It was rare to see a Nigerian startup raising $10 million ten years ago but now the country’s fintech unicorns are becoming just as valuable as its banks. Every other month we’re hearing about startups all over the country raising capital but a new report has found that in 2021, investors, including global giants SoftBank and Tiger Global, put a total of $1.37 billion into Nigerian startups, according to Africa: The Big Deal, a pan-African funding tracker. But to justify large valuations, companies need to demonstrate growth, which means spending big on customer acquisition.
Remedial Health has secured $1 million in pre-seed funding to digitize pharmacies, and stem the supply of fake and substandard pharmaceutical products, starting with Nigeria before expanding to the rest of Africa. Founded in 2020 by Samuel Okwuada, a trained pharmacist and self-taught software developer, together with his co-founder Victor Benjamin – the company is said to be using part of the new funding will be used to extend the startup’s buy-now-pay-later offering, for an even wider reach. Okwuada started his entrepreneurial journey while still at the university, where he built SaaS products,
Mdundo, an Africa-focused music streaming service, is banking on more partnerships with telcos across the continent to grow its earnings and user base. The optimism comes after a successful year. Last year, the Kenya-based company signed deals with MTN and Airtel in Nigeria, and Vodacom in Tanzania, which reportedly appeared to be paying off after its user-base almost doubled as it added paying subscribers as a source of revenue, according to media. According to TechCrunch, MTN and Airtel Nigeria have a combined customer base of 124.5 million, while Vodacom Tanzania
Kiaan Pillay runs Stitch, which offers a B2B application programming interface (API) focused on fintech infrastructure. The founder has announced that Stitch — one of the prominent players building and operating these APIs in Africa — has raised $21 million in Series A funding. The South African API fintech enables businesses to build, optimize, and scale financial products. With its API, developers can connect apps to financial accounts. This allows users to share their transaction history and balances, confirm their identities and initiate payment Per a statement released by the company, it plans
Kenya’s central bank has called on the public to share their views, before May 20th, on the possibility of adopting a digital currency, just one day after it emerged that Zambia is also testing its viability too. The Bank of Zambia is also carrying out research on digital currencies. Digital currency, unlike cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, is developed by central banks and pegged on countries’ fiat currencies. The potential decision-making comes just a year after Nigeria became the first country in Africa to pilot its central bank digital currency . While Ghana
The fund, dubbed the Norrsken22 African Tech Growth Fund, reached its first close of $110 million last week and it’s the latest fund launched by Norrsken after closing €125 million impact fund for European startups last March. This is good news for the continent which saw a boom in investment last year. Africa VC funding reached an all-time high in 2021 at over $4 billion, more than what startups in the continent raised in the two previous years combined. But still – deals such as $100 million-plus rounds were relatively
The company was founded in 2015 by Femi Kuti, Opeyemi Olumekun, and Matthew Mayaki and now – six years later – it has just raised $40 million. Headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, and Austin, Texas, Reliance Health began operations in Nigeria as a telemedicine-focused startup, Kangpe, it later expanded into a single-fee healthcare provider to better address the complex, evolving needs of patients. Reliance Health operates business-to-business and business-to-customers models. RelianceHMO is the company’s health insurance plan for both sets of customers where individuals can select monthly, quarterly, or yearly health plans. But businesses can
The initiative, launched by Meta five years ago to drive connectivity in underserved regions, will reportedly be discontinued. Meta, formerly Facebook, quietly issued this notice on its website stating its plans to wind down the program later this year. The program was envisioned to bridge the internet gap across emerging markets like Africa, where connectivity is lowest across the globe. According to the 2021 GSMA mobile economy report, about 28% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa is connected to the mobile internet. This is in comparison to the connectivity in other regions
Amitruck, a Kenyan tech-enabled logistics platform, has just raised $4 million in seed funding – bringing the total funds raised to date to $5 million. The most important purpose of this round is hiring, according to Amitruck founder and chief executive officer Mark Mwangi. The seed round was led by Better Tomorrow Ventures (BTV), with the participation of Dynamo Ventures, Rackhouse Venture Capital, Flexport Inc, Knuru Capital, Launch Africa Ventures, Uncovered Fund and a number of angel investors. Launched in 2019 as a digital logistics marketplace, Amitruck connects shippers with transporters
Kenyan insurtech startup Lami Technologies has acquired Bluewave Insurance Agency for an undisclosed amount as it seeks to make insurance covers accessible to more people across Africa. The deal has also opened up new markets for Lami, which states that its technology enables underwriters and businesses to streamline insurance via a single platform, in Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo where Bluewave already has operations. Bluewave insurance, also a Kenyan startup, was founded by Adelaide Odhiambo, who now joins Lami as the head of commercial partnerships. Since its inception, Bluewave has
