F-Squared Podcast

Why does it take five days and $30 to move money from Mexico to the US, or Nigeria to China? In a world of instant communication, the "black hole" of correspondent banking is still swallowing billions in fees and lost time.
Kirill Gertmann, CEO of Conduit, is a 20-year fintech veteran who spent years in traditional banking before diving into crypto. After surviving the 2022 DeFi collapse without losing a cent of client funds, he pivoted Conduit from a "yield" platform to a "utility" powerhouse. Today, Conduit is the "Money Movement Operating System" helping businesses and banks bypass the 1970s-era SWIFT architecture.
This episode deconstructs the strategic shift from speculative DeFi to practical cross-border execution. Kirill explains the "stablecoin sandwich" model, the reality of "hard mode" jurisdictions, how Africa is likely to be their biggest geography by end of 2026, and why the ultimate "SWIFT killer" isn't a new coin, but a superior distribution network. We explore why Tier 2 banks are the next big frontier for stablecoin adoption and why CBDCs are likely a dead end.

In This Episode, You Will Hear:
The Pivot: How the 2022 crypto crash forced a move from DeFi yield to solving the "on-ramp" problem in Latin America.

The "Stablecoin Sandwich": Why the most successful fintechs abstract crypto away so CFOs only see fiat-to-fiat results.

Bypassing SWIFT: Why Tier 2 banks are desperate for an alternative to the "bottleneck" of correspondent banking.

The Africa Growth Story: Why Nigeria has a "higher pain point" than Mexico, how partnering with local fintechs scales growth and how Africa will be their largest geography by end of 2026.

The Network Moat: Why Tether (USDT) dominates the Global South and why "distribution beats yield" every time.

The Compliance Hurdle: How to balance aggressive growth with the "boring stuff" like SOC2 and rigorous KYB.

Key Quote: "Most crypto use cases were speculative. We wanted to build something people would actually use every day... The only moat in payments is the network. Visa and Mastercard are successful because of their network and distribution, not secret technology."
Connect with Us:
Samora Kariuki (Host): https://www.linkedin.com/in/samorakariuki/

Kirill Gertmann (Guest): https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirillgertman/

Frontier Fintech: https://frontierfintech.substack.com/

Why does Nigeria have 120 million people with digital identities but only 70 million with bank accounts? Despite a decade of growth, the "last mile" of financial inclusion remains a stubborn red ocean.

Samora Kariuki sits down with Olu Akanmu, a rare leader who has navigated the "commercial battlefield" at the highest levels of telcos, Tier-1 banks, and scale-up fintechs (OPay). From his work with EFInA to his current role in academia at Lagos Business School, Olu brings a balanced perspective on why Nigeria’s fintech journey looks so different from the rest of the continent.

This episode is a masterclass in the structural realities of the Nigerian market. Olu deconstructs the "Banking Lobby" that slowed mobile money, the friction between competing national identity systems (BVN vs. NIN), and why the next phase of fintech must move from simple payments to deep credit integration. He also provides a candid critique of "generic" late-stage fintech strategies and the internal politics that kill bank-led innovation.

In This Episode, You Will Hear:
The Banking Lobby vs. Telcos: A behind-the-scenes look at why mobile money struggled to launch in Nigeria and how fintechs filled the gap.
The Prosperity Paradox: Why financial inclusion cannot scale in Northern Nigeria without solving for economic inclusion first.
Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI): The missed opportunity of siloed identity and payment systems (BVN vs. NIN).
Open Banking & the Credit Gap: Why payments grew 30% but credit only 4%, and how Open Banking can bridge that divide.
Late-Stage Consolidation: Why "regulatory arbitrage" is ending and how fintechs must find "uncontested markets" to survive.
The "Frigate Elephant" Problem: Why bank-led fintech subsidiaries often fail due to traditional banking mindsets.
The "Peak Mobile Money" Myth: Why declining agent revenues are actually a sign of a maturing digital ecosystem.

"Strategy begins with looking at your unique capabilities... You cannot come in as a late entrant offering a generic proposition and expect to scale in a contested market."

Connect with Us:
Samora Kariuki (Host): https://www.linkedin.com/in/samorakariuki/
Olu Akanmu (Guest): https://www.linkedin.com/in/olu-akanmu-88280a/
Frontier Fintech: frontierfintech.substack.com

Insurance penetration in Kenya has hovered at 2% for decades. Why? Because the industry tries to sell annual policies to people who earn daily wages. It’s a relevance problem, not a demand problem.
Bente Krogman didn't start in fintech. She grew up in a German village of 300 people, managed mosquito net logistics in Tanzania, and launched a car wash in Nairobi. That grit led her to found M-Tek, an Insurtech that pivoted from a B2C marketplace to a B2B2C orchestration platform. In 2026, M-Tek was acquired by global Insurtech unicorn Bolttech, a rare and significant exit in the Kenyan tech ecosystem.
In this episode, Samora Kariuki sits down with Bente to decode the journey from "idea to exit." They discuss the brutal reality of B2C customer acquisition costs, why "embedded insurance" is the only path to scale, and the specific unit economics that make micro-insurance profitable (hint: it’s not the 10-shilling premiums).
In This Episode, You Will Hear:
The Origin Story: How running a manual car wash in Nairobi taught Bente the fundamentals of African business.

The Pivot: Why MTek moved from a B2C marketplace to a B2B2C "embedded" model to solve the trust deficit.

Unit Economics: Why the "middle segment" (500 KES premiums) is more profitable than ultra-micro products.

The "Netflix" Problem: Why complex claims processes kill insurance adoption faster than price. Hint - How long does it take to pay for your Netflix subscription that costs the same as a Micro-insurance premium?

Partnership Strategy: How to sell to incumbents by focusing on their distribution headaches.

The Exit: Inside the acquisition by Bolttech, why it was a "people decision" over a commercial one.

Key Quote: "If you cannot explain a micro-insurance product to me in 20 seconds, it is not a product. Just because it is cheap doesn't mean people will buy it if the process is like buying a car."
Connect with Us:
Samora Kariuki (Host): https://www.linkedin.com/in/samorakariuki/

Bente Krogman (Guest): https://www.linkedin.com/in/bente-krogmann/

Frontier Fintech: https://frontierfintech.substack.com/

Most banks and fintechs misunderstand the problem at the last mile. They build "Supply Chain Finance" to fund invoices, assuming the sale has happened. But Fred Njogu explains that the real problem is the lost sale: the customer is at the counter, the demand is real, but the shopkeeper didn't have the cash that morning to stock the product.
The Story: Fred Njogu, COO of Correlaction, is a "reformed engineer" who spent years optimizing distribution for Coca-Cola and Unilever. In this episode, he deconstructs why traditional banking models fail informal retailers and why the solution isn't lending, it's "smoothing the order-to-cash cycle."
The Deep Dive: This conversation corrects a fundamental category error. Fred explains that manufacturers (Anchors) don't have a supply chain problem, their distribution is highly organized. The issue is the "Cash Trap" at the retailer level. He details how Correlaction uses data to help merchants "buy what they can sell, not just what they can afford," effectively financing the inventory gap to prevent stockouts.
In This Episode, You Will Hear:
The "Supply Chain Finance" Misconception: Why the gap isn't about financing the supply chain, but solving the working capital constraint that causes stockouts.

The "Look in the Drawer" Moment: The decision-making process of a retailer who has 5,000 shillings but needs 7,000 worth of stock.

Order-to-Cash Smoothing: How to design a product that allows retailers to fulfill actual market demand rather than their limited cash capacity.

Unit Economics of the Last Mile: Why a $2 order cannot be delivered by a truck, and the specific math of distribution costs.

Why Credit Cards Failed: A lesson on why 16-digit cards and 30-minute till processes destroy sales in a high-velocity environment.

Monetizing "Idle Assets": Using historical purchase data as "goodwill" to underwrite risk without physical collateral.

The "Fragmentation" Trap: Why African markets fragment rather than consolidate, and the economic incentives behind it.

Active vs. Passive Distribution: The difference between a wholesaler "sitting on a high chair" and a distributor who controls the outlet.

Key Quote: 
"The demand is there, and because... you don't have enough working capital, you end up losing the opportunities... It's not really a supply chain finance issue. It's more of a working capital... You can buy what you can sell tomorrow, not buy what you can afford today."

Connect with Us:
Samora Kariuki (Host): https://www.linkedin.com/in/samorakariuki/

Fred Njogu (Guest): https://www.linkedin.com/in/frednjogu/

Frontier Fintech: www.frontierfintech.substack.com

Why do 30% of transactions in South Africa fail? And more importantly, why do merchants often get nothing but a generic error message when it happens?
Jonatan Allback, CEO of Njiapay, joins Samora Kariuki to deconstruct the "black hole" of African payments.
The conversation starts with the origin story of Njiapay, originally built as an internal tool to fix low conversion rates for the calling app Talk360. Jonatan breaks down the technical reality of the African payments stack, explaining why "orchestration" isn't just a buzzword, it’s the only way for mid-market companies to navigate the fragmented landscape of gateways, processors, and banks.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
The 20% Revenue Gap: Why African authorization rates lag behind the global average and how to fix it.

The "Waiter" Analogy: A clear definition of the difference between a Gateway, a Processor, and an Acquiring Bank.

The Talk360 Pivot: How a consumer app turned their biggest operational headache into a B2B fintech solution.

Orchestration 101: Why relying on a single PSP (like Paystack or Peach) often isn't enough for scaling companies.

The Fragmentation Trap: Why "Full Stack" control is nearly impossible in Africa, and how to navigate the alternative.