The 2022 MEST Africa Challenge will begin with the regional pitch competition, which will feature 36 eligible technology startups from 5 different African nations. The Competition’s Upcoming Stage The MEST Africa Challenge and the next regional contests have received some important changes from MEST. The chosen firms will be divided into 4 primary groups for…
To speed up product development and client acquisition in Kenya and elsewhere, Kenyan agency banking as a service provider Tanda is now soliciting money through a pre-Series A round of fundraising. Tanda, which was founded in 2018, enables store owners to access inventory on credit and serve as their clients’ access points for services including…
InGame Sports, an Egyptian gaming and sports technology business, has raised approximately US$1 million in cash, in-kind assets, and grants in a pre-seed round to support its international growth and the introduction of new products. A first-of-its-kind gamified platform called InGame Sports offers football fans the ability to anticipate results and win thrilling rewards. The…
Today, Samsung Nigeria officially launched the Galaxy A04s into the Nigerian market. The launch of this device reinforces Samsung’s commitment in providing affordable yet quality devices that addresses the daily needs of consumers. The smartphone is packed with 4G/64 GB & 4G/128GB storage variants expandable to 1TB and runs on a One UI Core 4….
Business subject matter experts are warming up for 2022 Africa Tech Alliance Forum (AfriTECH 2.0) scheduled to hold on Wednesday, November 09, 2022, at Oriental Hotel, Lagos at 9:00 am (WAT). Mr. Chike Onwuegbuchi, the co-Convener of AfriTECH, said that the high profile speakers who will be unveiled soon will delve into the nitty-gritty of…
The first-ever sustainability-focused cohort of the MEST Express accelerator has chosen six impact-driven Ghanaian entrepreneurs to participate, and they will each get a grant of $5,000 in addition to various forms of support. Along with Pre-MEST and MEST Scale, MEST Express is one of three programs that MEST runs in collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation….
It is generally acknowledged that Lagos has a serious housing shortage issue. The state’s large size and high population density are the root causes of the housing shortage. With a population of 15.4 million, Lagos, the smallest state in Nigeria, is also the most populous metropolis in Africa. Lagos receives 123,840 visitors each day, making…
Algebra Ventures, an Egyptian venture capital firm with a MENA emphasis, announced the opening of its $90 million second fund in April of last year. A $54 million fund was invested in 21 firms around Egypt and the Middle East as a follow-up to its first round. Algebra Ventures anticipated reaching its first close in…
The Grindstone Accelerator in South Africa has teamed up with Naspers Labs to introduce GrindstoneX, a new all-female accelerator programme intended to increase the investability, scalability, and exit-readiness of women-led firms. Grindstone, a company founded in 2014 and jointly owned by Knife Capital and Thinkroom, focused on helping high-growth, innovation-driven firms achieve scale. The youth…
We’ve recently seen reports that the REvil ransomware gang is back online after the January 2022 arrests of several its members by Russian authorities claiming to dismantle the group and the November 2021 arrests of two members by U.S. authorities. While it remains to be seen if this re-emergence of REvil includes its most aggressive…
An organization in its early phase of existence is referred to as a start-up. Entrepreneurs that desire to create a product or service think there is a market for launching start-ups. Because start-ups often have high startup costs and low revenue, founders frequently look for money from a variety of internal and external sources, including personal savings,…
This week, MTN South Africa released a request for proposals (RFP) that will transform the MTN Headquarters into a fully “green” workplace in order to secure and obtain dependable energy. As part of the company’s larger Project Zero program, which investigates all forms of renewable energy on both a large and local scale, Phase 1…
The B2B e-commerce platform Mazaya, based in Egypt, has raised $5 million in pre-seed capital to develop its operations there and enter other markets and industry verticals. Mazaya, a company that was founded in December 2021, gives retailers and merchants of electronic products and home appliances more leverage by allowing them to quickly and effectively…
The Nigeria Innovation Summit (NIS) 2022, the hybrid edition, scheduled for Tuesday, October 4 to Saturday, October 8 2022, has received the support of critical industry stakeholders. Nigeria Innovation Summit in its 7th year is an annual event that brings together stakeholders from different sectors of Nigeria’s economy, governments, investors, policymakers, and players in the…
The pan-African Investing in Innovation (i3) program has chosen thirty African e-health firms to participate, providing them with a US$50,000 grant and access to market opportunities to spur growth-driven relationships with donors, industry, and institutional stakeholders. The i3 program, supported by Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD), the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa, AUDA-NEPAD,…
A list of 10 promising Nigerian startups that are overcoming the current obstacles and garnering attention in 2022 has been released by the world’s largest professional networking site, LinkedIn. This list’s main objective is to be a resource for job searchers who are willing to work for a cutting-edge startup, make a major contribution to…
The top non-banking financial services provider in Egypt, Contact Financial Holding, has agreed to provide Trella with a sizeable financing facility so it can develop its business in a number of ways. Trella, a transportation marketplace and B2B technology platform, links shippers and carriers in real-time. The firm, which operates across the Middle East and…
New research from the IDC reveals the latest cloud security trends in Nigeria The majority (72 percent) of Nigerian organizations are increasing their spend on information security 21 percent of organizations use a combination of on premises and cloud solutions. This is set to grow to 41 percent over the next two years. For Nigerian…
Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are very important in Africa. An estimated 80% of jobs on the continent are held by the 44 million SMEs. Despite being crucial to the African economy, many businesses only have a limited amount of access to funding. Due to a lack of collateralization, traditional credit facilities like banks frequently…
A South African-based automated platform called iiDENTIFii has raised $15 million in growth capital to offer a remote digital biometric identification authentication method. African investment firm Arise, whose founding investors include Rabobank Partnerships, Norfund, NorFinance, and FMO, led the round. The size of this Series A in the African identity verification market is the largest…
Standard Bank and the SA SME Fund have backed venture capital firm Knife Capital’s new USD50 million African Series B expansion fund, Knife Fund III, along with other respectable investors. The Fund’s mission is to close a crucial funding gap for follow-on projects while investing in the growth of African businesses that are driven by…
Kenyan agri-circularity firms are encouraged to apply to participate in the second O-Farms accelerator program, which will provide milestone-based grant funding of up to EUR25,000 (US$24,000) to two peer-selected companies. O-Farms was established in 2021 as Africa’s first agri-circularity-focused accelerator program, led by Bopinc and Village Capital, and administered by E4Impact Accelerator, with the intention…
Global cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin is celebrating its fifth anniversary and announcing commemorative events while outlining its strategy for the coming years. 5-year highlights Since its founding in 2017, KuCoin has expanded from its original seven co-founders to a highly effective team of over 1,000 people across the globe, scaling 142 times. The exchange currently serves 20…
Top digital companies including Meta, Stripe, Reddit, and Xend Finance use the Web3 blockchain network Polygon. The Polygon Bootcamp, an intense eight-week mentorship program, and hackathon in Africa has begun. The blockchain development process will be explained to developers, and financial incentives will be provided to encourage their interest in the field. Outstanding developers will…
In order to support the growth of retailers in Egypt, Paymob, an Egyptian payment, and shopping app has partnered with Tabby, a buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) platform with headquarters in Dubai. This partnership allows companies operating within the Paymob network to take advantage of Tabby’s split-in-four, interest- and fee-free payment solution through Paymob’s gateway. Over 120,000 merchants…
SweepSouth, a South African platform for on-demand home cleaning and services, has raised US$11 million in finance, lead by the private equity fund Alitheia IDF, with the goal of growing its current business and entering new markets. A $100 million “gender-lens fund” called Alitheia IDF is co-founded and run by two women-led companies, Alitheia Capital…
InGame Sports, an Egyptian gaming and sports technology business, has raised over $1 million in cash, in-kind resources, and grants in a pre-seed round that was spearheaded by Openner, a worldwide VC that invests in early-stage tech startups and has a unique combination of capital and technology. Numerous well-known personalities in world sports, like Sports…
Agritech startup Farmerline from Ghana has raised an additional $1.5 million in a pre-Series A equity investment to grow throughout West Africa. With the extra money, the total amount obtained in the round—which includes $6.4 million in debt financing—now stands at $14.4 million. The Dutch entrepreneurial development bank FMO, Oikocredit, Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF),…
Through a partnership with Meta and the Innovation Growth Hub (IGHub), Sendy, a technology startup that creates simple tech solutions that help businesses sell, move items, and acquire financing, is providing free training for SMEs on how to expand their enterprises. Through the Meta Boost training program, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), business owners, and…
ComiBlock, a Nigerian business in the investtech space, has received an unknown amount of money from Expert Dojo, a growth accelerator based in California, to aid in its expansion. ComiBlock, a goal-based investment crypto robo-advisor that was launched in February 2021, provides anyone with a smartphone with access to planning tools, advice, and curated and…