In recent years, the emphasis on tech talent development in Africa has shifted from entry-level to senior talent development. In addition, the local education system’s inability to provide competent engineering talent has created a gap in the market for entry-level talent. AltSchool Africa recognizes this and has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding to that…
Niklas Adalberth’s Norrsken Foundation has made headlines again, just two months after launching its Norrsken House in Kigali, Rwanda, with plans to house thousands of entrepreneurs by next year. This time, the foundation has joined forces with thirty unicorn founders as well as a couple of seasoned venture capital and private equity investors to launch…
By 2024, the Egyptian social e-commerce market will be worth more than $14.8 billion. The market opportunity can be attributed to the increase in online social sellers in the country, with over 1.25 million of them assisting lesser-known brands in selling and distributing their goods through various networks. Brimore, a market leader in the country…
NALA, a Tanzanian cross-border payments firm, has raised $10 million in seed funding. Amplo, Accel $ Bessemer Partners, and DFS Lab led the round. Angel investors included the Head of Google Payments, Peeyush Ranjan, and the Co-Founder and CTO of Monzo, Jonas Templestein, among others. This round follows an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding raised…
TLcom Capital, the Africa-focused venture capital firm known for its investments in Andela and Twiga, is raising $150 million for its second fund, which will invest in early- and late-stage companies. According to a statement shared with TechCrunch, the firm has reached its first close of $70 million. It’s nearly the same as what TLcom…
Sote, a Kenyan supply chain company, has raised a US$4 million seed extension round in order to expand its offering into the fintech space. Sote, which was founded in 2018, will launch its licensed tech-enabled customs clearance and forwarding service in 2020. The platform offers a real-time dashboard that provides manufacturers, retailers, and distributors with…
OZÉ, a Ghanaian fintech startup that offers MSMEs digital recordkeeping tools with embedded finance products, has raised a US$3 million pre-Series A funding round to expand the platform’s capabilities and increase access to affordable finance. OZÉ, which was released in beta in 2018, is a mobile app that assists small businesses in recording their sales,…
CompariSure, a South African business, has raised ZAR15 million (US$980,000) in pre-Series A funding to help it extend the use of its chatbot technology. CompariSure, founded in 2017 by Jonathan Elcock and Matt Kloos, has created a conversational commerce platform that enables businesses to have customized conversations with users at an unlimited scale, powered by…
Chimera Capital, an Abu Dhabi-based investment firm, announced the closing of its second venture capital (VC) fund, totaling $10 billion, with the goal of identifying multi-million dollar opportunities in “growth-stage” businesses. The $10 billion funds are managed in collaboration with Alpha Wave Global, formerly Falcon Edge Capital, a major alternative asset manager in the United…
Floatpays, a South African on-demand payment platform, has raised just under $4 million in an oversubscribed seed fundraising round to help it expand across Africa. Floatpays is a digital platform that offers on-demand access to pay, seamless savings functionality, and financial education to enhance employee financial wellness. It was founded in 2019 and is a…
Orderin, a South African business-to-business (B2B) delivery-as-a-service (DaaS) startup, has raised ZAR71 million (US$4.7 million) in pre-Series B funding to help it scale its infrastructure and improve its last-mile delivery service. Orderin, which was founded in 2013, is one of South Africa’s major on-demand delivery services, providing delivery services for companies such as McDonald’s and…
Egyptian fintech Fawry has announced plans to raise 800 million Egyptian rupees (US$51 million) in growth capital through a rights issue to existing shareholders, with the proceeds to fund a new chapter of expansion in both consumer and financial services intended to be used for consumers as well as merchants. Founded in 2008, Fawry is…
Zanifu, a Kenyan fintech providing micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) access to working capital through short-term equity financing, has raised $1 million in seed funding. The round included the participation of Launch Africa Ventures, Sayani Investments, Saviu Ventures and several angel investors from Kenya and Nigeria, bringing the startup’s total funding to $1.2 million….
ExpandCart, an e-commerce platform for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), has announced the completion of a new $2.7 million fundraising round. The investment was led by Betatron Venture Group, a Hong Kong-based venture capital firm, and included Egypt’s Sawari Ventures and Kuwait’s Agility Ventures. ExpandCart is the Middle East and North Africa’s largest…
Frain Technologies, a Nigerian developer-tooling business, has raised US$473,000 in pre-seed capital to further invest in its existing products and develop new ones. Frain began in February 2021, when co-founder and CEO Subomi Oluwalana left his job as a backend developer at Nigerian fintech Tangerine Life to establish APIs for the fintech industry. For several…
PAPS, a Senegalese startup, has acquired a pre-Series A fundraising round of US$4.5 million from local and international investors to help it develop its tech-enabled logistics solution across the Francophone African area. PAPS, which debuted in September 2016, provides end-to-end logistics solutions for companies with both physical and online operations. Its technology enables organizations of…
Bumpa, a Nigerian business that serves as a one-stop shop for African retail merchants, intends to expand internationally after experiencing rapid development and receiving pre-seed capital from a bank. Bumpa, founded in February 2021 by Kelvin Umechukwu and Adetunji Opayele, assists merchants in moving their businesses online without the requirement for programming knowledge. They may…
Pivo, a credit-focused financial services company for SME supply chain players in Nigeria, has acquired an unknown amount of money from early-stage venture capital firm Microtraction. Pivo, founded last year by Nkiru Amadi-Emina and Ijeoma Jacquelyn Akwiwu, provides a novel and more effective approach for SME owners in the supply chain sector to obtain financial…
Float, a Ghanaian fintech startup that provides a cash flow management and spend platform for African businesses, has raised a US$17 million round of debt and equity seed funding to accelerate growth and the launch of new products. Float offers credit lines to small businesses, as well as solutions for managing business accounts and wallets…
Economies of scale are critical for on-demand businesses, and one of the promising startups in the field has secured a large round to expand its operations. Bolt, a startup and app that provides on-demand ride hailing, shared vehicles and scooters, as well as restaurant and grocery delivery, has raised €628 million at an estimated valuation…
As connectivity and bandwidth opportunities expand, Africa’s appetite for cloud computing software continues to grow. According to studies, the cloud computing business on the African continent, when combined with the Middle East, is predicted to expand to $31.4 billion in 2026, up from $14.2 billion last year. SeamlessHR, a Nigeria-based startup that uses cloud-based human…
Afrikrea, the Ivory Coast-based e-commerce platform for “all things made in Africa,” has raised US$6.2 million in pre-Series A funding and rebranded as “ANKA.” Afrikrea was founded in 2016 as an online marketplace for selling and buying African-inspired clothing, accessories, arts and crafts, but last year pivoted to become an all-in-one SaaS solution providing a…
ThankUCash, a Nigerian multi-merchant rewards platform, has raised US$5.3 million in seed funding as it plans to expand into new markets and launch new products. ThankUCash, co-founded in 2018 by Simeon Ononobi, Suraj Supekar, Madonna Ononobi, and Harshal Gandole, offers cashback on purchases and deals from thousands of merchants, assisting merchants in retaining customer loyalty,…
According to an SEC filing signed and submitted on January 6, the anniversary of last year’s domestic attack on the Capitol, the conservative social media platform Parler has raised $20 million in funding. The app, which claims to have more than 16 million registered users, describes its mission as defending “against the authoritarian powers of…
JABU, a Namibian startup with venture capital firm YC backing, has received a $3.2 million investment for its B2B e-commerce and retail operation. Afore Capital led the seed round, which was joined by Y Combinator, FJ Labs, Quiet Capital, Kli Capital, Pareto Capital, and unnamed angel investors. In the mid-2020s, CEO David Akinin founded JABU…
Bfree, a Nigerian credit management fintech, has launched a global expansion after raising $1.7 million in a pre-Series A round to capitalize on opportunities in emerging markets, where digital lending apps have proliferated. 4Di Capital, Octerra Capital, VestedWorld, Voltron Capital, Logos Ventures, and several other angel investors participated in the latest round, bringing the total…
mPharma, a Ghanaian health tech startup, is establishing a network of community pharmacies across Africa with the goal of becoming the region’s primary healthcare provider for millions of people. MPharma intends to expand its community (Mutti) pharmacies across eight African markets in order to serve as patients’ first point of contact. Mutti pharmacies are essentially…
Alvin, a Kenyan startup that helps people align their daily spending around savings goals, has raised a US$740,000 pre-seed funding round as it continues to hone its product, which is currently in private beta. Alvin, which was founded in May of last year, is a smart money manager app that uses automated budgeting, personalized offers,…
Gahez, an Egypt-based e-commerce startup and business-to-business fashion marketplace, recently raised $2 million in funding. The pre-Seed round was attended by Disruptech Ventures, Egypt Ventures, Tanmeyah (an EFG Hermes company), Afropreneur fund, and other strategic angel investors. Gahez launched as an online marketplace at the end of 2021 with the goal of transforming the wholesale…
Tugende, a leading Uganda fintech lender that specializes in asset finance in Kenya and Uganda, has announced the completion of a new $17 million debt capital round by the end of 2021. The Nordic Microfinance Initiative (NMI) contributed $5 million in local currency, Symbiotics contributed $6 million, and the Lendahand crowdfunding platform contributed $1 million….