Barefoot Innovation Podcast

Today’s show is an extra-special episode, recorded a few weeks ago with my old friend, the legendary Brett King and my new friend, the legendary Nick Hughes.

The three of us were speakers last month at an amazing event hosted by Richard Branson and his Virgin Unite foundation at his home base on Necker Island, in the beautiful British Virgin Islands. The occasion was a gathering of some of the world’s most thoughtful and impressive fintech innovators, exploring a big question:  how could fintech be harnessed to solve some of the really huge, seemingly unsolvable problems facing humankind. We spent a long weekend talking, thinking and forming new connections and new ideas, in addition to appreciating what Richard Branson explained is now the most species-diverse island on earth.

I plan to bring you a lot of follow up from this remarkable gathering, but for today, I’m sharing one of the highlights, stemming from Brett’s suggestion that we record an episode together to post simultaneously on Barefoot Innovation and on his fantastic show, Breaking Banks. Brett and I have been on each other’s podcasts many times, so this was extra fun, and, to make it all the better, we invited Nick to join us. 

As some of you know, it was Nick Hughes who led the creation of M-Pesa, the Kenya mobile phone-based payment product that, in 2007, introduced the world to mobile money. As the saying goes, the rest is history.

I have talked about M-Pesa on this show dozens of times, but had not previously met Nick. I was completely fascinated to learn more of the origins of M-PESA, which is Africa’s largest mobile money money scheme, going back 20 years to look at how this innovation happened. Nick also tells us about his new venture, Carbon Value Exchange, or Cavex, which is a digital platform designed to bring more integrity and transparency to carbon markets. We will have him back on the show to go deeper.

Our conversations on Necker were all in the open air. At one point, a falcon flew through our meeting. When I presented, a tortoise joined us. The days and evenings were all filled with ocean breezes. For the setting, and for the ideas, I’m calling this show, winds of change. Enjoy!

More On Brett King

Brett King is an International Bestselling Author, world-renowned futurist and media personality.  He has spoken in over 50 countries, given keynotes for TEDx, Wired, Techsauce, Singularity University, Web Summit, The Economist, IBM’s World of Watson, CES, SIBOS and more. He has appeared on CNBC, BBC, ABC, Fox, and Bloomberg. He advised the Obama administration on Fintech, and Chinese President Xi Jinping cited his book, Augmented.

Brett hosts the world’s #1 Fintech Radio Show/Podcast called Breaking Banks (180 countries, 6.5 million listeners). He is the founder of Moven, a globally recognized mobile start-up, which has raised over US$40 million to date, and launched the first in-app mobile bank account offered anywhere in the world.

Banking Exchange named Brett the King of the Disruptors. He was nominated as American Banker’s Innovator of the Year, voted the world’s #1 Financial Services Influencer by The Financial Brand and listed by Bank Innovation as one of the top 10 “coolest brands in banking”. Brett was shortlisted for the Advance Global Australian of the Year for being one of the most influential Australians offshore. His book Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane was a top-10 non-fiction book in North America. Bank 4.0 remained a global bestseller in banking more than 12 months after release. The Rise of Technosocialism, Brett’s 7th book, was released November 2021. Stay tuned for his latest book, Branch Tomorrow, coming out this year

More on Nick Hughes

Nick Hughes is an entrepreneur at the forefront of innovation in digital finance, initiating and leading ground-breaking businesses including M-PESA and M-KOPA. Nick is focused on solving real world problems using digital technology in a scalable and economically sustainable way. His current work at 4R Digital Ltd includes building a digital finance application linked to carbon markets (www.cavex.io). Nick was awarded an OBE for services to ‘Innovation in Africa’. He is a winner of the Economist’s Innovation Award (2010) for his work on M-PESA. Nick has a PhD in applied science and an MBA from London Business School.