Churpy, a Kenyan fintech startup, has secured a $1 million seed round led by Unicorn Growth Capital. Also participating were Antler East Africa, Nairobi’s business angel network, and a group of Rally Cap LPs. The round will be used to support expansion to Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa. The startup said it wants to transform how businesses manage the debt owed to them by their customers through its Software as a service (SaaS) product – which automates the labor-intensive processes of reconciling incoming payments and invoices that are still predominantly manual for most local
African fintech Flutterwave has raised $250 million in a Series D round that tripled the company’s valuation to over $3 billion in justtwelve months.
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.
NALA, a Tanzanian cross-border payments company that recently pivoted from local to international money transfers, has raised $10 million in a new fundraising round. It comes almost three years after NALA secured a seven-figure pre-seed round led by Accel in 2019. It received funds from an impressive group of angel investors — Jonas Templestein, co-founder and CTO of Monzo; Vladimir Tenev, Robinhood co-founder and CEO; Deel founder Alex Bouaziz; Laura Spiekerman, co-founder of Alloy; Peeyush Ranjan, the head of Google Payments and early employees at Revolut and TransferWise. Sheel Tyle,
Ghanaian startup Float has picked up a significant round of funding with $17M already in the bag in the first few weeks of the year. The fintech which provides credit lines for businesses says the funding will be used to bolster its offerings and expand around the globe. The seed round was a mix of $7 million equity and $10 million debt. While Cauris provided debt financing, Tiger Global and JAM Fund, the investment firm of Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen co-led the equity bit. Other VC firms involved in the equity round include Kinfolk,
We’ve started a new weekly series looking at founders from different communities absolutely killing it in the tech space. Following on from our ‘Meet 3 Standout Latinx Founders Using Data And AR To Do Some Pretty Cool Things‘ feature piece – we’re now taking a deep dive into Black founders in fintech and blockchain that you should look out for this year. These financial technologies (fintech) companies use the internet, blockchain, and software technologies, as well as algorithms, to offer or facilitate financial services traditionally offered by banks. David Potter
Angela Majette, a Bronx native, worked as a legal consultant for years before launching her own organization dedicated to helping her community. Her years of experience in the field allowed her to witness firsthand the struggles Black founders on their entrepreneurship journey experienced when it came to getting good counsel for a reasonable price. The struggles experienced by minorities – especially the Black community is what led her to launch Black Connect, an organization that aims to support Black-owned businesses with pro bono legal support and establish solid legal footing. Launched
Bfree, a Nigerian credit management fintech, has embarked on global expansion after raising $1.7 million in a pre-Series A round. It’s now on a massive recruitment drive for the 16 new markets in which it is setting up operations, including Ghana, India, Uganda, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Russia, Poland, Pakistan, and Indonesia. It was founded by Chukwudi Enyi, Moses Nmor, and Flosbach, who were reportedly looking to develop better, ethical, and tech-inspired debt-collection tools and processes after firsthand experience working for digital lenders in Nigeria. 4Di Capital, Octerra Capital, VestedWorld, Voltron Capital, Logos Ventures,
Paylend, a Kenyan fintech startup focused on providing access to finance and digitizing MSMEs in Kenya, announced it has raised $2 million seed investment. The funding came from Next Chymia Consulting HK Limited, an Asian-based company that provides global entities with blockchain applications, consultancy services, and training. Paylend’s mission is to support MSMEs across Africa to solve access to continuous capital while bridging the consumer data gap by connecting consumers to products and services. Paylend’s model enables consumer data collection that allows for a thorough understanding of consumer needs and
The Kenyan startup has secured $2 million in pre-seed funding and is headed for its next phase of growth, which will involve extending loans to traders offering more relief to those that are often left out and regarded as high risk by the traditional banking sector. Fredrik Jung Abbou; a two-time unicorn founder and Norrsken Impact Accelerator were among the investors that funded the firm while the debt round had the participation of French Public Investment Bank (Bpifrance) and GreenTec Capital Partners. The funds include $1 million equity and $1
