Ghana
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…
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…
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…
Jumia, the pan-African e-commerce company, has partnered with Zipline to launch on-demand drone delivery in Ghana, with plans to expand the service to Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire in the near…
Kenyan fintech Pezesha raises $11M backed by Women’s World Banking, Cardano parent IOG
Access to finance remains a key growth constraint for small businesses, with data showing a $330 billion financing deficit for the small enterprises that make up 90% of Africa’s businesses.…
Microtraction hits $15M first close on its second fund for pre-seed investment in African startups
Microtraction, an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in African startups at the pre-seed stage, is announcing that it has reached the first close of its second fund, Microtraction Community…
Nigerian B2B e-commerce platform Omnibiz raises millions to gain and retain retail customers
Africa’s informal retailers supply most of the continent’s population with a broad range of consumer goods and generate over $1 trillion in sales annually. However, troubles with outward inefficiencies and…
Bluechip, an African systems integrator with partners like Microsoft and Oracle, is expanding to Europe
It’s not often you hear about African tech companies expanding into Europe. Some examples include fintechs Lidya and Korapay in Eastern Europe and the U.K., respectively. In the latest development,…
Beacon Power Services raises $2.7M to improve electricity access for sub-Saharan African cities
Sub-Saharan Africa’s share of the global population without access to electricity stood at 77% in 2020, according to reports. Also, the average daily electricity supply in some of Africa’s largest…
Identity verification company Youverify extends seed funding to $2.5M as it expands across Africa
This past month has seen several African fintechs such as Flutterwave and Union54 make headlines for compliance checks issues and fraud allegations. Both unlinked events re-emphasize the importance of know…
US-based fintech Umba buys majority stake in Kenya’s Daraja microfinance bank
Umba, a U.S.-based digital bank with a focus on emerging markets, has acquired a majority share of Daraja, a Kenyan deposit-taking microfinance bank, for an undisclosed amount. Kenya’s monetary authority,…
Universal Music Group signs licensing deal with African streaming service Mdundo
The music catalog of the Universal Music Group (UMG), the world’s largest record company, will be available to users of Africa-focused streaming service Mdundo following the signing of a licensing…
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As the global venture capital market slows, Africa charts its own course
Experts say that most recent deals were finalized months before macroeconomic challenges hit the global VC landscape. This means there’s a lag in what’s reported as the current state of VC in Africa.
This Week in Apps: Twitter Notes, Instagram age verification, Spotify’s Live Events
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues…
African health tech startups in the supply chain segment show rapid growth, spurring a $7M investment initiative
While Africa’s health systems are still reeling from the effects of the COVID pandemic, the adoption of digital health services has been revved up in some countries. Telemedicine, the standout…
Ghana’s fintech Fido raises $30M to roll out new products and expand across Africa
After extending credit to thousands of customers over mobile phones since 2015, Ghana-based fintech Fido is now in search of additional growth avenues for its expansion across Africa. Fido told…
Tunisian edtech startup GOMYCODE raises $8M to expand across Africa and the Middle East
Yahya Bouhlel started coding in his early teens. Within this timeline, he interned at several companies in Palo Alto, California. Most of his work revolved around building apps and iPhone…
Betastore gets $2.5M to solve stockouts, financing challenges for informal retailers in West and Central Africa
About 80% of household retail in sub-Saharan Africa is delivered through informal channels, which perennially face several challenges like stockouts, leading to an instability in earnings and a lack of…
Uber today announced a significant milestone — it has completed 1 billion rides across all its markets in Africa. This feat translates to over 10 billion kilometres in terms…
CarePoint, a technology-driven healthcare startup, has raised a $10 million bridge round to accelerate its growth across Africa as it seeks to make healthcare accessible to the masses. The startup…
Nigeria’s Topship raises $2.5M from Flexport and YC to help merchants with international shipping
African merchants encounter many challenges when it comes to international shipping, ranging from logistics and customs to hidden and excessive charges. Digital freight forwarders on the continent have grown to…
Norebase raises $1M to allow companies start, scale, and operate in any African country
Startup pitches with promises to provide various services to Africans — across different sectors — are commonplace now. And in trying to sweet-talk investors, what’s not taken into context or…
Ghanaian agtech Farmerline to use new funding to strengthen its infrastructure, help farmers create wealth
A McKinsey and Co. study suggests that while sub-Saharan Africa has the potential to increase (even triple) its agricultural output and overall contribution to the economy, the sector remains untapped…
UK fintech startup Leatherback raises $10M for its cross-border payments led by ZedCrest
Immigrants, international students, and the migrant population in general all require international payments, or foreign exchange. Revolut and Wise are among those platforms to have taken advantage of this international…
Daily Crunch: Brex says DoorDash is ‘first of many’ new enterprise customers to come
Hello friends and welcome to Daily Crunch, bringing you the most important startup, tech and venture capital news in a single package.
ImaliPay gets $3M to offer financial services to underserved gig workers across Africa
The gig economy is experiencing profound growth in Africa. Yet, all that growth hasn’t changed the status of workers who are seen as contractors rather than employees. Because many of…
Nigerian startups are a huge part of the current Y Combinator cohort. Looking at the data, that should not be a surprise.
Nigeria’s CredPal secures $15M in debt and equity to scale its BNPL product across Africa
The adoption of buy now, pay later (BNPL) in Nigeria as a payment option both online and at the point of sale is expected to record a CAGR of 20%…
Meaningful Gigs raises $6M seed to link designers in Africa with remote jobs from US companies
The gig economy has been on an upward trajectory, more so since 2020, when it experienced a huge spurt accelerated by the pandemic. And it is not showing signs of…
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Tiger Global is earning its stripes in Africa
You can count on one hand the number of funds bigger than Tiger Global. But in terms of influence, speed and number of investments made since 2021, Tiger has led the pack alongside Sequoia. Last year, the New York-based firm, known for its famous bets on Stripe, JD.com, Meituan and Roblox, raised $6.7 billion for…
