- Egypt-based B2B pharma platform i‘SUPPLY has raised a US$1.5 million pre-seed round to expand across the country and elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa. Founded in 2021 by Ibrahim Emam, Malek Sultan and Moustafa Zaki, i‘SUPPLY aims to digitise the pharmaceutical business by providing a one-…
- Egyptian e-health startup Vezeeta has raised an undisclosed amount of growth funding to accelerate its organic growth as well as fund acquisitions and expansions across the Middle East and Africa. Founded in 2012 by Ahmed Badr and Amir Barsoum, Vezeeta is a healthcare app that enables patients to…
- Co-Creation Hub (CcHub), in collaboration with Google, Rwanda’s Ministry of ICT and Innovation, and Mojaloop Foundation, have announced the six startups selected for the second cohort of the Fintech Incubation Programme. The three-month Fintech Incubation Programme is designed to support early-…
- Egyptian delivery management startup Roboost, previously known as Tayar, has secured a six-figure US dollar seed round of funding to help it grow. Founded in 2020, Roboost is an AI-powered automated delivery management solution that digitally mimics real-life operations and handles day-to-day…
- The Alibaba Global Initiatives (AGI), a professional training arm of Alibaba Group, has enrolled the second class of more than 360 African entrepreneurs for its Alibaba Netpreneur Training programme. The Alibaba Netpreneur Training Programme was first introduced in 2019 and has successfully trained…
- Ghanaian logistics startup ShaQ Express has bootstrapped its way to 13,000 customers in its home market, and is now planning further growth at home and abroad. Founded in 2020, ShaQ Express bridges the gap between vendors and customers by providing a platform that allows vendors to sell and…
- South African employee wellness startup Strove has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Japanese VC firm Lifetime Ventures to help it build out its platform. Founded in 2020 by Chris Bruchhausen in partnership with venture builder The Delta, Strove is an activity-based mobile rewards…
- Six African fintech companies have been declared finalists of this year’s Ecobank Fintech Challenge, and will now compete for a top price of US$50,000 and admission to the Ecobank Fintech Challenge Fellowship programme. Ecobank is a leading independent pan-African banking group that serves over 32…
- Egyptian B2B trucking marketplace Trella has secured a further significant debt facility from ALMA Sustainable Finance (ALMA) and the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to support the growth of its operations. Founded in 2018, Trella is a B2B technology platform and trucking…
- Egyptian startup FlapKap, a tech-enabled revenue-based financing platform that aims to revolutionise the e-commerce space, has announced the close of its US$3.6 million seed round. Founded earlier this year by Ahmad Coucha and Khaled Nassef, FlapKap helps online stores to maximise their growth…
- Egyptian beauty services booking platform Glamera has raised a US$1.3 million seed funding round to help it expand operations across the MENA region. Launched in September 2019, Glamera allows users to book appointments with hundreds of contracted providers covering all beauty sections, including…
- Egyptian Internet of Things (IoT) startup CardoO has raised a US$660,000 seed round of funding to help it achieve its goal of becoming the leading Arab brand for premium and price-effective smart devices. CardoO facilitates access to the latest affordable consumer electronics and IoT devices for…
- Egypt’s Partment, a prop-tech startup that offers co-owned second homes, has closed a US$1.5 million pre-seed funding round to enhance the infrastructure of its platform and deploy its MVP. Founded in 2022, Partment offers a hassle-free solution for second home co-ownership. Through a digital…
- Forty-three inclusive African startups have been selected to take part in the Social and Inclusive Business Camp (SIBC), a yearly acceleration programme designed to help the most promising high-impact African entrepreneurs scale up their businesses. The SIBC aims to support entrepreneurs and create…
- Franziska Reh does not have your typical investor background, if there is such a thing. Brought up in Germany, she spent her teens at Greenpeace, before working at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, New York and Russia. “I later moved to strategy consulting, which I’ve done for a few years with a focus…
- Nigerian prop-tech startup Spleet has closed a US$2.6 million seed round to scale its residential rent focused products. Founded by Tola Adesanmi in 2018 from the need to find rentals with flexible payment options in Lagos as opposed to the usual one or two year upfront payment options, Spleet…
- The Baobab Network, a Nairobi-based accelerator that invests in early-stage tech companies across Africa, has announced its latest cohort of four investees, each of which secures US$50,000 in funding. The Baobab Network has been accelerating startups with capacity building and fundraising since…
- South Africa’s Grindstone Accelerator has partnered Naspers Labs to launch GrindstoneX, a new all-female accelerator programme designed to make women-led startups more investible, scalable, and exit-ready. Founded in 2014 and co-owned by Knife Capital and Thinkroom, Grindstone focuses on assisting…
- Nigerian startup OnePort 365 is a digital freight forwarding platform that makes it easier to move cargo to, from and within Africa. Formed in 2019, OnePort 365 has developed a freight forwarding platform that enables traders to efficiently and conveniently move cargo, providing complete…
- Egyptian B2B trucking marketplace Trella has secured a significant debt facility from Contact Financial Holding, the leading Egyptian non-banking financial services company, to expand its business in a number of ways. Founded in 2018, Trella is a B2B technology platform and trucking marketplace…
- Thirty African e-health startups have been selected to take part in the pan-African Investing in Innovation (i3) programme, securing a US$50,000 grant and access to market opportunities to catalyse growth-driven partnerships with donors, industry and institutional stakeholders. Disrupt Africa…
- Cape Town-based digital identity startup iiDENTIFii has raised US$15 million in growth capital to fuel its expansion across Africa. iiDENTIFii has developed advanced face authentication technology that safely authenticates users via their cell phones or PCs within seconds. The startup operates…
- Standard Bank and the SA SME Fund have joined other investors in backing South African venture capital firm Knife Capital’s new US$50 million African Series B expansion fund Knife Fund III, which has reached its second close. Knife Capital is a venture capital and growth equity investment manager…
- Nigerian startup Shoptreo has launched an online B2B marketplace for African informal retailers and vendors who specialise in African-made products. Launched in November 2021 by Emmanuel Jacobs and George Uteh, Shoptreo helps connect African manufacturers, artisans and vendors with the online…
- Women-led and women-focused tech startups have been invited to apply for the eighth edition of the global She Loves Tech competition. Launched in 2015, She Loves Tech is a global platform committed to closing the funding gap for women entrepreneurs. The platform seeks out and accelerates the best…
- For all the talk of major inflows of funding into the African tech space, many startups – whether by accident or design – remain unfunded. And for many, such as Nigeria’s Selar, this does not pose a problem. Founded in 2016, Selar is an e-commerce store builder that enables anyone to monetise their…
- Nigerian cryptocurrency startup Yellow Card has launched a new service called Yellow Pay, which makes money transfers easier but also aims to open up the continent to more investment, access to credit, and business grants. Formed in 2018 and launched in Nigeria in 2019, Yellow Card makes it easy…
- Egyptian startup Bonbell, a mobile app specialised in food ordering and digital solutions for table and meal reservations, has closed an initial funding round worth US$350,000 to help further develop its services and grow its user base. Launched early this year, Bonbell offers a wide range of food…
- The Ethiopia-based Tech African Women (TAW) programme has launched in a bid to provide support and acceleration to women-owned African tech startups, taking businesses from idea stage to operational. TAW is spearheaded by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in partnership with…
- Egyptian startup Convertedin, a marketing operating system for e-commerce brands, has raised a US$3 million seed funding round to help it expand across MENA and Latin America. Convertedin is built for brands and businesses who desire a single platform to drive personalised and scalable campaigns,…
- South African logistics startup Droppa has closed its Series A investment round with logistics giant SkyNet Worldwide Express Holdings increasing its stake in the startup. An on-demand logistics platform founded in 2016, Droppa offers a nationwide suite of delivery options which include road and…
- Moody’s Corporation and Village Capital have launched the second edition of the Future of Work Africa accelerator programme, selecting 45 startups building for-profit, market-based solutions in education and employment that can help young people in sub-Saharan Africa better prepare for the future…
- Crypsense Digital Group, a Kenya-based digital assets capacity building and management platform, has been selected for the Draper VeChain Web 3 Accelerator Programme, giving it access to mentorship and support. Crypsense Digital Group is a brainchild of The Africa Blockchain Centre, one of the…
- Applications have opened for the Chat for Impact Accelerator, which offers social change organisations access to US$500,000 in funding and additional support to scale their impact on WhatsApp. Enterprises focused on social change across the globe are invited to apply for the 2022 edition of the…
- Nigerian fintech startup TeamApt has completed a major round of financing that has seen it bring on board one of the world’s largest fintech specialists – QED Investors. Launched in 2015, TeamApt was formed to solve inefficiencies in Nigeria’s growing digital financial services market, and has a…
- Egypt’s OneOrder, an online one-stop shop that provides food supplies to hotels, restaurants and cafes, has secured a EGP125 million (US$6.5 million) working capital facility from Contact Factoring, a subsidiary of Contact Financial Holding, a leading non-banking financial services company. Founded…
- Nigerian startup Tizeti, solar-based internet and voice service provider, is set to expand its operations within Nigeria and Ghana, and into neighbouring Ivory Coast and Togo, in addition to mulling listing its Nigerian subsidiary. Tizeti, a venture-backed alumnus of the Y Combinator and XL Africa…
- Kenya’s Elloe, a conversational e-commerce startup, has acquired counterpart Flo by Saada for an undisclosed sum to help it scale operations and move into new markets. Founded by Owen Sakawa, Elloe is a first-of-its-kind AI-powered, conversational commerce platform which allows SMEs to buy and sell…
- Amber Group, a leading global digital asset platform, today announced its acquisition of Celera Markets Limited, a fully licensed financial group by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong. The acquisition represents a significant milestone for Amber Group, as it continues to…
- Egyptian fintech startup ADVA has raised an undisclosed six-digit US dollar seed funding round to help it expand its offering. Founded in 2020 by Rania Gaafar, ADVA is a consumer lending platform that allows customers to pay for a wide variety of services and products in installments. The startup…
- Egyptian startup DXwand, an omnichannel conversational AI and digital assistant tool, has closed a pre-Series A funding round of US$1 million to expand across the region and accelerate its AI research. DXwand has built a Conversational AI application that easily helps businesses turn conversations…
- Moroccan retail-tech startup WafR, which helps retail brands to deliver promotions to grocers, has closed a seed round worth US$1.075 million as it bids to expand its operations and grow its team. Founded in 2021, WafR is an app that enables retail brands to broadcast and deliver smart promotions…
- We are excited to announce that we hit yet another milestone this quarter. We have raised a US$330,000 pre-seed fund. The round was backed by Magic Fund, The Oak Capital, Future Africa, Berrywood Capital and other angel investors. It is a thrilling moment for us as this gives us an excellent…
- Applications have opened for the ARM Labs Lagos Techstars accelerator, which will reward selected fintech and prop-tech startups with access to US$120,000 in equity funding and other types of support. Launched by Techstars, a global investment business that provides access to capital, one-on-one…
- Early-stage VC firm Launch Africa Ventures has made its 100th investment, making it probably the most active investor in African tech startups, and closed its first fund at US$36.3 million. Launched in July 2020 by Zachariah George and Janade du Plessis, with chairperson Margaret O’Connor also on…
- Corporate News Announced the partnership with Chelsea Football Club as Official Sleeve Partner, with the logo of WhaleFin to be emblazoned across the kit of both the men’s and women’s teams from the 2022/23 season. Joined the Travel Rule Universal Solution Technology (TRUST) coalition to comply…
- Egyptian on-demand delivery startup Gooo Delivery has closed an undisclosed pre-seed funding round as it looks to expand across the country and the wider Middle East region. Founded in 2020 by Yasser Hassan, Gooo offers point-to-point delivery services through an app that enables users to order…
- The Stellenbosch Network – in partnership with the Sustainability Institute and South Africa’s Department of Science and Innovation’s Regional Innovation Support Programme (RSIP), has announced the launch of its third annual #IdeasForChange Challenge. The Stellenbosch Network is a cross-sector and…
- Startup-focused news and research company Disrupt Africa will next week release its South African Startup Ecosystem Report 2022 in partnership with the SA SME Fund and Nedbank CIB. Since launching its research arm in 2016, Disrupt Africa has built up a significant portfolio of publications, most…
- South Africa-based international calling app Talk360, which enables people around the world to make reliable and affordable calls to any landline or mobile phone worldwide, has secured US$4 million in seed funding as it prepares to launch a new pan-African payment platform in mid-2022. Co-founded…
