Wiza Jalakasi
Director, Africa Expansion at EBANX
Johannesburg Metropolitan Area
Overview
Work Experience
Director, Africa Expansion & Market Dev
2023 - Current
Started to lead Africa regional expansion for EBANX - a Brazilian headquartered payments processor with operations in 29 countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
Events Lead, Africa
2021
Bringing together Africa's finest fintech minds for evenings of celebrations, collaborations and conversations. Learn more at fintechhappyhour.com
VP, Global Merchant Business
2021 - 2023
• Led integration of Chipper Cash for Twitter Tips, a first in Africa, and developed merchant API for global access to 6m+ wallets. • Spearheaded $15m+ processed in first year, pursued 100+ merchant leads, and facilitated acquisition of Zoona in Zambia. • Managed regulatory engagement with central banks in Malawi, Mauritius, Zambia, and Ethiopia.
Chipper Cash is a fintech platform that offers mobile, cross-border money transfer services.
Raised $337,200,000.00 from Alameda Research.
Head of Global BD & Strategy
2019 - 2020
• Reimagined USSD and mobile network operator services to engage smartphone developers in emerging markets. • Led BD efforts securing $XXk ACV contracts with telco and bank partners. • Secured deals for automated end-to-end USSD testing for telcos in South Africa and Kenya.
International Expansion Lead
2018 - 2019
• Led expansion team into discovery and growth for SMS, USSD, Voice, Payments, Airtime, IoT, and data APIs across 17 African countries. • Served 25,000+ users and 5,000+ businesses, handling 50m+ daily API calls, and generating $10m+ AR. • Developed strategic partnerships and implemented innovative solutions to drive business growth.
Business Development Lead
2016 - 2018
Scaling incredibly powerful SMS, USSD, voice, airtime and payments APIs to thousands of software developers across 7 African countries. Favourite wins: -Setup of Malawi office from scratch to $XXk+ AR with a team of 3 -Spearheading operator relations for Tanzania office to integrate across all major operators -Led competitive analysis for $8.6m Series A investment into Africa's Talking led by International Finance Corporation, participation from Orange Digital Ventures and Better Ventures
Cofounder & COO
2014 - 2016
- Developed business strategy and pitch that raised $30k investment from Savannah Fund - Modified PHP MachForm for use as an end-to-end MVP to generate revenue - Devised logistics for mobile payments system to verify/track rewards for hundreds of respondents - Designed logos, corporate stationery, website, pitch decks and all marketing material - Managed + administrated business ops to ensure company was operationally complaint at all times
Founder & CEO
2009 - 2013
Built MwTunes (http://mwtunes.com/) - Malawi’s first ever music download site targeting mobile devices. 3G Internet had just started to grow in Malawi and we were gaining traction. Downloads were free and we planned to make money with ad revenue. At our peak we had 10,000 unique visitors per month, but there was no opportunity to make money from ad revenue because people in the country just weren’t familiar with the concept yet. The rest of the local industry caught up about 4 years later.