If You Build It, They Will Come: Creating a Lending Ecosystem for African SMEs

In this episode, Hilda and I chat about how she’s building a tech company that’s creating an (eco)system of tech products to connect SME borrowers to much-needed capital.

Show Notes

Welcome to Track 6 of The Trajectory Africa, a podcast series exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. This episode’s guest artist is Hilda Moraa. Hilda is the Founder & CEO of Pezesha, a holistic digital financial infrastructure powering embedded finance to SMEs and institutions across Africa. She is an award-winning entrepreneur and author, who has more than 10 years of experience in fintech, regulation, and working with supply chain-driven multinationals such as Coca-Cola. Prior to launching Pezesha, she founded WezaTele, a Kenyan fintech startup that was acquired in 2015. Hilda has been named a Top 30 African Innovator by Quartz Africa, and an Obama Foundation Leader. Picking up on the previous conversation with Kuhle Mnisi of Secha Capital about the interplay between tech-enabled SMEs and tech startups, I chat to Hilda about how she’s building a tech company that’s creating an (eco)system of tech products to connect SME borrowers to capital.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Hilda’s entrepreneurial journey, and what problem she’s solving with Pezesha
• Why providing credit to SMEs is important and presents a valuable opportunity 
• What constitutes key elements of Pezesha’s lending infrastructure and business model
• How being a systems-builder impacts Pezesha’s trajectory, and what constitutes key enablers for systems-building businesses

Hilda’s Recommended Track & Featured Resources:

• Rain. Yemi Alade
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERMoAHnf2Vw
  
  
• Pezesha
  https://www.sechacapital.com/
  
  
• A Kenyan Startup Journey: My 10 Key Lessons. Hilda Moraa
  https://hildamorara.com/index.php/buy-my-book/
  
  
• Chasing Outliers: Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa (report)
  https://kinyungu.com/chasing-outliers/

DJ Saphir’s Spotify Playlist:

• https://spoti.fi/2RS6hTc

What is The Trajectory Africa?

The Trajectory Africa is a “pop-up” podcast exploring the trajectory, or pathway, of venture capital and startup formation in Africa. With the unique African landscape—market characteristics, business environment, goals, and culture—as a starting point, The Trajectory Africa aims to identify a destination for African tech, as well as the sign posts that signal direction of travel. It’s modeled on the concept of a mixtape, in which each episode, or “track” will feature a conversation with a “guest artist”, and a playlist for inspiration.