Zero To Scale 2.0: Ijeoma Akwiwu — Co-founder and COO at Pivo Africa

Co-founder and COO at Pivo Africa, Ijeoma Akwiwu talks about building a digital bank for trade in Africa.
1 minute read
Zero To Scale 2.0: Ijeoma Akwiwu — Co-founder and COO at Pivo Africa

Cashflow is the lifewire of a #smallbusiness. Yet, most SMEs in #Africa receive delayed settlements for services rendered. Thus, they are unable to fulfil orders for future clients. Nowhere is this pain more acute than in capital-intensive businesses like freight forwarding.

Founded by Nkiru Amadi-Emina and Ijeoma Akwiwu in July 2021, Pivo Africa is enabling freight carriers to get paid faster by providing a bank account, debit card and digital invoicing tools that track payments.

In this episode of #ZeroToScale, Ijeoma talks about how the YC-backed company recorded a 400% growth in 2021, managed co-founder relationships and navigated the African logistics space.



 
This episode was supported by Talking Drum Communication.

Shortly after this video was recorded, Pivo Africa raised a $2 million seed fund from  Precursor Ventures, Vested World, Y Combinator, FoundersX and Mercy Corp Ventures to expand its product offerings to African supply chain SMEs.

Within 2022, Pivo participated in the Y Combinator 2022 summer batch. The company was part of the ODX accelerator programme where it’s entitled to $125,000 for a 7% equity stake.