Latest from Annie Njanja
Intelmatix, a deep tech B2B startup that’s targeting businesses in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region wanting help to tap into the power of AI for decision-making, has…
Voice recognition is getting integrated in nearly all facets of modern living, but there remains a big gap: Speakers of minority languages and those with thick accents or speech disorders…
TikTok Lite, a low-bandwidth version of the video platform popular across Africa, Asia and Latin America, is exposing users to harmful content because of its lack of safety features compared…
Featured Article
Pesa unlocks new markets to keep remittances flowing to emerging economies
Founders of Pesa, a remittance fintech, know too well how costly, inaccessible and unreliable remittance services drive people to opt for risky informal channels — like WhatsApp groups — to transfer money. Their firsthand experience using informal channels and realizing how prevalent their use was among Africans living in the…
Nala, a remittance startup that is now widening its portfolio through a new B2B payments platform, has raised $40 million equity in a rare deal that becomes one of the largest…
Update: Internet was restored on Wednesday morning, hours after the interruption. London-based internet rights monitoring group NetBlocks has reported a major internet disruption in Kenya following a wave of demonstrations…
Banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platforms have become instrumental in driving access to digital financial services by introducing fintech capabilities to non-bank businesses. Multiple businesses are tapping these platforms to circumvent the need…
Crypto
Kenya closes its probe of Worldcoin, opening the door to a relaunch of its orbs after a year-long suspension
Worldcoin — the crypto “proof of personhood” startup co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman — has been given the green light to resume iris-scanning and other operations in Kenya after a…
The global spend management sector is experiencing a tailwind of sorts. North America is arguably the biggest market in this space, but spend management companies have seen demand rise across…
Maad, a B2B e-commerce startup based in Senegal, has secured $3.2 million debt-equity funding to bolster its growth in the western Africa country and to explore fresh opportunities in the…
It is estimated that about 2 billion people, especially those in lower- and middle-income countries, lack access to quality and affordable essential medicines. The situation is exacerbated by low-quality or even killer…
Startups
Productive solar technologies draw investors as global off-grid solar sector funding slumps
Productive Use of Renewable Energy (PURE) technologies, especially those in the solar irrigation and cold chain segment, saw increased investor interest last year, despite a 43% funding slump recorded in…
Startups
Ethiopian plastic upcycling startup Kubik gets fresh funding, plans to license out its tech
Kubik, a plastic upcycling startup, has raised a $1.9 million seed extension, months after announcing initial equity investment. The startup’s latest investment is from African Renaissance Partners, an East African…
Madica, an investment program launched by U.S.-based investor Flourish Ventures to back pre-seed startups in Africa, plans to invest in up to 10 ventures by the end of the year,…
Kenyan B2B e-commerce company MarketForce is winding down its B2B e-commerce business that served informal merchants (mom-and-pop stores) after a turbulent two-year period that saw it scale down operations severely.…
Amira Rasool founded The Folklore in 2018 to help fashion brands from emerging markets like Africa, Asia and The Caribbean tap into the international market. In 2022, the startup introduced…
Startups
Pula raises $20M Series B to provide agricultural insurance to farmers in Africa, Asia and LatAm
Since 2015, Pula, an insurtech based in Kenya, has been keen on enhancing the access to agricultural insurance by small-holder farmers across emerging markets, shielding them against losses from pests,…
Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV) plans to back up to 21 growth-stage companies across the continent after closing its first fund at $60 million. The pan-African VC hit the milestone following…
Climate
Climate tech VC Satgana closes first fund that targets early-stage startups in Africa, Europe
Climate tech VC Satgana has reached a final close of its first fund, which aims to back up to 30 early-stage startups in Africa and Europe. The VC firm reached…
Fintech
Swiss fintech nsave gets $4M to enable people from unstable economies to open offshore accounts
Swiss fintech nsave, which is making banking in Switzerland accessible to people in countries with unstable banking sectors or facing high inflation, has raised $4 million seed funding. The round…
Globally, a third of the food produced is lost or wasted, and in Kenya, that figure stands between 20% and 40%. For Kenya, unlike the developed world, food loss, not…
Featured Article
Nala set out to offer remittance services, it’s building a B2B payment platform too
Payments company Nala pivoted to offer remittance service in 2021, tapping the growing money transfer market in Africa, and demand for reliable and affordable services. Nala founder Benjamin Fernandes said they intended to build their products on this premise right from the outset. Over the last two years, the Tanzanian…
Saudi Arabia is poised to become one of the largest global construction hubs, owing to its trillion-dollar infrastructure and the real estate projects that are underway in the country. Yet…
Bfree, a tech-enabled debt collection startup based in Nigeria, was founded to automate and introduce ethical debt recovery processes after its founders witnessed the use and adverse effects of aggressive…
Roam, an EV startup based in Kenya, has raised $24 million in a Series A round, including up to $10 million debt commitment from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation…
Ilara Health, a Kenya-based health tech enabling private clinics to access diagnostic devices and pharmaceutical products, has secured $4.2 million debt-equity in a pre-Series A round. The funds will be…
Featured Article
Africa-focused funds find their feet amid a downturn
In the midst of a funding downtime last year, and with conditions getting tougher for fund managers raising capital as backers (limited partners) enhanced their focus on strategy and track record, some new African and Africa-focused funds still emerged, with several of the existing ones receiving fresh backing. Among the…
Google has today said its cloud region in South Africa is operational, coming a year after the tech giant picked Johannesburg as its first site in Africa. Cloud regions allow…
Vienna-based early-stage VC Speedinvest has closed its fourth early-stage fund, Speedinvest 4, at €350 million (around $380 million at today’s exchange rate), surpassing the initial goal of €300 million ($325…
Featured Article
How African startups raised funding in 2023
After defying the global funding slowdown of 2022, VC investments in African startups dropped considerably last year, mirroring the situation in other regions where capital taps were significantly turned off. The drop, however, was not unexpected as months preceding the year, deals had become infrequent as investors began to pull…
