ImaliPay, a fintech startup that bills itself as a one-stop shop for financial services, recently received a loan and equity investment of $3 million. In 2020, the fintech received a $800,000 pre-seed investment. Tatenda Furusa and Oluwasanmi Akinmusire founded it in late 2020 after Furusa witnessed the difficulties ride-hailing drivers faced in obtaining working capital…
Locstat, a Cape Town-based advanced analytics business, has raised capital as it prepares for expansion. Locstat is a graph-based AI and event processing solution for continuous analysis and visualisation of real-time and static data from a variety of sources, which was founded in 2016. The startup’s AI technology analyzes the link between data points and…
Meta is said to be planning to add a virtual currency called “Zuck Bucks” to its apps in order to reward content creators and run other financial services such as loans. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Meta, recently abandoned a digital currency project called “Diem” after regulators halted its development. The project, which…
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has invited female entrepreneurs from its 15 member countries to apply for the second edition of the ShEquity accelerator program. The ShEquity Business Accelerator (SHEBA) is a 16-week program that provides venture development and technical assistance to African female entrepreneurs in the ECOWAS area who want to…
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has penalized three companies for failing to comply with cryptocurrency transaction ban restrictions. The CBN imposed a prohibition on all cryptocurrency transactions and a regulation policy on all commercial lenders in February 2021. This decision was reached after the CBN determined that these transactions posed a risk to the…
Visa, a global leader in digital payments, announced the opening of a new Innovation Studio in Nairobi, Kenya, today. Its first dedicated innovation site in Sub-Saharan Africa is the studio (SSA). This facility will service the Sub-Saharan Africa area, according to a news release, and will join Visa‘s network of innovation centers, which have been…
WafR, an application that allows retail brands to broadcast smart promotions to grocers to improve their market share on the traditional channel, has raised $278K from UM6P Ventures, Plug and Play, and numerous other Moroccan and foreign business angels, following an initial round of funding of $372K. The Moroccan startup now has a valuation of…
Kena Health is a new health app located in South Africa that allows users to interact with a nurse, doctor, or mental health expert directly from their phone. Kena Health is an app that connects users to a team of certified healthcare practitioners for guidance, diagnosis, prescriptions, sick notes, and, if necessary, referrals to a…
The term “Bootstrapping” is derived from the phrase “to hoist oneself up”. It is a method of starting one’s own business utilizing one’s own resources. A bootstrapped startup is a business that began and grew without the help of outside investors. Bootstrapping a business does not imply that the company will not seek outside funding. In fact,…
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ZirooPay, based in Lagos and Helsinki, has raised $11.4 million in a Series A round led by Zrosk Investment Management, a Lagos-based venture capital firm. Investors that have already invested With involvement from other private and institutional funds such as Fedha Capital and Exotix Advisory, Inventure and other private and institutional funds such as Fedha…
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, is already wielding authority at Twitter after acquiring a $2.9 billion stake in the firm, making him the company’s largest shareholder. He asked his 80 million Twitter followers if they wanted an edit button in a tweet. Twitter’s current CEO, Parag Agrawal, joined in and quoted his poll, stating,…
According to a 2021 research by web service provider Yahoo, the worldwide fintech sector is worth close to USD 7300 billion and is expected to increase at a rate of 26.87 percent year. The rapid growth of fintechs has been attributed to a rise in the popularity of digital payments, greater investments in technology-based solutions,…
SmartWage, an HR and communications technology business based in South Africa, has acquired US$2 million in a preliminary fundraising round that was oversubscribed to support its ambition of transforming Africa’s workforce through digital inclusion, particularly for frontline workers. SmartWage, which was founded in 2019, began by allowing businesses to provide their employees fast access to…
Threats to cybersecurity are at an all-time high. With more companies adopting hybrid work models, it’s more important than ever to educate employees on the many cybersecurity dangers that come with working remotely. Employees who work from home offer a bigger security risk than those who operate in an office in a hybrid work environment….
PayMint, an Egyptian fintech firm, has received a seven-figure US dollar seed investment to help it expand in its local market. PayMint, a financial technology company founded by Mohamed Yahya and Mohamed Rabie in 2019, offers SMEs salary payments, working capital finance, and supplier payments. The seed round, which was led by AUR Fintech, a…
Sycamore, a Nigerian peer-to-peer (P2P) lending firm, has raised an undisclosed seed round to extend its operations. Sycamore, which was founded in 2019 by Babatunde Akin-Moses, Onyinye Okonji, and Mayowa Adeosun, employs unique risk assessment tools to award business loans the same day via its website and freshly announced mobile app. The company has already…
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc (TSLA.O), has purchased a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter for roughly $3 billion, making him the company’s largest stakeholder. The action comes after he tweeted that he was “seriously considering” creating a new social media platform and questioned Twitter’s commitment to free expression. Musk holds 73.5 million Twitter…
MTN SA has announced an increase in investments to modernize current network infrastructure and deploy new network infrastructure in Limpopo and Mpumalanga, South Africa. The initiative, according to the firm, will benefit ultra-rural areas like Mtititi and Ga Marishane the most. MTN’s “Modernisation of Network South Africa project” (MONZA), as well as improved rural reach,…
Jumia, Africa’s first financial startup and now e-commerce behemoth, and UPS, the world’s largest shipping and receiving firm, have announced a new agreement that will allow UPS to utilise Jumia’s ‘last mile logistics’ capabilities and infrastructure to expand its delivery services in Africa. UPS will provide its clients an expanded choice of delivery solutions, including…
ON Market, an Egyptian e-grocery marketplace, has raised US$215,000 in pre-seed capital to extend its operations in Cairo, Alexandria, Tanta, Mansoura, and other Egyptian towns. ON Market, founded by Moatasem Marzouk, Seif Yasser, Ahmed Najjar, and Moataz Marzouk in Tanta in June 2020, provides food stores with technology solutions to help them start and sustain…
Telecommunication providers in Nigeria obeyed the Federal Government’s order on Monday to block any unlinked Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card without a National Identification Number (NIN) from being used on their networks, in an effort to reduce insecurity, extortion, and kidnappings. According to The Guardian, the Federal Government had ordered the carriers to block all…
Churpy, a Kenyan fintech startup, has raised $1 million in seed funding to support growth into Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa. Unicorn Growth Capital led the seed round, with participation from Antler East Africa, Nairobi’s business angel network, and a group of Rally Cap LPs. Churpy, founded in 2020 by John Kiptum and Kennedy Mukuna,…
Twitter has begun testing the ‘co-author’ tweet feature, which Instagram will launch on its platform in 2021. This functionality comes in handy when two accounts wish to have their names associated with a single post, such as in brand partnerships or influencer campaigns. Once published, collaborative tweets are shared with followers from both accounts, and…
Swvl, Inc. (“Swvl”), a global provider of transformative tech-enabled mass transit solutions, and Moove, the world’s first mobility fintech, announced today a collaboration to scale Moove’s revenue-based vehicle financing model across the MENAP (Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan) region and expand vehicle classes to include electric buses. The collaboration comes on the heels of…
Today, we can attest to the rise in connected consumers who are demanding almost immediate engagement with brands to satisfy their quests. Companies are now investing in ecommerce, moving into social mostly via mobile. Considering all that is going on with digital technology and the impacts, it is mind-blowing. So, evolving consumer behaviour is an…
Stax is a firm that moves banking with Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) from the phone dialer to an offline mobile application, improving the user experience of offline banking. According to Stax’s blog, USSD has been around for 24 years and is largely utilized by telecoms to let them communicate with their clients. Telcos, for…
O7 Therapy is a refined, scientific, and evidence-based online platform designed to assist clients from all over the world in achieving mental wellbeing and positively impacting the workforce. Lead by serial entrepreneur and CEO Ashraf Bacheet, with co-founders Dr Ashraf Adel, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Founder of nine psychology, and Nader Iskander, tech entrepreneur…
Strove, a South African employee wellness firm, is looking to expand further in Europe after debuting in the United Kingdom (UK). Strove, founded in 2020 by Chris Bruchhausen in collaboration with venture builder The Delta, is an activity-based mobile rewards program that enables businesses to urge their staff to live a healthy and active lifestyle,…
Klas, a Nigerian ed-tech firm that allows anyone to create an online school and provide live classes, has acquired $130,000 in angel capital to help it scale. Klas, founded by Nathan Nwachuku in December 2021, enables producers on its platform to teach a variety of courses through online classes, with its software providing everything they…