Founders in Focus spotlights André de Wet and the real economics of building tech for emerging markets – African Business Innovation

At a time when most startup success stories focus on hypergrowth, burn rates and Silicon Valley playbooks, a new book is taking a more grounded approach. Founders in Focus: Unstoppable Entrepreneurs & Their Game Plans brings together the stories of twelve founders who built enduring businesses by solving problems others overlooked.

Among them is André de Wet, founder and CEO of Flood, and the only African founder featured in the book – a distinction that reflects both his personal journey and the relevance of the problems he has spent two decades trying to solve.

De Wet’s chapter does not begin with Flood. It begins with failure.

After dropping out of medical school to start his first business, he built and sold a company by 27 only to lose everything a year later. That experience, he writes, reshaped how he thinks about risk, resilience and execution: “Technology gave me the ability to create something from nothing, and to do it at scale,” he reflects.

That mindset led to PriceCheck, which grew from a South African startup into a platform used by more than five million people, winning App of the Year internationally in 2013. It later took him to iflix, where he helped scale the streaming platform across eight emerging markets.

But it was what he saw repeatedly – across telcos, banks and retailers – that ultimately led to Flood.

While consumers across Africa, Asia and other emerging markets rapidly moved online, most local retail did not. In fact, around 95% of retail activity still happens offline, largely because small merchants lack the tools, budgets or skills to digitise – and because the underlying infrastructure needed to support digital commerce remains underdeveloped in many markets. From fragmented logistics networks to inconsistent last-mile delivery, getting products to customers can be difficult, unreliable or simply not possible at scale. In this context, the challenge is not only about merchant readiness, but also about the broader ecosystem required to enable modern retail. At the same time, banks and telcos sat with massive customer bases, but limited ways to create daily engagement or new revenue beyond their core services.

Flood was built to sit precisely in that gap.

Rather than launching yet another consumer super-app, Flood took a different approach: Enabling banks and telcos to become the platforms. Its SuperApp-as-a-Service model allows large institutions to embed local commerce, loyalty and discovery directly into their existing apps – no new downloads, no new behaviour required. The results have been telling. In one early market, Flood is now used daily by 28% of the population, turning apps that were previously opened a few times a month into platforms used almost every day.

De Wet’s chapter also revisits one of Flood’s defining moments: The 2020 lockdowns. As thousands of small businesses struggled to survive, Flood onboarded 8,000 merchants and launched 360 merchant apps in just three months, giving informal and small retailers immediate digital visibility inside apps people already trusted.

Today, Flood has processed over $400 million in GMV across 14 million transactions in six countries, quietly powering local commerce ecosystems behind the scenes – not by replacing informal trade, but by making it visible and accessible in a digital world.

What makes De Wet’s contribution stand out in Founders in Focus is its refusal to glamourise entrepreneurship. Instead, it offers a practical, emerging-market view of what it actually takes to build at scale – where distribution matters more than innovation, execution matters more than strategy, and success is measured by impact, not hype.

The book features founders from sectors spanning construction, healthcare, travel, media and consumer goods, but De Wet’s chapter is the only one rooted in Africa’s informal and offline economies: A reminder that some of the most meaningful innovation is happening far from traditional tech centres.

Founders in Focus: Unstoppable Entrepreneurs & Their Game Plans is now available internationally on Amazon as of 3 February 2026. The Kindle edition is available immediately for just $0.99: https://www.amazon.com/Founders-Focus-Unstoppable-Entrepreneurs-Their-ebook/dp/B0GGTT6T37/

For more information on Flood, visit www.flood.finance

About the author

Founders in Focus: Unstoppable Entrepreneurs & Their Game Plans is written by TJ Avazona, a bestselling author CEO of Avazona Ltd, a best-selling author, and a leading voice in PR, branding and digital strategy. He has helped over 1,000 brands build global visibility, securing thousands of features in top-tier outlets including Forbes, Entrepreneur, Vogue, IBTimes and VCPost. Founders in Focus brings together voices from multiple industries and geographies, offering a grounded look at what sustainable entrepreneurship really looks like in practice.

Other founders featured in the book include:

• Warren O’Shea, founder of O’Shea Builders LLC, whose craftsmanship and customer-first philosophy have made him one of Maine’s top remodelers.
• J. Fred Huther, founder of COLLECTIVE SME, transforming brand experiences across sports, media and entertainment.
• Dr. Sara Spowart, founder of Compassion-Based Happiness, helping clients heal through mindfulness and compassion.
• Will Lukang, president of Kairos Elite Partnership, whose leadership methodology empowers global leaders.
• Joelle Machia and Ryan Slough, co-founders of Wanderers Compass, a global travel brand inspiring meaningful exploration.
• Dr. Carla Barry, founder of Embracing Hope Relationship Coaching, blending military-honed empathy with relationship transformation.
• Paul K. Nutall, CEO of 2nd Chance TV Shows & Production, using media to champion justice and redemption.
• Cathi Carrier, founder of Purely Bella Skincare, redefining clean beauty and confidence through science-backed skincare.
• Jessica Horne, founder of Obbligato Music, building a global community where music becomes a tool for connection and joy.
• Barry Cervantes, founder of Camelot Life Coach, helping individuals align personal success with spiritual significance.