The narrative surrounding African startup failures often defaults to a lack of funding, yet the deeper reality points toward a systemic weakness in operational execution and market strategy. The recent shutdown of Joovlin, a Nigerian fintech that boasted over 2,000 active resellers but couldn’t generate sustained revenue, exemplifies this challenge. Joovlin’s story is far from unique; the African startup graveyard is filled with ventures that achieved rapid user acquisition and raised significant capital only to fold due to internal structural issues, premature scaling, and unclear market fit. Experts conservatively estimate that approximately 70% of African startups fail in their first five years of operation. Over the last 30 months alone, about 33 African startups have shut down, a trend fueled by dwindling funding and weak operational discipline. In this challenging climate, Clarus, a firm specializing in fractional Go-To-Market (GTM) leadership, has identified its crucial role. Founded by Victor Ekwealor, the firm partners with startups, accelerators, and investors to engineer repeatable growth systems that effectively transform ambitious ideas into measurable market traction.
Ekwealor characterizes the decade beginning around 2015, marked by successes like Paystack, as an era defined by “forgiving capital and fast scaling.” During this period, securing investment often became the primary benchmark for success. Ekwealor notes that while easy access to capital provided speed, this rapid velocity rarely translated into disciplined structure or sustainable growth. He contends that this era allowed founders to pursue highly ambitious ideas without immediate accountability for unit economics or retention, permitting pitch decks to precede concrete product strategies. However, this period of easy money is concluding. In 2024, African startups raised about $2.2 billion across 488 deals, representing a 22.7% decline from 2023 activity and falling significantly below the peak years of 2021-2022. Ekwealor labels this shift “the end of easy money,” noting that rising global interest rates affect emerging markets the fastest. Investors, though not absent, are now highly demanding; execution is the new currency, not just promise.
Ekwealor asserts that struggling startups consistently grapple with five predictable flaws in their go-to-market strategies: weak positioning issues where founders fail to define a target customer; channel guesswork characterized by spending on trends without measuring ROI, which he plainly calls “gambling”; retention neglect where user acquisition is prioritized over successful user activation and long-term retention; disconnected teams where product, marketing, and sales operate in damaging silos; and the absence of an operating rhythm, causing startups to mistake mere motion for measurable, structured progress.
Ekwealor calls the current environment a behavioral reset, forcing African startups to focus on “fundamentals, not funding.” The ecosystem is shifting its attention from superficial vanity metrics, such as user counts and weekly sign-ups, to critical metrics like efficiency and long-term retention. “It’s no longer about how fast you scale,” he advises, “but how long you can sustain.” This sentiment is mirrored by investors, such as Olu Oyinsan of Oui Capital, who emphasizes adherence to recurring revenue, margins, and sustainable progressive growth. Ekwealor observes founders now asking strategic questions about positioning, funnel mathematics, and Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)—concepts previously marginalized. He sees the quiet ecosystem not as a decline, but a “detoxifying” recalibration, asserting that Clarity, which the firm’s name symbolizes, is what must follow the era of adrenaline. Referencing Nassim Taleb’s concept of antifragility, he believes difficult periods produce the strongest companies.
Ekwealor, the operator behind Clarus, brings over 11 years of GTM experience across Africa, the UK, and Europe. His background, which includes running family businesses like a fish farm and a fashion brand, instilled early discipline in unit economics. His experience taught him that assuming a good idea would sell itself and delaying tough GTM decisions were common, costly mistakes. These experiences shaped Clarus into a firm built on structure.
Clarus offers a fractional GTM and growth model, allowing startups to access senior experience without the commitment of a full-time VP of Growth. Ekwealor stresses this is “embedded execution,” not consultancy. The process begins with a comprehensive GTM audit covering positioning, messaging, funnels, and channel performance. Clarus then builds a strategic blueprint, establishing systems for Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) clarity, funnel mathematics, lifecycle frameworks, and critical benchmarks for Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Customer Lifetime Value (LTV), along with implementing weekly operating cadences and data dashboards. Ekwealor insists that GTM is not a post-product activity; “GTM starts the day you decide to build.”
Clarus is also launching the Clarus Growth Lab, a foundational infrastructure initiative designed to embed GTM fundamentals across entire portfolios. This cohort-based sprint partners with accelerators and venture funds, acting as the “first layer of GTM” support for their portfolio companies who lack internal capacity. The fractional model makes senior support accessible at scale, allowing founders to gain structured growth capability while investors gain clearer visibility into real traction beyond demo day. Ekwealor is betting that the next decade of African tech will be defined not by hype, but by operational discipline and structured growth, ensuring that growth becomes deliberate, not accidental.
