Welcome to Track 9 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 Adenike Sheriff. Adenike is the Co-founder of Future Africa, a fund manager that invests early in mission driven founders solving hard problems for large markets. Prior to Future Africa, Adenike focused on content strategy and storytelling for technology companies in Africa and beyond. Her work has appeared in various international publications including the Huffington Post.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How Adenike plotted an “unlikely” path into VC
• How Future Africa came to be and why Adenike’s “blank slate” thinking inspired the birth of Future Africa Collective
• Why market-creating innovations constitute a significant investment opportunity
• What thorny challenges can emerge while you’re innovating
• What opportunities lie ahead for Future Africa

Note: This conversation was recorded in September 2021.

Adenike’s Recommendations & Featured Resources:

• Future Africa
  https://future.africa/
  
  
• Future Africa podcast
  https://future.africa/blog/category/podcast/
  
  
• Christiansen, C., Ojomo, E., & Dillon, K. (2018). The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovations Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty.
  https://www.christenseninstitute.org/books/the-prosperity-paradox-how-innovation-can-lift-nations-out-of-poverty/
  
  
• Chimanada Ngozi Ndichie
  https://www.chimamanda.com/

• 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