TechCrunch

Open banking, in which traditional banks release their data via application programming interfaces (APIs) to enable the development of new financial services for their consumers, has been one of the most significant disruptions in global payments over the past decade. Less than five years ago, this innovation, in which businesses use APIs to access customers’ financial accounts and provide an array of integrated and embedded financial services, took on in Africa.

Enza Capital, a venture capital firm that backs startups “organizing the offline online” and “digitizing key African industries,” has closed $58 million across two funds. In 2019, the company launched an early-stage fund to “find, back, and help build category-defining startups” in the pre-seed and seed stages. The fund is still active and has invested in fintech, logistics, health, human capital and climate tech companies. Enza Capital, which now self-describes as a multi-stage investor due to its larger follow-on investments to Series B, is still focused on these industries in its second fund launched this year.

The payment landscape in Africa is still fragmented, with several payment operators providing different payment options to customers as well as businesses. Due to this fragmentation, payment failures are inevitable due to factors such as invalid cards, inactive accounts and high dispute rates.

Pan-African venture capital firm P1 Ventures has reached the first close of its second fund at $25 million. The venture capital firm secured this capital from some of Africa’s largest industrial conglomerates and private companies, several fund of funds and general partners of global funds based in the U.S. and Europe.

The crypto industry has long been criticized for its disconnection with the real world, but there are players who try to show that the underlying blockchain technology can solve some of our most pressing challenges in today’s society — especially in regions where basic infrastructure is lacking.

FinanceGPT is a generative AI startup built to help companies in their financial analysis tasks. Initially built for startups without in-house finance teams, and VCs looking to run financial health checks for their portfolios in Africa, FinanceGPT (Ipoxcap) says it has over the last two years grown to attract a diverse range of clientele including investment managers and finance officers out to fast-track their fiscal reporting.

In 2020, Kauffman Fellows (KF), a renowned venture education program, embarked on a journey to enhance diversity within its board, emphasizing diversity's importance within its fellowship cohort.

Africa’s agricultural sector has a significant social and economic impact, per McKinsey. The percentage of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa exceeds 60%, while agriculture accounts for approximately 23% of the region’s gross domestic product.

FlexPay Technologies is a Kenyan fintech out to enable consumers to afford products that would have otherwise been out of reach for them. The startup allows customers to shop at partner merchants, reserve products and pay over a period of time, at no added cost. It initially partnered with a Kenyan retailer during launch but scaled in 2020, and has to date grown its merchant network to 600. This number of partner merchants is set to grow further as the startup, which is part of the 2023 Startup Battlefield 200 cohort, widens its “save now, buy later” offerings.

ANKA, an Ivorian SaaS e-commerce platform for African businesses, has raised $5 million. The pre-Series A extension round is a mix of equity and debt; last January, ANKA, formerly Afrikrea, raised $6.2 million. The seven-year-old startup has secured $13.5 million from investors since its inception.

Kenya-based EV startup Roam has introduced a groundbreaking electric shuttle bus model called "Move" as the East African nation accelerates its electric vehicle adoption efforts. Roam's strategic move aims to address the surging demand for EV buses in Kenya, which is driven by rising fuel costs and the growing preference for sustainable transportation options.

Tugende, a venture-backed lender based in Uganda, and Warbler Labs, the company building Goldfinch, a decentralized credit protocol, have agreed on a loan restructuring plan that may lead to the recovery of the $5 million loan that the East African motorcycle taxi financing company defaulted months ago.

Mecho Autotech, a startup offering automotive spare parts, vehicle repairs and maintenance services, has raised a $2.4 million pre-Series A round. The firm targets the Nigerian market, where 90% of the country’s more than 12 million registered cars (mainly used) require regular maintenance to avoid recurring breakdowns.

Nestcoin, a development company housing modern finance project Onboard, has secured $1.9 million in a strategic funding round. Hashed Emergent, a Web2.5 fund for builders from emerging markets, led the round. Alter Global, Magic Fund, CMT Digital, and 4DX Ventures are among the existing investors that took part. Adaverse and Base Ecosystem Fund, two new investors, also participated.

In early 2022, ex-Andela and Flutterwave co-founder Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, in an interview with TechCrunch, discussed a moonshot project he was working on: Talent City, explicitly designed for local and global startups and service businesses looking to scale their operations across Africa without facing the challenges of unstable policies, infrastructural deficits and other business challenges.

Of the many lofty promises of cryptocurrency, one of the most commendable ones is its potential to bring financial inclusion to underserved users. Nairobi-based Kotani Pay is a crypto payments startup with a vision to make cross-border remittances easier for the large underbanked populations in Africa.

Anchor, a Nigerian banking-as-a-service (BaaS) provider, has raised $2.4 million in seed investment. Justin Kan’s Goat Capital led the financing round which also welcomed participation from FoundersX, Rebel Fund and some existing investors, including Y Combinator and Byld Ventures.

Europe-based climate-tech VC Satgana has appointed Anil Maguru, formerly an investment director at the firm, as its newest partner. Satgana, which emerged out of stealth last year, invests in climate startups in Europe and Africa.

African women-founders find it incredibly hard to raise capital from private markets, and even banks, a gap that “gender-lens” funds like Alitheia IDF exist to bridge. Alitheia IDF was co-founded by Tokunboh Ishmael and Polo Leteka in 2015 as a private equity fund to back the often marginalized founders. Through the $100 million Alitheia IDF, currently the biggest “gender-lens” fund in Africa, it backs the often ignored women-led or women-focussed businesses.

Twiga will conduct another round of layoffs to keep its business afloat amid macroeconomic headwinds that have made capital harder to raise, and forced venture-backed companies to scale down their operations. The Kenyan B2B e-commerce platform said it is laying off 283 employees, representing 33% of its 850 workforce as it pushes for a “lean, agile and cost-effective organization.”

Zanifu, a Kenyan fintech providing inventory financing to micro, small and medium-sized businesses, has raised $11.2 million debt-equity funding in a pre-Series A round led by Beyond Capital Ventures and Variant Investments. Founders Factory Africa, AAIC Investment, Google Black Founders Fund, and existing investor Launch Africa also participated in the round. This brings total debt-equity funding raised by the startup to $12.7 million.

In the first quarter of 2023, we reported that Jumia recorded its lowest losses in four years. Its adjusted EBITDA and operating losses dropped to $27 million and $30.9 million, respectively. Those numbers represented a 55% and 57% decrease year-over-year, on track to meet the company’s end-of-year target of $100 million to $120 million in adjusted losses.

Months before Kenya finally banned iris scans by Sam Altman’s crypto startup Worldcoin, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) had ordered its parent company, Tools for Humanity, to stop collecting personal data.

This week, South African early-stage accelerator and investor Founders Factory Africa (FFA) raised $114 million. The firm plans to use the impact capital from Mastercard Foundation and Johnson & Johnson Impact Ventures “to scale its model to better serve founders across the African tech ecosystem.”

Mastercard has agreed to purchase a minority stake in the fintech division of MTN Group, Africa’s largest cellphone provider, which it values at $5.2 billion. The signing of the formal investment agreements will likely occur very soon as both parties near the end of the regular due diligence process; the investment will be closed subject to usual closing conditions, MTN announced in a statement on the company’s half-year financial performance posted on Monday.

Moove, an African mobility fintech that provides vehicle financing to drivers of ride-hailing platforms like Uber and other gig networks, has raised $78 million in new funding. It includes $28 million in equity from new and existing investors led by Mubadala Investment Company, $10 million in venture debt from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, and $38 million in previously undisclosed funds raised during the prior twelve months, Moove said in a statement.

South African growth-stage investor Knife Capital has reached the final close of its $50 million fund. The third fund addresses a critical funding gap in growth stages where local investors have historically fallen short. In a February 2021 interview with managing partner Andrea Bohmert, she noted that Africa had become an incubator for international investors who write growth-stage checks but couldn’t provide necessary local support because of this gap. Furthermore, the scarcity of local VCs in the growth stage has deterred many international investors looking for co-leads from proceeding with an investment.

Sendy, a Kenyan logistics startup that enabled retailers to purchase FMCGs directly from manufacturers, among other services, is shutting down its operations and exploring a sale of its assets, TechCrunch has learned. Meshack Alloys, Sendy co-founder, confirmed the sale to TechCrunch without offering more details, saying: “We are in the middle of an acquisition process. So yes, Sendy is being acquired. We will issue a formal joint statement in two weeks or so time. In the meantime, we are unable to comment on further details at this time.”

Emtech, an African provider of central banking infrastructure, introduced its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Innovation kit last month. The kit caters to fintechs and financial service providers interested in experimenting with solutions and business models based on digital currencies pioneered by central banks.

Kenya was one of the first countries where Worldcoin — the controversial startup that aims to create a new “human identity and financial network” through eye scans and its own cryptocurrency — launched sign-ups and as of this week, it was one of the biggest markets for take-up. Now, Kenya could be one of the first to ban it outright.

Remedial Health, a Nigerian startup digitizing pharmacies and bringing efficiency to the pharmaceutical value chain, has raised $12 million Series A equity-debt funding, to scale operations in the West African country. Fintech VC firm QED Investors co-led the round, banking on embedded financial opportunities like payments, and lending in the pharmaceutical sector. This is QED’s third investment in Africa after its involvement in the Moniepoint (formerly TeamApt), and Flapkap deals last year. Ventures Platform, also co-led the round, which saw the participation of existing investors like Y Combinator, Tencent and Gaingels.

Micro, small, and medium-sized firms (MSMEs) constitute the backbone of the Nigerian economy, accounting for more than 60% of GDP growth and playing a crucial role in job creation. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, there are over 39 million such firms, and 87% operate informally, meaning they primarily receive cash and perform activities on paper.

As one of the well-known data and cloud martech companies in Africa, Terragon, via several products, gives its clients (primarily telecommunications and financial services companies) data on the continent’s growing consumer markets.

FarmWorks, a Kenyan agtech that provides farmers with access to farm inputs, and market for their produce, has raised $4.1 million in a pre-Series A round led by Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund, an existing investor. Livelihood Impact Fund, Vested World, a number of family offices, and angel investors also participated in the round that brought the total equity funding raised by FarmWorks to $5.6 million.

Last year, global healthcare consulting firm Salient Advisory surveyed more than 80 companies across four African countries for a report emphasizing the growth of startups digitizing the continent’s health supply chain and distribution and regulatory frameworks governing e-pharmacy activities.

Plans by Kenya’s Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) to withdraw its second case against African fintech giant Flutterwave have been shot down by the High Court, Kenya’s third highest court. In August last year, the agency had frozen $3 million belonging to Flutterwave, Hupesi Solutions, and Adguru Technology Limited on suspicion of money laundering and fraud. The funds seizure happened two months after the ARA froze another $52.5 million belonging to Flutterwave and six other companies. The ARA filed a suit after each seizure, the first of which was withdrawn formally in March this year.

The public transit sector in Kenya is driving the country’s electric vehicle adoption as global calls for a switch to sustainable transport continue. For the first time last year, commercial electric mass transport buses were deployed to various routes across Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, marking the beginning of the transition from fossil fuel vehicles for some public bus operators. This came after electric motorcycle taxis, locally known as bodaboda, had already made inroads into the popular two-wheel public transport segment.

Africa’s insurance market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7% between 2022 and 2028, reaching $120 billion. Though seemingly impressive, the insurance industry in Africa could be worth more if insurance penetration on the continent wasn’t extremely low, less than 3%, according to reports. As a result, traditional insurers have a finite market to sell their products, which in most cases are subpar compared to global standards.

Kenyan workers who helped remove harmful content on ChatGPT, OpenAI’s smart search engine that generates content based on user prompts, have filed a petition before the country’s lawmakers calling them to launch investigations on Big Tech outsourcing content moderation and AI work in Kenya.

Driving financial inclusion through digital payment methods is among the top priorities for the governments of Africa’s biggest tech ecosystems where cash is still king. Several initiatives launched by these governments have increased the number of banked citizens in their respective countries. In Egypt, for instance, platforms like Fawry and InstaPay — tapped into the apex bank’s policies to reduce cash dependencies — are responsible for the spread of e-wallets and cards in the North African country where 64% of Egyptians increased their adoption of digital payments solutions last year. The number of mobile phone wallets reached 46,500 per 100,000 people, according to a Mastercard report.

African startups clashing with regulators due to non-compliance are often faced with far-reaching consequences, including some that render their businesses defunct or inoperable in some markets – as was experienced by some scale-ups last year.

Besides the billions of dollars from local and foreign investors, a strong factor behind Africa’s growing tech ecosystem is its burgeoning talent. Being sought after locally and internationally, these homegrown talents — including software developers who, according to Google’s Africa Developer Report, grew almost 4% to 716,000, UI/UX designers, engineers and other tech professionals — have given rise to several talent-matching platforms across the continent, including unicorn Andela, GOMYCODE, AltSchool, Decagon among others.

Kenyan e-health startup MyDawa has raised $20 million from private equity investor Alta Semper Capital to expand its regional reach and product offerings with the aim of becoming an all-in-one health platform for users.

Sexual and mental health stigmatization in Africa has evolved over several decades to a point where negligence to address the issue has led to the continent topping the charts in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and mental health cases.

Kenyan fashion e-commerce startup ShopZetu is set to add beauty and home décor categories to its portfolio, in response to the growing needs of the young and style-conscious women in Africa. This is as it currently scales regionally over the next few months while working to attract international fashion brands, and more than triple the number of vendors on its platform to 1,000.

The amount of plastic waste produced globally is on track to triple to over 1,000 million tonnes by 2060. The OECD report predicts that developed countries will continue to produce the most plastic waste per person, although emerging regions like Africa and Asia are expected to experience the fastest growth owing to rapid population growth, and urbanization.

Seedstars Capital and Swiss philanthropic foundation Fondation Botnar have launched Seedstars Youth Wellbeing Ventures, a $20 million investment mandate targeting early-stage startups in Africa that are focused on improving the wellbeing of people below 30 years in low-and-middle-income countries.

Yellow, an asset financier for solar energy and digital devices in Africa has raised $14 million series B funding in a round led by Convergence Partners with participation from the Energy Entrepreneurs Growth Fund, managed by Triple Jump, in addition to follow-on investment from Platform Investment Partners.

Eze, a B2B marketplace that connects global electronic wholesalers allowing them to trade devices in large quantities with real-time market data, has raised $3.7 million in an oversubscribed seed round.

Kenyan automotive marketplace Peach Cars is announcing its $5 million seed round led by Japan-based The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners (UTEC) and other angel investors, including Shintaro Yamada (founder and CEO of Mercari), Peter Kenevan (VP, Head of Japan at PayPal), and Hiroaki Ohta (general partner at Japan’s Waseda University Ventures).

Nigerian communications platform-as-a-service startup Termii has raised $3.65 million in new financing, bringing its total funding to date to slightly more than $5 million. According to CEO Gbolade Emmanuel, in a chat with TechCrunch, the funds are not needed for operational activities but rather to power the company’s expansion initiatives: developing and promoting existing and new products in new markets with a priority to Francophone African countries (starting with the Ivory Coast), and not North Africa as earlier planned.

Haul247, a Nigerian end-to-end logistics platform connecting businesses to haulage and warehousing assets, has raised a $3 million seed round. Gender-lens investing fund Alitheia Capital, through its Umunthu Fund in partnership with Goodwell, provided the equity capital, with Investment One contributing $1 million in debt financing.

Helium Health, the African startup that provides software-as-a-service tools, financing and insights for healthcare providers and public health organizations, has raised $30 million in Series B funding.

A Kenyan court has ruled that Meta is the primary employer of content moderators suing the social media giant and its content review partner in Africa, Sama, for unlawful dismissal. The 184 moderators, in the suit filed in March this year, also alleged that Meta’s new content review partner on the continent, Majorel, had blacklisted them on instruction by Meta.

The YC-backed Kenyan B2B e-commerce startup has had to slow down its growth plans, and downsize amid cash crunch but Mbaabu remains optimistic

Q1 2023 marks the first quarter Jumia’s new management implemented its strategy after riding out the blueprint of previous management in Q4 2022. The result? Jumia saw its losses decrease significantly: adjusted EBITDA loss dropped 51% year-over-year to $27 million, on track to meet the company’s end-of-year target of $100-120 million in adjusted losses. Similarly, operating loss was down 54% from Q1 2022 to $30.9 million per the company’s just-released financials.

The Brazilian fintech EBANX plans to serve nearly a dozen African markets in less than two years

South African digital banking platform TymeBank has raised $77.8 million in a pre-Series C round led by African-focused growth stage fund Norrsken22 and Swiss global impact investment firm Blue Earth Capital. TymeBank expects to close its Series C round later this year, it said in a statement.

The E3 Low Carbon Economy Fund for Africa (E3LCEF), a fund by early-stage VC E3 Capital (formerly Energy Access Ventures), and emerging markets-focused investment bank Lion’s Head Global Partners, has hit the first close at $48.1 million.

Sabi, a Lagos-based B2B e-commerce startup providing digital commerce infrastructure to Africa’s informal economy, has raised $38 million in Series B funding at a valuation of $300 million, according to two people familiar with the matter, signaling revived investor interest in a B2B e-commerce market going through some reckoning.

Amini, a Nairobi-based climate tech startup focused on solving Africa’s environmental data gap through artificial intelligence and satellite technology, has raised $2 million in a pre-seed funding round.

Jia, a blockchain-based fintech providing loans to micro and small businesses in emerging markets, has raised $4.3 million seed funding, and an additional $1 million commitment for on-chain liquidity, in a round led by early-stage backer TCG Crypto, with participation from a number of funds including BlockTower, Hashed Emergent, Saison Capital, and Global Coin Research.

Egyptian fintech Axis has launched its digital payments platform to the North African market after securing a license from the apex bank, Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), for its open-loop mobile wallet, axisPay, which offers a digital banking alternative for small businesses and their employees.

M-KOPA, the asset financing platform that offers underbanked African customers access to “productive assets” and the ability to pay for them via digital micropayments, has secured more than $250 million in new funding.

Figorr (previously Gricd) runs IoT-powered solutions that provide businesses, especially those in healthcare and agriculture, with key data such as location, humidity, and temperature of highly-perishable products, helping entrepreneurs to cut the losses that emerge from lack of such visibility. Figorr’s devices, which are placed/stuck in cold storage setups, come at no cost, but users subscribe to access the collected data.

Meta’s content moderation partner in Africa Sama was earlier today compelled by a Kenyan court to pay April salaries to a section of moderators it had left out. The direction comes days after moderators picketed at Sama headquarters in Kenya demanding April pay.

Kenya is proposing a special tax regime on startups’ Employee Share Ownership Plans (ESOPs), as it aligns to its plan to spur innovation.

Kenya is proposing new taxes targeting the digital economy in a bid to grow domestic revenues and narrow its fiscal deficit in response to the ongoing cash crunch. The East African country plans to charge a 3% tax on the transfer or exchange value of digital assets, while content creators will pay 15% on online earnings up from 5% withholding income tax. If the proposals in the finance bill are ratified, the taxes will take effect in the coming budget year, which begins July 1.

Yesterday, Fingo, a YC-backed Kenyan fintech, launched its neobank, which it developed in collaboration with Pan-African financial institution Ecobank Kenya. The Ecobank subsidiary unveiled the neobank, the first of its kind in the East African country, according to the pair, in an event with the country’s president, William Ruto, in attendance.

Nigerian payment service provider Nomba has raised $30 million in a pre-Series B investment to support the delivery of bespoke payment solutions for African businesses. The round, which values the company at $150 million+ according to YCombinator data on its most valuable companies, was led by San Francisco-based Base 10 Partners.

A Kenyan court has ruled that Meta can be sued in the East African country over alleged unlawful sacking and blacklisting of content moderators, and dismissed the social media giant’s application that sought to have the case thrown out.

After selling their hospitality tech startup, Teranga, in 2018, Senegalese brothers Moustapha and Alioune Ndoye ventured into the trucking business as they pondered their next move. However, it soon became clear to them that fleet management is a major challenge, and one that largely influences the level of profits to be made by truck-owners.

Meta’s main content review partners in Africa have been restrained from offering moderation services to the social media giant, and it is unclear who is currently reviewing its platforms in sub-Saharan Africa. Moderators sift through social media posts on Meta’s platforms to remove content that perpetrates and perpetuates hate, misinformation and violence.

Last month, pan-African venture capital firm Verod-Kepple Africa Partners reached the second close of its first fund (Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures), targeting African startups at $43 million. Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV) achieved its first close last March (at $20 million) and aims to attain its final close by the end of the year at $100 million; if reached, VKAV will join an exiguous number of Africa-focused funds with $100 million or more in total capital allotment.

Verto, a London-based B2B cross-border foreign exchange (FX) and payments enabler for startups and small businesses, said it has acquired a quarter of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) customers from Africa and the MENA region.

Africa contributes less than 3% of the world’s energy-related carbon dioxide emissions but the continent will be one of the most impacted by the adverse effects of climate change. Some explanations for Africa’s vulnerability include poor diffusion of technologies and information relevant to supporting adaptation, usually provided by clean or climate tech companies.

The U.S International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has made equity investment to the tune of $25 million in a new fund by Pan-African venture capital firm Novastar Ventures, to back founders building agriculture and climate solutions.

Impact investor Goodwell Investments and Oxfam Novib, a Dutch foundation and Oxfam International affiliate, have set up Pepea, a €20 million ($21.7 million) fund, to provide financing to early-stage startups in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia. The fund, created with the backing of Oxfam Novib Impact Investments, will provide venture debt with a focus on mezzanine finance, which is a debt that can be turned into equity.

Last July, TechCrunch reported that customers of several fintech apps couldn’t access the virtual dollar card services that these platforms provided. In addition, customers couldn’t create new cards, fund existing ones, or make online and in-store payments and purchases with them.

Payday, a neobank issuing global (USD, EUR & GBP) accounts to Africans, has raised $3 million, money the platform intends to use to fuel its “future of work” initiative through borderless payment alternatives in major currencies.

Fez Delivery, a Lagos-based last-mile logistics startup with hubs across Nigeria, has raised $1 million led by pan-African investor Ventures Platform with participation from Voltron Capital, Acasia Ventures and other angel investors.

Google has taken down hundreds of loan apps from the Play Store in Kenya since its new policy, which requires digital lenders in the East African country to submit proof of license, went into effect in January.

In emerging markets like Africa, offline channels dominate retail sales, which are often driven by informal trade and cash transactions. This makes sourcing data on markets, consumer behavior and products a herculean task. Yet, local and international brands require data about market size and value, consumer profiles and their purchasing power, and penetration of their competitors’ products to establish their presence or expand into such markets.

Social media giant Meta and its Kenya-based content moderation partners, Sama and Majorel, are facing a new lawsuit in Kenya. In a petition filed today, 43 content moderators allege “unlawful termination” by Sama, whose contract with Meta comes to an end this month after shutting down its content review arm in January. They are also contesting alleged discrimination by Meta’s new content moderation partner, Majorel, who they claim has blacklisted all of Sama’s previous employees.

Embedded finance solutions in less developed markers are becoming more prominent as platforms look to provide various financial solutions to the unbanked and underserved. Banking infrastructure providers are mainly responsible for the proliferation of such solutions. They allow businesses such as mobile operators, e-commerce platforms, and logistics companies to embed and enable banking products for their customers.

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) last week sent ripples in startup ecosystems around the world, and it is emerging that millions of dollars held by African startups and venture capital funds at the bank were at stake, until the U.S. Federal Reserve acted to save the day.

Nigerian credit-led digital banking platform FairMoney has acquired PayForce (sub-brand of YC-backed CrowdForce), a merchant payment services that serves small businesses, as the digital lender looks to broaden its financial services proposition to merchants.

Flat6Labs is amongst the most active VCs in Africa, having invested in over a hundred startups to date, across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. And now, after 11 years, the Egypt-based seed-stage accelerator is setting out on a foray into East and West Africa through a $95 million Africa Seed Fund investment vehicle that will mark its first venture outside MENA.

Naspers, Africa’s most valuable tech company by market capitalization, has winded down the operations of its R1.4 billion (≈$100 million) South Africa-focused venture capital fund Naspers Foundry, according to local news outlet BusinessDay.

Africa’s most valuable unicorn Flutterwave is still not off the hook in Kenya. About $3 million of its money that was confiscated in the second government seizure over money laundering and fraud claims remains frozen, in two banks, and 19 mobile money accounts (M-pesa paybill numbers), as the matter is before Kenya’s high court.

The competition regulator in Kenya is probing the conduct of online food and groceries delivery platforms to inform its suggestions on regulatory and policy options, to bolster healthy competition, and enforcement of consumer protection.

Alerzo, a Nigerian B2B e-commerce platform that digitizes commerce and payments processes between FMCG suppliers and informal retailers, has laid off 15% of its full-time workforce, the company confirmed to TechCrunch.

Last month, Flutterwave, Africa’s largest startup by private valuation, was involved in a hack that resulted in over ₦2.9 billion (~$4.2 million) missing from its accounts, according to local tech publication Techpoint Africa.

Several competition watchdogs in Africa plan to collectively interrogate the market conduct of global digital firms, putting big techs like Google and Meta, which have faced investigations and remedial action in other jurisdictions, on alert.

Africa’s largest e-commerce site Jumia has amended its terms and conditions after the regional watchdog, the COMESA (Common Markets for Eastern and Southern Africa) Competition Commission, compelled the marketplace to review clauses and disclaimers it found misleading or false.

Envisionit Deep AI is now on the path to growth backed by a $1.65 million investment from New GX Ventures SA, a joint venture between New GX Capital, RMB Ventures and GIIG Africa. This was after the startup emerged the Southern Africa regional winner at the African Startup Awards.

Planet42, a South Africa-based car subscription company that buys used cars from dealerships and rents to customers via a subscription model, has raised $100 million in equity and debt from a wide range of investors.

The HR payroll market across the world is expected to record a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.2% reaching a $14.31 billion valuation by the close of this decade, buoyed by the increased demand for payroll and other HR solutions.

African cross-border payments platform Chipper Cash conducted a second round of layoffs last Friday just ten weeks after it cut approximately 12.5% of its workforce (affecting its engineering team the most).

Less than a year after launch, Kenyan B2B construction tech startup Jumba has secured clients in major regions of the East African country, a tell-tale of the growth it has experienced over the last 10 months.

Africa’s largest innovation hub Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB), is launching a $15 million accelerator program, dubbed The Edtech Fellowship Program, to back and support 72 startups across Nigeria and Kenya over the next three years, TechCrunch has learned.

Naked Insurance, a South African insurtech company that helps consumers to insure their cars, homes and valuables, has raised $17 million in Series B funding led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Prince Boakye Boampong, the founder and CEO of Dash, which provides an alternative payment network with connected wallets allowing interaction between mobile money and bank accounts in Africa, has allegedly been temporarily suspended pending an investigation into financial impropriety, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.

After working in Africa’s microfinance space for seven years, including at Botswana’s Letshego, Brian Dempsey took a break in 2020 to build Power Financial Wellness, operating out of Kenya.

Terraa, a Moroccan B2B tech-enabled food distribution platform, has raised $1.5 million pre-seed funding in a round led by FoodLabs, a European early-stage VC investor and venture studio for food, sustainability and health. Other participants in the round were UM6P Ventures, Outlierz Ventures, Musha Ventures, and Africa-centric DFS Lab.

Qotto, a solar kits provider with operations in Burkina Faso and Benin, has raised $8 million in a Series A equity-debt round led by the IBL group, a billion-dollar conglomerate headquartered in Mauritius with business interests in a number of sectors including energy, financial services, logistics, distribution and engineering.

The public transport sector in Kenya is largely traditional and a majority of operators, especially those in road travel, still require their clients to physically book tickets at their offices even when making advance travel plans. Others do not have provisions for seat reservation.

Fashion items are among the most — if not the most — sought after on many e-commerce platforms. In Africa, for instance, fashion has held the top spot in Jumia for the largest category of items sold over the years. This means there’s no shortage of demand for fashion items across the continent, and the supply is picking up steam even in the high-end categories.

Without proper government-led public health initiatives, healthcare expenditures, including insurance and pharmaceutical drugs, can burden individuals and households. In recent years, private institutions have played a massive part in the considerable uptake of medical insurance and medicines and also in lowering the costs of getting them across Egypt, the largest producer of pharmaceuticals across the MENA region whose pharma market is set to reach $6 billion in value this year. The Global Ventures–backed Yodawy is one such private player, and the pharmacy benefits manager has raised a $16 million Series B round.

A few years ago, Richard Schrems was working as a human resources consultant in Riyadh, and at one point sought to implement a tech-solution for his clients to help them better their huge teams, but couldn’t find a localized solution.