South Africa

Backed by Schmidt Futures, Cloudline raises $6M to take aerial autonomy green and mainstream

South African aerospace startup Cloudline has secured $6 million in funding as it aims to lead the global frontier of carbon emissions-free autonomous flight. Schmidt Futures, the philanthropic ventur

South African startup GoMetro gets £9M for its fleet management optimization software

GoMetro, a South African tech company that operates in the fleet management space, has raised £9 million (~$11.4 million) in a Series A funding round led by Zenobē Energy, a strategic investor renow

South African VC Knife Capital closes $50M Series B fund for startups with high exit potential

South African growth-stage investor Knife Capital has reached the final close of its $50 million fund. The third fund addresses a critical funding gap in growth stages where local investors have histo

South Africa’s Envisionit Deep AI gets $1.65M to expand access to medical imaging

Dr. Jaishree Naidoo was in charge of pediatric radiology at a South African hospital in 2014 when she had a moment of epiphany after coming across a news story on the usage of AI recognition pattern i

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

Google Wallet enters South Africa to tap digital payments growth

Google Wallet is now available in South Africa, the first market for this product in Africa, to make it easy for users to save and easily and securely access their payment cards, loyalty cards and boa

TechCrunch+ roundup: Usage-based billing, web3 fundraising, Serena Williams’ next act

Netflix lost almost a million subscribers in the last quarter, and it expects to shed hundreds of thousands more this year. Does that mean consumers are suffering from "subscription fatigue?"

South Africa’s DataProphet closes $10M to scale its AI-as-a-service platform for manufacturers

Manufacturing plants or factories take raw material inputs and add value through a sequence of unit processes before shipping a product. Now, this process must follow a recipe. There are a series of i

Amazon Prime Video launches local service in Nigeria

Amazon Prime Video today announced the launch of the localized version of its streaming service in one of Africa’s biggest markets: Nigeria. Just as it did in Southeast Asia some days back, the tech

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

Swvl’s $100M acquisition of Smart Bus startup Zeelo is off, amid tech stocks slump

All is not well with the proposed acquisition of U.K. start bus platform Zeelo by Mass transit group Swvl. Back in April, we covered how a possible $100 million acquisition was on the cards, and, inde

South African startup Qwili gets $1.2M to scale its app and low-cost NFC-enabled smartphone

Qwili, a startup that provides a hybrid sales product to micro and small merchants in South Africa, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding a year after closing an undisclosed pre-seed round. E4E Afri

Funding gap excludes Black-owned startups from South Africa’s booming digital economy

South Africa’s digital industry is among the fastest-growing segments of its economy. However, the low level of racial inclusion in funding and general financial muscle to compete is a growing conce

Big Tech companies in the spotlight as South Africa investigates dominance abuse

Big Tech companies are facing increased scrutiny in South Africa for dominance abuse and anti-competitive behavior, just months after the country’s competition regulator, the Competition Commission

SendSprint, by ex-Flutterwave executive, hits market with $5 flat fee for all international money transfers

SendSprint, a money transfer startup based in the U.K. but with operations in the U.S. and Nigeria, has been launched today with the unique selling point of a $5 flat fee for all transfers. The fintec

US CFTC charges South African company over $1.7 billion bitcoin Ponzi scheme

The U.S. commodities regulator, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has filed civil charges against a South African company and its CEO for running a fraudulent commodity pool worth more than

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 Afri

Venture studio Adanian Labs fuels startup growth in Africa

Ransomware ring claims attack on Africa’s largest retail chain Shoprite

RansomHouse, a ransomware gang, has claimed responsibility for the cyberattack on Shoprite, Africa’s largest retailer. The attack, which Shoprite confirmed a week ago, compromised customer data in E

Disney+ rolls out to 16 more markets across the Middle East and North Africa

This week, the Walt Disney Company continues to gain ground in the global streaming market as it launches Disney+ in 16 markets across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This follows the launch
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