Driving growth across African e-commerce

In this episode we speak to Daniel Yu, a 32-year-old Californian entrepreneur now based in Zanzibar. He is the founder and CEO of Wasoko, a supply chain and distribution company established in 2015 to respond to the challenges faced by small and micro-business across Africa in managing stock levels. Having just raised $125 million in Series B venture capital funding from Tiger and Avenir, Wasoko is now valued at $625 million, and has its sights set on eliminating the inefficiencies plaguing Africa’s enormous, dynamic, so-called ‘informal’ retail economy.   A humble innovator, Daniel has learned Swahili in order to better service his customers in east Africa. Wasoko’s network now spans 75,000 businesses across six African countries, but the plan is to become – in Daniel’s words – the ‘operating system’ for commerce across urban Africa. For Daniel, this growth must be coupled with a broader positive impact; to improve overall conditions in the communities in which they operate is core to Wasoko’s mission. Alive to the possibilities of the technology sector for the continent, Daniel has worked with the authorities on Zanzibar to turn the island into an innovation hub. He still sees substantial deficits in the regulatory and operational frameworks structuring the innovation environment in Africa, and worries that these will fall short of the continent's wealth of skills, creativity and entrepreneurial talent.   Read more Digitalising African retail The informal sector is the future of African work Africa bucking the global VC trend An MIT framework for innovation ecosystem policy   Credits Host and executive producer: Dr Desné Masie Co-producer: Peter Doerrie Research: Angus Chapman Digital Editor: Charles Dietz Design: Jason Venkatasamy Music: Corporate Uplifting Chill by MusicLFiles Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/