#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:


Intra-Africa remittances context
Global remittances (outside Africa to Africa) context
Chipper Cash’s launch, early history, growth & fundraising
Chipper Cash's Product & monetization strategy
Competitive positioning & potential exit options
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


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