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,…
Written by TOM JACKSON Startup-focused news and research company Disrupt Africa has announced VC firm Global Ventures and startup accelerator AUC V-Lab have joined Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) as partners for the open-sourcing of the “Egyptian Startup Ecosystem Report 2021”. Since launching its research arm in 2016, Disrupt Africa has built up a significant…
Written by TOM JACKSON Kenya’s Hello Tractor and Nigeria’s ColdHubs have been named winners of the inaugural AYuTe Africa Challenge, securing a combined US$1.5 million in grant funding to help fund rapid expansion plans. The AYuTe Africa Challenge, run by Heifer International, announced the winners of its inaugural edition at the African Green Revolution Forum…
Written by TOM JACKSON The story formation of Nigerian startup Sabi, a B2B marketplace serving Africa’s informal sector, is not a common one, with the beginnings of the company traced back to another Nigerian startup – Rensource. Rensource, which launched in 2016 and raised US$20 million in funding in 2019, is a renewable energy and merchant…
Written by TOM JACKSON Legal-tech startups in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Burundi have been invited to apply for the Justice Innovation Circles incubation programme. Run by HiiL, Justice Innovation Circles is an incubation programme curated for justice innovators who only have a minimal viable product or prototype and no real traction. It is looking…
Written by Yinka Okeowo Focussed on catalysing dramatic change via disruptive tech investments in emerging markets, the Global Innovation Initiative Group (GIIG), has announced the launch of a unique profit and purpose fund aimed at investing in early-stage tech innovation startups across Africa. The GIIG Africa Fund, a Curaçao-based private investment fund, will invest annually in the…
Written by Tage Kene-Okafor Funding startups that help manufacturers and sellers distribute products and merchants access them on a single platform keeps increasing across Africa. Today, Cairo-based B2B e-commerce startup Capiter continues that trend by raising a $33 million Series A round. The investment was co-led by Quona Capital and MSA Capital. Other participating investors include Savola, Shorooq…