Mandilakhe Somdle

$1 billion. That's the total funding raised by AfricArena alumni startups since we opened our doors in 2017. Not a projection. Not a target. A result, quietly accumulated across hundreds of founder journeys, pitch stages, late-night conversations, and deals that started with a handshake in a room we helped fill.

In many parts of Africa, the biggest challenge in healthcare isn't treatment, it's detection. By the time a patient reaches a specialist, it's often too late. The system is overloaded, resources are stretched, and the people best positioned to catch diseases early, nurses and community health workers, are left without the tools they need. That's the gap AI Diagnostics set out to close.

Africa’s fintech scene is buzzing and if payments are the lifeblood of business, then PayGenius is quietly building the arteries. In a recent Wired conversation with Mandilakhe Somdle, Sebastien Lacour Co-founder and CEO of PayGenius, unpacked how the company is scaling across the continent, tackling complexity head-on, and making it just a little easier for businesses to get paid (which, as it turns out, is quite important).