Seedstars Africa Ventures gets $30M backing from EIB Global to invest in...
Seedstars Africa Ventures has received a $30 million capital commitment from EIB Global, an arm of the European Investment Bank, which becomes the first major institutional investment for its first...
View ArticleHomegrown African VCs emerge to fill in the gaps foreign investors cannot
The African startup scene is expanding beyond the traditional markets of Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, with accelerated activity now reported in other regions across the continent. As the...
View ArticleAmazon Prime Video is discontinuing support for local originals in Africa and...
Amazon Prime Video is said to be downsizing its Africa and Middle East operations in a move that will affect teams in the two regions; according to a report in Deadline, the company will instead focus...
View ArticleKenyan agtech Shamba Pride raises $3.7M to grow its merchant network
Shamba Pride has since 2016 worked to enhance last-mile distribution for farm inputs and tackle price exploitation and quality issues for farmers through its merchant network dubbed digishops. The...
View ArticleHow African startups raised funding in 2023
After defying the global funding slowdown of 2022, VC investments in African startups dropped considerably last year, mirroring the situation in other regions where capital taps were significantly...
View ArticleSpeedinvest closes fourth fund at $380M to back early-stage startups in Europe
Vienna-based early-stage VC Speedinvest has closed its fourth early-stage fund, Speedinvest 4, at €350 million (around $380 million at today’s exchange rate), surpassing the initial goal of €300...
View ArticleGoogle’s first Africa cloud region now operational
Google has today said its cloud region in South Africa is operational, coming a year after the tech giant picked Johannesburg as its first site in Africa. Cloud regions allow users to deploy cloud...
View ArticleAfrica-focused funds find their feet amid a downturn
In the midst of a funding downtime last year, and with conditions getting tougher for fund managers raising capital as backers (limited partners) enhanced their focus on strategy and track record, some...
View ArticleKenya’s Ilara Health gets $4.2M backing to expand clinic-support services
Ilara Health, a Kenya-based health tech enabling private clinics to access diagnostic devices and pharmaceutical products, has secured $4.2 million debt-equity in a pre-Series A round. The funds will...
View ArticleRoam raises $24M to scale electric vehicle production in Kenya
Roam, an EV startup based in Kenya, has raised $24 million in a Series A round, including up to $10 million debt commitment from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), to scale...
View ArticleBfree, a Nigerian startup enabling lenders to recover debt ethically, gets...
Bfree, a tech-enabled debt collection startup based in Nigeria, was founded to automate and introduce ethical debt recovery processes after its founders witnessed the use and adverse effects of...
View ArticleBRKZ, a construction tech startup eyeing MENA, emerges from stealth with $8M
Saudi Arabia is poised to become one of the largest global construction hubs, owing to its trillion-dollar infrastructure and the real estate projects that are underway in the country. Yet even as the...
View ArticleNala set out to offer remittance services, it’s building a B2B payment...
Payments company Nala pivoted to offer remittance service in 2021, tapping the growing money transfer market in Africa, and demand for reliable and affordable services. Nala founder Benjamin Fernandes...
View ArticleFarm to Feed is cutting food loss and creating data platform to improve...
Globally, a third of the food produced is lost or wasted, and in Kenya, that figure stands between 20% and 40%. For Kenya, unlike the developed world, food loss, not waste, is the greater problem, with...
View ArticleSwiss fintech nsave gets $4M to enable people from unstable economies to open...
Swiss fintech nsave, which is making banking in Switzerland accessible to people in countries with unstable banking sectors or facing high inflation, has raised $4 million seed funding. The round was...
View ArticleClimate tech VC Satgana closes first fund that targets early-stage startups...
Climate tech VC Satgana has reached a final close of its first fund, which aims to back up to 30 early-stage startups in Africa and Europe. The VC firm reached a final close of €8 million ($8.6...
View ArticlePan-African VC Verod-Kepple closes its first fund at $60M
Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV) plans to back up to 21 growth-stage companies across the continent after closing its first fund at $60 million. The pan-African VC hit the milestone following fresh...
View ArticlePula raises $20M Series B to provide agricultural insurance to farmers in...
Pula, an insurtech based in Kenya, has since 2015 been keen on enhancing the access to agricultural insurance by small-holder farmers across emerging markets, shielding them against losses from pests,...
View ArticleB2B marketplace The Folklore bags $3.4M seed to get brands into global stores
Amira Rasool founded The Folklore in 2018 to help fashion brands from emerging markets like Africa, Asia and The Caribbean tap into the international market. In 2022, the startup introduced The...
View ArticleMarketForce winds down its B2B e-commerce arm
Kenyan B2B e-commerce company MarketForce is winding down its B2B e-commerce business that served informal merchants (mom-and-pop stores) after a turbulent two-year period that saw it scale down...
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