The Startup Club Podcast

• Abu Addae (LifeCheq): Transforming Financial Advice In Emerging Markets.

  In this episode, we're thrilled to sit down with Abu Addae, Co-Founder and CEO of LifeCheq - the South African fintech democratising access to financial advice and using AI to enable financial advisers to improve client experience and drive efficiency.Founded in 2015, LifeCheq is disrupting the multi-trillion rand financial services sector through it’s tech-first proposition that enhances the effectiveness and accessibility of financial advice in the South African market. The business has since has grown to a team of 75, serving over 200K users, and has raised more than R100m in venture capital, from the likes of Naspers, Futuregrowth and ARC Investments. With this significant market challenge comes a massive opportunity and the team remains laser-focussed on building a technology business that enables financial advice for 2BN underserved clients in emerging markets. We talk about:• Abu's upbringing and early career.• Early success and navigating risk. • Moving from corporate executive to founder. • Raising capital and the right team. • Competing in an established space.• What's next for Abu and LifeCheq.-Connect with Abu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abuaddae/Connect with Mathew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathewmarsden/This episode was brought to you in partnership with Momentum Group - one of South African’s leading financial services groups - home to household names like Metropolitan and Momentum. The group's mission is to build and protect their clients' financial dreams - whilst providing a sense of certainty in an increasingly uncertain world. They also place innovation and digital transformation at the core of their strategy and are excited about playing a proactive role in advancing and supporting the country's startup ecosystem. Visit momentumgroupltd.co.za to learn more 🚀 The Startup Club Podcast dives into the stories of South Africa's leading tech startup founders and investors, their journeys of innovation, failure, resilience, and triumph and is an initiative of Startup Club ZA - the country’s fastest-growing tech startup and investor community. If you're passionate about entrepreneurship, innovation, solving hard problems, backing the change-makers and co-creating a better country, then you're invited to join us! 🇿🇦Connect with us:Website - https://www.startupclubza.comLinkedIn - https://za.linkedin.com/company/startup-club-zaInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/startupclub.za/

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• Calvin Collett (Melon Mobile): Reinventing South Africa’s Mobile Network Experience.

  In this episode, we're thrilled to sit down with Calvin Collett, Founder and CEO of Melon Mobile - Africa’s first truly digital telco, offering consumers a fully customisable mobile network experience. Founded in 2022, Melon is disrupting a sector that's long been controlled by a handful of industry incumbents, by combining digital eSim technology, a slick app-first proposition, hyper-customisation and unprecedented pricing - to create an exciting "do-it-yourself" mobile network experience. Coupled with their recently-launched (and highly popular) national billboard campaign, they're fast becoming a hit with consumers and SMEs across the country. With more than 2 decades of telco experience behind him, a world-class team alongside, and armed with a truly innovative proposition, Melon Mobile are pioneering the next generation of telecoms disruption. We talk about:• Calvin's upbringing and early career. • What makes a great entrepreneur. • Moving from corporate executive, to intrapreneur, to founder. • Raising capital and the right team.  • Finding competitive edge in a crowded sector.• What's next for Calvin and Melon Mobile.-Connect with Calvin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/calvin-collett/Connect with Mathew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathewmarsden/This episode was brought to you in partnership with Injini - Africa's only EdTech specialised accelerator, established on the belief that innovation and technology can help solve the continent’s most pressing education challenges. Injini supports edtech founders through a bespoke acceleration program, they lead education research and advisory support through their ThinkTank and host the country’s annual Edtech week. Visit injini.africa to learn more.The Startup Club Podcast dives into the stories of South Africa's leading tech startup founders and investors, their journeys of innovation, failure, resilience, and triumph and is an initiative of Startup Club ZA - the country’s fastest-growing tech startup and investor community. If you're passionate about entrepreneurship, innovation, solving hard problems, backing the change-makers and co-creating a better country, then you're invited to join us! 🇿🇦Connect with us:Website - https://www.startupclubza.comLinkedIn - https://za.linkedin.com/company/startup-club-zaInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/startupclub.za/

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  1:08:53
• Lynton Peters (OneCart): Driving South Africa's On-Demand Delivery Sector.

  In this episode, we're excited to sit down with Lynton Peters, Founder and exited-CEO of OneCart - South Africa's premier online, on-demand delivery service - that lets customers shop across multiple stores, in a single order, with one delivery fee, arriving at their in under 60minutes.In 2023, South Africa’s e-commerce market generated an estimated R71bn in revenue, largely driven by sectors like clothing/apparel, entertainment/hobbies and electronics. Alongside growing demand for conventional goods and services, has been the exponential growth in South Africa’s online grocery space - and in particular - the surge in on-demand and last-mile delivery services available. In fact, it’s now common practice for many consumers to buy their groceries online and have them delivered direct to their doorstep. Founded in 2016, OneCart is one of South Africa's on-demand grocery delivery pioneers and has played a key role in establishing the category. Within 5 years, the business grew to over 1000 direct/indirect employees and achieved triple-digit revenue growth annually - largely accelerated by the Covid19 lockdowns - before being sold to Massmart (Wallmart’s African subsidiary) in late-2021, in one of the country's largest-ever e-commerce acquisitions.Since leaving the business in 2022, Lynton has become an active angel investor and remains motivated to build Africa, armed with the insights and experience that come with being one of South Africa’s few exited tech founders.We talk about:• Lynton's upbringing, early-career and returning to South African roots.• Transitioning from corporate leader to startup pioneer.  • Building product, welcoming co-founders and raising capital.  • The companies acquisition to Massmart and his life after exit. • What's next for Lynton. -Connect with Lynton: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyntonp/Connect with Mathew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathewmarsden/This episode was brought to you in partnership with Paystack - helping businesses in Africa get paid by anyone, anywhere in the world - thanks to their suite of world-class payment solutions, intuitive APIs, founder-centric support and an exciting (and free!) credit program called Paystack Catalyst, purposefully created to help startups accelerate their growth. To learn more visit paystack.com/za.The Startup Club Podcast dives into the stories of South Africa's leading tech startup founders and investors, their journeys of innovation, failure, resilience, and triumph and is an initiative of Startup Club ZA - the country’s fastest-growing tech startup and investor community. If you're passionate about entrepreneurship, innovation, solving hard problems, backing the change-makers and co-creating a better country, then you're invited to join us! 🇿🇦Connect with us:Website - https://www.startupclubza.comLinkedIn - https://za.linkedin.com/company/startup-club-zaInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/startupclub.za/

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  1:25:21
• Paul Kent (Adumo): Transforming South Africa's Payments Landscape.

  In this episode, we're thrilled to sit down with Paul Kent, Founder and CEO of adumo, the multi-channel payments platform that's helping businesses get paid, boost their customer engagement and keep employees motivated. The last two decades have seen a radical transformation in South Africa’s payments landscape, evolving from predominantly cash-heavy commerce to a world that's embracing digital infrastructure. The space is both diverse and dynamic, with a mix of traditional banking systems, mobile payment platforms, challenger POS brands and a growing consumer appetite for fintech solutions. Having built one of the country’s first non-bank card payments businesses, SureSwipe, Paul Kent has witnessed this payments revolution first-hand. Over a decade later, his experience culminated in the founding of Adumo in 2019, which has since grown to serve more than 23 000 active merchants and process over R100-billion in throughput across channels annually. Earlier this month, Adumo received approval from the country's Competition Commission to be fully acquired by listed financial services group, Lesaka Technologies, in a R1.6bn cash/equity deal. For Paul and the Adumo team though, the opportunity remains greater than ever. We talk about:• Paul's upbringing, early career and juggling talent over passion. • Leaning in when opportunity knocks.  • Lessons from building multiple ventures in a competitive space. • The founder journey from start to acquisition.• What's next for Paul and the Adumo team. -Connect with Paul: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulkentsa/Connect with Mathew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathewmarsden/This episode was brought to you in partnership with Guardrisk Launchpad - a pioneering initiative that's driving insure-tech innovation through capital and value-added support services to qualifying scaleups. Learn more at the halfway mark of today’s episode - or visit https://grlaunchpad.com. The Startup Club Podcast dives into the stories of South Africa's leading tech startup founders and investors, their journeys of innovation, failure, resilience, and triumph and is an initiative of Startup Club ZA - the country’s fastest-growing tech startup and investor community. If you're passionate about entrepreneurship, innovation, solving hard problems, backing the change-makers and co-creating a better country, then you're invited to join us! 🇿🇦Connect with us:Website - https://www.startupclubza.comLinkedIn - https://za.linkedin.com/company/startup-club-zaInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/startupclub.za/

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  1:28:43
• Thomas Brennan & Sebastian Patel (Franc): Simplifying Investing For South Africans.

  In this episode, we're thrilled to sit down with Thomas Brennan and Sebastian Patel, Co-Founders of Franc, the simple and easy-to-use mobile app that let’s South Africans invest in leading cash and equity funds in just a few minutes - with no minimums, no paperwork and no fine print.Despite having a robust financial services market, South Africa's savings and investment culture remains relatively poor - largely because of high fees, cumbersome admin, subjective advice and minimal investment education.  In response, Franc was founded in 2018 on the premise that everyone should be able to access the best investments - in a smart, low-cost and simple way. Since then the platform has grown to over 120K users, received an average rating of 4.3* across app stores and won accolades from the likes of Seedstars, Visa and MTN App of the Year. They’re also graduates of the Google for Startups and Grindstone Accelerators. In 2022 and on the back of 400% year-on-year customer growth - Franc launched it’s B2B offering (Franc Business) - fuelled by an R8 million seed round with participation from ASISA ESD and 4DX Ventures. On a mission to make investing more affordable, accessible and social, the journey is only getting started for the Franc Team.We talk about: • Tom & Seb's upbringings, early careers and alignment on their mission. • Leaving flourishing corporate careers to become tech founders. • Lessons from building a startup that's solving a hard problem. • What they would do differently.• What's next for the Franc Team.-Connect with Thomas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drtpbrennan/Connect with Seb: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebpatel/Connect with Mathew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathewmarsden/This episode was brought to you in partnership with FNB South Africa - the country's "Best Digital Bank" and a comprehensive financial services provider that's committed to supporting the startup ecosystem in driving innovation and growing the economy. To learn more, or to connect with their team, visit fnb.co.za.The Startup Club Podcast dives into the stories of South Africa's leading tech startup founders and investors, their journeys of innovation, failure, resilience, and triumph and is an initiative of Startup Club ZA - the country’s fastest-growing tech startup and investor community. If you're passionate about entrepreneurship, innovation, solving hard problems, backing the change-makers and co-creating a better country, then you're invited to join us! 🇿🇦Connect with us:Website - https://www.startupclubza.comLinkedIn - https://za.linkedin.com/company/startup-club-zaInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/startupclub.za/

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  1:27:19

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