The Latest from Tage Kene-Okafor
Vendease, a food procurement platform for African restaurants, nabs $30M led by Partech Africa and TLcom
When Vendease launched in January 2020, it wanted to solve the challenges and inefficiencies in Nigeria’s highly fragmented food sector using a marketplace model that connected suppliers and farms t
Ghanaian fintech SecondSTAX allows investors to access capital markets outside their countries, raises $1.6M
African capital markets exist in silos, as various exchanges within the continent are often inaccessible to investors outside their home countries. For instance, a South African investor who wants to
Ivorian fintech Julaya gets $5M to become banking partner for businesses in Francophone Africa
Ivorian payments-led fintech startup Julaya has extended its pre-Series A round by $5 million. The company, which facilitates B2B payments for businesses in Francophone West Africa, mainly via mobile
Byld Ventures, a $15M fund, backs fintechs in Africa
Two years before Youcef Oudjidane co-founded Sudanese fintech Bloom after failing to find startups tackling currency depreciation in Africa to invest in, he was the managing partner and head of EMEA (
What has KOBO360 been up to in the last 2 years?
Before fintechs became the standouts of the African tech ecosystem, it was startups in the online logistics and transport space in Africa linking on-demand apps to move people and goods around the con
Nigerian financial management app for merchants Kippa bags $8.4M in new funding
Kippa, the Nigerian startup improving the lifecycle of small businesses across the country with its financial management and payments platform, has raised $8.4 million in an oversubscribed seed round.
Pan-African ‘gender equal investor’ Janngo Capital hits first close of €60M fund
After stints at Jumia as its former managing director at its Nigerian office and founding CEO of its Ivorian office, Fatoumata Bâ, a veteran of the African tech space, announced that her firm Janngo
Founders of well-funded Egyptian B2B startup Capiter fired following fraud allegations
Last September, Egyptian startup Capiter raised $33 million in Series A funding to compete in the country’s growing B2B e-commerce and retail space. Fast-forward a year later, the startup has laid o
Nigerian blockchain payments startup Bitmama closes $2M pre-seed as it scales to new markets
Africa is the world’s third fastest-growing crypto market, with crypto adoption increasing by more than 1,200% over the last two years. Countries such as Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa are majorly
YC’s latest batch cuts African startup presence by more than half
Last month, Y Combinator said that it had intentionally reduced its summer cohort by 40%. According to the accelerator, the decision to downsize the S22 batch — significantly smaller than its most r
Where is Y Combinator startup-hunting in 2022?
YC's smaller cohort had us curious about the second-order effects of admitting fewer companies: What would a smaller batch do to the geographic makeup of the companies at the accelerator?
Online university Nexford will use $8M to plug affordability and relevance gaps in education
U.S.-based online university platform Nexford University has raised $8 million in a Series A round co-led by New Markets Venture Partners and Learn Capital, two prominent edtech venture capital firms
Our 11 favorite companies from YC’s S22 Demo Day: Part 1
TechCrunch is tuned in, as always, to YC's Demo Day, and in keeping with our historical coverage, we compiled a list of our favorites from the first day’s pitches.
NowNow raises $13M seed, plans to scale its ecosystem of financial products across Africa
In 2011, the Nigerian government launched a financial inclusion initiative and set a target to include 80% of the country’s adult population. Although only a target of 64% was met by the end of
Metaverse Magna raises $3.2M at a $30M valuation to build Africa’s largest gaming DAO
This February, Africa and emerging market-focused Nestcoin raised a pre-seed round to build, operate and invest in its web3 applications, including crypto content platform Breach Club and gaming guild
Nigerian digital bank Kuda is the latest African startup to lay off employees
Kuda, the challenger bank based in Nigeria and the U.K., has joined the ranks of tech companies in Africa that are pruning their workforce. The news of the layoffs, which was first disclosed to TechCr
Duplo digitizes payment flows for African B2B enterprises, gets $4.3M seed funding
The process of sending and receiving payments in a $1.5 trillion B2B payments market in sub-Saharan Africa is one where merchants commonly use manual invoices and inefficient processes that burden mer
African genomics startup 54gene lays off 95 as COVID testing business struggles
African genomics startup 54gene has laid off 95 employees, or about 30% of its LinkedIn-sourced 290+ employees. A company’s spokesperson confirmed the news after several sources informed TechCru
Nigeria’s Grey raises $2M for cross-border payments play and regional expansion
The provision of virtual foreign bank accounts has become a common strategy for fintechs to enable Nigerians and Africans to facilitate international transfers. In the latest development, Grey, a fint
Nigerian YC-backed startup Anchor comes out of stealth with $1M+ to scale its banking-as-a-service platform
In 2015, the emergence of fintechs such as Flutterwave and Paystack changed the game for online businesses in Africa by making it easier to integrate payments into customer interfaces without building