Former Company Builder Associate 

Averi Thomas-Moore

Updates and reflections from Company Builder participants

Article

What it’s like to launch a startup that makes a difference for underserved communities in Nigeria? <a href="https://www.accion.org/how-we-work/invest/accion-venture-lab/company-builder">Company Builder</a> recruits individuals with diverse yet complementary skills to explore and create. Participants work together to understand financially underserved Nigerians’ aspirations and challenges, generate business models to address those issues, and work with future co-founders to validate their solutions. All of this is done with the aim of co-building a scalable fintech startup with Venture Lab’s continued support. 

In partnership with the <a href="https://www.accion.org/mastercard-foundation-and-accion-building-prosperity-through-financial-inclusion-and-education">Mastercard Foundation</a>, Accion Venture Lab launched its first Company Builder cohort last year. Participants formed six teams, <a href="https://www.accion.org/what-goes-into-launching-an-inclusive-fintech-startup">one was selected as the awardee</a>, and two others have continued to build their companies.  As we look for entrepreneurs to<a href="https://www.judgify.me/AccionVentureLabCompanyBuilder"> join the second Company Builder cohort</a>, previous participants reflect on their experience in the program.
<h4>Bankly</h4>
[caption id="attachment_16809" align="alignleft" width="500"]<img class=" wp-image-16809" src="http://content.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/47449260_308062523140181_1743385553780114451_n-e1547067795160-1024x800.jpg" alt="Bankly CEO Tomilola Adejana presenting at TechCrunch Battlefield Africa in December 2018." width="500" height="391" /> Bankly CEO Tomilola Adejana presenting at TechCrunch Battlefield Africa in December 2018.[/caption]

“Company Builder gave me the push and the enabling environment to try and build the company of my dreams. A shot worth taking for anyone,” says Bankly CEO Tomilola Adejana. Bankly is a voucher-based payment solution that enables people to complete transactions at the point of sale without a debit card or even a bank account. Since completing the Company Builder program, Bankly has participated in GreenHouse Capital’s 2018 Female-Focused Tech Accelerator Program and in<a href="https://www.accion.org/what-happened-when-15-disruptive-startups-came-together-in-lagos/"> TechCruch’s Battlefield Africa</a>. 

Even with four years of investment banking experience, an MBA, and three years as an executive at another inclusive fintech startup, Tomilola found the Company Builder experience valuable. She reflects that “the whole ideation process, the practical use of the lean startup methodology, and the ability to innovate with people with similar goals was quite satisfying.” She goes on to explain that “it is important that the consumer or user is part of the development process. Company Builder taught me to let the market dictate what the market needs rather than sitting in an office or in a bubble as with many of us in Lagos, making assumptions devoid of real experiences.” 

Farmnet

[caption id="attachment_11457" align="alignleft" width="500"]<img class=" wp-image-11457" src="http://content.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Farmnet_0005-e1537062590754-1024x471.jpg" alt="Averi Thomas-Moore, Company Builder Associate, Accion Venture Lab meeting with Farmnet Co-Founders Emmanual Obinne and Abdul Adejoh" width="500" height="230" /> Discussing Farmnet with co-founders Emmanual Obinne and Abdul Adejoh[/caption]

Farmnet has evolved from a microlending and saving platform for smallholder farmers to a market maker for agricultural commodities that also provides credit to purchasers.  

“I found the program to be a unique opportunity,” says Emmanuel Obinne, who co-founded Farmnet. “[Accion Venture Lab] will help you in the ideation stage, the validation stage. That felt like something that was set up for success from the very beginning.”  

Despite his several years of experience in the payments industry, Emmanuel still felt that the Company Builder program was a learning experience for him.“It’s taught me how to start a business and gave me the belief that I can do anything I set my mind to, knowing there’s a process that can help me to achieve that dream.” His Farmnet co-founder, Abdul Adejoh, also found Company Builder illuminating. “They told us to first make sure that whatever you’re doing works. If you can’t do on paper, you can't do it online. That was the best advice,” he says. 

Already Farmnet’s founders are making a difference. “I love seeing that I can put a smile on people who didn’t have any hope because they thought they could not get funding, says Abdul. Looking to the impact they can make in the future, Emmanuel says, “I hope to see FarmNet become a platform that adds value to the life of every farmer, and shows our culture that it’s not a poor man’s job.”
<h4>Lever</h4>
[caption id="attachment_16808" align="alignleft" width="500"]<img class=" wp-image-16808" src="http://content.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Lever_0003-1024x683.jpg" alt="Tosin Olanrewaju, Femi Oladele, Tajudeen Tiamiyu, MD, Ayo Oladimeji, Averi Thomas-Moore" width="500" height="333" /> Meeting with the Lever team Tosin Olanrewaju, Femi Oladele, Ayo Oladimeji, and their client Tajudeen Tiamiyu, MD[/caption]

Lever, a payment agent management and liquidity platform, <a href="https://www.accion.org/what-goes-into-launching-an-inclusive-fintech-startup">was selected as the first Company Builder Awardee</a> and received a $100,000 grant from Mastercard Foundation, office space, and ongoing support from the Accion Venture Lab team as they launch a full-scale pilot. 

Co-founder Ayo Oladimeji has spent his entire career in financial services and has spent the last 7 years helping to build one of Nigeria’s largest mobile money networks. He joined the Company Builder program immediately after completing an MBA at Lagos Business School. He remembers how the individually selected participants were “sizing each other out,” at the start of the program but that soon that it soon became clear to him that “I’m with 14 other super intelligent people and it was really exciting.” He appreciated the collaborative nature of the program and reflects that “we didn’t feel like we were in a competition, we felt like we were in a training — in a life-transforming program. It felt like each of the 15 of us would eventually come out with something. So it was a win-win scenario. And that was the sense that we all I dare say got out of the program.”

Ayo recollects that he “came into the Company Builder program with the intention to come out with something that would be relevant for now and the future and through our interaction I identified that [Lever co-founder] Tosin Olanrewaju had the same innovative ideology, same mindset about creating value.” They then completed their team with “entrepreneurial” full stack developer, Femi Oladele. 

Throughout the program and now as the awardee, Ayo has found “the quality of the input that we have been able to receive from the Accion team has been very rewarding. They have been able to take our outputs, review it, and provide candid constructive feedback.” While he values the hands-on support Lever has received from the in-country Accion team, he relishes the perspectives of “the larger Venture Lab team that has experience working with entrepreneurs and startups across different parts of the world...it’s a massive learning opportunity and I think that’s the most satisfying part of the Company Builder program for me.”

Entrepreneurs reflect on launching a fintech in Nigeria

Company Builder enabled entrepreneurs to build social enterprises in Nigeria

What’s preventing low-income individuals and small businesses from thriving in Nigeria? This was the question everyone sought to answer when <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.accion.org/nigerian-entrepreneurs-to-build-groundbreaking-fintech-company/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">we gathered 15 entrepreneurs together</a> for our Company Builder program. <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.accion.org/extraordinary-people-needed-start-a-tech-company-to-bring-financial-services-to-all-nigerians/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Company Builder</a> is a program that we started last December, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, to create innovative fintech startups that can improve financial services for unbanked and underbanked consumers.
You see, when you want to build a business that makes an impact, you have to pinpoint the problem before you can offer a solution. In a market as ripe with potential as Nigeria, we were able to identify many barriers that keep people and businesses from reaching their full potential. From small business cashflows to sending remittances to paying for education, Company Builder participants identified several areas where people currently struggle without adequate financial tools.
With these problems laid bare, Company Builder participants generated ideas for solutions and formed teams to work on the six strongest ideas. These six teams translated their ideas into testable minimum viable products with the help of product managers and designers during our prototyping workshop. The teams then validated their ideas with users across Nigeria.
Every team’s process of validating their idea looked different. Farmnet, which aims to increase access to markets and financing for farmers, tested their concept with the group they hope to serve. During their test, they provided input financing to a group of ten maize farmers in a co-op of 1,000, and they secured a forward contract for production with a food manufacturer. To make its model profitable, Farmnet will be reimbursed for the inputs with interest and receive a fee for brokering the deal.
Another team created EduPay, which focused on giving parents of students at affordable private schools the ability to make micropayments towards their children’s school fees. After starting their test with a well-respected affordable private school in the Makoko community in Lagos, they realized that helping schools organize their fee collection process better was the more pressing problem to address. During their test, they got 30 of the parents who were most behind on payments to pay almost 30 percent of their outstanding school fee balances to the school.
Once all of the teams had thoroughly tested their business concepts, they synthesized their findings and presented to a panel of leaders in the ecosystem. These experts provided feedback that helped us at Accion Venture Lab, along with our CEO <a class="markup--user markup--p-user" href="https://medium.com/@MichaelSchlein" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Michael Schlein</a> and Adaora Ogbue from the Mastercard Foundation, make a final selection for which team did the best job validating their concept.


[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="1200"]<img class="progressiveMedia-image js-progressiveMedia-image" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1200/1*JofSVYtRS7qG6T_AqwQYrQ.jpeg" alt="Five people having a discussion, including the Lever team and managers of Tiasola Services." width="1200" height="800" /> The Lever team speaking with managers of Tiasola Services, an agent banking network, at a branch in Epe, Lagos State[/caption]
Lever, a payment agent management and liquidity platform, was selected to receive a $100,000 grant from Mastercard Foundation, six months of office space, and continued support from the program. They validated their idea by successful providing revolving liquidity support to five payment agents working with two aggregators for over a month. This allowed the agents to complete 40 percent more transactions.
We were blown away by all of the participants in the inaugural Company Builder program, and we look forward to staying engaged with all of the participants as they continue to build businesses and use tech to tackle inequality in Nigeria. While we have learned a lot over the past few months, perhaps the most important lesson is this: while we face considerable challenges in eliminating poverty and making sure everyone has economic opportunity, there are many people who bring the drive and ingenuity to address these problems and build a better future, in Nigeria and across the globe.

What goes into launching an inclusive fintech startup?

Meet the first participants in Accion Venture Lab’s Company Builder program

When we sent out <a href="https://medium.com/accion/extraordinary-people-needed-start-a-tech-company-to-bring-financial-services-to-all-nigerians-f1a22e49e9fb">a call for extraordinary</a> people to help us build an inclusive fintech company from scratch, I wasn’t sure what kind of response to expect. I knew that Nigeria was overflowing with entrepreneurs and lacking in accessible financial services, but would we be able to find the right people to help disrupt the financial sector? People who could design innovative fintech to serve the millions of Nigerians who don’t have access to quality financial service?

Out of 150 applications for Accion Venture Lab’s Company Builder program, we chose 15 individuals who impressed us with their talent and drive to create game-changing fintech to help the underserved. We’ve just completed the Ideation phase of the program, which consisted of five sessions where all 15 participants came together to identify problems or “jobs” that need to be addressed, generated ideas for solutions, and formed teams around the best of those solutions. Now that we’ve finished the first leg of the program, I can wholeheartedly confirm that we found the right people.

Here are a few of Company Builder’s incredible entrepreneurs:
<h3>Tomilola Adejana</h3>
<img class="alignleft wp-image-11212 size-thumbnail" src="http://content.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Tomilola-Adejana-1-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" />“Africa is not innovating at the speed and scale required to make a significant impact to drive financial inclusion,” Tomilola Adejana says. Instead of letting this concern hold her back, Tomilola is motivated to close this gap and drive innovation in financial technology in sub-Saharan Africa. Tomilola co-founded <a href="http://aledinnano.com/">Aledin Nano Limited</a>, a fintech startup that provides credit to the unbanked and underbanked. She joined Company Builder knowing that success of any startup depends on a network of support from a team that shares the same vision.
<h3>Abdul Adejoh</h3>
“I am very good at seeing opportunities quickly wherever I am,” says Abdul <img class="alignleft wp-image-8259 size-thumbnail" src="http://blogs.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Abdul-Adejoh-150x150.jpg" alt="Nigerian Entrepreneurs: Abdul Adejoh" width="150" height="150" />Adejoh. Abdul joined Company Builder for the opportunity to develop unique solutions for the unbanked and underbanked. He’s well-versed in developing digital products and services for underserved markets, but Abdul hopes to learn about new ideas and approaches to building a business. The collaborative nature of Company Builder has been a highlight for him so far. “We are able to work together regardless of our different backgrounds,” he says.
<h3>Oladapo Ajayi</h3>
<img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-8260 alignleft" src="http://blogs.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Oladapo-Ajayi-150x150.jpg" alt="Nigerian Entrepreneurs: Oladapo Ajayi" width="150" height="150" />Oladapo Ajayi channels his entrepreneurial spirit into unlocking opportunities for low-income individuals to advance. He applied to Company Builder because its mission resonated with his own. Oladapo believes that fintech startups have potential to transform emerging economies, and he’s eager for the opportunity to build something transformative.

&nbsp;
<h3>Somto Amechi</h3>
<img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-8261 alignleft" src="http://blogs.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Somto-Amechi-150x150.jpg" alt="Nigerian Entrepreneurs: Somto Amechi" width="150" height="150" />Somto Amechi sees Company Builder as a “once-in-a-lifetime journey.” He’s enthusiastic about developing a product to help end financial exclusion. As a startup founder with a focus on product management and strategic partnerships, the idea of bringing together extraordinary people to build an inclusive fintech startup from scratch appealed to him. “It's not about our individual ideas or pre-formed teams, it's about discovering a financial need or gap in our society, and solving that problem,” says Somto.
<h3>Oladele Femi</h3>
<img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-8262 alignleft" src="http://blogs.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Oladele-Femi-150x150.jpg" alt="Nigerian Entrepreneurs: Oladele Femi" width="150" height="150" />Oladele Femi hopes to help solve the financial problems that too many people in Nigeria face. He joined Company Builder for the chance to use his creativity and skills as a software engineer to create a product that improves people’s lives.

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<h3>Olufela Olgunju</h3>
<img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-8263 alignleft" src="http://blogs.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Olufela-Olagunju-150x150.jpg" alt="Nigerian Entrepreneurs: Olufela Olagunju" width="150" height="150" />While Olufela Olgunju studied zoology in college, he found himself drawn to a whole different animal: technology. He taught himself how to code and has since focused on building smart solutions that make life easier for people. He spent the last year creating a consumer-focused startup that makes it simple to pay electricity bills. He joined Company Builder to get first-hand experience turning ideas into reality and building innovative products.

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These entrepreneurs are now moving into the Validation phase where they’re teaming up to test the value of the top solutions from the Ideation phase. This group of participants has already demonstrated that they’re creative problem-solvers focused on financial inclusion, and I can’t wait to see what we learn during the next phase.

We’re bringing together Nigerian entrepreneurs to build a groundbreaking fintech company

Next opportunity for African fintech companies is serving low-income consumers

<figure class="graf graf--figure"></figure>
<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.efina.org.ng/assets/A2F/2016/Key-Findings-A2F-2016.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Only two of every five adult Nigerians</a> have banking services. With a population over 180 million, this means that more than 100 million people are left without the tools they need to grow their businesses and provide stability for their families.
Meanwhile, fintech ventures in Nigeria are booming, with almost <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://kpmgfintechsummit.com/wp-content/uploads/FinTech-in-Nigeria.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">$150 million</a> raised last year for solutions that tap into technology to provide financial services. But how do we make sure this growing fintech sector serves the people who need it most? Enter Accion Venture Lab’s Company Builder.
<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.accion.org/content/company-builder" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Accion Venture Lab’s Company Builder</a> is bringing together extraordinary people to build inclusive fintech startups from scratch in Nigeria. We’re looking for 15 future entrepreneurs from diverse fields to help craft robust solutions that can serve the millions of Nigerians that are currently left out of the financial system.
These skilled professionals will generate ideas and form startup teams to develop and refine their concepts. We’ll select the top ideas and match qualified co-founders together to test each solution. Finally, we’ll support the best team as they transition to full-time founders and build their company.
Throughout the process, Accion Venture Lab’s Company Builder will provide guidance from experienced investors and share knowledge gleaned from functional fintech models relevant to this market.
Accion Venture Lab has invested in <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.accion.org/content/venture-lab-portfolio" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">33 startups</a> around the world that leverage innovative technology and business models to offer financial solutions, such as alternative credit scoring, digital lending, and cashless payments. We’ve seen how startups can reimagine what’s possible. They offer solutions that are higher in quality, less expensive, faster, safer, and more accessible than the status quo.
Can you help us build a startup to transform Nigeria’s financial services?
We’re looking for people with exceptional founder potential — no matter what stage you’re at in your career. Find your potential co-founder(s) and build a seed-funded fintech startup from scratch in Nigeria. If your ambition outweighs your current career status,<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.accion.org/content/company-builder" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> apply to join us</a>.

Averi Thomas-Moore

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