A $20 dinner that feeds Kenya’s children
Wawira Njiru started with a fundraising dinner in Adelaide and a borrowed kitchen in Ruiru. Today Food for Education serves a subsidised hot lunch to children across Kenya, paid for…
·2 min read
Mysol: from the pit to the boardroom
Solly Soka Madibela, known as Mysol, built MySol Holdings & Logistics in the chrome belt of South Africa’s North West. He also funds bursaries and training through the MySol Foundation,…
·3 min read
A broken piggy bank, a savings giant
Odunayo Eweniyi and her co-founders pivoted from a struggling job-matching startup after a social media post about a broken piggy bank. PiggyVest now counts millions of Nigerians as savers.
·2 min read
The serial founder backing the next wave
·2 min read
Ushahidi, and a modem for blackouts
·2 min read
Building Africa’s payment rails
·2 min read
Paystack: from Lagos to Stripe
·2 min read
Latest stories
All stories →Temie Giwa-Tubosun and the startup that delivers blood the way couriers deliver parcels
After a difficult childbirth and years studying maternal health, Temie Giwa-Tubosun built LifeBank to find blood and deliver it to Nigerian hospitals fast. In 2019 it…
·2 min read
Lorna Rutto left banking to turn Nairobi’s plastic waste into fence posts
Raised in a Nakuru informal settlement, Lorna Rutto founded EcoPost to recycle plastic into durable fencing. The company says it has diverted millions of kilograms of…
·2 min read
Rapelang Rabana went from free mobile calls to teaching 700,000 children with tablets
The South African technologist co-founded one of the country’s first free mobile VoIP services, built a learning company, and now co-leads an education charity serving children…
·2 min read
Ludwick Marishane invented a bath you do not need water for. He was 17.
South African inventor Ludwick Marishane came up with DryBath as a teenager. He turned it into a patented product, a company, and a business that sells…
·2 min read
Vusi Thembekwayo: from a marketing start-up at 21 to backing Africa’s growth companies
A former Dragons’ Den investor and international speaker, Vusi Thembekwayo turned a hard early lesson about due diligence into MyGrowthFund Venture Partners, an investment firm for…
·2 min read
For founders
Building something Africa should know about?
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Startups
More Startups →JUMO began as a Ghanaian mobile finance start-up and delivered over 10 million loans by 2016.
Founded in 2015, JUMO connected mobile network operators and banks to people with no collateral, offering loans and savings over USSD codes on basic phones.
·1 min read
Paystack was accepted into Y Combinator in 2016. In 2020 Stripe bought it for over 200 million dollars.
Founded in 2015 by two Nigerian software engineers, Paystack processed more than half of web payments in Nigeria by 2020, and is now part of Stripe.
·1 min read
Raymond Ackerman bought four Pick n Pay stores in Cape Town in 1966. The chain now has about 2,300 stores.
After nine years running Checkers from 4 stores to 85, Raymond Ackerman bought the first four Pick n Pay stores and built them into a national…
·1 min read
Flutterwave reached unicorn status in 2021 with a 170 million dollar round, the largest for an African start-up at the time.
Founded in 2016, Flutterwave grew from a payments start-up into a platform licensed in 34 African countries, and in 2026 acquired the open-banking company Mono.
·1 min read
Legacy
More Legacy →Raymond Ackerman bought four Pick n Pay stores in Cape Town in 1966. The chain now has about 2,300 stores.
After nine years running Checkers from 4 stores to 85, Raymond Ackerman bought the first four Pick n Pay stores and built them into a national…
·1 min read
Sheila Johnson co-founded BET in 1979, then built a hotel and resort business of her own.
A co-founder of Black Entertainment Television, Sheila Johnson later started Salamander Hotels and Resorts and became a leading donor to education and women’s causes.
·1 min read
Strive Masiyiwa started with 75 dollars. He then fought for five years in court for the right to build a mobile network.
The Econet founder saved 75 dollars from his salary to start a company, won a landmark Zimbabwean court ruling on telecoms licensing, and went on to…
·2 min read
Anton Rupert dropped out of medical school because of money. He started making cigarettes in a garage with £10.
From a dry-cleaning business to the Rembrandt Group, Anton Rupert built a business empire that also funded education, art and conservation.
·1 min read
Inspiration
More Inspiration →Rapelang Rabana and fellow University of Cape Town students built Yeigo, one of South Africa’s first free mobile VoIP services.
Started in 2006 while at university, Yeigo won the first Enablis Business Plan competition and was bought by a South African operator in 2009.
·1 min read
Oprah Winfrey was born into poverty in rural Mississippi. She became a media owner and host for 25 years.
From a radio job in high school to a production company and her own television network, Oprah Winfrey built one of the most recognised media brands…
·1 min read
Wendy Luhabe founded South Africa’s first fund to provide capital to women-owned businesses.
From Daveyton to the boardroom, Wendy Luhabe founded Bridging the Gap in 1991 and Women Investment Holdings in 1993, launching an R120 million private equity fund…
·1 min read
Daymond John sewed 90 wool hats at home, sold them for ten dollars each, and made 800 dollars in a day.
From his mother’s house in Hollis, Queens, Daymond John built FUBU, a clothing brand that has earned over 6 billion dollars in global sales.
·2 min read
Innovation
More Innovation →Strive Masiyiwa started with 75 dollars. He then fought for five years in court for the right to build a mobile network.
The Econet founder saved 75 dollars from his salary to start a company, won a landmark Zimbabwean court ruling on telecoms licensing, and went on to…
·2 min read
Rapelang Rabana and fellow University of Cape Town students built Yeigo, one of South Africa’s first free mobile VoIP services.
Started in 2006 while at university, Yeigo won the first Enablis Business Plan competition and was bought by a South African operator in 2009.
·1 min read
Bosun Tijani co-founded Co-Creation Hub in Yaba. It became the heart of Lagos’s tech scene.
From a computer science diploma in Jos to a PhD in innovation, Bosun Tijani built CcHUB in Lagos and acquired Nairobi’s iHub along the way.
·1 min read
BRCK is a battery-backed modem built in Nairobi so the internet keeps working when the power goes out.
Juliana Rotich co-founded BRCK after a familiar Nairobi problem: blackouts that cut internet access. The device keeps running for about eight hours without mains power.
·1 min read
Our mission
To build, inspire and tell our stories to the world, the best way possible.
From founders just starting out to those who began years ago and became giants. African and Black excellence, told properly.