At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic activities shrank on a global scale. A drastic decrease in revenue generation caused many private companies to downsize or change business strategies. Africa and Asia were not exempt from this. Many startups were faced with fragile social infrastructure, a limitation of public

Nigerian fintech startup, Flutterwave has been named in the CNBC Disruptor 50 list. It is the only African company named in the list which has Stripe, Airtable, Clubhouse, Robinhood amongst others. CNBC said the list “highlights the private companies leading out of the pandemic with business models and growth rates

In a recently released blog post, Nigerian Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) startup, Termii has officially announced its expansion to Ivory Coast. In the statement, it said, “We’re constantly improving our messaging solution to help businesses conveniently reach and engage their customers across Africa, and we’re super

Launching a fintech startup is about to get more difficult in Nigeria, due to CBN’s new capital requirements ₦4bn (Four Billion Naira) for payment companies. In a circular released on Monday 24th of April, 2021, the Central Bank of Nigeria has issued new capital requirements for payment firms and

Mozare3, a Giza-based Agri-fintech startup that helps farmers sell their farm produce, has secured an undisclosed seven-figure investment in a pre-seed funding round led by Algebra Ventures and Disruptech Ventures. EFG-EV and other reputable angel investors also participated in the funding round. Mozare3 was founded in 2020 by Hussein Abou

Applications are currently open for the Uganda Green Enterprise Finance Accelerator (UGEFA) program, a four-year European Union (EU)-funded project that provides green businesses with customized loans and direct acceleration support. The UGEFA program is looking to provide funding ranging between $10,000 and $100,000 for eligible startups. Aside

Over the last few weeks, the Egyptian startup space has witnessed increased funding activities. From Telda’s impressive $5million pre-seed raise to Bosta and Homzmart securing huge amounts in their series A rounds. Most of these funding activities are only possible because of the active local and international investors and

Tays, an Egypt-based social and professional networking startup has secured an undisclosed seven-figure pre-seed funding from Angel Investors within the country’s startup ecosystem. Founded by Sherif Bacheet in 2020, the Egypt-based startup offers an end-to-end social networking app that uses machine learning to connect professionals based on similar interests.

Mono, a YC backed fintech startup working to improve financial inclusion and connectivity in Africa has raised $2million in seed funding. The company which says it is building the Plaid for Africa had earlier raised $500,000 in pre-seed funding last September, before bagging $125,000 from YC in February

Today, Startup Circles, an innovative practical business school that helps startup founders scale their business and become investor-ready has secured R2.1-million ($150k) in funding from US Venture Capital fund, Enygma Ventures. This fund will be used to support the work of startup Circles and invest in companies that have

On Tuesday, Polaris bank, a leading financial institution in Nigeria launched its own digital bank – VULTe. At the well-attended unveiling ceremony which took place at the Eko Hotel, Lagos, and virtually for a national and global audience. Chairman of the Bank, M.K Ahmad (OON) disclosed that the corporate goal

MTN South Africa, a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services has announced a $2 million partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to expand its Mobile Money (MoMo) operations in South Africa. According to the terms of the partnership, IFC and MTN will recruit 10,000 MoMo agents

Homzmart, an Egyptian home goods marketplace platform, has secured $15 million in a Series A funding round led by China’s MSA Capital, a global investment firm with over US$1.5 billion in assets under management and Nuwa Capital. Other investors who participated in the round include EQ2 Ventures,

Bosta, an Egyptian e-commerce logistics startup, has raised $6.7 million in its Series A funding round led by venture capital firm Silicon Badia. Participants in the funding round include 4DX, Plug and Play Ventures, Wealthwell VC, and Khwarizmi VC from Saudi Arabia as well as other regional and global

Telda, a month-old Egyptian neobank working to digitize how Egyptians save, send, and spend money, has secured $5million in a pre-seed round led by Sequoia Capital. The round also saw participation from Berlin-based Global Founders Capital (GFC) and emerging markets-focused fund Class 5 Global. Last month, we reported that Flextock

Yesterday, at the virtual demo day of the AlphaCode Incubate program, four South African startups secured additional funding of ZAR500,000 (US$35,000) each, including other non-monetary benefits as they advance into the second stage of the program. At the demo day pitch, each of the 10 startups was

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has launched a call for proposals for projects enhancing the viability of sustainability of women entrepreneurship enablers. With this announcement, women business associations, incubators, accelerators and cooperatives that are working to promote women entrepreneurship in Africa can apply for funding innovative projects or programs to

The 2021 edition of Catapult: Inclusion Africa has announced the 14 fintech startups that will take part in the bi-annual program. The program will hold from 19 to 28, May 2021. The selected startups will take part in an eight-day boot camp during which they will train and network with

AWS has announced that it’s releasing a tool called AWS SaaS Boost that turns on-prem software into SaaS as open-source, distributed under the Apache 2.0 license. The tool was first announced at the AWS re: Invent conference last year, and it’s designed to help companies transform their

Mburu, a Senegalese food tech startup active in the production and marketing of bread and pastries has raised about 243 million FCFA ($450K) funding from WIC Capital and WE! Fund. The investment is a mix of capital and quasi-capital and will allow the Senegalese startup to reach maturity in its

Lagos-based fintech company, BFREE, has announced the close of a seed round led by Nigeria-based VC firm, Beta Ventures, with participation from Africa-focused VC firm, Launch Africa Ventures, and GreenHouse Capital. Founded by the trio of Chukwudi Enyi, Moses Nmor, and Julian Flosbach in the summer of 2020, BFREE is

Maviance, a Cameroon-based fintech company offering digital financial services like agency banking and bulk bill payments has secured $3million (€2.5 million) in equity financing from MFS Africa. This investment which came solely from MFS Africa, a cross-border fintech company connecting mobile money providers to banks across 34 African countries,

Data Science Nigeria has announced its plan to host the 2021 edition of AI Invasion. AI Invasion is aimed at driving inclusiveness and accountable learning that catalyzes community spirit, ethical values, and excellence. During the week-long event, participants will be involved in hands-on sessions, tutorials, and learning sessions where they