The Latest from Tage Kene-Okafor
54gene CEO steps down as the company looks to cut more jobs
54gene co-founder and chief executive officer Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong has stepped down from his executive role, the African genomics company confirmed to TechCrunch today. The three-year-old company has a
Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari signs the Nigeria Start-up Act into law
Last May, the Nigerian presidency launched the Nigeria Startup Bill in collaboration with a group of Nigerian tech leaders and several government bodies to govern how startups and regulatory bodies op
Nigerian retail automation platform Bumpa raises $4M, led by Base10 Partners
Millions of small and medium businesses still operate inefficiently due to dependency on manual processes, which limits their capacity to grow and scale; this is despite contributing to about 48% of N
MaxAB, an Egyptian B2B e-commerce platform for food and grocery supplies, nabs $40M
Last year, MaxAB, the food and grocery B2B e-commerce and distribution platform serving a network of traditional retailers across Egypt and Morocco, raised its $55 million Series A in two tranches; th
Egypt’s Nexta to launch ‘next-gen banking’ app with fresh $3M
Nexta, an Egyptian startup that plans to launch its banking app in the coming months, has secured a $3 million investment from eFinance Group, a state-owned provider of digital payments solutions. Thi
Kenzz, an Egyptian e-commerce platform for the mass market, grabs $3.5M seed funding
Kenzz, an e-commerce platform bringing shopping to the mass market in Egypt and MENA, is announcing that it has raised $3.5 million in seed funding. U.S.-based and MENA-focused venture capital firm Ou
Nigerian banking-as-a-service platform Maplerad raises $6M, led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures
Banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platforms have taken off rapidly across the fintech world over the last 18 months. By partnering with banks, these platforms allow entities, from startups and fintechs to b
Fast Forward Venture Studio to build African startups from idea to scale
Opeyemi Awoyemi, one of Nigeria’s well-known serial founders, is back with another outfit. It’s not a tech company this time — Awoyemi co-founded online jobs site Jobberman (which wa
VUZ raises $20 million to scale its immersive social app
VUZ, a social app that allows users to stream and experience immersive realism in extended reality (XR) and metaverse digital experiences, has raised $20 million in Series B investment. Investors in t
Egyptian consumer money app Telda raises $20M from GFC, Sequoia Capital and Block
Telda, an Egyptian consumer money app founded by ex-Swvl executive Ahmed Sabbah last April, has raised $20 million in seed funding. The fintech, in a statement, said it wants to “revolutionize fina
Lifestores Healthcare raises $3M to expand its pharmaceutical marketplace across Nigeria
Africa’s $45 billion pharmaceuticals market is expected to grow 10% CAGR to $100 billion by 2030. Yet, the sector struggles with highly fragmented and undercapitalized supply chains rife with fake m
FlapKap provides revenue-based financing to e-commerce brands in MENA, gets $3.6M seed funding
Recent research suggests that the e-commerce market in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egypt account for a combined $21.4 billion and is projected to grow by more than 50% to $33.3 billion in the next three yea
Nigerian data and intelligence company Stears raises $3.3M, backed by Mac VC and Serena Ventures
While studying at the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford, a group of graduates noticed how difficult it was to get data and information on Africa’s largest economy and their hom
Sendy conducts second round of layoffs, 20% of its remaining staff affected
Months after Sendy laid off 10% of its workforce, the Kenyan logistics startup is at it again, sending more staff home while announcing the decision to wind down its Supply service and solely focus on
Google makes good on its $1B plan to support Africa’s digital economy, but there is a long way to go
It’s one year into Google’s five-year, $1 billion plan to boost digital services across Africa, and on the heels of its latest investment — announcing South Africa as its first clou
Google picks South Africa for its first cloud region in Africa
Tech giant Google has today announced the launch of a cloud region in South Africa, its first in the continent, playing catch-up to other top providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azu
Nigerian proptech Spleet gets $2.6M led by MaC VC to scale its property management products
For the average individual living in Lagos — Nigeria’s most populous city, with over 20 million people — apartment hunting is an extreme sport. Not only is rent expensive — low- to
Egyptian venture capital firm Algebra Ventures hits first close of second fund at $100M
Last April, Egyptian and MENA-focused venture capital firm Algebra Ventures announced the launch of its $90 million second fund. It was the sequel to its first: a $54 million fund invested in 21 start
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