Bolt leans into e-licencing rules

Chisom Anaesiuba is a product marketer with 7+ years of experience leading go-to-market strategies for both small and large-scale products in the B2B and B2C sectors. In her role as a Product Marketing Manager at GoLemon, a grocery delivery platform, she engages with customers and collaborates with product, engineering, customer success, and other cross-functional teams to deliver impactful product launches, leveraging her strength in positioning & messaging to ensure that every launch resonates with customers.

Outside of work, you’ll find Chisom listening to music, obsessing about pottery, and building Juicebox—a repository of marketing assets curated to inspire marketers.

• Explain what you do to a five-year-old.

I work with people to make the best kind of lollipop—the kind you’d actually want to lick. My job is to figure out what makes you pick that lollipop over all the others. What flavours or colours catch your eye? What makes it feel special? Then, I help show you why that lollipop is the one you’ll love most.

• What’s the first question you ask yourself before launching any product?

The very first question I ask is: Does this really solve the customer’s pain? It’s easy to get excited about a new feature or product, but if it doesn’t truly address a real need, it’s not going to matter. That question shapes everything—from how I define the audience to how I frame the story. So I always start there.

If the answer isn’t a clear yes, it’s a sign we need to spend more time listening.

• You’ve worked across B2B and B2C. What’s one truth about customers that applies to both?

Customers—whether individuals or businesses—want to be seen and heard. They want to feel like the brand or product truly gets them. When people feel understood, they connect more deeply and stay loyal longer. That truth cuts across both B2B and B2C.

• What’s a launch you’re proud of, not just for the numbers, but for how it connected with people?

One launch I’m really proud of is GoLemon’s public launch in April 2024. I worked closely with the team to bring it to market and led on the creative side. I wrote the website copy, came up with the concept for the launch video, and helped shape the storytelling. The creative direction was designed to connect emotionally to show how GoLemon solves a real, everyday problem.

• What’s the biggest misconception people have about product marketing?

That we just sell products.

In reality, product marketers are deeply involved in the early stages of building a product. We help shape how it’s positioned, and sometimes even how it’s designed, by bringing the customer’s voice into those early discussions. When it works well, product and marketing move in lockstep, building and communicating from the same understanding of the customer.

• What’s the hardest part of making people care about a product?

The hardest part is building that initial connection where you get people to trust the product. A lot of people have been burned by bad experiences, so they approach new products with a fair bit of skepticism. That’s completely understandable. The real challenge is moving them from “I’m not sure about this” to “This product actually gets me.” That shift doesn’t happen through hype; it happens through honesty, empathy, and consistency.

• Juicebox is such a cool idea. What gap did you see that made you build it?

With Juicebox, I wanted to make creativity more accessible. Inspiration shouldn’t require hours of digging through YouTube or stalking your favorite brands for ideas. Designers and engineers all draw inspiration from somewhere, but there wasn’t a single place built for marketers to explore that kind of creative spark. Juicebox is my attempt to change that: a place where marketers can quickly find references, spark ideas, and bring more creativity into their campaigns and launches.

• Outside of work, what keeps you inspired or curious?

People. I’m endlessly curious about people: how they think, what they love, how they see the world. Spending time with people keeps me inspired, but so does spending time alone. I also recently got into pottery, and it’s become a quiet creative outlet for me. 

Bolt, the ride-hailing giant, has said it will comply with South Africa’s new e-hailing rules; it’s just waiting for South Africa’s National Public Transport Regulator (NPTR), the body that monitors and oversees public transportation in the country, to finalise the paperwork and tell everyone exactly how to do it. Uber hasn’t said anything yet, but the direction shows that ride-hailing apps have reached the acceptance stage of their grief with the new rules.

What are these rules again? The new rules under the amended National Land Transport Act recognise ride-hailing platforms as part of the public transport system. It says that if you’re picking people up for money, you need an operating licence, a panic button in the car for emergencies, and your ride must wear the company logo to encourage legitimacy as South Africa brings ride-hailing into its public transport system.

Drivers are not a fan: While some drivers say they are fine with the new rules if it results in faster pick-ups and better earnings, others say it makes no sense. They say the branding just paints a target on their cars; some worry it makes them easy targets for carjackings. Filing for operating licences means more paperwork that some of these gig drivers consider cumbersome.

So, what happens now that the platforms are leaning in? Bolt leaning in means the ecosystem is shifting, and drivers may soon have to follow, whether they are happy with it or not, because the platform controls the work supply. The poser here is, with Bolt leaning in, could this trigger pushback from drivers or a situation where the drivers quietly jump to whichever app feels lighter on compliance? It will be interesting to watch how South Africa, yet again playing with no precedent on the continent, plans to pull this off evenly.

Flutterwave, Africa’s largest payments infrastructure company, is now teaming up with Polygon Labs, a blockchain software company, and the short version of this is that Flutterwave is moving part of its cross-border payment engine onto stablecoin rails. 

Flutterwave already processes over $31 billion a year across 35+ countries. Now, instead of pushing international settlements through long banking corridors and correspondent networks, some of those flows will move through stablecoins on the Polygon blockchain.

Why it matters: Cross-border payments in Africa are… stressful. If Uber needs to send driver payouts into Nairobi, or Netflix needs to settle revenue out of Lagos, that money currently jumps through multiple banks, foreign exchange desks, and settlement windows. This drives up service fees and consumes a lot of time. With stablecoin rails, the same flows can clear in seconds for a smaller amount of money.

Here’s the key part: Nothing changes for the user. Flutterwave is not suddenly turning Africans into crypto users. People will still send and receive money in regular currency, but the crypto sits in the background as the settlement layer. The funds are converted into a USD-pegged stablecoin, transferred across Polygon within seconds, and converted back into local currencies on arrival.

The rollout will begin in 2025 with select enterprise clients before expanding to all “Flutterwave for Business” users and the Send App in 2026.

This week, Maxwell+Spark, a South African-based cleantech startup, secured $15 million in funding in a series B funding round. The round was led by Klima, Alantra, with strategic participation from Chevron Technology Ventures and Idemitsu. (Oct, 29)

Here are the other deals for the week:

• Egyptian AI company Velents AI raised $1.5 million to launch an Arab speaking AI employee. The funding comes from a group of angel investors, as well as senior executives from Google, BCG, and other global firms. (Oct 27)
• Synnefa, a Kenyan Agrictech and Cleantech startup, raised $300,000 from the World Resources Institute's P4G programme. (Oct 27)

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more funding announcements. Before you go, can tech startups make food affordable? Find out here.