Episode overview:
In this conversation, David Ogundeko shares the journey of Funema, an impact-focused alternative investment firm operating for nine years across Nigeria, South Africa, and the US. He discusses his approach to venture building for early-stage founders, why Africa needs a unique investment approach, and how his firm addresses the "chicken and egg" challenge that idea-stage founders face: needing traction to raise funds while needing the right talent to gain that traction.
Andile Masuku engages Ogundeko on the evolution of venture building in Africa, from being "mocked" five to six years ago to now becoming an essential element in the ecosystem. Throughout the conversation, Ogundeko makes a compelling case for why Africa's tech ecosystem requires patient capital with 15-25 year horizons rather than traditional 10-year VC fund lifecycles.
Key topics:
- The evolution of Funema's venture building model over nine years
- Why service-based businesses can evolve into stronger tech companies
- Misalignment between traditional VC timelines and African market realities
- The importance of founder emotional connection to problems they're solving
- How AI is democratising education and knowledge across the continent
- Funema's ambitious plans to scale venture building across Africa
Notable points:
1. Ogundeko developed his venture building thesis after working at Seedstars in 2016, flipping their model to focus on founders with their own ideas
2. Funema has a portfolio of 20+ companies built over nine years of operation
The firm prefers working with founders who start with service models to develop deeper market understanding before scaling with technology
3. Traditional 10-year VC timelines are insufficient for African tech development, with Ogundeko advocating for 15-25 year investment horizons
4. Funema is planning to reach 1,000 founders over the next two years and train 100,000 venture builders over five years
What makes Funema's approach distinctive is his patience and belief in deep market understanding: "We didn't exactly start out with a very sexy business model. But the learnings that we've been able to get from the market, which we've automated into a platform, is becoming a product that you can call a pure tech business."