About this episode

This episode discusses the challenges African founders face when transitioning from seed to growth stage, featuring insights from Ngetha Waithaka of Norrsken22.

As African startups mature, the leap from seed to growth brings a new set of challenges — longer fundraising cycles, institutional expectations, governance, and the realities of scaling across fragmented markets. In this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, I sit down with Ngetha Waithaka, partner at Norrsken22, one of the continent’s leading growth-stage funds. We talk about how investors evaluate African startups as they approach Series A and beyond, how founders can tell whether their business is truly venture-scale, and when bootstrapping may be the smarter path. We also dig into practical issues founders don’t always hear about early enough — institutional readiness, governance, cross-border expansion, and how currency volatility shapes long-term outcomes. If you’re an African founder preparing for growth capital, or an operator trying to understand what serious investors are actually looking for, this episode offers a clear-eyed look at what it takes to build something durable. RUNTIME 46:36 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:13) Ngetha unpacks Norrsken 22’s origin story and thesis (5:15) Should you bootstrap, or is your idea venture-scale? (10:30) Before talking to VCs, make sure you can…

People in this episode

Host: Walter Thompson

Guest: Ngetha Waithaka

Topics covered

• African startups
• fundraising
• venture capital
• governance
• scaling
• currency volatility

Keywords

• African founders
• growth capital
• institutional readiness
• venture-scale
• bootstrapping
• cross-border expansion
• currency fluctuations

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Norrsken22

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