Nigerian fintech Moniepoint is poised to expand into Kenya’s financial sector following regulatory clearance for its proposed acquisition of a 78% stake in Sumac Microfinance Bank. The green light from the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) positions Moniepoint for a strategic entry into East Africa’s high-growth digital finance

Pan-African telecom operator AXIAN Telecom has acquired an 8% minority stake in Jumia, the e-commerce platform. The stake acquisition was disclosed through a Schedule 13D filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. AXIAN Telecom, which operates across several African markets, described the investment as part of its broader

An Ethiopian technology startup, MyCharge Technology PLC, has unveiled a new power bank rental and sharing service aimed at creating an on-demand mobile charging infrastructure in Addis Ababa. Users can rent power banks from more than 60 stations across the city after registering on the app. The power banks can

Lagos-based fintech startup Fincra has received approval from the Bank of Tanzania to operate as a licensed payment service provider, marking a major step in its expansion across Africa. The licence allows Fincra to offer its suite of financial infrastructure products, including virtual accounts, payment APIs, payment links, and checkout

A startup co-founded by students from Uganda’s Makerere University, alongside peers from UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University in the U.S., is developing an affordable home-based diagnostic tool to detect preeclampsia, a life-threatening pregnancy complication. The company, Kalia Health, emerged from a university classroom project and is now gaining

Addis Ababa-based startup Beemi has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Renew Capital to expand its mobile-first livestreaming platform across Africa. The investment will help the company scale its interactive features, strengthen creator monetization tools, and build strategic partnerships with content creators and brands. Founded in 2023 by

Wingu Africa, East Africa’s first carrier-neutral data centre operator, has secured $60 million in funding from Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) to scale its operations and strengthen digital infrastructure across the region. The funding comes amid rising demand for secure and interconnected digital services driven by cloud adoption, enterprise digitalization,

Cardano has officially launched the CV Labs Cardano Accelerator, a 10-week startup program aimed at advancing blockchain solutions built on its ecosystem. Hosted in Switzerland, the accelerator features nine early-stage ventures, two of which are focused on addressing key challenges in Africa. The program is designed to help startups go

SolarNow Services Ltd has entered voluntary liquidation. A notice published in the Kenya Gazette confirms that the company’s shareholders passed a resolution to liquidate. Founded in 2011 and headquartered in the Netherlands, SolarNow began operations in Uganda, offering pay-as-you-go solar systems designed for off-grid households. Its model, which allowed

Nairobi has become the launchpad for a new initiative aiming to transform the support landscape for early-stage businesses across Africa. Conecta Africa seeks to boost 1,500 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by creating a stronger collaboration among entrepreneurship support organisations (ESOs) from Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, and South Africa. The

Seven women-led startups are among the twelve ventures selected for the 2025 Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship cohort, a program run by Nairobi-based incubator iHUB. Launched in 2023, the Fellowship supports early-stage education technology startups through a combination of equity-free funding, mentorship, and business development support. This marks the first time

Conduit, a fintech startup focused on transforming cross-border payments through Stablecoin technology, has secured $36 million in Series A funding to fuel its expansion across Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The round was co-led by Dragonfly and Altos Ventures, with additional backing from Sound Ventures, Commerce Ventures, DCG, Circle Ventures,

Tanzanian fintech startup Mixx by Yas has announced a strategic partnership with UBX and the Savings and Credit Cooperative Union of Tanzania (SCCULT) to digitize financial services for SACCO (Savings and Credit Cooperative) members across the country. Under the agreement, Mixx by Yas will serve as the exclusive digital payments

Kenya’s electric mobility landscape has received a significant boost with a $5 million investment in ARC Ride, a local startup offering battery-as-a-service (BaaS) solutions for electric two-wheelers. The financing, led by British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution, is set to accelerate the rollout of 5,

COREangels MEA, a regional investment network, has unveiled a $10 million fund aimed at bolstering early-stage tech startups across the Middle East and Africa. The initiative, developed in collaboration with PTS Holdings and the Arab Academy for Science, targets startups with a strong focus on financial technology. The fund was

Kenya’s Medbook has been named one of Bloomberg’s “25 African Startups to Watch in 2025,” spotlighting its growing role in reshaping healthcare delivery through artificial intelligence and localized digital tools. Co-founded by Dr. Polly Okello, a pediatric nephrologist, alongside Chris Maranga and Sieka Gatabaki, Medbook offers a digital

Kenya’s startup ecosystem has climbed to the 58th place globally in the latest Startup Blink report, reclaiming its position as Africa’s second-leading hub after three years at third. The country outpaces all African peers except South Africa, continuing to dominate the East African region with a startup score

Safaricom is betting big on artificial intelligence, unveiling a $500 million investment to build AI infrastructure across East Africa over the next three years. At the Connected Africa Summit 2025 in Diani, Safaricom’s Chief Enterprise Business Officer, Cynthia Kropac, outlined the company’s vision for an AI-driven economy built

Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, Starlink, is rapidly expanding internet access across Sub-Saharan Africa, but Kenya has experienced the steepest drop in Starlink speeds on the continent, according to Speedtest Intelligence data for Q1 2025. Since its mid-2023 launch in Kenya, Starlink quickly gained popularity, especially in rural and

Ghana, Rwanda, and Singapore have launched a digital payments system to simplify and lower the cost of cross-border money transfers across Africa. The initiative, dubbed the Next-Gen Digital Payment Infrastructure, was previously known as Project 54. It is a collaboration between the Bank of Ghana, the National Bank of Rwanda,

Tanzania has restricted access to the social media platform X following a cyberattack on government accounts. The internet monitoring group NetBlocks reported on Tuesday that major Tanzanian internet service providers, including Halotel, Airtel, Liquid Telecom, Habari Node, and Vodacom, blocked access to X shortly after the Tanzania Police Force’s

Kenyan buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) startup Watu Holdings has reported a significant 84% decline in profit, dropping to $1.2 million (KES 157 million) in 2024, according to financial disclosures by Car & General, which holds a 29% stake in the company. This contrasts sharply with the $7.6 million (KES 985