Seedstars has backed Morocco’s solar irrigation company, Jordan’s water-monitoring startup and Uganda’s food-preservation business for cash prizes as 22 ventures advance through SANAD ElevateHer. Three startups developing technologies for water conservation, smallholder irrigation and food preservat
Kuunda, a digital lending infrastructure company expanding access to credit across Africa, has raised $5 million led by E4E Africa with participation from existing investors Accion Ventures, Portugal Gateway Fund, and Seedstars Africa Ventures, as it prepares to expand into seven additional markets.
Transify, a Uganda-built financial governance startup targets SMEs, NGOs and schools with software that connects transactions to approvals, policies and audit trails. Jay Egonda founded Transify around a question that many organisations struggle to answer: can they trace not just where their money w
After nearly a decade away, Amr El Fangary has revived WonderBooks, a digital reading platform that now offers more than 2,000 illustrated books across 12 libraries and a dozen languages. The solo founder says advances in artificial intelligence have made it possible to build what would previously h
MAM Telecom Ltd., a Uganda-based financial infrastructure company, has secured a $250,000 grant from an anonymous South African businessman to develop technology aimed at addressing liquidity and settlement challenges in East Africa’s mobile-money and digital-payments markets. The funding will help
M-KOPA, the UK and Kenyan pay-as-you-go fintech, has reached US$600 million in annual revenue and acquired Finnish software company KilpiTek Oy in a transaction valued at approximately US$8 million, as the company marks 15 years since its founding. The KilpiTek deal included approximately US$2.67 mi
The College Date, a Nigerian student-focused social platform, has reached approximately 1,010 registered users as it looks to raise $250,000 in pre-seed funding to accelerate growth across university campuses. Founded by Godswill Godlife Onah, the platform combines dating, social discovery, messagin
Tanzania’s East Africa Foods has raised $40 million to expand its agricultural supply chain into Kenya, targeting 100,000 smallholder farmers as Kenya’s once high-profile food distribution startup Twiga Foods enters administration after years of financial and operational difficulties. The financing
Facing a backlog at the American Embassy in Lagos that threatened to run out of time for their interview window, Ayorinde and his team scrambled for help. Investor Kola Aina of Ventures Platform, which had backed the startup, intervened, according to Ayorinde, reaching out to contacts who could help
Tavus says nearly half the people who video-called its new Griffin model came away believing they'd spoken to a real person, and that it can clone a voice from 10 seconds of audio. It's time to agree a safe word with your family.
Egyptian fintech unicorn MNT-Halan has successfully completed three securitisation issuances with a combined value exceeding EGP4 billion (US$76.5 million) for its two subsidiaries, Halan Consumer Finance and Tasaheel for Finance. Founded in 2018, MNT-Halan was created to digitally bank the unbanked
Egyptian fintech MNT-Halan has reached a $1.4 billion valuation after completing the first closing of a new investment round led by Al Ahly Capital, the investment arm of the National Bank of Egypt. The companies did not disclose the amount invested. A second closing is expected as part of the ongoi
Unilever has invested about $540,000 (KES 70 million) in an 800-kilowatt solar installation at its Nairobi factory, targeting annual energy savings of about $230,000 (KES 30 million) as manufacturers in Kenya seek to contain electricity costs, BusinessTech Kenya reports. The solar system, which beca
The Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) has approved Cable Experts Limited’s acquisition of a 68.37 percent controlling stake in East African Cables Plc, clearing a key regulatory hurdle in a transaction aimed at reviving the troubled cable manufacturer. The approval was published in the Kenya Gaze
Kenyan fintech Cloud9 has raised $1 million in total funding, after securing a $500,000 equity investment from New York-based crypto accelerator and founder community Alliance. The Alliance investment represents half of Cloud9’s total funding to date. The remaining $500,000 was raised from Techstars
