👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – Copia founders’ second act

When a founder returns for a second act, the obvious question is what changes the second time around. What lessons carry over, and which habits get left behind? There’s usually keen interest in what they decide to build next—not just for the product, but how they view the market.

This week, that attention went to founders of Copia, the Kenyan agent-based commerce startup that shut down in 2024. Tracey Turner, who co-founded Copia Global in 2013, has launched Stahili Commerce with former Copia CEO Tim Steel and CTO Michael King. Turner is also building Olverra, an e-commerce platform.

Stahili runs a reward system. It invites users to fill surveys about Kenyan brands and get rewarded with airtime and data. It has a built-in viral loop system; the more users invite their friends to the platform, the more insights the startup gathers.

Stahili is sitting on a potential data goldmine. If it later builds out into a full e-commerce business, it could draw insights into how Kenyans buy, restock, and store everyday goods. That information could help push high-demand products or be sold to consumer goods (FMCG) brands for profit—a kind of business process outsourcing play.

For now, Stahili feels like a stripped-down version of something bigger. Its reward-based system is a classic high-growth tactic. But in African markets, users often game these systems through fake referrals that distorts the user base and corrupts the data. The risk is that Stahili could end up receiving insights that do not reflect real demand for certain products.

As with Copia, the focus remains on working-class Kenyans, many of whom would be drawn by the promise of rewards. But Copia, after 12 years and no profit, may have failed to truly understand what moved this market. Stahili feels like a second attempt to get closer to what people actually want—and how they really shop.

Is this Turner’s winning ticket? Investors were already making enquiries about Turner’s new venture as early as July 2024. No surprises if Stahili raises soon.

MTN South Africa is pumping R300 million ($17 million) into network infrastructure in Gauteng, the country’s most populous province. The investment is focused on acquiring new base stations, 5G rollouts, and technical enhancements across over 70 network sites. 

Why does this matter? This move comes as Vodacom, another major telecom operator, is increasingly applying pressure with its “beyond mobile” expansion strategy to grow its fibre network and ISP reach, as well as its planned $2 billion acquisition deal with Maziv. Improving infrastructure is important to stay competitive in the fast evolving telecom sector. 

MTN’s strategy is all part of a larger R4.5 billion ($251 million) national rollout which will be completed in 2025. MTN expects this investment to bring improved coverage and enhanced network capacity for more businesses and communities in the region, including both rural and urban areas. 

Despite this push, MTN’s service revenue growth in South Africa remains stuck in the single digits. The stagnant growth is attributed to stiff competition from players like Vodacom and Telkom, particularly in the pre-paid market. This suggests that the telecom giant is under some pressure at home. The investments could be a defensive play as MTN fights slower growth in its core domestic market. 

Last month, MTN South Africa also announced R480 million ($27.1 million) on expanding and modernising its infrastructure upgrades meant to drive economic growth and improve access in another province, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).

Big Picture: Despite the weakened growth outlook, South Africa remains a top-four earning market for MTN alongside Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda. These investments in infrastructure are needed to stay competitive in the game and avoid future misses like last year when it had to exit three countries: Liberia, Guinea-Bissau and Guinea-Conakry citing financial constraints caused by inflation and currency devaluation. 

Editor’s Note: In this morning’s newsletter, we referenced a news article detailing an ongoing legal case between M-KOPA and a former employee which contained some inaccuracies. This web edition of the newsletter has been updated on July 22, 2025, to include M-KOPA’s comments regarding the case as well as what we’ve learned in our own investigation.

A former M-KOPA Kenya manager, Elizabeth Njoki, has sued the company, alleging its 2019 equity restructuring sidelined African employees while protecting white expatriates and foreign investors.

The suit claims Kenyan staff were assigned to a weaker share class (“Minor Holders”) while a powerful new class (“Growth Shares”)—with better rights and exit terms—was mostly reserved for expatriates. Out of 48 recipients, only seven were African; none were Kenyan in a later round.

In a detailed statement to TechCabal, M-KOPA called the claims “baseless” and said Growth Shares were introduced after the original ESOP was exhausted in 2018. Both plans, the company says, were board-approved and designed by external consultants to reward and retain talent. Share allocations, it insists, were based on role and seniority, not race, and were overseen by a board HR committee chaired by an independent Kenyan director.

State of play: The case comes at a tense moment: as African startups face funding crunches, tough questions about who benefits during down rounds, recapitalisations, and secondary sales are gaining urgency.

The lawsuit is especially sensitive given the profile of investors, including Generation Investment Management (GIM), and British International Investment (BII)—a UK government-owned DFI—who publicly promote inclusive development. M-KOPA maintains that allocations were based on seniority, not race. The petition claims the investors were shielded from dilution while local employees lost out.

The big picture: M-KOPA maintains the restructuring followed standard startup governance. The company is pushing for dismissal, arguing the matter belongs in UK courts. If the case proceeds in Kenya, it could set a precedent for how local courts view the responsibilities of global investors and holding companies operating in the Kenyan market.

Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) says it’s making history, but Nigerians say they aren’t seeing it.

The ease that was promised: When the CAC rolled out its new Intelligent Company Registration Portal (iCRP) on July 1, it promised real-time name reservations, one-hour registrations, and automated TIN generation, all wrapped up in a sleek interface. 

The commission now claims that its new AI-powered registration system registered over 11,000 companies in a single day—it used to take a week for each company. Sounds impressive, right? You should hear what the users are saying.

UX: Some users who have tried to register their business say that they’ve been unable to successfully complete the process because payments aren’t reflecting. Some users say they are unable to verify certificates even after payment has been made. Tax identification numbers (TINs) don’t show up. The public registry doesn’t update, and emails, calls, and support tickets go unanswered. One wonders how 11,000 successful registrations were conducted under these conditions. 

One of many. A number of Nigeria’s public digital systems often launch with great ambition and mixed results. From National passport registration portals to National identity systems, many start slow, but some eventually find their stride. An example is the Nigerian Immigration Service passport application portal, which has now almost become a seamless service for passport application, even though it also has its moments of disruption. Unlike the other digital systems that come with a contingency plan and clear timeline, this CAC’s new rollout left users in the dark.

One wonders: Will there ever be a day where a Nigerian digital system works as promised, no drama, bugs or detours? For now, it’s the same old dance of users figuring it out on their own.