About Us
Think of the Digital Sahara as your companion in the running and growth of your venture as a business owner in this new era of tiktok shops.
In today’s digital era, we have seen new business models get established while old models that used to work ‘just fine’ get phased out; sometimes in an obvious manner and most others non-obviously.
Capital to a business is one of the most critical inputs that defines how a business (i) sustains itself, (ii) grows to compete effectively in the market, and in the desired interest of its owner (iii) brings forth income in the form of wages and benefits to its managers.
Since the industrial revolution that began over two centuries ago, capital has primarily been measured in monetary terms and has been accessible to only the business players who have an understandable ‘time-tested’ business model; and those who have considerable ‘skin in the game’ in terms of tangible business assets.
With the significant rise in adoption of digital technologies and rapid mass behavioral shifts across the globe, new business models in both the traditional and new industries have come up. Businesses are now operating in a different environment, with new rules and players altogether.
For instance, a key aspect of the industrial age was that businesses evolved to mass produce, banking on the theory of the firm which led them to enjoy economies of scale as they served the world. Connectivity and distribution was enjoyed by those who had proprietary access to market information and heavy business capital. In the present, connectivity and distribution has been evened across the masses due to the availability of digital channels and easened shipping of goods and resources across the world. In this informational technology era, the barriers to information and markets have been reduced to almost zero yet access to capital is yet to evolve to meet the needs of the current players in the business space while taking into consideration new definitions of tangible business assets.
The balcony view’s definition of our work as the Digital Sahara is that we intend to seal the gaps of the inefficiencies that early to mid-level businesses experience in finding the necessary capital to smoothen and expand their operations. Digital footprints of a venture, coupled with its new forms of tangible assets can be used to tailor financial services and other forms of capital to assist in its day-to-day operations and growth.
Our dancefloor’s closer look is that we are in an era of micro-entrepreneurship with small to medium sized enterprises offering customized solutions for a highly connected yet sophisticated world. The large transaction and operational costs that necessitated large firms are getting eradicated. Technologies like e-commerce, AI agents, globalized distribution platforms and social media are enabling small nimble and niche enterprises to dominate.
At the Digital Sahara, we want to build a capital distribution platform that will borrow information from our highly interconnected digital channels; develop new models of financing throughout the stages at which ventures need it then partner with financial and non-financial institutions to offset the capital demand. In industrial terms, such a model has been taking shape through the term ‘Embedded Finance’. We are twisting that a little bit to define our model as ‘Embedded Capital’.
Our Operations
Our operations will aim to view our client segments wholly through the lens of their
a process through which we can clearly understand the business model of our clients while leveraging on their key levers to enable our partners service their needs accordingly.
With access to revolutionary tools like Artificial Intelligence for production and Blockchain for distribution, we believe that available data for businesses and consumers can be coordinated, openly shared and subjected to predictive modelling to spot ecosystem inefficiencies and opportunities. In this manner, the credit and lending ecosystem can significatly evolve to serve the current market.
Our Markets
Africa is a highly undervalued market. Borrowing ample insights and experiences from businesses that have existed within our economy, the failures and successes of the native players who have stood the test of time and the enthusiasm of new entrants who are building or deploying capital in Africa, we wish to follow in their footsteps carefully treading to capture the heart of our continent, before opening our wings to fly higher and spread across the globe (and perhaps even to Mars).
Beginning at the production stage, our ecosystem will span commerce and support services before finally embedding credit and financing needs into the key levers of the chain.