#5: Martin Nielsen, Founder of Mdundo, on Re-Imagining the African Music Experience

How to Make It in Africa

Martin is the co-founder and CEO of Mdundo. He moved to Kenya in 2012 as Entrepreneur in Residence for 88mph, an African investment fund with a focus on early-stage tech startups in Kenya. Over the past 5 years, Mdundo has grown to one of Africa’s leading music services with more than 7,000,000 monthly active users, primarily from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria. The company works with 90,000 musicians across Africa and has a licensing deal with Warner Music Group, Believe Digital and Tunecore. In September 2020, the company was listed at the stock exchange, Nasdaq First North Growth Markets in Copenhagen. The aim is to provide music lovers easy and affordable access to music. About the host: Fadel Jaoui, an economist, started this podcast to celebrate African entrepreneurial success stories, to hear the originals and changemakers behind them, and to draw lessons to inspire many more stories across the continent. This virtuous cycle is fundamental to pool talent and investments, and ultimately create startup “unicorns” that would benefit Africa’s prosperity. Fadel is a strong advocate of entrepreneurial ecosystem building and private sector development as true engines of sustainable economic growth. And he is a firm believer in leveraging innovation and technology to leapfrog development constraints and scale up social and economic impact. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Oxford University, as well as degrees from Columbia University and the London School of Economics. He started his career in investment banking in London, and has held various positions in International Financial Institutions (views are his own).