africa

Waza comes out of stealth with $8M to power global trade for African businesses

Fintech /

Emerging economies face trade deficits that cause demand for the dollar, which dominates global trade to exceed supply. This imbalance raises costs and delays trade. In Africa, the problem is exacerbated by the shortage of tech solutions addressing the liquidity needs of large enterprises and multinationals, with many cross-border payment platforms opting to build consumer-facing […]

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African e-commerce company Jumia completes sale of secondary shares at $99.6M

Commerce /

Almost two weeks ago, TechCrunch reported that African e-commerce giant Jumia was planning to sell 20 million American depositary shares (ADSs) and raise over $100 million, given its share price of around $5.70 at the time. The e-tailer has now completed the at-the-market transaction offering of 20,227,736 ADSs. Jumia sold the shares at an average

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Conduit’s cross-border payments expand from LatAm into Africa with $6M round

Fintech /

Cross-border payments for businesses in emerging markets remain significantly untapped, despite small to large businesses using banks and legacy fintechs to transact trillions of dollars in transaction volume annually.  A report by Airwallex forecasts that the value of cross-border payments will grow by 60%, reaching $250 trillion by 2027. Between 2018 and 2022, the value

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Jumia plans to raise more than $100 million in secondary shares to drive stalled user growth  

Commerce /

African e-commerce company Jumia is selling 20 million American depositary shares over the next couple of weeks, TechCrunch has learned. The at-the-market transaction is to take advantage of strong results despite a volatile market.  Given Jumia’s share price of around $5.70 when the stock market opened on Tuesday, the e-commerce company could potentially raise approximately

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Egypt’s Cartona raises $8.1M even as investors pull back from B2B e-commerce in Africa

Commerce /

When Egyptian B2B e-commerce platform Cartona last raised money in 2022, global and local investors were eager to invest in African startups solving the supply chain and operational challenges for retailers and suppliers in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry. Two years on, investors aren’t as enthused anymore as the business models of such startups,

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Egypt’s MNT-Halan banks $157.5M, gobbles up a fintech in Turkey to expand

Fintech /

MNT-Halan, a fintech unicorn out of Egypt, is on a consolidation march. The microfinance and payments startup has raised $157.5 million in funding and is using the money in part to fund the acquisition of another fintech, Tam Finans, to expand into Turkey. Tam Finans provides financing to micro-enterprises and SMEs. It currently operates 39

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Intron Health gets backing for its speech recognition tool that recognizes African accents

Startups /

Voice recognition is getting integrated in nearly all facets of modern living, but there remains a big gap: speakers of minority languages, and those with thick accents or speech disorders like stuttering are typically less able to use speech recognition tools that control applications, transcribe or automate tasks, among other functions. Tobi Olatunji, founder and

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Pesa unlocks new markets to keep remittances flowing to emerging economies

Fintech /

Founders of Pesa, a remittance fintech, know too well how costly, inaccessible and unreliable remittance services drive people to opt for risky informal channels —  like WhatsApp groups  — to transfer money.  Their firsthand experience using informal channels and realizing how prevalent their use was among Africans living in the diaspora after settling in Canada

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Cadana, an emerging markets payroll services provider for global hiring platforms, banks $7.1M seed

Fintech /

The global freelancer market, a $1.3 trillion industry fueled by over 200 million knowledge workers, drives demand for solutions that automate payroll and streamline employment and tax regulations worldwide. However, most existing products fail to address the legal landscape of emerging markets, such as differences in employment laws.  This oversight means global hiring platforms, which

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Paris-based VC Breega hits first close of $75M Africa fund to back pre-seed and seed startups

Venture /

Paris-based VC firm Breega has observed Africa’s tech ecosystem mature over the years. From receiving less than a billion dollars in venture capital per year to a record-high $6 billion, there’s also been an increase in high-growth companies, from one unicorn to seven within the span of three years. Now the VC wants to put

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