OnePort 365, a Nigerian digital freight forwarding startup, has raised $5 million in early capital to accelerate Africa’s end-to-end digitalization of freight management and enable its expansion into new markets. Mobility 54 (the Venture Capital branch of Toyota Tsusho and CFAO Group) led the seed fundraising round, which included SBI Investment, Flexport, ODX, a Singaporean…
Last month, WhatsApp announced multi-device functionality for Android and iOS users. This lets users to use their WhatsApp accounts on up to four devices and one phone at the same time without needing to be connected to the internet. Now, the Meta-owned instant messaging company is rumored to be working on a new feature that…
Kwely Inc, a B2B wholesale distribution platform for Made-in-Africa products, has raised $700,000 in a new round of funding to bring its total capital to $1 million. WIC Capital led this round of fundraising, which included Loftyinc Capital, Afropreneur Angels, Haskè Ventures, and other angel investors. DNA Capital, the Lead Investor, and UMA Ventures were…
The African Development Bank’s Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI) will receive $15 million from The Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) to develop and extend digital financial solutions to women-owned small and medium businesses in Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, Mozambique, and Nigeria. This $54.8 million fourth round of funding will help over 69,000 women entrepreneurs in…
Mindjoy, a Cape Town-based ed-tech company, wants to make coding skills available to kids – and adults — on any internet-enabled device. Gabi Immelman founded Mindjoy in July 2021 to address one of the industry’s most widespread issues: a lack of digital skills development. Mindjoy offers live, small-group virtual coding sessions to kids aged eight…
DigsConnect, a student housing marketplace, has secured funding from international startup capital firm The Delta as part of its latest funding round. The DigsConnect website, which was founded by Alexandria Procter and Greg Ramsay-Keal in 2018, allows landlords, estate agents, and property managers to post their property listings, with students searching and filtering through these…
KenGen, a Kenyan power generation company, has finished drilling seven geothermal wells in Ethiopia, four of which are at the Aluto-Langano site and three at Tule Moye. According to Business Daily, KenGen won a Sh7.6 billion ($65.6 million) joint contract with Kerui Petroleum Equipment Company and Shandong Kerui Oilfield Service Group in February 2019 to…
Elizabeth Rogo, President (East Africa), African Energy Chamber, has been appointed to the National Oil Corporation of Kenya’s board of directors. Elizabeth is a professional engineer with more than 21 years of experience in the energy industry. She is expected to lead the National Oil Corporation of Kenya’s efforts to improve oil and gas exploration,…
The nine startups chosen for the Fintech Incubation Programme have been announced by Nigeria’s technology innovation center Co-creation Hub (CcHUB), in collaboration with Google, the Ministry of ICT and Innovation Rwanda, and the Mojaloop Foundation. The Fintech Innovation Project, which includes the Fintech Incubation Program and other development initiatives, is part of Rwanda’s ongoing efforts…
With the introduction of a community fund, Reddit is giving new life to the dreams of several projects and creators. Reddit announced on Monday that it is launching a new initiative called Community Funds, with an initial investment of $1 million to support a variety of projects. The new fund is the result of six…
The Kenyan electric vehicle company Opibus has rebranded as ROAM, following a strategic shift in the company’s vision as a result of its expansion. Opibus, which was founded in 2017, is the leading provider of locally designed and manufactured electric vehicles. Its vision is to develop dependable and cost-effective products for the pan-African mass market….
Farmerline, a Ghanaian startup that bills itself as “Amazon for African farmers,” has received a US$6.4 million pre-Series A investment as well as another US$6.5 million in debt to help it expand. Farmerline, founded in 2013 by Alloysius Attah and Emmanuel Owusu Addai, collaborates with agribusinesses and farm associations to provide high-quality fertiliser and seeds,…
Afriex, a Nigerian payment platform that allows users to send and receive money for free to and from Africa, has raised $10 million in a Series A funding round. Nairametrcs reported on Tuesday that the money will be used to “expand its blockchain money transfer platform.” The company is now valued at $60 million. Sequoia…
Techstars, a global investment firm that provides early-stage entrepreneurs with access to capital, one-on-one mentorship, and customized programming, has launched the ARM Labs Lagos Techstars Accelerator Program in collaboration with ARM Labs, a Lagos-based innovation program focused on assisting fintech startups. The new accelerator program will invest in early-stage African fintech and proptech companies. “Lagos…
Insecta Studios, a creative company based in Nigeria that uses storytelling and design to connect brands and people, has launched Raknida, a platform aimed at providing high-quality and affordable wall arts that inspire people, promote overall well-being, support the economic advancement of young African artists, and fuse art and tech experiences that open up unique…
Stitch, a South African fintech firm, has introduced LinkPay, a service that allows customers in South Africa and Nigeria to link their financial accounts and pay securely via rapid bank transfer in seconds. The Stitch API enables developers to quickly connect apps to financial accounts, allowing users to exchange transaction histories and balances, confirm their…
The Central African Republic, a landlocked country roughly in the middle of Africa, has become the first African government to recognize Bitcoin as legal cash. The Central African Republic’s Ministry of Finance and Budget, as well as the Ministry of Digital Economy, Postal Services, and Telecommunications, have presented a joint document that recognizes Bitcoin as…
WhatsApp is working on providing additional premium capabilities to business accounts through a subscription plan. More features that WhatsApp is covertly developing will be included in the premium package. One of the new features is the ability to support a greater number of linked devices on a single business account. The Multi-device feature currently supports…
Zenda, a business based in the United Arab Emirates, has received $9.4 million in seed funding to help improve school tuition payment and management. By changing the way parents and guardians pay school fees, as well as how educational institutions conduct fee collection, the company wants to have an impact on the educational sector. Zenda…
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is the sole owner and operator of Twitter at the time of writing this article. The richest individual on the planet now owns the most popular social networking platform. Musk paid $54.20 per share for the company. This is, after all, the same price as his initial…
In light of recent developments and the resulting circumstance posed by the pandemic in 2020, many schools and institutions are planning to switch, and some have already switched, to online learning, teaching, conferencing, and meetings, resulting in an increase in users of conference platforms such as Zoom, and Google meet. More concerns should be raised…
The FBI has issued a warning about the BlackCat ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS), which it claims has victimized at least 60 entities worldwide as of March 2022, since its discovery last November. The ransomware, also known as ALPHV and Noberus, is notable for being the first malware written in the Rust programming language, which is known to…
Gravity Sketch, a London-based startup, has taken that concept into 3D, leveraging tools such as virtual reality headsets to let designers and others dive into and better visualize a product’s design as it’s being made; and the startup is now announcing a $33 million funding round to take its own business to the next dimension….
ArK Kapital, based in Stockholm, has secured a €150 million senior secured debt facility from Pollen Street Capital after raising €165 million in March to provide long-term alternative financing options. Through AI-powered financial forecasts and non-dilutive funding, the company will be able to assist startups in growing smarter. ArK Kapital, which was founded by six-time…
Syarpa, a Nigerian fintech startup, has raised US$500,000 in pre-seed funding to help it expand across Europe and Africa. Syarpa, which has over 2,000 users and has facilitated transactions worth over US$4 million since its launch, enables users to carry out both international money transfers and crypto exchanges by providing fiat and crypto payment solutions….
Tofino Capital has announced the first close of its $10 million funding round, with a goal of completing the round in nine months. Tofino Capital, founded by Eliot Pence and Aubrey Hruby, invests in early-stage companies in venture scalable markets that are underserved or underfunded by venture capital. Among the companies in its portfolio are…
Recur Technologies PTE, a Singapore-based financing platform, announced a $30 million equity and debt fundraising round from a group of Indian investors. Recur Club Technologies, the financial technology startup’s Delhi-based subsidiary, operates in India. InfoEdge Ventures, the investment arm of Info Edge (India), and Village Global have each invested $2 million in the parent company’s…
Unicorn Group, an investment firm, has launched its fourth entrepreneur incubation program, which is open to startups from a variety of countries for the first time. Unicorn Group is a pan-African investment firm that seeks out innovative ideas, startups, and early-stage companies in Africa’s technology and technology-enabled sectors that have the potential to become unicorns….
The idea of networking contributes to the growth and relevance of a startup. We are often familiar with the saying “no man is an island”. Running your business on a solo mode might retain the focus or vision of the business, it can also make progress speedily but it shuts the owner from the real experiences of other…
Trace and the Mastercard Foundation have collaborated to launch Trace Academia, a free, interactive, mobile-based learning application designed to help 26 million young Africans gain market-relevant skills. The Trace Academia App is available on Android and iOS and has been tested successfully in four African countries. Users can access courses in either English or French,…