Author: Tapiwa Matthew Mutisi

Sahel Capital, through its Social Enterprise Fund for Agriculture in Africa (SEFAA), has approved an additional $800,000 financing facility for MM LEKKER, building on an earlier $400,000 working capital loan provided earlier this year. This new injection of capital underscores SEFAA’s commitment to strengthening agricultural value chains and supporting smallholder…

SPAR Group has reported a significant loss of over R5 billion for the financial year ended 26 September, driven primarily by the sale and strategic exit of its Swiss and English operations, despite encouraging performance in its South African business. SPAR posted a profit of R1.1 billion from continuing operations,…

Capitec, one of South Africa’s leading retail banks, has announced plans to acquire fintech innovator Walletdoc Holdings in a transaction valued at R400 million. The acquisition underscores Capitec’s strategic push to strengthen its position in the fast-growing digital payments and business banking space. The deal comprises a purchase price of…

Appian Capital Advisory, a global private equity firm specializing in natural resources, has successfully structured a $150 million financing package for Atlantic Group to support its acquisition of the Tongon gold mine in Côte d’Ivoire from Barrick Gold. The transaction values the Tongon mine at up to $305 million, inclusive…

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has announced a strategic partnership with Carrefour Medical, a leading Senegalese healthcare supplier and part of the Cosemad Group. This collaboration aims to strengthen local healthcare infrastructure and improve access to essential medical services across Senegal and West Africa. Under the agreement, IFC will provide…

AfricInvest Europe has announced a strategic investment in Tecofi Group, a leading specialist in the design and manufacture of industrial valves, through its Fonds Franco-Africain 2 (FFA II). This investment strengthens Tecofi’s long-standing partnerships with Bpifrance and Garibaldi Participations, while also enabling the company’s management team to increase its ownership…

Five35 Ventures, a pan-African, female-focused, early-stage venture capital firm, has announced that it has secured a significant anchor investment from the Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund, which is managed by MEDA. This strategic partnership marks a major milestone in Five35’s mission to empower women entrepreneurs across the continent. Currently, Five35…

Apple is on track to ship more smartphones than Samsung in 2025, marking its first lead in global shipments since 2011, according to a report by Counterpoint Research. Counterpoint estimates Apple will ship approximately 243 million iPhones this year, compared to 235 million units from Samsung. This would give Apple…

South African DStv subscribers are set to enjoy a wave of benefits, including free package upgrades, expanded streaming limits, cheaper decoders, and more content options, thanks to MultiChoice’s new Thol-iUpsize promotion. The promotion automatically upgrades active decoder subscribers to a higher package at no additional cost: This applies to existing…

The Tyme Group, owner of TymeBank, South Africa’s first profitable digital bank, has announced a new multi-year, multi-market partnership with Visa aimed at accelerating financial inclusion and digital payment innovation in South Africa, Southeast Asia, and beyond. TymeBank, launched in February 2019, has grown into South Africa’s third-largest bank by…

Cell C officially listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) on Thursday, concluding a multi-year restructuring that transformed the business and steered it away from near collapse. The shares began trading under the ticker “CCD” at R26.50, giving the mobile operator a market capitalization of approximately R9 billion. The stock…

FSD Africa has announced the creation of the Inclusive Insurtech Investment Fund (3iF), a pan-African venture capital initiative worth $25–30 million. The fund aims to accelerate insurance innovation and close the continent’s significant protection gap by supporting early-stage insurtech startups. Insurance penetration in Africa remains among the lowest globally, driven…

South African private equity firm Summit Africa has secured a significant investment commitment from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), marking a major milestone for its second private equity fund, Summit Private Equity Fund II (SPEF II). IFC has committed $20 million to the fund and approved an additional $5 million…

French development finance institution Proparco has finalized an investment in BasiGo, a Nairobi-based e-mobility start-up that is transforming public transportation in Kenya and Rwanda through electric bus solutions. BasiGo currently operates a fleet of 100 electric buses across the two countries. The company not only assembles electric buses locally but…

Incoming TymeBank CEO Cheslyn Jacobs has announced that the bank now serves 12 million customers, a milestone that positions it alongside South Africa’s largest banking institutions and underscores the rapid rise of digital banking in the country. This achievement comes amid intensifying competition in South Africa’s financial sector, historically dominated…

AXIAN, a pan-African infrastructure and services group active across five sectors including telecom and digital finance, has announced the rebranding of its fintech cluster from Axian Open Innovation & Fintech to AXIAN Digibank & Fintech. This marks a strategic evolution from a mobile-money operator into a comprehensive digital banking ecosystem…

OceanHub Africa, a leading accelerator dedicated to ocean sustainability, has opened applications for the seventh edition of its 12-month program, which will support up to 24 of Africa’s most promising for-profit impact startups focused on preserving and restoring ocean health. The cohort will be split across two intakes in March…

Google’s long-rumored plan to merge the best of Android and ChromeOS into a single operating system is coming into sharper focus, thanks to a recently discovered job listing for a Product Manager role. The listing refers to the project as “Aluminium OS”—or ALOS—and describes it as “a new operating system…

Microsoft has announced that its Copilot AI chatbot will no longer be available on WhatsApp after January 15, 2026. After this date, users will need to switch to Microsoft’s Copilot mobile apps or access the chatbot via the web to continue using the service. The decision follows WhatsApp’s recent policy…

OpenAI has announced a major update to ChatGPT’s Voice mode, changing how users interact with the feature on both the web and the mobile app. The new experience allows users to engage in voice conversations directly within their ongoing chat, rather than switching to a separate interface. With this update,…