The GSMA Innovation Fund moderated a masterclass called go-to-market strategies on 19 November 2025, led by Christophe François, founder of QUATALYZ for the Fund’s portfolio across Asia and Africa. This blog delves into the main takeaways from the session.
The GSMA Innovation Fund has worked with over 60 innovative organisations that build digital solutions transforming access to finance, agriculture, energy and essential services. Across these organisations a recurring theme emerges: a structured go-to-market (GTM) strategy is one of the strongest predictors of whether a venture can progress from pilot to scale.
The following GTM insights were shared by startup strategist Christophe François alongside practical learnings from two GSMA alumni Aloi Global and UjuziKilimo who joined a panel discussion to reflect on their own journeys.
Why go-to-market matters
A GTM strategy is the alignment of a startup’s resources (people, product, partnerships and capital) to meet a clearly defined customer need. While often associated with sales and distribution, GTM is in fact a continuous process that evolves as the business matures.
In the virtual session Christophe shared a five-stage GTM plan that captures how ventures move from idea to scale:
Successful companies revisit these stages repeatedly. The path is rarely linear and pivots, refinements and strategic partnerships are often necessary. The following table distils key GTM principles and actionable steps discussed during the session providing a practical guide for early-stage ventures navigating complex markets.
| GTM Principles | Description |
|---|---|
| Choose your primary customer | One of the earliest and most consequential decisions for a startup is identifying its primary customer. This is not simply the user of the product but the stakeholder whose needs most directly shape the business. For many Innovation Fund grantees the challenge is balancing multiple potential beneficiaries: smallholder farmers, financial institutions, cooperatives, government agencies or end consumers. The most successful startups are those that make a deliberate choice early and stay disciplined in understanding the pains, motivations and value drivers of that customer segment. |
| Understand core vs context | A clear GTM strategy distinguishes between: Core activities: the features, technology and capabilities that create competitive advantage and must be owned in-house. Context activities: necessary supporting functions-such as training, distribution or installation that can be delegated or delivered through partners. This distinction is critical in LMIC markets where resources are limited and speed matters. |
| Craft your value proposition | A strong value proposition integrates: Pain removers Gain creators Core features Differentiators and emotional drivers For early-stage ventures, focusing on one clear use case is often the fastest route to customer traction. Over-designed products hinder adoption; simple intuitive solutions accelerate it. |
| Design your market insertion strategy | Market insertion is the first real test of whether customers understand, adopt and pay for the solution. Successful strategies typically include: A single, well-defined vertical use case A simple pricing model Easy discovery, delivery, and support pathways strategic partners who provide complementary products, services or distribution networks |
| Build a sustainable growth engine | After product–market fit, the focus shifts to proving the business model works, acquiring customers profitably and building operational systems for scale. Partnerships become increasingly important as companies expand across geographies, introduce new revenue streams or evolve from product-based models to platform models. |
Learning from the field: GTM journeys of GSMA grantees
Aloi Global: Embedding Fintech in Agriculture and E-Mobility Ecosystems
Aloi Global, co-founded by Tiffany Tong provides a digital financing platform that enables microfinance institutions to monitor loan expenditure and repayment. Using digital tokens and smart contracts accessible on basic mobile phones, Aloi creates transparency across borrowers, accredited vendors and buyers.
A focused vertical strategy
Aloi’s GTM success is rooted in selecting two high-value verticals (products):
- Krishala: supporting agri-entrepreneurs in tea, coffee and dairy value chains
- Bijuli Power: enabling micro-entrepreneurs in Nepal’s electric mobility sector
By narrowing their scope early, Aloi was able to tailor their market insertion strategy, gather strong evidence of value and attract institutional partners.
UjuziKilimo: Bridging data and smallholder decision-making
UjuziKilimo, represented on the panel by co-founder Dickson Ayuka, delivers soil diagnostics and precision agriculture tools to smallholder farmers in East Africa. Their approach includes:
- SoilPal: onsite soil testing
- FarmSuite: soil and yield management
- Ujuzi Data: analytics for precision farming
Dual GTM routes: B2B2C and B2C
The company strategically pursued two parallel pathways:
- B2B2C, partnering with cooperatives, government agencies and NGOs that embed soil testing into their service delivery
- Direct-to-farmer (B2C) dissemination through agent networks
This dual model enables UjuziKilimo to validate demand, diversify revenue and balance scale with depth of engagement.
Key takeaways for early-stage founders
Across the panel and GTM training, several insights stood out:
- Tackle challenges with big, tangible value for many users.
- Assess barriers to adoption early in distribution, literacy, trust and affordability.
- Test your MVP with real customers and refine based on evidence, not assumptions.
- Resist building the “perfect solution” before demonstrating traction.
- Partnerships can accelerate adoption, but only when the value exchange is clear and mutually beneficial.
- Every expansion is a new GTM journey, requiring fresh assumptions and renewed customer research.
- Timing is critical: in knowing when to focus, when to pivot and when to scale.
Conclusion
GTM is not a checklist, it is a dynamic capability that grows with the company. Startups in LMICs that embrace structured experimentation, disciplined focus and strategic partnerships are best positioned to unlock sustainable, scalable impact.
Through the GSMA Innovation Fund we will continue to support innovators like Aloi Global and UjuziKilimo as they refine their GTM strategies and deliver solutions that strengthen livelihoods and advance digital inclusion.
About QUATALYZ
QUATALYZ helps innovative ventures scale successfully from seed to exit velocity. Their practice is rooted in decades of first-hand experience in building technology startups and scaling businesses internationally. It combines extensive know-how in multiple industries, deep expertise in growth strategy, go-to-market, product management, corporate development and a best-in-class global network in the investment community.
- They assist founders and CEOs tune their strategy and operating model
- They help validate product-market fit, develop value propositions, drive effective go-to-market, build scalable platforms, execute successful international growth strategies and fundraising campaigns.
- They work hand in hand with founders and management to resolve critical business issues and bring actionable tools to the business and support boards and investors assess new investments, review opportunities and issues across their portfolio.
QUATALYZ is founded by a team of highly experienced executives in the startup ecosystem. Our approach is holistic, modular and straightforward. Their engagements fill gaps with practical solutions to create sustainable value for all stakeholders. They act as business partners for entrepreneurs and investors, binding their compensation to their success.
The GSMA Innovation Fund is currently funded by UK International Development from the UK government and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), and is supported by the GSMA and its members.
