Al Mada

Moroccan Al Mada launches $109.5 million VC fund for African Startups

Morocco’s Al Mada Holding Group, an investment firm managed by the Moroccan royal family has announced the launch of pan-African venture capital to invest in fast-growing startups on the continent. With a budget of $109.5 million – this is the largest venture capital fund with African funding – the Al

Waspito raises $2.7m, announces expansion in Côte d’Ivoire

Cameroonian e-health startup Waspito has announced it raised a $2.7m seed funding round to grow its user base in its home market and expand to Ivory Coast. The oversubscribed seed round was led by Newtown Partners via the Imperial Venture Fund, Launch Africa Ventures, BLOC Smart Africa managed by

4DX Ventures

Eksab, Egyptian fantasy football platform raises $3M in 4DX Ventures-led seed funding to scale across MENA and Africa

Eksab, an Egyptian fantasy football platform that uses gaming and online community development to make football entertaining and participatory for fans in the Middle East and North Africa, has secured $ 3 million in early investment. Darwazah Capital, Golden Palm Investments, P1 Ventures, and other angel investors from the sports and

Members only

Features

Why sending remittances to Africa is very expensive

Tunisia-based biotech startup WaterSpirit raises $872k

Tunisian B2B biotech startup WaterSpirit has announced the completion of a fundraising round of $872k. The funding came from a group of undisclosed Tunisian investors and contributors. WaterSpirit was founded by Mehdi Bhouri in 2018 and obtained its startup label in March 2020. The startup focuses on extracting bioactive chemicals

Funding

Rwandan legal services startup, Hence Technologies, secures $1.8M in seed funding to expand company

Rwandan startup for lawyers, Hence Technologies has raised $1.8 million in seed funding to continue growing and expanding operations in Rwanda. This brings the total amount of funding raised in the past two years to $2.6 million. The seed funding round had various investors, including Daybreak Partners, Broad

Fibre Optic

MainOne expands Fiber Infrastructure to the Lagos Free Zone

West Africa’s leading connectivity and data centre solutions provider, MainOne, has announced the expansion of its fiber-optic network infrastructure to the Lagos Free Zone in Lekki. Being the first private free Zone in Nigeria, the Lagos Free Zone aims to be the preferred investment hub in Nigeria with best-in-class

Funding

Nigeria’s Kwik closes $2M Series A funding, to add financial services to its last-mile delivery offerings

Nigeria and French-based startup, Kwik, has announced the close of its $2million Series A funding round, led by XBTO Ventures, a crypto finance company with a VC arm that invests in digital assets, among other types of startups. New and existing investors such as Humla Ventures, Nabuboto, Ubisoft CEO Yves

Curacel

7 more Nigerian startups accepted into Y Combinator W22 batch, total participants now over 350

With the confirmation of seven additional Nigerian start-ups – totaling eight for Africa, the number of African participants in the W22 batch of the Y Combinator Program now stands at 24, far exceeding the number of  African participants in the S21 batch. The W22 batch of the Y Combinator program is

Bedaya Fund II

Bedaya Fund II, $150 million fund launched by UAE-based Shorooq Partners, to invest in North African early startups

Shorooq Partners, a MENAP-based early-stage venture capital firm, has announced the second edition of its seed-stage-focused fund, Bedaya Fund II, with a target fund size of $150 million to invest in the North African region. Bedaya Fund II is a continuation of Shorooq Partners’ strategy, which has been in place

Biotech

Ghanaian startup, Yemaachi Biotech raises $3M, advances cancer research precision globally

Ghanaian Healthtech startup, Yemaachi Biotech, has raised $3 million in a seed funding round to advance cancer research globally. The funding round was led by V8 Capital and had, LifeLine Family Heritage Fund, Y Combinator, Tencent, LoftyInc Capital, VestedWorld, V Square Capital, and Ethan Perlstein as participants. Yemaachi Biotech is

Funding

ThriveAgric raises $56.4m debt funding to boost pan-African expansion

ThriveAgric, an agriculture investment platform, has announced a $56.4M debt financing from local commercial banks and institutional investors to accelerate its pan-African expansion plans. The company said the raise includes a co-investment grant of $1.75M from the USAID-funded West Africa Trade & Investment. The new investment will enable

Business

Microsoft launches first $100 million African Development Centre in Lagos

Tech giant Microsoft has launched its much anticipated African Development Centre (ADC) in Lagos, Nigeria. The center, a $100 million investment by the multi-billion dollar firm, is expected to produce software engineering solutions provided to Africa. The hub, which Microsoft created alongside the one in Nairobi, Kenya, will be the

venture capital

VC Corner: How Dream VC plans to bridge the talent gap in the African Venture Capital Space 

In the past two years following the pandemic, Venture Capital funding available for startups has seen an increase. According to reports, startups in Africa collectively raised over $4.3  billion in various funding rounds in 2021. A deeper look into this figure and the ones of previous years will reveal

A15

Flapkap, Egyptian SaaS start-up launched after $1.2M A15- led round

FlapKap, an Egyptian start-up focusing on e-commerce and SaaS development in the Middle East and North Africa region, has announced its launch following a $1.2 million fundraising round led by A15, a MENA venture capital firm and one of the region’s most renowned backers of early-stage start-ups. FlapKap

Asia

Egypt state banks launch Nclude, an $85M innovation fund for fintech companies

Three of Egypt’s biggest state-owned banks are jointly setting up an $85 million financial technology fund called Nclude which aims at accelerating innovation in the fintech sector. The fund will focus on both accelerating fintech and driving financial inclusion in the country. Venture capital firm, Global Ventures, a partner

How Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph is Developing the Financial Management of Small Business Owners through Kippa App

Technology has been a satisfying global phenomenon. It has and is making business finance management easy. This management is easy and needs no mobility because it could be done at your comfort zones, with the help of smart phones by containing helpful apps that helps safe resources (energy, time and

Apollo Agriculture

Apollo Agri., Kenyan Agri-tech Star-up Secures $40M in Softbank-led series B round

Apollo Agriculture, a Kenyan agri-tech start-up that connects farmers to high-quality farm inputs, financing, and markets, has raised $40 million in a Series B funding round led by Softbank Vision Fund 2, with participation from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Yara Growth Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, and CDC Group Plc. Anthemis Exponential Ventures,

Lucky closes largest Series A of any Egyptian Fintech

Egypt-based leading app for credit products, offers and cashback rewards, Lucky, has announced it raised $25 million in a Series A round. The funding round, which is Egypt’s largest Fintech Series A round so far. The funding round was led by Nclude and one of Egypt’s largest national

Chargel

Senegalese logistics startup, Chargel raises $750k in pre-seed funding round

Senegalese startup logistics startup, Chargel, has secured $750,000 in pre-seed funding round to help grow the trucking industry as a brand that is efficient, reliable, and transparent in Senegal and other Francophone West Africa. The funding round, a mix of equity and debt, had in participation, Century Oak Capital

Bookings

Moroccan digital booking startup, Guichet.com, secures funding from CDG Invest through its 212 Founders program

Morocco’s digital ticketing platform, Guichet.com, has secured 3 million MAD (about $306,348) to accelerate growth, begin new investments, and expand into other African markets. The equity investment was funded by CDG Invest, the investment arm of the CDG Group, under the 212 Founders’ program. Guichet.com is

Meaningful gigs

African gig start-up, Meaningful Gigs secures $6M in seed to connect designers in Africa with remote jobs in the West

Meaningful gigs a gig start-up that matches the right gig workers with the right company, serving as a go-to-market for freelance designers in Africa who target western multinationals has secured $6 million in seed funding to accelerate its growth by signing more designers to its platform. Stage 2 Capital led

Big Cabal Media raises $2.3m to expand its Digital Products Line

Africa’s leading digital media company, Big Cabal Media (BCM), has announced a $2.3 million Seed funding round. The round will emphasize its commitment to keep building exciting and authoritative media products and brands. Existing investors: Unicorn Capital Partners and Future Africa as well as new investors such as

B2B

Kenya's Sokowatch raises $125M in Series B as it rebrands to Wasoko to further expand across Africa

Kenya-based B2B company, Sokowatch has raised $125 million in Series B round in full equity and rebranded to Wasoko. This funding is the largest funding round raised in Africa for a non-fintech startup. The series round was led by Tiger Global and Avenir Growth and also had participating VNV Global,

4G Capital

Kenyan Neobank, 4G Capital, Raises $18.5M Series C to scale financial access for SMEs in two markets

Kenya-based neobank, 4G Capital that gives unsecured credit facility to Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) has raised $18.5 million in Series C funding from a London-based global private equity firm, Lightrock to expand financial lending access for SMEs in Kenya, Uganda, and launch new products. The new funding