Adaverse and EMURGO Africa join other strategic investors in an ongoing pre-seed fundraising initiative to launch BoundlessPay into its next phase of development in 2023.

Shogo Ishida, co-CEO at EMURGO Middle East & Africa commented, “BoundlessPay is doing something unique and different with what many have tried and failed. We are excited to be a part of this growth process. It takes a determined heart to build a sustainable Web3 platform that projects into the future development of Africa, which is why Cardano’s proven blockchain platform is ideal for this structural growth and offers flexibility and sustainability.”

Vincent Li, founding partner at Adaverse stated, “We are equally excited about BoundlessPay’s capabilities, especially their talented team. We believe that they have what it takes to sustain this momentum by providing a sustainable socially-impactful platform with a drive for excellence. As such, BoundlessPay will benefit greatly from the Adaverse 3-month accelerator program and be able to connect to the global resources within the Cardano community.’’

BoundlessPay plans to create more services that support Cardano native tokens on its app in the future including launching its native token on the Cardano network. 

“As the Adaverse team is constantly building a healthy ecosystem and community in Africa, we at BoundlessPay are excited to tap into this wealth of resources to provide more bespoke services that truly solve African payment and remittance problems which we believe can be achieved on the Cardano Blockchain,” Franklin Peters, BoundlessPay CEO.

Elsie is a graduate of Computer Science and a lifelong student as her role and skills requires that she constantly stays up-to-date and have a working knowledge of a lot of things. Thus, upskilling is a way of life for her.

Currently, she is leading Cassava Network’s Marketing in Nigeria toward accelerating Web3 adoption. Elsie is part of the team building Cashwise – a neo-banking mobile application and she helps brands maximise their marketing efforts through influencer marketing strategies and management at Mind-Mastik Media.

In this interview with TechEconomy, Elsie Godwin, as a result driven professional, said she is always excited to take up new challenges.

“As I grow in my career path, I find that I enjoy partnership and stakeholder management towards product development as it helps conceptualise great ideas in a way that ensures growth marketing is built into the product from day zero”, Elsie Godwin said… 

…Let’s start with your current role at Cassava Network and the most exciting part of your work

In my role as the Marketing Manager at Cassava Network, I oversee all communication and marketing efforts of the company in Nigeria.

This includes but not limited to directing and reviewing content/design creation for all platforms, driving brand awareness, Partners collaborative marketing efforts, identify communities which helps drive the goal of web3 adoption, relationship management with KOLs and marketing networks, Product launch and Campaign strategies, Online and Physical events, Conversation direction and moderation, identify and deploy right digital tool for campaigns, support product test and development, Public Relations, drive Cassava product growth through sign ups, Avatar creation and adoption.

The most exciting part for me is when I engage with people who have zero understanding of the Web3 ecosystem, the opportunity to break it down in a way that helps them begin to understand Blockchain Technology and its benefits is one that I love to take on anytime.

What has been your most career-defining moment that you are proud of?

For me, defining moments are continuous. In marketing, the measurable results keep you going. Every campaign I have led and executed, gives me a different perspective and understanding of different markets. I am always looking for the next challenge, where my skills can be used and valued. However, I must say that having the opportunity to lead marketing for web2 & Web3 brands has been quite an interesting journey and learning curve for me. I can now say that I have done marketing on both sides of the divide.

What challenges have you faced in the workplace, especially your experience in male-dominated environments?

I think that the challenges I face are true to the job and the leadership roles I occupy. The energy is always high and ideas have to be managed. Beyond that, the men in my life – friends, mentors, bosses, have all been very helpful especially during my transition phases.

They help me overcome imposter syndrome and sometimes I think that they believe in me more than I do myself. Over all, it’s just important to know when to stay put and when it’s time to move to the next phase of your journey. There is time and season for everything; time to learn and time to fly.

I have been lucky to grow in my career in a way that I get to negotiate my terms and conditions of work from a place of strength. Bringing value to the table is my number one priority and this means that I do everything to give my best to any company I work for and with. And like I said, upskilling is a way of life for me. Which is why this year, I pushed myself so hard to get three certificates from Pan Atlantic University.

In your opinion, what is the biggest obstacle to women’s career progression?

I think that women want to be perfect for a role before they apply. We constantly underestimate and undervalue ourselves. Personally, I am learning that we all learn on the job. I have had the opportunity to listen to people I respect in different fields whether through reading their books or attending a session where they were kind enough to share and one thing is common – for every growth, for every new role, you have to learn on the job.

With a value first mindset, a willingness to learn and personal investments, the sky is the starting point for any woman.

What would you recommend to any company regarding infrastructure to develop the best talent?

The world is changing and people are the heart of great ideas. It’s important to create an environment where everyone feels valued and respected.

Give room for ideas sharing, identify the area of strength of your team members and find creative and nurturing ways to maximise it for the growth of the company. If you want to keep and retain your talents, you must value them right and be willing to do the job.

What do you think we should be doing to encourage more girls to consider a career in tech?

Before now, I would have said that we are already doing a lot in terms of outreach, initiatives and providing pathways and opportunities for girls in tech.

But I recently visited Kano state for Adaverse/Cardano’s Blockchain event where I was a guest speaker and that experience changed my perspective which I wrote about on my blog. We need to create more initiatives but beyond that, we have to creatively fine tune these initiatives in ways that align with the culture of different regions.

There are platforms already making efforts to help eradicate the peculiar challenges and barriers for girls to consider a career in tech such as Cybersafe Foundation, but more needs to be done and tailored for each region.

Is there one piece of advice you wish somebody gave you at the beginning of your career?

I was told that my work will speak for me but now, I wish I was told to actively blow my own trumpet. It’s now a digital village which means that your next door neighbour or your team member is no longer your competition.

These days, we apply for a role alongside hundreds of people from different parts of the world. It’s important to stand out through verifiable digital footprints and skillset.

It’s important to position yourself for recognition and growth while upskilling and working with a collaborative mindset.

Adaverse and EMURGO Africa have joined other notable investors in this investment round to speed up Afriguild’s mission to onboard 100m Africans into Web3 over the next 5 years.

Adaverse was launched in September 2021 as a joint venture partnership between EMURGO Africa and Everest Ventures, to identify and provide valuable support resources to promising African startups building the next wave of Web3 dApps in DeFi, NFTs, gaming, and metaverse tools on Cardano’s third-generation and environmentally-sustainable blockchain.

What is Afriguild?

Afriguild started as a social gaming enterprise that ensures top-rated Web3 games are accessible and profitable for Africans. Within its first few months, Afriguild developed a highly functional platform that enables Africans to participate in blockchain P2E games and other income-generating opportunities in the emerging Metaverse.

At its core, Afriguild believes Africa is the real use case for opportunities in Web3. With a population of over a billion people under the age of 35, Africa has all the right indices to achieve continent-wide adoption in a few years. The number of people onboarded into the Web3 ecosystem will directly affect the relevance and impact of Web3 over time. This is why Afriguild is now building out the rails to bring in the next 100 million Africans.

Since its launch in late 2021, Afriguild now has over three thousand members on its Discord social messaging platform and is actively driving its mission through gaming, deploying Web3 learning programs, as well as creating IRL blockchain communities across tertiary institutions in Africa. 

With a goal to further drive financial inclusion and empowerment, Afriguild has made a significant impact across nine (9) cities in Nigeria with plans to expand into four (4) African countries by 2022 Q4. Afriguild is equally working to bridge the gender gap in the blockchain space with its recent launch of the Web3 Africa Women (WAW) Fellowship to provide learn-to-earn opportunities for women across the continent who are passionate about getting into tech.

Why Afriguild?

Afriguild is a DAO with the goal of making Web3 accessible to every African. Through tokenized learning, community building, and strategic collaborations with builders across the world, Afriguild provides young Africans with opportunities to build valuable Web3 skills, enabling them to become earners and contributors in the emerging Metaverse. By creating new types of work, young people can have multiple income streams such as game winnings, NFT asset investment, paid contributor roles in the community and so on.

The GameFi industry will be worth an astounding $314 billion by global estimations in 2026, and Africa will account for a significant portion of that revenue due to the continent’s massive youth population and an abundance of mobile users estimated at over 747 million. 

Despite the fact that GameFi is expanding rapidly over the globe, the majority of Web3 games with high yield assets are not popular in Africa due to the high cost of entry and complex gaming environment. Afriguild solves this problem by aggregating the top games and simplifying them for the African youth to play and earn while building confidence within an energetic and dynamic gaming community.

Shogo Ishida, co-CEO for the Middle East & Africa at EMURGO Africa, said: “Social communities will re-engineer the structure of global commerce while leveraging Web3 applications running on blockchain technology. Africa is socially communal and Afriguild is building the bridge to financial breakthrough by connecting young Africans to the emerging Web3 world. EMURGO Africa is pleased to support the vision of Afriguild’s leadership and development team to create a better Africa on Cardano’s third-generation blockchain which desires to provide equal economic opportunities to those that lack access”.

Beyond building a gaming guild, Afriguild aspires to become the “LinkedIn” of the Metaverse — a Web3 hub that connects Africans to multiple earning opportunities on the Metaverse with P2E models and a marketplace where game developers are directly connected to hire the services of Scholars, Gamers, Testers, and all kinds of contributors. Afriguild also will consummate its transformation into a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) in the near future, using $AFRI tokens created on the Cardano blockchain.

Toyosi Abolarin, Co-founder at Afriguild states: “At Afriguild, our strength lies within our community, and this has been the driving force behind all we do. Cardano has one of the most vibrant communities in the blockchain industry and will play a crucial role in achieving our goal of putting Africa on the map. Cardano’s technology is an innovative protocol that provides a robust infrastructure for Afriguild to develop an ecosystem of impactful and reliable products”.

“We are equally excited about the Adaverse accelerator programme, which provides unparalleled access to world-class mentors and advisors to build on Cardano, and who support our growth every step of the way. It is always a good thing to have investors who are invested, and this is just what Cardano represents to us”, said Tomiwa Olajide, Co-founder of Afriguild.

Vincent Li, Founding Partner at Adaverse said: “The Cardano community upholds an organic and sustainable approach to problem-solving and Adaverse is excited to welcome the Afriguild team onboard the accelerator program. Through this partnership, Afriguild will expand its operations across Africa and surpass its five-year goal of empowering one hundred million Africans with the means to build wealth with available resources.”

About Adaverse

Adaverse is a Cardano ecosystem accelerator launched by EMURGO Africa and Everest Ventures Group to help the next generation of African Web3 startups excel on the global front. Established as an alchemist for organically grown solutions, we assist startups to grow sustainable businesses on the continent, through funding and a 1:1 mentorship program. Our accelerator program is open to applications all year round from African-based startups with a crypto-native edge and a proven concept.

How to apply

To apply for the Adaverse accelerator program, click here

You can join Afriguild here