#33: Chipper Cash - How the FinTech platform started from African remittances to become the fastest unicorn in Africa Tech history

Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about Chipper Cash - The African Fintech payments & remittances player. We’ll explore the Chipper story across 6 areas:

1. Intra-Africa remittances context
2. Global remittances (outside Africa to Africa) context
3. Chipper Cash’s launch, early history, growth & fundraising
4. Chipper Cash's Product & monetization strategy
5. Competitive positioning & potential exit options
6. End with our overall outlook.
   

This episode was recorded on July 11 & Aug 1, 2021.

Companies discussed: Chipper Cash, Venmo, PayPal, Square, Flutterwave, EcoBank, Safaricom, Sendwave, MTN, Airtel, Deciens Capital & Liquid2 Ventures

Business concepts discussed: Consumer FinTech (Personal Finance OS) monetization strategy, FinTech exit strategy, Intra-African Remittances, International remittances, Cryptocurrency, Decentralized Finance, Stock trading & closed-loop payment networks

Conversation highlights:

• (01:07) - Why we’re talking about Chipper Cash
• (06:20) - Intra-African trade context
• (13:12) - Intra-African remittances context
• (21:40) - Global remittances (outside Africa to Africa) context
• (36:50) - Founder backgrounds - Ham Serunjogi & Majid Moujaled
• (46:06) - Chipper Cash founding and early history
• (52:30) - Fundraising and Growth - Angel, Series A, B & C
• (1:07:25) - Product strategy
• (1:08:25) - Monetization strategy
• (1:35:24) - Competition - horizontal and vertical
• (1:45:55) - Potential exit scenarios
• (1:54:12) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook
• (2:01:32) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook
• (2:08:40) - Recommendations and small wins
  

Olumide’s recommendations, small wins & open questions:

• Recommendation: Nailing Capital vs Scaling Capital (by Sajith Pai) , Essentialism (by Greg McKeown) & Owning Chinese Companies Is Complicated (by Matt Levine from Bloomberg)
• Small win: American Express Platinum new benefits: Clear! & Audible!
  

Bankole’s recommendations, small wins & open questions:

• Recommendation: Why startups fail by Tom Eisenmann & How to build an engine to find product market fit by Rahul Vohra
• Small win: Dinner with friends on a rooftop in Seattle
• Other content: Chipper Cash pitch at 500 Startups & A columnist Makes Sense of Wall Street Like None Other - The New York Times
  

We’d love to hear from you. Please email [e-mail] to share feedback or propose topics you’d like to hear.

Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes at Afrobility.com