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Kenya’s MarketForce raises further $100k funding from Harambeans Prosperity Fund

Kenya’s MarketForce raises further $100k funding from Harambeans Prosperity Fund

Kenyan e-Commerce startup MarketForce has announced it raised an additional $100k in funding from the Harambeans Prosperity Fund to the $2m pre-Series A round it announced last month. MarketForce is an end-to-end retail distribution platform founded in 2018 by the duo of Tesh Mbaabu and Mesongo Sibuti, Chief Executive Officer

Nigeria’s OPay raises $400m at $2bn valuation, led by SoftBank

Nigeria’s OPay raises $400m at $2bn valuation, led by SoftBank

Nigeria-based fintech company, Opay has raised $400 million in a funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, the venture capital arm of Japanese conglomerate, SoftBank. This investment signals the first time SoftBank Vision Fund is investing in an Africa-based startup. Existing investors like Sequoia Capital China, Redpoint China, Source

Egyptian auto-tech Startup, Odiggo raise $2.2m seed round from 500 Startups, Y Combinator and PlugAndPlay

Egyptian auto-tech Startup, Odiggo raise $2.2m seed round from 500 Startups, Y Combinator and PlugAndPlay

Odiggo, an Egypt-based auto-tech startup, has announced the close of a $2.2 million seed round from global Venture Capital firms; 500 Startups, Y Combinator and PlugAndPlay. Regional VCs like Seedra Ventures, LoftyInc Capital, and Essa Al-Saleh (CEO of Volta-Tucks) also took part in the round. Launched in December 2019

Egyptian Fintechs Can Benefit from Arab Bank’s AB Accelerator Funding Program

Egyptian Fintechs Can Benefit from Arab Bank’s AB Accelerator Funding Program

The Arab Bank has announced the launch of its fintech-focused corporate accelerator program “AB Accelerator” in Egypt. The expansion into Egypt by the Arab Bank is coming 3years after it successfully launched the AB Accelerator in Jordan in 2018. The program aims to help startups scale their market-ready fintech firms

Nigeria’s e-Commerce Startup Alerzo raises $10.5m to digitize informal retail supply chain in Nigeria

Nigeria’s e-Commerce Startup Alerzo raises $10.5m to digitize informal retail supply chain in Nigeria

Ibadan-based B2B e-Commerce startup Alerzo has announced it raised $10.5m in a Series A funding round to expand into northern Nigeria. The round was led by New York-based Nosara Capital. FJ Labs and several other investors across the U.S, Europe, and Asia also participated in the round. This

Standard Bank outlines plans to become ‘a digital platform business’

Standard Bank outlines plans to become ‘a digital platform business’

Standard Bank Group, Africa’s largest lender by assets is set to outline its ‘2025 Ambition’ – which includes plans to ‘transform ‘client experience’ and provide guidance for future financial targets. The bank is also poised on transforming into a platform for services beyond banking, it said on Friday. After years

Egyptian Mobility Startup SWVL acquires Spain’s Shotl, Expands Into Europe

Egyptian Mobility Startup SWVL acquires Spain’s Shotl, Expands Into Europe

Everything seems to be falling in place for the Egyptian mobility space as Swvl, a provider of transformative mass transit and shared mobility solutions operating in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, has announced its expansion to Spain after it acquired a controlling stake in Shotl, a Spanish mass transit platform. Shotl

South Africa Startups Can Benefit from the $20m JP Morgan Fund

South Africa Startups Can Benefit from the $20m JP Morgan Fund

Renowned global financial operator JP Morgan has announced a partnership with the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition of South Africa (DTIC), to invest a $20m fund to help small enterprises scale. The partnership will make JP Morgan the first multinational investment bank in South Africa to implement an Equity

South African Celebrity startup myFanPark raises funding from Seed South VC firm

South African Celebrity startup myFanPark raises funding from Seed South VC firm

South African celebrity engagement startup myFanPark has announced it secured an undisclosed amount of investment from new local VC firm Seed South to help it further expand. myFanPark was launched in 2019 to enable users to request a personalized shout-out video from their favorite celebrity, such as birthday or celebration

The HiiL Justice Accelerator accepts 4 Southern African legal-tech startups into its program

The HiiL Justice Accelerator accepts 4 Southern African legal-tech startups into its program

The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL) has announced the four Southern African startups that will go on to the HiiL Justice Accelerator. HiiL is a social enterprise devoted to user-friendly justice, which aims to increase access to justice that is easy to access, easy to understand, and effective

South African Digital Bank, TymeBank, Expands To The Philippines, Records 3.5m Customers In 2 Years

South African Digital Bank, TymeBank, Expands To The Philippines, Records 3.5m Customers In 2 Years

South Africa based Fintech startup TymeBank, has announced that it is expanding its operations to the Philippines through its newly-established firm, GOtyme. Tymbank became South Africa’s first digital bank when it was launched in 2019 by the trio of Coen Jonker, Rolf Eichweber, Tjaart van der Waalt, TymeBank. The

Kenyan Insurtech Startup, AiCare, Secures Funding From NaiBAN

Kenyan Insurtech Startup, AiCare, Secures Funding From NaiBAN

Nairobi-based provider of telematics insurance system for insurance companies AiCare, has announced it secured funding from Nairobi Business Angels Network (NaiBAN). AiCare is an Insurtech startup launched in 2020 by co-founder and CEO Arthur Mulwa, AiCare focuses on providing telematics insurance products to Insurance companies. The startup leverages its in-house

Kenya’s CashBackApp Raises $475k pre-seed Funding Round for Expansion

Kenya’s CashBackApp Raises $475k pre-seed Funding Round for Expansion

Kenya based customer loyalty startup CashBackApp has announced it raised $475k in a pre-seed funding round. Investors in the round include Lofty Inc, Sherpa Ventures and Loyal VC, and several angel investors based in the US, UK, Nigeria and Kenya. CashBackApp was launched in 2018, to help consumer goods companies

Nigerian e-sports startup Gamr raises round of seed investment

Nigerian e-sports startup Gamr raises round of seed investment

Nigerian competitive e-sports startup Gamr has secured seed investment to scale its operations further and deliver new opportunities to Africa’s estimated 750 million gamers. Gamr is an online subscription platform that allows gamers to interact with each other and enables tournament organisers to host events. It also organises its

Egyptian Fintech Startup Fawry Expands Heya Fawry, Its Network Of Women Agents

Egyptian Fintech Startup Fawry Expands Heya Fawry, Its Network Of Women Agents

Egyptian fintech startup Fawry, has just announced the expansion of its ‘Heya Fawry’ initiative to increase poor and disadvantaged women’s access to life-enhancing digital financial services and greater economic opportunities. This development is in line with its mission to empower Egyptian women. The Heya Fawry platform will give women

Nigeria's Central Bank freezes the bank accounts of six fintech startups

Nigeria's Central Bank freezes the bank accounts of six fintech startups

A federal high court in Abuja, Nigeria, has on Tuesday granted the request of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to freeze the account of six fintech companies. The Fintech startups affected by the ex parte motion include Rise Vest Technologies, Bamboo Systems Technology Limited, Bamboo System Technologies Limited OPNS,

African fintech, Pngme raises $15M to develop its financial data infrastructure platform

African fintech, Pngme raises $15M to develop its financial data infrastructure platform

Pngme, a San Francisco and Africa based fintech infrastructure and machine learning-as-a-service platform has closed a $15 million Series A funding round. The round was led by Octopus Ventures with participation from Lateral Capital, Unshackled Ventures, Raptor Group, EchoVC, Future Africa, Two Small Fish Ventures, and a group of individual

P2P betting startup, Wayja goes live in South Africa

P2P betting startup, Wayja goes live in South Africa

Wayja, a South Africa based peer-to-peer (P2P) betting platform that allows users to connect with friends and place informal bets on anything from anywhere, has gone live. With the launch, the startup is already looking to raise seed funding and fast-track international growth. Founded in early 2020 by Reece Jacobsen

Ethiopia ’s FDRE and MasterCard Partners to setup Yegara to Connect Startups with Investors

Ethiopia ’s FDRE and MasterCard Partners to setup Yegara to Connect Startups with Investors

Ethiopia ’s FDRE Jobs Creation Commission, has announced a partnership with Mastercard Foundation Piazza Communication, for the creation of the Yegara platform that connects companies with investors. Through the Mastercard Foundation-funded project, angel investors will be brought together to assist innovative young entrepreneurs. The aim of the Yegara website is

Nigeria based gifting platform, Showlove raises $300k pre-seed funding from Fedha Capital

Nigeria based gifting platform, Showlove raises $300k pre-seed funding from Fedha Capital

Showlove, a Nigeria-based social platform for gifting has announced the close of a $300,000 pre-seed round from Fedha Capital, and other angel investors. Launched in December 2020 by Chikodi Ukaiwe, Joshua Biyere, and Seye Bandele, the company is simplifying the process of requesting, giving, and receiving gifts and cash

Facebook to add four new branches to its 2Africa undersea cable network

Facebook to add four new branches to its 2Africa undersea cable network

Social media giant, Facebook has announced that it will expand the 2Africa, giant subsea cable it is building to four more branches in Africa. According to a statement released on Monday, the new branches will extend to the Indian Ocean island nations of Seychelles and Comoros along with Angola and

Egyptian Student Transport Startup Schoolz Raises Six-figure Pre-Seed Funding

Egyptian Student Transport Startup Schoolz Raises Six-figure Pre-Seed Funding

Egyptian mobility startup specializing in participative transportation for school pupils Schoolz app has announced it received six-figure pre-Seed funding from Saudi Arabian and Egyptian investors. Schoolz is a mobility startup founded in 2020 by the trio of Hosni Ahmed, Abdel Monsef Ismail, and Ayman Hamza. The platform uses current technology,

Acumen Software, a South African workforce and asset management startup secures funding

Acumen Software, a South African workforce and asset management startup secures funding

Acumen Software, a South Africa-based workforce and asset management startup has secured an undisclosed amount of funding to scale its My Smart City platform. Acumen Software is the company behind My Smart City, a platform for city residents to report service delivery issues, track reported matters, and mobilize fellow community

What Chaka’s partnership with TradingView mean for Africans

What Chaka’s partnership with TradingView mean for Africans

A startup of many firsts… Some weeks ago, Chaka became the first fintech startup in Nigeria to be licensed by the Nigerian Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). This license gave the company the legitimacy to continue its digital investment operations for Nigerian companies, retail investors, and institutional investors. After securing

Nigerian Fashion Brand Rooomxix Receive $1.5m Funding from Patricia

Nigeria-based urban streetwear fashion brand Rooomxix has announced it received a $1.5m investment from Nigerian Fintech startup Patricia to facilitate its nationwide expansion. Rooomxix is a retail streetwear fashion brand launched in July 2018. The brand is focused on revolutionizing street fashion in Africa. The brand is committed to