The first half of President Joseph Nyumah Boakai’s term will see the digital education of over ten thousand Liberian youngsters empowered. On Monday, January 29, 2024, Mr. Boakai revealed the idea at his inaugural State of the Nation Address (SONA) in the Capitol. He reassured parliamentarians that during the next six years, the goal of…
Leatherback, a cross-border payments network based in the United Kingdom, has received a $10 million Pre-Seed fundraising round from Zedcrest Capital, a major pan-African principal investment group. The funding will allow the growing Fintech company to focus on critical activities, including hiring strategic roles, elevation in its marketing and branding strategy, and traction and visibility…
Kudi, an African payment network, has rebranded as Nomba. This was announced in a press release as part of the company’s transition from a single payment platform to an omnichannel payment platform. Payment collections, trade finance, company reporting, and multiple location administration are among the new business capabilities produced by the new omni-channel payment platform,…
Founded in January 2020 by Dady Maël and Kader Saka, PAL creates its own payment infrastructure for cash-in and cash-out to mobile wallets, without the need for a third-party technology component integration. It offers this service as an open API with a web interface that can be used for inbound remittance, payment, loans, and many financial…
The last e-Track Programme concluded earlier this month with seven of the graduating startups pitching their businesses to an audience at a hybrid event hosted on the GSB campus, which was run by UCT GSB Solution Space – a specialized centre of the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business focused on high-impact early…
Elloe is a first-of-its-kind AI-powered conversational commerce platform that allows SMEs to buy and sell products online across any messaging platform. It was founded by Owen Sakawa. Mad Ventures, located in the Philippines, led the US$1 million pre-seed fundraising round, which would help Elloe expand across Kenya and other emerging economies. “The opportunity to engage…
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…
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…
The Central Bank of Nigeria granted MTN the permission to operate Mobile Money (MoMo). Since its inception in 2019, MTN Nigeria’s Mobile Money (MoMo) service has attracted over 9 million subscribers. According to TechCabal, the license means MTN Nigeria would be able to provide practically all the services provided by traditional commercial banks, except for…
The Alexandria Angels Network, along with members of MED Angels and AUC Angels, Cubit Ventures, Challenge Fund, EdVentures, Falak Startups, and Cairo Angels, led a $1.2 million Series A fundraising round for Egypt-based edtech Sprints. “The organization has successfully given 20,000 learning sessions in the last two years.” Sprints’ co-founder and CEO, Ayman Bazraa, stated,…
The EatSafe Innovation Challenge, organized by Feed the Future in collaboration with the SUN Business Network (SBN) and the Innovative Food System Portal, is searching for businesses, students, researchers, and other innovators in Nigeria and Ethiopia who are concerned about food safety. The EatSafe Innovation Challenge invites innovators to offer their thoughts on how existing…
Nigeria’s first marketing and media hackathon, dubbed MarkHack 1.0, has been established by Eko Innovation Centre, a growth and development hub for startups and entrepreneurs in Nigeria. The luncheon, which took place at D’Podium Event Centre in Lagos, was attended by innovators, entrepreneurs, policymakers, marketers, and media professionals, as well as many more from across…
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…
Didi Chixung, the Chinese ride-hailing behemoth, has announced the closure of its operations in South Africa (SA), a year after it first opened its doors on the continent. A Didi representative in South Africa confirmed the closure to TechCrunch but did not elaborate on the reasons for the shutdown. “We have made the tough choice…
Lemonade Finance, founded in 2020 by Ridwan Olalere and Rian Cochran and a participant in Y Combinator’s W21 batch last year, allows Africans living abroad to send and receive money from their home nations in a cost-effective, timely, and efficient manner. Its software lets users keep their balances in the currencies that are important to…
According to the National Infrastructure Plan 2050, which was released on Friday by South Africa’s Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Patricia De Lille, every South African household will receive 50GB of data by the fiscal year 2025/6. According to the document, the government’s goal is to provide high-speed, affordable, and accessible broadband to underserved…
Stitch, a South African API finance business, announced in January that it would conduct a “startup showcase” to allow early-stage fintech from across the continent to share their solutions with local and global investors and receive support, according to Disrupt Africa. The event was part of a Stitch-hosted meetup for global fintech investors interested in…
Over the course of a record-breaking 2021, total funding in the African digital startup ecosystem trebled, passing the US$2 billion – and even the US$1 billion – threshold for the first time. In 2021, 564 businesses raised a total of US$2,148,517,500, according to the seventh edition of Disrupt Africa’s annual African Tech Startups Funding Report,…
Every young aspiring digital entrepreneur in Africa is encouraged to apply for MEST Africa’s 12-month technology and entrepreneurship training program. With the Class of 2022 in full swing, it’s time to get back into the recruiting swing of things and formally open up applications for the Class of 2023. MEST Africa receives around 4000 applications…
If any country could be absolved of responsibility for the climate change crisis, it’s The Gambia. The Gambia is the smallest country in mainland Africa, wedged within the borders of Senegal along the mouth of the Gambia river with a population of 2.4 million. Its carbon footprint is among the world’s smallest, and comes mostly from agriculture and…
Internet security provider Kaspersky has blocked more than 206,000 mobile malware attacks across the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META) region in just 6-months measured, between January to June 2021. Out of these attacks, a combined 30,000 originated from Nigeria (14,071), Kenya (10,697), and South Africa (5,499), respectively. Significantly, for the African countries monitored, Nigeria…
The World Health Organization (WHO), a South African consortium and partners from COVAX, are working to set up a technology transfer hub for mRNA vaccines in South Africa to help boost and scale up vaccine production in Africa. The initiative marks “a major advance in efforts to build vaccine development and manufacturing capacity that will…
Written by Adeyemi Adepetun Only 19 African countries are signatories to multilateral cybersecurity agreements The United Nations (UN), arm in charge of global telecommunications, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has called on governments in Nigeria and other parts of Africa to deepen Internet safety. The UN observed that as the world continues to recover from…
Disrupt Africa to again open-source annual funding report in partnership with key VC firms Written by TOM JACKSON Startup-focused news and research company Disrupt Africa has announced it is to once again make its flagship annual funding report free to all in an open-sourcing initiative made possible through a partnership with Africa-focused VC firms Novastar…
AVCA to upskill Africa-focussed private capital professionals Written by Russel Ayugi The African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association will establish an AVCA Training Academy to provide private investment professional development across the continent. As a first of its kind in the industry, the move is aims to support private investment professionals focussed on Africa through an…
Egypt’s EYouth targets international growth after impacting 750k young learners Written By TOM JACKSON Egyptian ed-tech startup EYouth, which provides online interactive educational programmes for individuals aged between 18 and 35, is targeting international growth after seeing more than 750,000 people complete its courses so far. Founded in 2016 and taken online in 2018, EYouth designs and…
African fintech OPay valued at $2B in SoftBank Vision Fund 2-led $400M funding Written by Tage Kene-Okafor Chinese-backed and Africa-focused fintech company OPay raised $400 million in new financing led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Bloomberg reported Monday, valuing the company at $2 billion. The round, which marks the fund’s first investment in an African startup, drew…
Meet Wale Abba, who designed Interswitch’s Quickteller and several Nigerian banking apps Written By Oluwanifemi Kolawole Nigerian fintech unicorn, Interswitch, has, for the past 19 years, led the way when it comes to digitising payments in Nigeria — where it provides most of the country’s digital banking infrastructure — and other African countries. Interestingly, an…
Wiiqare App disrupts health care services in eastern DR Congo’s Goma Written By Africanews In the Democratic Republic of Congo, access to quality healthcare is expensive and tedious. But Bienvenue Zigabe has managed to create an application to facilitate quick access to medical services. “Wiiqare” helps patients pay for treatment and drugs using their savings…