Scaling African Banking through Tech: Speaking with Teddy Ogallo on Entrepreneurship, Pitching, and Building Networks for Success

Teddy Ogallo is one of 1700+ African entrepreneurs who applied to pitch their tech startups for a chance to win $50,000. His pitch for Wayawaya — a digital banking platform that gives you one account combining your bank, mobile wallet, savings and payments accessible across the world — was one of the three winning business ideas for the 2019 MEST Africa Challenge.

As the MEST Africa Challenge wraps-up its third call for applications, Teddy shares his insights on making the best pitch and the benefits of learning from the MEST network.

Founders like Teddy are the tech visionaries developing solutions for continent-wide and international realities. He believes that Africa has what it takes to lead in technology.

What prepared you for entrepreneurship, specifically developing technological solutions for African problems?

I used to run another company that provided bond solutions and this put me at the forefront of identifying problems of the financial services sector faced by African users. Some of the gaps that could not be solved by traditional brick and mortar bonds and financial companies.

How has the local tech landscape in your country changed over the past five years? What are some of the emerging trends?

Technology as a means to solve problems has been embraced and smaller startups, innovation, creating solutions have been accepted. This was not the case six years ago where the bigger tech companies were expected to always lead in providing services to customers.

How important are ecosystem players like MEST, incubators, and accelerators to the success of tech startups on the continent?

MEST was started by a set of experienced entrepreneurs and managed by leaders who have had experience in building startups. This can increase your chances of success. Also, the shared ecosystem where you are with other founders that are finding alternative ways to tackle related problems is priceless.

What was it specifically about the MEST Africa Challenge or MEST in general that made you want to join the community by participating in the challenge?

I was attracted by the MEST network, reach, and footprint across Africa. Also how respected MEST was among the angel and venture capital network in Africa.

Were there any insights that you gained about yourself as an entrepreneur or your startup as a result of participating in the MEST Africa Challenge?

I gained a lot of insights including the need to refine how I present my company and my solutions — also, how to pitch! For example, when you are pitching, get straight to the point, know your target audience, and know what you want your audience to walk away with from your pitch.

What would you say were the immediate benefits of winning the MEST Africa Challenge? How have you been able to leverage that success into even more wins?

From the competition, I managed to network and to get several clients, and several prospective angel investment contacts. I also connected with many of the regional venture capital managers and partners.

Tell me why you think this is an opportunity that other entrepreneurs like yourself should seek?

Apart from winning the investment amount, MEST gives entrepreneurs the platform to first learn from others, and learn from the MEST staff who are skilled to help entrepreneurs in several aspects of their business development.

MEST regularly holds Africa-centered events that give entrepreneurs a bigger platform to potentially pitch their ideas and get customers, investors, and advice from experienced entrepreneurs and leaders in the industry.

There are other parts as well, including MEST Africa Challenge’s Microsoft partnership. It comes with so many benefits.

There are those who still believe that Africa is still not ready to lead in tech because of our socio-political issues. What would you say to those naysayers about tech’s role in solving Africa’s development challenges?

I think tech might actually be one sector that Africa could potentially play a leading role in because Africa has competent technology leaders, software developers, and even engineers who have been able to show that given the opportunity, they are able to develop localized solutions that can be scaled globally. For example, what you see with how Senegal has led in the development of a fast testing chip for the coronavirus.

…

LAST DAY TO APPLY!

The MEST Africa Challenge provides startups like Wayawaya with the funding they need to scale along with on-the-ground business support, mentorship, and access to a global network across the entire startup lifecycle. Over the last 12 years, MEST has invested $22 million in over 60 companies across Africa. The MEST Africa Challenge pitch competition is now accepting applications from tech software entrepreneurs in nine countries, including Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sénégal, South Africa, and Tanzania. MEST is offering up to $50,000 in equity investment to the winning startup. Apply here!