In a rather slow week of fundraising, 5 startups in Africa raised a total of $52m while one startup raised an undisclosed amount. The biggest deal of the week is that of Yellow Card App, a pan-African crypto exchange, who raised $40m in a Series B funding round. The round, led by Polychain Capital, brings Yellow Card to $57M total raised, more than any crypto company on the African continent. Chris Maurice, CEO and co-founder of Yellow Card said the funding will enable the company to drive exponential business growth, continue its successful expansion across the continent, develop new product innovations, and advance strategic partnerships across Africa. Ivory Coast came second place, thanks to Julaya, a B2B digital account provider that raised $5m seed extension to expand its operations in West Africa.
In other news from the ecosystem;
● IC portfolio company, Bamboo, a leading online brokerage firm, has expanded into Ghana through a partnership with 10th Capital Investments, a licensed Ghanaian firm. This makes it the first trans-national west-African brokerage app and Ghanaian users will now be able to buy and invest in stocks from US companies like Apple Inc and Tesla.
● Payment giant Flutterwave, has announced the integration with Google Pay as one of its available payment options, so users of the global payment service can now use it for transactions with merchants on Flutterwave’s stores. This comes shortly after its recent integration of Nigeria’s digital currency, the e-Naira, into its platform, clearly stating that Flutterwave is on a mission to enable swift and variegated payment solutions for its users.
● Chat-commerce leader, Clickatell, has partnered with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to launch a USSD channel for its eNaira Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), eliminating the need for data and making it available on all handsets. This is a part of the country’s drive to make basic banking accessible to all Nigerians, and ultimately driving financial inclusion.
● The Tanzanian government has scrapped its mobile money transfer levy starting October 1, 2022, three months after the government slashed the transfer levy by 43%. Tanzania will also remove the fee for bank transfers and waive the transaction fee on withdrawal of cash through bank agents and ATMs for values not exceeding 30,000 Tanzanian shilling (US$12.81).
● Ibukun Awosika, former chairman of First Bank of Nigeria, has been appointed to Binance’s global board of advisers. Changpeng Zhao, Binance founder and CEO, said the appointment of a Global Advisory Board would help chart the best path forward for web3 crypto.
● Following the review process carried out by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), 10 digital lenders in Kenya have now been officially licensed to operate in the country. The 10 emerged from a pool of 288 lenders who applied for the licensing review while all others have been directed to cease their operations immediately.
● Created by Gwera Kiwana, crypto founder in residence at MFS Africa, and Thea Sokolowski, head of marketing at Stitch; Women Who Build Africa (WWBA), an inclusive community that brings together women and non-binary people working in or around the tech space, has launched operations and begun holding events with chapters across multiple African markets.
