Nigerian-American Kemdi Ebi welcomes us during our reporting trip to Lagos, the Web3 hub in Africa. He cuts the image of a techpreneur who ideally thinks outside the box. We request him to do a short survey for us: what is the most popular cryptocurrency in the city?

Within 15 minutes, Ebi has an answer. Based on a poll of over 50 respondents across Nigeria, his results show that 34% of crypto users say bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency. USDT is second at 18%.

This quick survey was conducted via his Versus data analytics platform, which he co-founded in 2019. Ebi, now the CEO, goes ahead to describe himself as a stern advocate for innovation that yields sustainable growth in emerging markets, particularly in the African continent.

MTN Nigeria, Safaricom, Sportsbet.io and Arsenal Football Club now works with Versus, while the startup has partnered with McKinsey & Co. and Ogilvy to support its clients in Africa, according to Ebi.

African Businesses Need Actionable Insights

(The result of quick survey showing on Kemdi Ebi’s smartphone screen /

Versus Africa is a market research platform that specializes in helping businesses capitalize on the African region’s potential.

“We provide a simple means for brands to access credible research on markets across Africa,” he tells Nodo News. “We have tailored our systems to help businesses to listen to the African consumer and get true actionable insights.”

After graduating from American University in Washington D.C, where he studied Business with a major in Marketing, 38-year-old Ebi worked in D.C as a data analyst and consultant in several tech firms.

Ever since he was in his teens, Ebi had always wanted to be an entrepreneur and get involved in design.

His move back to Nigeria in 2013, roused in him a desire to bring some innovative input that would differently benefit the country, and by extension Africa as a whole.

“From my entrepreneurial experience, I found out that there is real lack of quality data on the African consumer market. Even when there was data, it was either too small a sample size to create confidence,” he explains. “Or it was data from one region that was wrongly presumed to work the same way in a different region.”

He notes that with the ubiquitous nature of information and technology, and rising mobile penetration in the African continent, more agile and dynamic research methods are becoming even imperative.

This is more so because of the complex nature of the existing markets in which different people, from different tribes, languages, cultures, races, and socio-political backgrounds co-exist.

Big Data Helps Businesses Make Informed Decisions

Versus allows global brands to learn local markets through consumer behaviors. Currently, the platform’s core markets are Nigeria and Kenya, and is expanding to Ghana as well.

Versus was built through Enterfive, a Lagos-based tech solutions startup that strives to launch and up scale businesses through innovative digital solutions. Ebi is also the co-founder and CEO of Enterfive.

Versus Africa leverages on the Listen & Ask approach. He juxtaposes this with online and offline tools to help local and global brands understand the African consumer market to in turn make informative business decisions.

It specializes in sentiment analysis, trendspotting of African markets, consumer data, competitive insights, surveys, consumer facing industries, B2C, and B2B. Its goal is to help businesses gain actionable market insights using big data analytics.

“Brands make the same mistakes over and over again. Be it talking about the multi-national consumer giants or local businesses expanding from one part of the region to another,” Ebi told Forbes. “Their mistake is to grossly underestimate the importance of understanding local markets. How a product launch in one region of Nigeria, might require completely different pricing and marketing to an identical launch in another part of the country.”

Versus’s therefore provides detailed insights that consumer brands require to correct their lack of understanding.

Making Sense out of Consumer Thoughts and Culture

Its business model is to work as as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. This is where brands pay monthly subscription for access to its service and tools. For uniquely-tailored market research, the platform works on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Ebi and his team helps brands to make sense of the thoughts and opinions of African consumers from different backgrounds. They use real time market research tools that are able to translate local languages and demystify different cultures.

Versus accomplishes most of these necessities by mining data from social media platforms. These are Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and also from local news sources. They help it to build a picture of consumer profiles and their dynamics.

“Over the past decade, social media has grown rapidly in the world,” Ebi tells Nodo News. “And I believe that the power of social media will be a key driver in the realization of what Versus seeks to achieve.”

Versus, he says, was built to bridge the data and communication gap that has been very apparent with local and global businesses operating in the continent.

The Power of Social Media Listening

“To ‘listen’ with the required precision, we developed the pan-African social listening tool feature. This tool is designed to understand various unique African languages. And the dynamic nature of online, social media or local-based news sources such as micro-blogs and online forums,” he explains.

Amid the rising stature of big data, most brands still find it hard to access and secure African consumer information. Versus’ ability to collate relevant data and address the shortfalls that these brands face gives it a competitive edge.

Africa, Ebi says, needs a homegrown locally assembled intelligence and insights solution to help businesses get the true and most credible insights on its market. This helps them to make well informed decisions as they seek to invest or expand across the continent.