Sixteen seed and Series A level African tech startups have been named finalists for the 2021 VC4A Venture Showcase, which will see them pitching to potential funders at the Africa Early Stage Investor Summit next month. Since 2017, the VC4A Venture Showcase has helped startup founders showcase their businesses to investors during the Africa Early…
Kenyan logistics startup Sendy has completed a strategic equity investment in Ivory Coast-based counterpart Kamtar to boost the former’s expansion plans in West Africa. Launched in 2015, Sendy offers a marketplace for last-mile package delivery and logistics services, allowing customers to send packages and documents using a mobile application that connects them to motorcycle riders, and drivers…
Payday, a Pan-African financial technology company has announced a $1m pre-seed fund raise. According to the startup, the raise will help it to build an online payments system that is equivalent to Paypal. According to the announcement, the raise was supported by several investors including LofyInc, Microtraction, Magic Fund, Ventures Platform, Voltron Capital, CcHub Syndicate, Helicarrier…
The world’s largest beer company, AB InBev, has partnered Hindsight Ventures to launch the Beer Garage Africa Innovation Challenge, which will offer startups access to venture development and grant funding. AB InBev, which has over 500 brands and over six million B2B customers in over 100 countries, launched Beer Garage a few years ago with…
At a virtual event on Wednesday (Oct. 6), Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai said his company will invest $1 billion in Africa over five years to build a subsea internet cable, support nonprofits, and fund businesses. The cable, named Equiano after the Nigeria-born 18th-century abolitionist, has been in the works since 2019 when it was first announced. It…
Seven African startups are among the eight selected to take part in the inaugural cohort of the Last Mile Money Accelerator, a four-month programme managed by IDEO and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The aim of the Last Mile Money Accelerator is to supercharge inclusive fintech startups with grant capital, world class…
Nigerian fintech startup Bitmama has closed a US$350,000 pre-seed funding round to grow its operational presence, expand its team, and penetrate new markets across the continent. Launched in 2019, Bitmama provides a secured blockchain infrastructure that allows users across Africa to transact Bitcoin, Ethereum, Celo and six other cryptocurrencies. With users across Nigeria and Ghana, Bitmama has…
Kenyan agri-tech startups have been invited to apply for the O-Farms accelerator programme, which is focused on circular agribusiness with the goal of making circularity a mainstream approach for improved rural livelihoods and sustainability. Funded by the IKEA Foundation, O-Farms is led by Bopinc and Village Capital and is focused on accelerating the next generation…
South African startup abela is supporting the informal economy with the same autonomy and security that banks offer to the formal economy via a QR code-enabled system. Launched in August 2020, abela started as a QR code-enabled payment platform offering users without a bank account the ability to receive tips and payments digitally. Since then, it has…
Former Vice President Al Gore has invested $600 million of equity into U.K. energy startup Octopus Energy Group via his Generation Investment Management vehicle, taking a stake of approximately 13% in the business. The investment means Octopus has attained a valuation of around $4.6 billion. Octopus has made a name for itself in energy circles largely because of its…
Nigerian ed-tech startup Edves has raised a US$575,000 seed funding round to help it improve its product and bring more schools online. Formed in 2016, Edves is an academic portal that automates operations in schools and colleges from admission to transcript generation. The platform reduces teacher and administrator workload and gives them opportunities to mark attendance and…
For any Startup or business, it is necessary to keep in mind that no business plan or strategy is foolproof. For this reason, business schools that teach entrepreneurship teach that startups should aim to fail fast forward frequently and frugally. The key is to accept that some form of failure is inevitable but, the way…
Nigerian mobility startup Moove, which provides revenue-based vehicle financing to help individuals across Africa own their own vehicles, has expanded to Cape Town and is gearing up for further pan-African growth. Founded by British-born Nigerians Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, who have successfully built three other businesses in Africa over the last eight years through…
Input Output has launched a six million dollars (USD) blockchain fund in Africa, to invest in the most innovative blockchain projects, who are building on Cardano in Africa. The fund focuses on blockchain technology because the lack of deeply embedded legacy infrastructure means that African governments and businesses have fewer obstacles to adopting next-generation technology than the…
When it comes to gender equality in the business world, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg hit the nail on the head: “Knowing that things could be worse should not stop us from trying to make them better.” While access to opportunities, funding and support has improved for women in the startup space over the last couple of decades,…
Nigerian startup Infibranches Technologies, which helps solar energy providers manage their operations and receive payments, has secured US$2 million funding from All On, an impact investment company backed by oil major Shell. Founded in 2019, the Lagos-based Infibranches has developed two flagship products – OmniBranches and Green Energy Plug – that help companies with large distribution networks,…
Ed-tech startup eLearn Africa has partnered the Association of African Universities (AAU) to design, build and deploy learning management systems across the continent, giving university students access to free online courses. Launched in 2016, eLearnAfrica is an online marketplace for education that aims to simplify the process of finding and enrolling for online courses, degrees and professional…
Yesterday, Chipper, one of the fastest growing African fintech start-ups that facilitates free peer-to-peer (P2P) money transfers and instant cross-border payments in Africa, officially launched Chipper Cash to offer domestic P2P money transfers in South Africa. Chipper Cash will enable South Africans to enjoy free unlimited instant domestic money transfers, invest in cryptocurrencies, and buy…
South African agri-fintech startup HelloChoice has secured investment from Standard Bank as it looks to solidify its position as the leading digital fresh produce and agricultural marketplace. Launched in 2018 by Grant Jacobs and Graeme Jarvie with the goal of modernising the traditional farm produce buying and selling process, HelloChoice is a fresh produce trading platform that…
LG Electronics, the Korean tech giant that once was a leading player in mobile phones but is now winding down that business, is making an acquisition that points to its ambitions in another, emerging area: next-generation automotive hardware and services. Today the company announced that it will be snapping up Cybellum, an Israeli automotive cybersecurity specialist that detects…
South African fintech startups have been invited to apply for the ZAR1.5 million (US$100,000) AlphaCode Incubate programme, which aims to identify, partner with and grow innovative entrepreneurs in financial services and related industries. The AlphaCode Incubate programme is open to entrepreneurs with early-stage fintech or related sector startups, or even ideas for one. Innovative business concepts led…
Egyptian social commerce startup Brimore has raised funding from e-payments solutions and banking services provider Fawry, the North African country’s first startup “unicorn”, as part of its upcoming Series A round. Founded in 2017, Brimore has built a platform that leverages the power of individual social networks to enable broad, cost-effective market access. It enables manufacturers to…
Egyptian startup ClickMare is providing users with health micro-insurance to make private healthcare accessible to all by breaking financial barriers. Launched in October 2016, ClickMare aims to bridge the gap between public and private health insurance, in a country where millions of people and 87 per cent of SMEs are medically uninsured. These kind of figures have…
Ethiopian construction-tech startup ConDigital has raised a pre-seed funding round to help it cement its presence at home and expand into the wider East African region. Launched in January of 2019, ConDigital digitises the process of construction project management for contractors, consultants and owners. Among the services it provides are data calculation, processing and reporting; schedule, resource…
South African fintech startup Centbee has successfully completed testing of its remittance service Minit Money within the framework of the South African Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group’s Regulatory Sandbox. Launched in 2016 by co-CEOs Lorien Gamaroff and Angus Brown, Centbee launched its bitcoin cash wallet to market late in 2018, allowing users to send bitcoin cash directly to their…
Egyptian e-health and IoT solutions startup Sotech has raised US$1 million in pre-seed funding to scale into the rest of the MENA region. Founded in 2020, Sotech specialises in smart IoT, trackable OOH advertising, and data gathering. The startup bridges the worlds of offline advertising with online campaigning, via an app that helps clinics understand the volume,…
Written by Alexander Onukwue Besides being a key ingredient for cooking jollof rice, vegetable oil is used industrially in paints, soaps, biofuels, and lubricants. But getting the oil from palm nuts can be a hassle for manufacturers if they have to engage smallholder farmers directly. In most cases, the Nigerian farmer cracks palm nuts with…
The Financial Times is hosting the first FTxSDG Challenge in collaboration with Seedstars, a Swiss-based organization that invests in and supports startups from emerging countries. The competition was created to provide learning and financial opportunities to innovative, impact-driven firms and entrepreneurs. The application period is now open. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are being…
Written by TOM JACKSON Kenyan fintech startup Jumuisha, which helps churches and NGOs receive donations, make payments and manage events all in one place, has raised a round of seed funding to help it scale. Launched in October 2020, Jumuisha allows churches to receive donations via USSD, bank transfer, mobile money, online payment or credit cards, and…
Written by TOM JACKSON Kenyan startup Teleeza has developed a mobile content aggregation and advertising platform that utilises a smartphone’s lockscreen. Launched earlier this year, Teleeza allows users to easily and conveniently access customised content on their lockscreen, and has already onboarded over 55 local, regional and international publishers. The startup has 30,000 users on the platform,…