earlier you mentioned that you've invested in 18 startups in

[00:22:07] the last two years. So far, how much capital have you deployed to African startups? So collectively, I mean as a syndicate, as I said for the 18 investments that we have done, we deployed close

[00:22:20] to $3 million and I think probably close to 2 million were actually in 13 or 14 startups in Africa. Brilliant. And which sectors do these startups tend to be in and why? For this syndicate, consciously we decided to be sector agnostic for the past three years

[00:22:43] and I personally wanted to do investments in different sectors to understand the scene in Africa, get exposed to different sectors and also to discover which sector I can support better than others. So for me, I was keen to explore different. I mean we've done

[00:23:03] FinTech, e-commerce, logistics, mobility and transportation. We've done things around health tech. We've even done a biotech company, which is definitely it's a domain that it's tough to do and hard definitely for Africa. But yeah, I mean we've even done that as well. So

[00:23:23] again, we've looked into different sectors the past three years. Now we're trying to maybe focus a little bit more again, having built this experience, understanding about the markets, understanding about the sectors where we are able to definitely support and bring value

[00:23:39] to the startups or our portfolio companies. We started to focus on specific sectors now that we're moving into the fund. So you touched on something, Kida, which was in terms of your ability to bring value to the startups that you're working with. So how do you believe

[00:23:57] Jidar Capital differs from other Africa-focused VCs and what value do you believe that you add to these startups? Yeah, I think I'm trying to bring different value. I think the leverage that I come from an operator background that have worked on the ground in Africa and Middle East

[00:24:18] and in emerging markets in general, I think this is one of the key advantages or differentiators against other VCs who they understand investment but not necessarily have done it or I mean as

[00:24:31] an operator or operated the company. So this is one of the things I'm trying to leverage on, as I said, spending more than 24 years working in the continent. That's one of the areas. Again,

[00:24:44] the network we're trying to leverage our network and connections. So we help as well on the business development side. So especially in specific sectors, that's why we decided to focus on a specific sector. So again, business development efforts that we can support the

[00:25:02] startups on by connecting them to maybe specific corporates across Africa that can come in as partners, maybe channel and distribution partners, mobile operators where I spent most of my career actually building relations with different telcos across the areas. So we're

[00:25:22] trying to bring this network and value to the portfolio companies. We're also, I mean as a team, we're trying to build as well, I would say practice around PR and communication, which is something we think that a lot of startups lack. Now when you search for any startup,

[00:25:43] the only article you will find probably is the raise announcements. That's it. But you never find them positioning themselves as subject matter experts where you can find like article or piece of literature, speaking about what they're doing, the industry,

[00:26:04] analyzing the sector where they are, which is important. So this is something as well we're trying to figure out how to build it. I mean, I have a partner now that joined the fund as

[00:26:16] well. She's focused on the PR and strategic communication, and she's trying to build this practice and see how she can develop a strategic plan for all portfolio companies that we invest in

[00:26:30] so that they are in the press on the spotlight, but not necessarily only when there is, but to position themselves as founders and as team as a company, as well as people who understand

[00:26:44] the sector that they are in and bring knowledge and analytics and data and insights on this industry as well. So there are different, as I said, different aspects and different parts that we're trying to put together to position ourselves as new things differently

[00:27:04] than other VCs. That's great to hear. So you touched on your ability to leverage and your experience as an operator, business development and also your network. So I was wondering if you could share some success stories of, say, startups that JIDAR Capital has

[00:27:20] invested in and how your involvement has potentially contributed to their growth? I think one of the edges that we've been able to do is to leverage the cross-pollination cross partnerships between different startups. Again, we've made several connections

[00:27:41] between different startups that actually were complementary to each other. So they're not necessarily competing, but in a lot of cases actually when they partner together, each in its own country actually were able to expand faster and instead of maybe developing a specific

[00:28:00] part or addressing a specific area, growing through partnership is something that is, for me, I'm a big believer in this and I've practiced this actually during my career at the Telco company where I worked, where in a lot of cases actually we launched products through

[00:28:20] strategic partners in different countries. So I did a lot of this like connecting startups together in different countries to complement each other. I think also the support that we give whenever things go bad as well is, for me, one of the success stories was this stage

[00:28:42] where a company needed to think about the pivot and how we can change our positioning in the market and being there and trying to help them and then seeing that they can walk through it

[00:28:56] and get out with the new model. This is something as well that I'm proud that we were involved. I remember one of these companies actually, I was in Kenya at that time and we spent me

[00:29:09] and the founder like two or three hours at their office. The founder went to the whiteboard and he kept thinking how to reach a better positioning for the product as they were considering to

[00:29:24] pivot due to several I would say changes in the markets at that time. So yeah, these are some of the support that we have been doing to startups. Fantastic. So it's clear that you have great

[00:29:39] insight into what makes an investable startup and how a startup should position itself in order to successfully raise money. So what advice would you give to African startups who are looking to raise capital or investment? Number one, I think to be grounded humble and reasonable.

[00:30:00] I mean in terms of how fast in the beginning they want to raise and go and raise big amounts of money and so on. One of the things in Africa is that you can do a lot with less compared to

[00:30:13] other regions. So I always encourage them to go for small raises in the beginning like maybe a small pre-seed round, work towards a defined set of KPIs or milestones once they get there

[00:30:29] they move to the other round because a lot of startups they get excited and they want to raise like a big amount of money. They spend a lot of time there raising sometimes more than six,

[00:30:41] seven months in the beginning which is a time that definitely they should spend on building the product and maybe trying different iterations of the product. So I always tell them especially early on when you're doing your first round or maybe the second round really raise small

[00:30:58] rounds and make sure that you set for yourself a specific and clear and defined KPI or milestone that you want to hit before moving to the other step and it's always good as well from the

[00:31:11] perspective of the investors as well to see the company that they have achieved something with the capital that there is before. It's very important so to communicate this as well to the investors that we have raised this amount even if it's a family and friend round and

[00:31:28] we moved and we achieved this milestone and now we're raising to do this or this new milestone and so on. So yeah these are I think the main advices I would give to specifically early stage startups that are looking to raise capital.

[00:31:46] That's great advice for startups who might be interested in approaching you. What are your future investment plans? Do you have any plans of raising another fund for additional investment? Yeah now we're raising now already our first fund so as I said we've moved from

[00:32:04] investing out of the syndicate the past three years and now we're transforming into a VC firm essentially with the first fund and definitely there would be definitely fund two and so on but

[00:32:14] yeah currently we're almost in the first close for the fund and probably by end of the year we'll start to deploy out of the fund. Brilliant and this fund will be specifically Africa focused?

[00:32:28] Yeah it is Africa focused and yeah we're looking at specific sectors as well so it has a specific mandate around Africa as well. So I guess for people who are listening who are wondering what is the

[00:32:41] buzz or what is the advantage or opportunities in the African market from your perspective what would you say are the unique advantages and opportunities for startups operating in Africa compared to other parts of the world? I think the idea that Africa or the fact that Africa is really

[00:33:04] an untapped market in many areas so a lot of sectors actually are still in the very early beginning of being developed so this creates definitely a huge opportunity for startups to build different products and solutions addressing different problems. Another thing

[00:33:26] which is definitely a key driver about Africa as well is the huge and growing population and it's not only the number of the population but as well the demographics or the classification of this population which is I mean characterized by yeah it's the youngest population globally

[00:33:45] by 2050 I think Africa is expected to probably surpass 2.5 billion population that's huge and the majority of this is actually in the working age sector which means you know these are people who are tech savvy, they want to use technology, they want to work, they want to build stuff,

[00:34:06] they want to you know consume their customers and so on so I think that's a huge potential currently and for the future as well because I think Africa is the fastest growing and I think

[00:34:17] by 2050 they would be contributing I think more than 40% of the global working age people will be in Africa so that's huge, that creates as well a huge opportunity whether from the founder side like these people are the tech savvy people who will be building companies

[00:34:38] or even from the other side that these will be the consumers for the future so you look at a continent that has a huge market for even international companies to consider coming into and establish businesses there in Africa. So you touched on some key points there in terms

[00:34:56] of the huge opportunities for startups to find solutions, growing population as well so from your perspective which sectors or industries do you see as the most promising in terms of startups being able to make significant strides or the most impact?

[00:35:17] There are a lot of sectors I think again as I said it's an untapped market but I think for the next maybe 10 years I think there are some sectors that have shown that yeah

[00:35:28] needs to be looked at I think food security and agriculture that's the main sector for Africa it's important as well internally for the development and again given the huge growth in the population and the expectations to continue growing so I think

[00:35:49] that these are sectors that are important the food security and the agritek also I think climate and renewable energy we see a lot of energy problems across different countries like no sharing and power cuts and a lot of areas that actually they lack the traditional

[00:36:09] infrastructure the power infrastructure so again I think climate or renewable energy sector can solve you know problems like this and make sure that we're able to develop faster than the traditional I would say power infrastructure approach there are also the traditional I would

[00:36:30] say sector that have been which is the financial services I think it will remain a core and fundamental area because again that's the base or the building block for any kind of service I think we're just now seeing a shift towards empowering more the financial infrastructure

[00:36:49] rather than direct FinTech services like for example payment or buy now pay later and so on it's more now into the enablement and availing a financial infrastructure so startups are now trying to realize and build this more than building you know the new banks and the buy

[00:37:07] now pay later is and so on it's building infrastructure where people can tap into specific financial platforms and then they avail services so it's more into the embedded finance as I said and the financial infrastructure itself that can enable other platforms also I think with the

[00:37:27] African continental free trade agreement coming into effect last year I think a lot of attention will go towards the digital trade enabling platforms how we can enable trade to happen in a more efficient way whether in a single country or more essentially between

[00:37:48] different countries across Africa and I'm a big advocate of this again I think that we have an advantage that are really untapped and it's huge which is the cross border trade between African countries which is I think nonexistent now or I mean very minimum

[00:38:07] where the potential is there I mean a lot of goods can actually move between different countries across Africa if we have the right infrastructure I think the trade agreement has put maybe the

[00:38:19] you know the incentive part of it where there is now an agreement customs can be you know removed and so on but still we have issues around infrastructure that can be solved part of it

[00:38:32] from the startups part from the governments but again as I said digital trade enabling platforms so we need definitely to see this trade happening this cross border trade happening we need solutions like digital freight logistics supply chain you know platforms and companies warehousing

[00:38:50] fulfillment centers in different cities across a single country or even you know covering multiple countries to make sure that goods can move efficiently between one country to the other so I think yeah these are the main sectors that we are excited about we think that the next

[00:39:10] probably 10 15 years will see significant strides in these sectors and areas exciting so you touched on trends in areas such as food security climate energy and digital trade so if we stick to the theme of trends what are the most exciting and promising technology trends that

[00:39:31] you're currently seeing on the continent again as I said there is a move towards developing the infrastructure rather than the end service so a lot of startups now are trying to focus on

[00:39:46] how to build that's the major trend now how to build an infrastructure whether this is let's say logistics and supply chain infrastructure or a financial service infrastructure which is for me it's important because I think that's the next step into the development of Africa rather than

[00:40:05] pushing you know a consumer product and trying to get consumers to use this startups now are trying to build the infrastructure that enable other companies to come and build or come and maybe integrate or come and maybe start doing business if they're

[00:40:23] international company coming let's say from Europe or US and they want to do business so they tap into infrastructure plays to enable them to they want that they can do business when companies like this they come into the region they need to see you know there is

[00:40:38] an infrastructure for transportation for logistics for financial services how to manage their payments and so on so I think one of the keywords and key trends that I'm seeing now is building the infrastructure whether in the financial services sector or the digital trade which is as I said

[00:40:59] the freight the movement of goods movement of people movements of capital these are the main things that if it's there it's by itself it's an incentive or catalyst for other industries to

[00:41:13] striving so I think yeah that has been a major trend that I've started to see the past maybe two or three years awesome so if we look at it from the VC perspective what trends in Africa's VC space

[00:41:28] are you seeing that you're excited about I think we've seen a lot of funds African funds actually coming out the the past five years and I mean I'm one of them and I've seen a lot of actually funds

[00:41:45] being raised now locally from within Africa which is just I think very important because as much as we need definitely external capital like VCs from Europe and US and so on but we

[00:41:57] need to see a rise as well in the local VCs and the African founded VC firms which is something yeah we started to see the past few years and I think that's that's a trend that we're happy to see

[00:42:11] again the more VC local VC funds we see I think that's a better development and moving more towards a more mature I would say startup ecosystem across the content so it's something that I see as a

[00:42:27] very positive thing to be happening brilliant so if we move from trends and look at the future where do you see Africa's VC space in the next five years time I'm very optimistic in general

[00:42:42] but still as well I'm not a dreamer I understand the challenges I know there are a lot of challenges but I think we are at kind of a historical moment where I think the people's will

[00:42:56] the government's will to change things startups are starting to realize that and all three actually they're aligned that we are the change we need to see Africa different we need to take responsibility and take ownership of this rather than depend on external countries or aid or whatever

[00:43:18] from from the west to help ourselves so I'm very optimistic about the future and I think that with the rise as I said of local VCs across Africa I think the next five years there would be

[00:43:32] more I would say experienced and knowledgeable capital coming into the continent into African startups from African fund managers that definitely understand the specific of every country whether it's a local VC for example in Nigeria they understand Nigeria local VC in Egypt and so on

[00:43:52] so I think this will develop and transform the startups ecosystem and the future of Africa as well I agree if we look closer to home where do you see yourself and Jidha capital in five years time

[00:44:08] my focus is definitely Africa so I think the next five or ten years I would be spending time in Africa as I said to build a legacy VC firm and enduring VC firm it's not just the

[00:44:22] fund so probably we'll proceed and maybe move with other funds a larger like fund two and so on whether to invest in more startups early stage or maybe as well look at you know kind of move

[00:44:38] upstream a little bit and move towards the growth stage of the startups we're also have in mind to look in emerging markets in general but this is something maybe in a little bit far in the

[00:44:51] future but again the next five years definitely I want to be spending more time in Africa and definitely focus on supporting the companies that we are investing in now quote of the week as people we often have quote mantras proverbs or affirmations that keep us

[00:45:07] going when times are challenging or when times are good do you have one that you can share with us today a quote or a proverb I don't have something really in mind now but one of the

[00:45:21] affirmations that they have is driven from you know sports and athletes they have always been an inspiration to me and I always like to talk as well about Kobe Bryant as one of them yes because

[00:45:34] I think his journey is very similar to the founder journey or even as an investor as well raising and you know trying to build a VC firm from scratch and so on looking at this that

[00:45:49] you start to realize yeah consistency is key so you need to understand that you need to keep going and you will keep going by being consistent regardless you need to show up every day believe

[00:46:03] in the compounding effect I would say in this small progress today you make on a daily basis so every day even if you're doing very slightly better than the day before the compounding

[00:46:15] effect will mean that you will hit where you want to be just be consistent and focus on getting better every day and keep going don't stop regardless of the challenges they will have you will have a

[00:46:27] lot of challenges self-doubt you know the imposter syndrome you will have a lot of these during your journey so you need to get up in the morning every day and keep going and be consistent

[00:46:40] don't stop awesome fantastic thank you for sharing I'm a big fan of Kobe Bryant and his kind of philosophy and approach to life and sports yeah I love it yes thank you for that

[00:46:52] as we're at the end of today's conversation do you have any closing remarks find a course of action for people who are interested in the work that you're doing at Jidah Capital um no I mean

[00:47:03] thank you really for having me tercer and it has been like an exciting conversation I enjoyed it me too yeah I would close this again as I said I'm very optimistic very about the future of Africa

[00:47:19] we're very reachable I mean we're happy to speak to people whether people are interested to understand more about Africa and investing in Africa or founders who are building different solutions they can reach us out on the website or personally on my LinkedIn profile and you're happy

[00:47:38] to speak to people around Africa brilliant it's been a great conversation I've fully enjoyed it you've created an exciting company which has huge potential so I'm looking forward to seeing how things develop and a massive impact that you'll make on the continent so Sharif thank you for

[00:47:56] joining me on the podcast today thank you tercer thank you for having me it's been an absolute pleasure and we will speak soon looking forward thank you thank you to everyone who has listened and stayed

[00:48:09] tuned to the podcast if you've enjoyed this episode please subscribe share or tell a friend about it you can also rate with yours in apple podcast or wherever you download your podcast thank you and see you next week for the Unlocking Africa podcast