Thinking Differently: A Case for Venture Building in African VC

The Trajectory Africa

On this special episode of The Trajectory Africa, we’re featuring “someone you should know”—David Ogundeko, Founder and Chief Vision Officer for Funema, a last-mile, impact-focused, alternative investment company.

David has spent the last 7 years creating a model to engineer and invest in problem solving, impact creating, high growth SMEs. In the process, he’s reimagining a VC model for Africa, and has built the operational muscle to back his claims.

In this conversation, we’ll learn how David’s challenging experiences as a founder spurred him to create a model that protects founders and their impact potential while still building big, profitable businesses.

The Trajectory Africa is helping David tell his story to support his bid to join the 11th cohort of VC Unlocked: Silicon Valley, 500 Global’s flagship investor education program. Help David get to Stanford in September by donating here.

Tune in to hear about:

[3:07] - The dangers of faux expertise

[8:00] - Funema’s origin story

[11:39] - How Funema confronts extractive capitalism

[16:55] - Protecting founders’ equity in the context of a VC fund

[32:06] - Funema’s impact on its portfolio

[39:00] - Balancing mission and three paths to growth

[49:56] - Thoughts on talent

[1:00:27] - Finetuning how you communicate about your mission

[1:09:57] - Counterintuitive 1st principle

Recommendations:

• David's LinkedIn post on original thinking.

• Chasing Outliers. Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa, a report I co-authored on VC investing in Africa

Connect on social media:

• Funema on LinkedIn
• David Ogundeko on LinkedIn
• The Trajectory Africa on LinkedIn
• Tayo Akinyemi on LinkedIn
• Tayo Akinyemi on Twitter