Author: Staff Writer

Flour Mills announced that it has reached an agreement to buy 71.69% majority shareholding interest in Honeywell Flour Mills Plc (HFMP) based on an enterprise value of NGN80 billion. Flour Mills has also entered into an agreement with the FBN Holdings Group to acquire its 5.06% equity in Honeywell too. This…

Treepz, formerly known as Plentywaka, announced that it has acquired Ugabus, a Ugandan bus company thereby heralding its entrance into East Africa. Founded in 2019 as Plentywaka, the Toronto-based shared mobility company, currently operates in Nigeria and Ghana. Plentywaka changed its name to Treepz in September 2021 in line with…

Global Consumer Goods group, Unilever, announced that it has entered into an agreement to sell its global Tea business, ekaterra, to CVC Capital Partners Fund VIII for €4.5 billion ($5.08 billion) on a cash-free, debt-free basis. CVC Capital beat rival private equity firms Advent and Carlyle to the deal. ekaterra…

Music Streaming business, Spotify, has finally succumbed to wishes of many of its customers with the launch of Lyrics globally. You can now sing along with your favourite artiste because you know the words of the song. Spotify partnered with Musixmatch to bring song lyrics to life through in-app access across…

Online retail giant, Amazon, has announced that it will stop accepting payments from Visa credit cards issued in the UK from January 19th, 2022. This is due to high fees Visa charges for processing credit card transactions. However customers will still be able to use Visa debit cards issued in the UK,…

Nigerian fintech startup, Kippa announced that it has raised $3.2 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Berlin-based VC Target Global. Other VCs that participated in the round include Entrée Capital, Alter Global and Rally Cap Ventures. A host of angel investors were also part of the funding round including Babs…

Paycode, a South African-based fintech startup, has secured an undisclosed investment from Investment One Financial Services Limited (Investment One), one of Nigeria’s leading financial services providers, through its Venture Capital subsidiary, Investment One Vencap Limited. South African-based Paycode is a provider of technology solutions that use biometric digital identity to…

Meta (formerly known as Facebook) has unveiled a pair of haptic gloves that lets people feel objects in the virtual world. The Mark Zuckerberg company is gradually drawing us into the metaverse with the ability to experience it with the sense of touch . The haptic gloves are comfortable and…

Jumia’s Q3 (for the period ended September 30 2021) results show that the eCommerce giant continue to incur losses despite increased revenues. In its financials released yesterday, it highlighted the business accelerating usage growth across its key KPIs – Orders increased by 28% to 8.5 million year-over-year; Annual Active Consumers…

Aura, a South African security and medical marketplace, announced that it has raised $4 million (R62 million) in a Series A funding round led by MultiChoice Group (MCG), KLT Holdings and Buffet Investments. AURA is a marketplace that enables anyone to access the closest vetted private and public security and medical…

Drugstoc, a health tech-enabled procurement startup, announced that it has secured $4.4 million in a Series A funding round to expand across Nigeria. The funding round was led by Africa HealthCare Master Fund (AAIC), with Chicago-based venture firm Vested World, the German Development Bank (DEG) and high-net worth individuals participating.…

Chinese-backed and Africa-focused fintech company, OPay has reportedly appointed ex-FCMB Director, Olu Akanmu as the new president/Co-CEO for its Nigerian division. It was first reported by Nairametrics but has been confirmed from other trustworthy sources, even though the appointment has not been officially announced by the OPay. Before taking up…

365 days ago, the PS5 was launched. To celebrate the anniversary, President & CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Jim Ryan shared a post of the journey in the last year. Two weeks after launch, Sony declared this to be the largest launch in PlayStation history, surpassing PS4’s 2.1 million units in its first two…

MFS Africa announced that it has raised $100 million in a new Series-C funding round co-led by a private equity fund AfricInvest FIVE and existing investors, Goodwell Investments and LUN Partners Group. Other investors that participated in the round include new investors such as CommerzVentures, Allan Gray Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst and Endeavor Harvest and…

Pan African fintech giant, Flutterwave, announced that it has acquired Disha, a Nigerian based company that empowers makers and creators with tools and templates to showcase their work and grow their business without writing code. The acquisition of Disha by Flutterwave will ensure that creators can curate, showcase and receive…

Kenyan edtech startup, Craydel, announced that it has secured $1 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Enza Capital, a Kenyan based Venture Capital firm. Other investors include Future of Learning Fund, a Kenya-based edtech backer; BriteGaze, South Africa’s artificial intelligence fund; and Bisk Ventures and Tekton Ventures, both…

South African fintech, Jumo, announced that it has raised $120 million in a new funding round led by by Fidelity Management & Research Company, with participation from fintech giant Visa and London-based investment management firm Kingsway Capital. With this new funding and past fund raises including $55 million in 2020,…

Uber has launched its delivery service, Uber Connect, in Lagos, Nigeria. It first launched the service globally in April 2020 and in Cairo, Egypt, its first market in Africa, in August 2020. It has successfully rolled out this service in other markets in Sub-Saharan Africa including Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and…

Semicolon, an edtech focused on producing skilled tech people, announced that it has closed $1.2 million in a seed round of funding. The seed funding said to be oversubscribed, had participation from angels and VCs like Launch Africa Ventures and Consonance Investment Managers. Founded in 2019 by Sam Immanuel, a…

While Uber and Lyft dominate the United States, the African ride-sharing market is very different. Uber competes with global competitors like Bolt, inDriver, and most recently, Didi. Africa is home to a unique market, forcing innovations like Uber’s Pool Chance, an in-app ridesharing service that lets riders traveling in the same…