The US is one of the most advanced economies in the world, yet our financial services industry still operates in the middle ages. Despite the US being the top market for fintech deals raising +50% more financing in 2018 from the year prior at $53B, we still haven’t seen systems change throughout the financial industry and it is likely we won’t. Here is why… — The US fintech industry is operating as a band-aid solution thanks to our good old legacy system. While this existing legacy system has its problems, it is not entirely broken where we need a massive overhaul, rather digital solutions that can lay on top and slightly improve the overall experience…

I was recently reminded of the dark days of navigating corporate bank structures and desperately trying to close big partnerships with the supposed movers and shakers of the finance industry. Banking partnerships are the bane of my existence and while every fintech entrepreneur believes they are the golden ticket, little do they know they are about to die a slow and painful startup death before anything comes to fruition.

They started as an innovative tech startup and have become one of the biggest and scariest global corporations. Users don’t trust them, regulators loathe them, and as they slowly drown they are desperately trying to reinvent themselves in industries completely outside of social media, like fintech. — September 2017 I sat down with David Marcus and team at the Facebook office in Silicon Valley and gave a presentation on emerging market financial services and how we managed to build and quickly grow a crypto payments solution for consumers. This wasn’t the first meeting either. Just like many…

Research indicates that diversity drives innovation and profitability in companies, so why are we not seeing more diverse entrepreneurs securing venture funding? It’s called the VVCC — Vicious Venture Capital Cycle and it’s time we confront it head on. —

Entrepreneurship and technology is not just a bunch of white guys from Stanford so when will we see a better representation of what entrepreneurship really is and how can we influence the ecosystem to support that diversity? — I was recently asked, “Why do we not see more diversity in the tech entrepreneurship space?” Diversity is something we talk about a lot about and has become a buzzword of sorts. This question has created a lot of heated debate with fingers being pointed, but it is a question…

This post lays out the Dala journey and addresses the problems we were up against. — Dala’s goal has been to create a decentralized financial system for emerging market consumers. We wanted to build a new financial system for consumers in countries throughout Africa who have been underserved because of their geographical location and economic status. …

Still today, over half the global population operates outside the formal financial system. Why? Because it was never designed to service the vast majority. Blockchain has the power to bring financial freedom to the masses. …

Enabling consumers to earn, save, borrow, and transact — In the last two months since launching Dala through Wala (a zero-fee mobile financial platform), we have seen Dala grow virally (over 100k Dala wallets created) and consumers adopt it as a payment mechanism (over 2.5 million Dala transactions). …

It has been a crazy ride since the Wala app and Dala cryptocurrency went live in South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Consumers are adopting Dala as a medium of exchange at a rapid rate because it gives them immediate value while removing the cost and access barriers formerly plaguing their daily lives. User growth, transactions and payments have been phenomenal. — On April 25th, the Wala financial platform and partner of the Dala cryptocurrency went live in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Uganda! At a small launch party we invited users to our Cape Town office who had been patiently waiting for our release. …