tanzania
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Edwin Bruno knows what an introduction is worth
He started by finding customers for his own ideas. With Smart Lab, the Tanzanian entrepreneur is helping other founders reach the people who can give theirs a chance.
Anza Entrepreneurs and the business of getting unstuck
A Tanzanian founder-support organisation joins the dots between advice, capital and connections. Its own early funding lesson explains why those dots belong together.
Lauren Schmidt Put Down the Answer Sheet
A teenage trip to Tanzania gave Lauren Schmidt a blue folder full of answers. Ten years of living there taught her to put it down - and build an education practice around listening first.
Smart Lab gets Tanzania’s startups into the room
A telecom partnership, climate grants and a new fintech challenge reveal how the Dar es Salaam company helps founders reach the people who can test, fund and buy what they build.
Untold
Untold, formerly CARE for AIDS, is an Atlanta-based faith-driven nonprofit that runs a nine-month, church-based program helping HIV-positive men and women across East and Southern Africa build a life beyond AIDS. Working through local churches with indigenous staff, its integrated model addresses physical, spiritual, emotional, and economic health at once - producing 97% viral suppression among clients and more than 50,000 program graduates.
Joshua Stern
Joshua Stern is the CEO and co-founder of Telerivet, a mobile communications platform built for organizations that operate where bandwidth is thin, languages are many, and feature phones still matter. A Stanford computer science graduate who joined the Peace Corps instead of the Valley, he learned the texture of mobile networks on the island of Pemba, off Tanzania, then turned that field experience into software used by NGOs, governments, and enterprises across more than 50 countries.
Ramani.io
Ramani.io is a Tanzania-born, San Francisco-incorporated B2B fintech digitizing the micro-distribution layer of Africa's consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) supply chain. It hands point-of-sale, inventory and procurement software to thousands of micro-distribution centres (MDCs) that move products from brands like Coca-Cola, Diageo and AB InBev to corner shops, then uses the real-time sales and inventory data to underwrite working-capital financing. A Y Combinator alumnus that raised a $32M Series A in 2022 and holds a lending license from the Bank of Tanzania, Ramani is now evolving into a financial marketplace and B2B e-commerce platform connecting banks, brands and resellers.
Iain Usiri
Iain Usiri is the co-founder and CEO of Ramani, a Tanzanian fintech building financial infrastructure for Africa's consumer-packaged-goods supply chains. A Stanford computer science graduate and former Salesforce product manager, he gave up his US immigration status and flew home one-way in 2019 to start the company with his brother Calvin and friend Martin Kibet. Ramani gives micro distribution centers free point-of-sale and inventory software, then monetizes through lending - and in 2022 raised a $32M Series A led by Flexcap Ventures after passing through Y Combinator's W20 batch.