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Estonian on-demand transport firm Bolt is set to roll out electric taxi options in SouthAfrica four months after introducing e-bike food delivery services in the country. The new funding came after the International Finance Corporation injected $24 million (€20) into the business at the beginning of the year.
Internet giant Google announced today that it has made the first investment from its Africa Investment Fund in Ugandan super app SafeBoda. He made this known at the Google for Africa event in October. Before launching the fund, Google proved helpful in startups’ journeys via its Google for Startups Accelerator Africa program.
In SouthAfrica, these businesses contribute around one-third of the country’s GDP. Since launching in 2013, South African fintech Yoco has positioned itself as the go-to platform to access offline payments among merchants in the country. SouthAfrica’s Yoco raises $16 million to boost digital services to small businesses.
million in pre-Series A funding. Flow intends to use the funding to include other social media platforms such as TikTok and LinkedIn and other advertising channels like digital out-of-home billboards. When buying and selling homes, if you take SouthAfrica, for example, 40,000 agents are marketing 300,000 listings at any time.
As the global agricultural industry stretches to meet expected population growth and food demand, and food security becomes more of a pressing issue with global warming, a startup out of SouthAfrica is using artificial intelligence to help farmers manage their farms, trees and fruits.
Knife Capital , a South African venture capital firm, is raising a $50 million fund for startups looking to raise Series B financing. With Knife Fund III called the African Series B Expansion Fund, the firm seeks to directly invest in the aggressive expansion of South African breakout companies.
Uncovered Fund , a VC firm targeting early-stage startups in Africa, announced today that it has launched its $15 million fund which is expected to close at the end of June this year. Before Uncovered Fund, Terakubo was the CEO of Leapfrog Ventures. Terakubo doesn’t say why he left Samurai Incubate Fund.
Planet42 , a SouthAfrica-based car subscription company that buys used cars from dealerships and rents to customers via a subscription model, has raised $30 million in equity and debt. million in a seed round in June 2020 and followed it with $10 million in debt from emerging markets-focused venture debt fund Lendable in December.
Stephen Deng, the co-founder and partner of DFS Lab, a firm that invests in digital commerce startups, serially compared the 2016 Southeast Asia funding landscape to where Africa might be in 2021, at $3 billion. Venture capital investment in Africa predicted to reach a record high this year. billion and $2.8
Catalyst Fund , a global accelerator managed by BFA Global , announced the 8th cohort for its Inclusive Fintech Program today. With a focus on Kenya, Nigeria, SouthAfrica, Mexico and India, selected startups receive £80,000 (~$100,000) in grant capital, six months of support and connections with follow-on investors.
billion investment that fintechs in Africa raised in 2020, and triple the amount in 2019. Among the largest beneficiaries of the fintech capital were Opay , which raised $400 million in Series C funding, Flutterwave , which got $170 million in a Series C round, and TymeBank , which raised $180 million in Series B.
The investors for this unnamed round include Apis Growth Fund II, a private equity fund managed by Apis Partners, and Gokongwei-owned JG Summit Holdings, one of the largest conglomerates in the Philippines. “The establishments of digital banks in SouthAfrica is in its infancy. million customers.
To understand how much growth has occurred, African startups raised a meagre $400 million in 2015 compared to the $2 billion that came into the continent in 2019, according to Africa-focused fund Partech Africa. Investments did pick up, and from July, VC funding on the continent had a bullish run until December.
Savannah Fund , a pan-African venture capital firm, today announced a $25 million fund as it looks to back more early-stage startups on the continent. Since launching in 2012, Savannah Fund — led by Mbwana Alliy and Paul Bragiel — has backed more than 30 startups. Mbwana Ally (Managing Partner, Savannah Fund).
The company’s total Series C stands at $250 million but its total funding to date is over $305 million. During TechCrunch’s last conversation with CEO Ham Serunjogi , when the company announced its Series C round, he called Chipper Cash “the most valuable private startup in Africa” without specifics on the actual value.
Talk360’s latest investors include Allan Gray E2 Ventures (AGEV), Kalon Venture Partners, E4E Africa, Endeavor, existing lead investor HAVAÍC and a number of angel investors, including Tjaart van der Walt and Coenraad Jonker. The app has active users in more than 170 countries, including SouthAfrica, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. “We
Finclusion’s debt financing, which makes up the larger share of the overall round, was provided by local currency funds in Eswatini and SouthAfrica. The fintech intends to grow existing operations in SouthAfrica, Eswatini, Kenya, Namibia and Tanzania and expand into Mozambique and Uganda.
Then, the disparities between venture funding studies were stunningly clear. . Partech Africa covers equity deals in tech and digital spaces and funding rounds higher than $200,000. billion in total estimated funding — $4.65 It’s more than a 250% increase from last year’s total funding of $1.3 billion to $1.5
million Series A extension to continue its expansion across emerging markets; the company already has a presence in SouthAfrica and Mexico. Naspers, via its investment arm, Naspers Foundry, co-led the investment with Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund. Today, i t is announcing a $14.5 Devin de Vries (CEO WhereIsMyTransport).
Rali_cap , an early-stage venture capital firm focused on emerging markets fintech, has launched a $30 million fund. Last month, the firm, formerly known as Rally Cap Ventures, reached its first close of $20 million (its initial target) before increasing the fund size, signaling a strong LP appetite. About 40% are based in the U.S.,
Founded by Kiaan Pillay , Natalie Cuthbert , and Priyen Pillay , Stitch wants to provide full API access to financial accounts across Africa starting from its first market, SouthAfrica. With wide and deep investor backing, Stitch will use the funding to consolidate growth in SouthAfrica.
According to a 2019 report by Deloitte , about 80% of South Africans have a bank account but only 24% of them make more than three transactions monthly. Unlike other African countries, SouthAfrica also has a functioning credit system with the prevalent use of credit cards. Since the company’s Series A raise of $2.5
million pre-seed funding to scale its operations within Africa; one of the fastest-growing mobile phone market in the world. The Venture Catalysts, V&R Africa, Grenfell holdings, and SOSV, participated in the round, as did family offices and angel investors from Kenya, Nigeria, SouthAfrica and India.
Foundations in the United States focus their funding priorities on many different issues. If your nonprofit is seeking funding, it’s critical to identify the foundations whose interests and funding priorities align with your own. Funding Priority: Education. Global Fund For Children. Daniels Fund.
million pre-seed funding, which the startup plans to use to fuel the growth of its new business. She anticipates greater growth for the partner fashion brands and the group following the new business pathway and funding. The funding round was led by Slauson & Co., We are developing our technology and building a sales team.
Mobiz , a South African startup integrating hyper-personalization into mobile marketing, has raised a pre-Series A round of $ 4 million from HAVAÍC, Futuregrowth, Launch Africa, Allan Gray E-Squared Ventures, CapaciTech and Endeavor’s Harvest Fund. and double down on marketing, sales and account management.
The company, based in SouthAfrica, has raised $3 million in seed funding to scale outside Africa and build the infrastructure for the digital insurance economy. Venture capital firms Invenfin , Base Capital, Savannah Fund, P1 Ventures, Luno and FireID took part in the round, including some high-impact angel investors.
Many startups are solving these problems for African SMBs in one form or another, and the demand for their services has seen Ghanaian startup Float pick up a significant round of funding. While Cauris provided debt financing, Tiger Global and JAM Fund, the investment firm of Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen co-led the equity bit.
Voltron will be deploying capital to roughly 30 startups, mostly in pre-seed and seed-stage across Africa, in a bid to “address the severe lack of access to early-stage funding for African tech companies.” So, why do things differently now by creating a fund?
Naked , a South African insurtech company that helps consumers to insure their cars, homes, and valuables, has raised $17 million in Series B funding led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The news follows the Naspers-led $11 million Series A round that the South African insurtech announced in August 2021.
Zola Electric , one such provider, is announcing today that it has closed $90 million in new funding to enter new markets and drive distributed renewable energy. ” The $90 million funding raised is a combination of debt and equity, $45 million each. Outside Africa, the company is also present in the U.S.,
From Onayemi’s point of view, the growth of Africa’s digital economy revolves around gains in six segments: education, payments, logistics, transport, identity, and trade. Trade has the least startup activity in a market that received $5 billion in VC funding last year.
Chinese-backed and Africa-focused fintech platform OPay is in talks to raise up to $400 million, The Information reported today. The fundraising is coming two years after OPay announced two funding rounds in 2019 — $50 million in June and $120 million Series B in November.
But before that, there was shared optimism that African startups would raise more VC funding last year than in 2021 when the continent, for the first time, passed the $4-5 billion threshold. Africa predicted to experience sustained funding slowdown in 2023 Most tech observers share Cuvelier’s thoughts on VC activity in Africa.
The round, which comes after a $500,000 pre-seed, continues a list of fintech deals amid a wave of innovation rippling through the sector, which accounted for up to 60% of Africa’s total VC funding last year. African tech took center stage in 2021.
Kenya, on the other hand, is still within its radar as one out of three countries (including Egypt and SouthAfrica) Mono plans to expand into next year. Hassan adds that Mono might complete the move to SouthAfrica via a partnership with Absa bank this year. However, not everyone measures growth this way.
million in seed funding. For finance teams, the B2B payments startup automates invoice generation and processing, receiving and approving bills, collecting and disbursing funds, and completing account reconciliation. The news is coming just seven months after Duplo announced its $1.3
The pandemic has seen such platforms scale globally, and Africa is not exempt. A new platform (without a name yet) is launching out of SouthAfrica and it wants to provide accessible quality care for Africans with its telehealth service. ” Sub-Saharan Africa has a healthcare market of about $90 billion.
And the SouthAfrica-based crowd-solving startup has done that over the last three years they have been in existence. South African Megan Yates and Ghanaian Ekow Duker are the platform’s other co-founders. Zindi is a database of data scientists across Africa. Photo Credits : Zindi.
This product, it says, will open up businesses to the largest pool of localized payment options in Africa. Meanwhile, the startup is also looking to expand its international calling operations across Africa after closing a $4 million seed funding round, led by HAVAÍC.
Founder and CEO Seun Alley , in a statement, said the company plans to use the seed investment to deepen its work in Nigeria (which has a $10 billion transport and logistics market) while it considers expansion — from Q4 2023 — into other African markets, including Ghana, Kenya and SouthAfrica.
In the latest development, Stitch — one of the prominent players building and operating these APIs in Africa — confirmed to TechCrunch that it has raised $21 million in Series A funding. The South African API fintech enables businesses to build, optimize, and scale financial products. Image Credits: Stitch.
This is a16z’s first investment in an Africa-headquartered company (the firm has previously invested in Branch and Zipline, companies with some of its operations in Africa but headquartered in the U.S). Carry1st also received investments from Avenir and Google; it’s the latter’s second check from its Africa Investment Fund.
Blantern said the Impact Rooms is also using data to help investors make decisions on which countries, industries or startups to invest in – giving an equal opportunity to startups across all markets in Africa. “We This in addition to helping 1,000 startups raise funds.
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