Last week, Yep!, a “financial super app” with payments, remittance, and banking features, announced that it has raised $1.5 million in a pre-seed round led by pan-African VC Greenhouse Capital. The San Francisco- and Lagos-headquartered startup was started by Olaoluwa Awojoodu, who then teamed up with Airende Ojeomogha and Garry Ottosen to start Yep!. The startup plans to go live across the five markets where E-Settlement is present, serving digital financial services to consumers, small business owners, and merchants. They also have a mission to enhance financial inclusion by leveraging PayCentre Africa — the startup’s agent banking platform, to
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.
JéGO Technologies Inc, a Black-owned innovative tech firm based in Miami, Florida, has just begun manufacturing their self-driving vehicles called JéGO Pods. The company’s goal is to use its mobile platform to connect users with businesses that provide on-demand services like Flu Testing, COVID testing, IV therapy, and other services which can be brought directly to customers using driverless JéGO pods. To be released in late 2022, the firm was founded by Frederick Akphoghene, a Nigerian immigrant who started his career in tech at just 16-years-old, eventually building and partnering
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,
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 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
Casava, the self-described “Nigeria’s first 100% digital insurance company”, has raised a $4 million pre-seed round. It was first founded by Bode Pedro. Before starting Casava, Pedro ran VisaCover, an insurance brokerage company, in 2014. The idea for Casava came while VisaCover provided an alternative in the auto insurance market by allowing drivers of Uber, which was one of its partners, to make weekly insurance payments instead of quarterly or yearly payments insurance partners before it operated, according to TechCrunch. He left the VisaCover company in 2016 and Pedro brought on Olusegun
Bamboo, an investment platform that allows Nigerians to buy and trade US stocks in real-time from their mobile phones or computers, has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round. Launched in January 2020 by CEO Richmond Bassey and COO Yanmo Omorogbe, the start-up has rapidly grown in popularity with retail investors, claiming over 300,000 accounts in Nigeria. Its users can access all equities available on the US stock exchanges, that is, the stocks of roughly 6,000 companies. Last year, the company launched Powered by Bamboo, it’s API solution that allows asset managers, fintech
The cohort includes 35 US creators who will get funding, training, and other resources through the program. The fund provides one year of support, including seed funding for channels, development programs, workshops, and networking opportunities. “Black creators have played an important role in shaping the culture on YouTube. From fashion and comedy to politics, learning, and wellness, Black creators have propelled our platform forward,” the company said in the announcement. A total of 26 African YouTube creators, including 10 Nigerian creators, were also picked. They were chosen to join a
