At Huawei’s ICT Competition Awards Ceremony on April 9, 2022, the company announced the commencement of its LEAP digital skills development program. According to the Chinese tech conglomerate, the LEAP program seeks to help over 100,000 people in Sub-Saharan Africa improve their ICT abilities in three years. LEAP (Leadership, Employability, Advancement, and Possibilities) is a…
Gaviti, an automated service that helps businesses collect and manage customer bills, has closed a $9 million Series A fundraising round headed by Flashpoint in the United Kingdom, with participation from Moneta VC, North First Ventures, TAU Ventures, and LETA Capital. Their platform allows organizations to manage their collections process through a user-friendly application, giving…
Pylon, an Egyptian infrastructure management business for emerging market water and energy utilities, has raised a $19 million seed round to advance water and electricity software. Endure Capital of the United States led the round, which was a mix of debt and equity, and was backed by British International Investment (previously CDC Group), the UK…
V8 Capital Partners has given ShapShap, a Nigerian on-demand delivery firm, a seed extension investment to help it expand its capabilities and penetrate new markets. The fresh funds will be used to improve the startup’s last-mile delivery capabilities for businesses and individuals in Nigeria, with ambitions to expand to other African countries in the near…
ImaliPay, a $3 million seed fundraising round has been finalized for a Pan-African fintech start-up that focuses on boosting the gig economy through its one-stop-shop financial services platform. ImaliPay was founded in late 2020 in Nigeria after Tatenda Furusa (Co-founder) noticed problems with e-ride hailing drivers’ access to working capital and emergency savings in Nairobi. Upon…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
Tushop, a Kenyan social-commerce site that allows Nairobi residents to buy goods for less money with free delivery, has raised $3 million in a pre-seed round. JAM Fund, Breyer Capital, Chandaria Capital, TO Ventures, Golden Palm Investments, FirstCheck Africa, and DFS Lab were among the investors in the round, which was led by 4DX Ventures….
Khazna, an Egyptian financial super app that provides underprivileged consumers and micro-businesses with easy-to-use, technology-driven financial services, has received a Series A round of US$38 million in stock and debt to accelerate its expansion efforts. Khazna was launched in 2020 as an earned income access product, but it has since evolved into a multi-product that…
Intella, the Middle East and North Africa’s first real-time intelligence provider, has announced a $1 million seed funding round led by Hala Ventures and Falak Startups, with participation from the Egyptian Ministry of International Cooperation and its venture capital arm, Egypt Ventures, as well as the Egyptian Ministry of International Cooperation. Other investors have also…
Sticitt, a South African fintech startup, has received an oversubscribed round of seed funding to help it grow. Sticitt, which was co-founded in January 2018 by Theo Kitshoff, Mitch Dart, and Dennis Wevel, simplifies payments within the South African education market with its simple payment system, Sticitt Pay, which offers niche communities an alternative payment…
After closing a USD300,000 Pre-Seed Round led by StrategicAngel Investors, Xpovi, a Robo-advisory startup, plans to scale-up autonomous financial and business planning services. Xpovi, a newly formed startup, began operations with the release of its “Automated BusinessPlanning” solution, which enables early-stage startups to build financial models and business plans with a few clicks using a…
Otida, an Egyptian health-tech startup, has raised $340,000 in a pre-seed round led by Texas-based VC Lofty Inc., with participation from Flat6Labs Cairo, Afropreneurs, Jedar Capital, OQAL Angel Investors, UI Investments, and some angel investors. Otida is a diabetes app that acts as a nutritionist, fitness coach, and physician for diabetic patients who are struggling…
CredPal, a digital lending startup, has announced a $15 million debt financing from Credit Direct, a subsidiary of First City Monument Bank (FCMB); Greenhouse Capital, a finance-focused venture capital firm; and a few unnamed financial institutions and new investors including LongCommerce, Uncovered Fund, First Circle Capital, and Adii Pienaar, co-founder and former CEO of WooCommerce….
Al Mada Holding Group of Morocco announced earlier this week the establishment of a pan-African venture capital fund to invest in the continent’s fast-growing startups. With a budget of MAD1.1 billion (€100 million), the Al Mada-backed venture fund aims to attract innovative investors and participate in the rapidly developing African startup ecosystem, according to converging…
Waspito, a Cameroonian e-health startup, has raised US$2.7 million in seed funding to expand its user base in Cameroon and to Ivory Coast. Waspito, founded in 2020 by Jean Lobe Lobe, connects users with medical doctors via instant video consultations from their smartphones. It also offers mobile laboratory services, with a lab technician collecting samples…
Football, or soccer as it is known in the United States, is the most popular and watched sport in the world, with over five billion football fans, according to FIFA, the sport’s governing body. While the World Cup, football’s pinnacle event and arguably the world’s most popular sporting event, displays the sport’s popularity in full…
FlapKap, an Egyptian e-commerce startup, has raised US$1.2 million in its latest round of funding to expand into new markets and develop its technology. The round was led by A15, an Egypt-based early-stage venture capital firm and one of the region’s most prominent backers of early-stage start-ups. A15 is a leading MENA venture capital firm…
Yemaachi Biotech, a Ghanaian cancer research and diagnostics company, has raised $3 million in a seed round to advance its goal of global precision oncology diversification. V8 Capital led the round, which included LifeLine Family Heritage Fund, Y Combinator, Tencent, LoftyInc Capital, VestedWorld, V Square Capital, and Ethan Perlstein. In January, the company launched its…
Apollo Agriculture, a Kenyan startup that provides a commercial farming platform to help small-scale farmers maximize their profits, has raised a US$40 million Series B funding round to help it expand internationally and improve its product. Apollo Agriculture, founded in 2019, enables farmers to increase their profitability by providing access to financing, high-quality farm inputs,…
Pranary Business School, based in Cape Town, South Africa, has helped entrepreneurs and startups raise over $1.5 million in investment and has engaged with 50,000 entrepreneurs from 50 different countries since its launch in 2020 through online mentoring. The business school assists entrepreneurs in starting new businesses as well as existing businesses in finding investors…