Mastercard has partnered with Home Remitt to enable migrants living in South Africa to safely and conveniently send money in near real-time to their family and friends back home. This secure and reliable service will offer individuals an opportunity to save on the soaring remittance costs that currently characterise the…
Author: AdeO
Paga, a leading payment, and financial service company, has inked a partnership with LISNR, the global leader in proximity verification, to enable contactless ultrasonic authentication as it expands its recently launched merchant solution, Doroki across Africa. The collaboration between Paga and LISNR is LISNR’s first major partnership within the Fintech space in…
The logistics market in Nigeria is entirely focused on delivery services. But there is more to the industry than delivery that has a market valuation of over ₦250 billion. In line with this, a vital slice of the logistics sector that is yet to be fully tapped is running errands…
“Gucci bags 80% off!” screams the email that lands in your inbox on Black Friday. It seems like an impossibly large discount, but you open the email anyway – just to check if it seems legitimate. And it does – it’s professionally compiled, there are no spelling errors, and the…
The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) has selected 4,949 entrepreneurs from across Africa for its 2021 Entrepreneurship Programme. The 2021 beneficiaries were selected from a pool of over 400,000 applications, based on their innovation, performance, and growth potential to create jobs and eradicate poverty on the continent. Consisting of both new…
NFTfi, a South African marketplace for non-fungible token (NFT) collateralised loans, has raised a $5 million Series A funding round led by 1kx, an early-stage crypto fund. Additional investors include Sound Ventures, Maven 11, Scalar Capital, Kleiner Perkins, and others. The new Series A funding will allow NFTfi to grow…
International Fraud Awareness Week is taking place from 14-20 November, highlighting an increasing problem that organisations around the world are facing. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), businesses lose around 5% of their annual revenue globally due to fraudulent behaviour, which experts estimate amounts to a total…
TeamApt, the Nigerian fintech startup, is set to become the latest billion-dollar as it is in talks with investors to $150 million. This will take valuation of the firm to over $1 billion. If the startup eventually raises the funding, it will join the likes of Interswitch, Flutterwave, OPay and…
DriveWealth, a pioneer in fractional investing and embedded finance, has announced a partnership with Chipper Cash, the billion-dollar African cross-border payments startup, to allow Ugandans to gain affordable access to investing in U.S. equities for the first time. Approximately 66% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s population did not have access to a bank…
UNICEF and African e-commerce platform Jumia have announced a partnership in support of Giga’s work to connect every school to the Internet and every young person to information, opportunity, and choice. Jumia’s data science capacity will offer Giga insights into the economic benefits of increased connectivity, helping to make the…
Heineken, the Dutch brewery giant, has announced plans to acquire South Africa’s Distell Group Holdings and Namibia Breweries Ltd to establish a Southern Africa drinks group worth 4 billion euros ($4.6 billion). The Distell deal is subject to shareholder approval. The acquisition of Distell would launch the world’s second-largest beer maker’s…
We use Instagram differently. While some use the photo and video sharing app to share their favourite pictures others leverage the platform to promote their business. For the latter, it is a question of whether you are doing it right or wrong. Of course, you must recognise the fact that…
Verdant Capital, a specialist investment bank and investment manager, has closed four private equity-related transactions in South Africa with important fund raisings for Bridge Taxi Finance and Retail Capital, the sale of Nedan Oil and the sale of Baxi to MFS Africa. Verdant Capital has successfully raised approximately USD 20…
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has granted Airtel Mobile Commerce Nigeria Ltd., a subsidiary of Airtel Africa, approval in principle to operate as a superagent. This was disclosed in a notice signed by the Group Company Secretary, Airtel Africa, Simon O’Hara, and posted on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Ltd.…
BlinkApp, an Egyptian mobility risk assessment startup, has raised a six-figure Pre-Seed funding round, led by investors located in UAE and KSA. Founded in 2017 by Mr. Noufal and Prof. El-Mahdy, BlinkApp brought science, technology, and business together to bring a cutting-edge mobile solution to life. Based on artificial intelligent, BlinkApp…
Grindstone Ventures has launched a US $6.5 million venture fund dedicated to seed funding predominantly South African innovative technology startups who have completed or are part, of its Grindstone Accelerator programme. The female-led African venture capital fund will focus on post-seed investments, where there is currently a major gap in…
Ayoba, an instant messaging app powered by MTN, has reached a subscriber base of three million monthly active users in Nigeria. Launched in 2019 and accessible on Android and iOS devices, Ayoba began as an MTN partner instant messaging app and was introduced into the Nigerian market in 2020 to support COVID…
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced that the eNaira transactions hit N46.3 million in the first two weeks of its launch. An unnamed senior official of the CBN informed the Financial Times of London that the value of transactions seen in the first two weeks has proven that…
Ecobank has announced the finalists of the 2021 Ecobank Fintech Challenge. The challenge, in its fourth edition, is designed to help Fintechs with Africa-focused products join forces with the leading pan-African Group to provide Africans with groundbreaking financial services. This year’s final saw five finalists selected from various African countries.…
InfraCo Africa and Helios Investment Partners have established a pan-African investment vehicle: Climate, Energy Access and Resilience (CLEAR). CLEAR will fund climate-aligned infrastructure and growth businesses whilst also working towards the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The initiative will address the growing demand from domestic and international investors for sustainable investment…