Startups in Africa raised a total of at least $124.7m across 6 deals, one of them with an undisclosed amount. An interesting news is that the world’s first mobility fintech company, out of Nigeria has secured $20 million in financing from Absa Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB); just few weeks after the company also secured $20 million from BII, bringing its total funding to-date to over $200 million since its launch in 2020. The startup’s latest funding will be used for its South Africa operations to strengthen its expanding vehicle financing offering to more customers. On the sector vertical, Africa’s first integrated tech company, Cassava technologies received a $50m investment from C5 capital putting SAAS in first place; this is followed closely by cleantech, thanks to Kenya’s CrossBoundary Energy Access who received a $40m investment from Norfund and KLP.
In other news from the ecosystem;
● Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund (CAIF), a Pan-African fund launched via a partnership between AfricInvest and Cathay Innovation, an European-born but global-focused venture capital firm, has achieved a final close of EUR 110 million (USD 112 Mn).
● Kenyan VC firm FrontEnd Ventures, founded by Njeri Muhia and Steven Wamathai, unveils fund to back local founders. The VC has already started issuing its first tickets of up to $100,000 but is keen on making follow-on investments in startups under their portfolio.
● FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank, has pledged a $10 commitment to Algebra’s second fund. Algebra Ventures has already invested in 21 startups through its $54 million inaugural fund.
● One of South Africa’s largest online marketplaces, Gumtree, has been acquired by Impresa Capital, a Durban, South Africa-based firm led by tech businessmen and venture capitalist brothers Sean and Donovan Bergsma, founded in 2002.
● inq., a leading global Edge solutions provider, has announced an agreement with Enea AB to license the Enea Edge Intellectual Property (IP) through a perpetual software development license, technically an acquisition of Enea Edge IP for edge orchestration capability.
● MTN Group is in talks to take over the South African telephony group, Telkom, in a shares or a combination of cash and shares deal. MTN, in their statement, said the discussions are at an early stage, and there is no certainty that the transaction will be consummated.
● South Africa-founded healthtech start-up, Augmental Technologies, is now set to also launch in the United States; after receiving investment from New York-based StartUp Health. Their app Tracto is “a digital companion app” that supports parents with neurodivergent children.
● Applications are open for the latest Westerwelle Young Founders Programme, which offers outstanding young entrepreneurs from developing and emerging countries six months of business mentoring and the chance to participate in the Young Founder Conference in Berlin.
● Three startups have been named winners of the first Kofi Annan Award for Innovation in Africa, and will each receive US$250,000 in grants. The winners are Kenya’s Flare, Nigeria’s Mobicure and Zimbabwe’s Vaxiglobal.
● Digital Square, a PATH-led initiative funded by USAID, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and a consortium of other partners, has announced its first call for digital entrepreneurs based in Africa interested in working in the health sector. The call seeks to connect local solutions to financial assistance, technical resources, and opportunities to scale.
