Africa’s first metaverse, Africarare, has been commissioned and officially opened to the world. The project is expected to unlock African creativity and connect Africa to the global digital economy. Plans were forged at a recent event in Johannesburg for the commercialisation of the 3D virtual reality experience, that is set…
Author: Oluwasegun Olukotun
The African Development Bank and African Guarantee Fund have signed a $110 Million Agreement with Tanzania’s CRDB Bank to boost access to finance by women’s SMEs. The financial injection will include a $60 million financial package comprising $50 million in subordinated debt to support CRDB Bank’s regional expansion efforts and…
Senegalese and American Fintech, Outsource Monetic, has announced the close of a pre-seed fundraising round with 500 Global, a startup accelerator company based in San Francisco, USA. The fintech also announced the launch of the pilot phase of its private ATM network branded KaliSpot in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire. The…
Nigerian NFT marketplace and super dApp platform under the Krosscoin Ecosystem, Hashgreed, has secured $1 million in funding. The funding will be deployed to drive the startup’s expansion to other African countries. Hashgreed also said that the funding will enable the parent company of Krosscoin Ecosystem, Vinekross Technology Limited to…
UK-based fintech, Paysend has partnered with Damane Cash, a payments institution and subsidiary of Bank of Africa, to enable money transfers to Morocco. Damane Cash, one of the main Pan African financial groups has its presence registered established in 32 countries. Since 2007, Damane Cash has been operating as a…
Manufacturer and provider of clean-energy products, d.light, has secured a $50 million investment from a consortium of lenders with a focus on the renewable energy space including SunFunder and TDB (Trade and Development Bank) as Co-arrangers and FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank. The investment is structured as a balance…
Digital payment solutions provider Network International in its bid to drive financial inclusion in Africa has teamed up with Infobip to bring WhatsApp for Business banking to financial institutions across the continent. Besides helping financial institutions connect with customers through a familiar and reliable channel, the partnership will enable them…
Intel and Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company, MediaTek today sealed a partnership to manufacture chips deploying Intel’s Foundry Services’ (IFS) advanced process technologies. The agreement will see MediaTek equipped enough to build a more balanced, resilient supply chain through the addition of a new foundry partner with significant capacity in the…
The International Finance Corporation (IFC)’s financing in Africa has hit a record $9.4 billion in investments between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2022 across 36 countries, the largest ever annual commitment for the continent. The investments include $3 billion in trade financing that is unlocking intra-Africa trade for thousands…
Orange Group is planning an expansion into the Nigerian market in diversified areas including mobile, data, fixed and financial technology support services. A six-man team of Orange Middle East and Africa led by Mrs. Victoria Adefala met with the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta,…
Egypt-based B2B e-commerce platform Cartona, has secured $12 million in a Seies A funding round by Silicon Badia, with the participation of the SANAD Fund for MSME, Arab Bank Accelerator and Sunny Side Ventures, alongside existing investors, Global Ventures and Kepple. Founded in 2019, Cartona is digitising the traditional trade…
African mobility fintech and Uber’s largest vehicle supply partner in EMEA, Moove, has expanded its operations into India as part of its global expansion. Moove, which provides revenue-based financing to mobility entrepreneurs, has expanded from its African roots to Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bangalore to provide accessible vehicle financing to driver…
South African HR tech company, SmartWage has appointed Thamsanqa Moyo as its new Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Smartwage helps employers deliver paperless payslips to their employees via WhatsApp. Thamsanqa Moyo, a former CTO of Pan-African agency, WPP Scangroup, and Managing Director – Consulting at Wunderman Thompson South Africa, steps into…
Crypto exchange platform, KuCoin has secured $10 million from Susquehanna International Group (SIG), one of the largest quantitative trading firms. Besides the funding, the two will team up in blockchain startup incubation and KCS & KCC ecosystem building. SIG is a global quantitative trading firm founded with an entrepreneurial mindset…
Netflix has acquired Logic, an Australian animation studio Animal Logic. The acquisition will enable Netflix to build on its animated film track record. The video streaming platform has credits for producing animated films like Academy Award-nominated Over the Moon, Academy Award-nominated Klaus and the recently released The Sea Beast. For…
Shopify is teaming up with YouTube to give merchants and creators a solid new way to connect to consumers, build their businesses, and share their stories. With the launch of YouTube Shopping on Shopify, merchants can easily integrate their online store with one of the world’s biggest entertainment platforms—reaching over…
Technology company, Bolt Global, which builds Web3-enabled platforms and services for the next generation of the internet and Binance, the world’s leading digital asset exchange, have partnered to offer over 90 million Binance users in over 150 countries access to Bolt+ , a new live entertainment and social experience, powered…
Africa’s multi-asset investment platform AfricInvest and global venture capital firm Cathay Innovation, have completed the final close of their joint Pan-African Venture fund, Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund [CAIF], at €110M. The fund is backed by LPs such as EIB, AfricaGrow, FMO, Bpifrance, Triodos Investment Management, Proparco, SIFEM, BIO and, among…
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has teamed up with Orange Bank Africa to boost the growth of digital finance services in West Africa by enabling agents and merchants operating in the mobile money ecosystem to have more access to finance. As part of the partnership, IFC will take an advisory…
Payment company, Sendsprint Technology in partnership with Africa’s payment technology Flutterwave has launched Sendsprint in the UK to enable African Diaspora to send money to their loved ones in Africa. The new product connects the African Diaspora to their loved ones at home through Sendsprint, its money transfer offering and…