Thousands of Africans studying engineering and other subjects in Ukraine are desperate to leave as Russia invades the country. Many of them are using social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter to keep people updated on their struggles to return back home. One Nigerian Twitter user said she and other students from the West African country were stopped by Polish border guards when attempting to flee. In her video, viewed over a million times, a crowd can be seen pleading with guards, who are standing with leveled weapons. Some,
The announcement of the collaboration between the 10 studios was made today against the backdrop of the Africa Games Week 2022, which is taking place in Cape Town, South Africa. The clan, which have named themselves Pan Africa Gaming Group, or PAGG, said they aim to grow the industry by two times annually and to put Africa “on the map of the global game industry.” South Africa has the highest saturation of gamers across Africa with 24 million people – this is almost half of its population – playing, according
MarketForce, the retail B2B and end-to-end distribution platform founded in Kenya, has raised $40 million in Series A funding for its merchant inventory financing and expansion across Africa. The firm, which first launched in Uganda in 2018, plans to introduce buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) options to help merchants access fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) on credit. It also plans to enter additional markets in East and West Africa. Through its merchant super app RejaReja, informal traders can source goods directly from manufacturers and distributors, make and pay for orders digitally, accept payments for utility
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.
Karin Fuentesová started off her career in the accounting sector, where she worked for 13 years. While working there, she observed how much time is wasted by people doing mundane tasks, such as manual data entry of invoices into accounting systems. After taking notes, Fuentesová launched Digitoo, which automates manual bookkeeping processes. Founded in 2019, the founder struggled to find investors but in 2021, it raised €900k in seed funding from Czech investors Kaya VC and Nation 1. For Fuentesová this was a huge success because only 46% of founders raise more than
Egypt and US-based MoneyHash has just emerged from beta with $3 million in pre-seed funding.
According to sources who spoke to the ‘Rest of World‘ and compiled salary data, demand for tech talent is skyrocketing, but supply remains relatively scarce, fuelling fierce competition between startups and established tech companies. The publication’s report comes after research we published several weeks ago showed that over the past five years, tech and science jobs in the United States have outnumbered qualified workers by roughly 3 million. And according to the recent study we quoted – the next decade could see a global shortage of more than 85 million
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
