The Latest from Tage Kene-Okafor
Cameroon’s Ejara raises $2M to offer crypto and investment services in Francophone Africa
The adoption of cryptocurrency in Africa varies regionally. While countries with currently unstable currencies like the naira are seeing immense usage, other regions using the CFA franc have sparse ad
Backed by Greycroft, Klasha gets $2.4M to improve cross-border commerce in Africa
Analysts say the value of e-commerce in Africa is expected to reach $29 billion next year, yet Africans still find it difficult to make international payments for products online. Cards, M-Pesa, bank
Google sets up $50M fund to invest in African startups
Google plans to invest up to $50 million in African early- and growth-stage startups via its Africa Investment Fund, ramping up efforts to support more businesses on the continent. Google made known i
Goldman Sachs spinoff Juven to back African high-growth companies with large checks
Mauritius and U.K.-based investment company Juven went live today with plans to fund growth-stage technology and consumer companies in Africa. The one-year-old firm is looking to invest large checks i
Chari, a Moroccan startup digitizing mom and pop stores, raises $5M at $70M valuation
If there’s a sector that has seen the biggest uptick in the number of startups and venture capital in emerging markets since the start of last year, it has to be the digitization of mom and pop
YC-backed Amenli raises $2.3M to provide insurance to Egyptian consumers
The average penetration rate for insurance in Africa is between 3% to 5%. South Africa makes up a large bulk of it; without it, the continent is on a 1% to 2% rate even with other developed technology
Twitter ban in Nigeria to be lifted if platform sets up a local office and pays taxes, president says
Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari announced on Friday that the current ban on Twitter would be lifted, but only if the social media giant met certain conditions. The president disclosed this during h
Verto picks up $10M for cross-border payments play in emerging markets
Verto, a global B2B payments platform that allows small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to make payments to their suppliers, today announced that it has closed $10 million in Series A funding. Quo
Facebook-backed 2Africa set to be the longest subsea cable upon completion
Facebook announced on Tuesday that its 2Africa cable would now extend to over 45,000 kilometers with the addition of nine landings collectively dubbed the 2Africa Pearls. The subsea cable will directl
SoftBank sinks $200M into Andela, propels company into unicorn territory
CEO Jeremy Johnson sees more competition coming into the global tech talent hiring space as he saw the number of Andela applicants increase 5x in the past six months.
Do you need another app to discover beautiful places when you travel?
In the summer of 2019, Timilehin Ajiboye became intrigued with the idea of building a travel app after conversations with a circle of friends. One friend reached out to Ajiboye asking if he knew of a
Flat6Labs closes $10M seed fund for Tunisian startups
Regional seed and early-stage venture capital firm Flat6Labs has finished raising $10 million for its seed fund targeted at Tunisian startups, according to a statement released by the company. The see
Zola Electric closes $90M funding round to scale technology and enter new markets
Millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa and emerging markets continue to live without access to electricity. Some reports peg these numbers between 500 million and 2 billion people despite the preval
Nigerian businesses can now accept Apple Pay on Paystack
Paystack, the African fintech company that powers and processes payments for businesses, today announced that it is launching Pay with Apple Pay on its platform. The company, in a statement, called th
Koa is helping African consumers make better money moves
While Delila Kidanu grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, mobile money platform M-Pesa was the go-to fintech platform for her and most Kenyans. The Safaricom-owned product provides basic access to financial serv
Cartona gets $4.5M pre-Series A to connect retailers with suppliers in Egypt
Today, Cartona is announcing that it has raised a $4.5 million pre-Series A funding round to connect retailers and manufacturers via an application. It’s looking to take a large piece in the bud
African genomics startup 54gene raises $25M to expand precision medicine capabilities
Less than 3% of genetic material used in global pharmaceutical research is from Africa. The staggering gap is quite surprising because Africans and people of African descent are reported to be more ge
Nigerian agritech startup Releaf secures $4.2M to scale its food processing technology
The distance between their farms and the nearest processor is key for smallholder farmers who need to process their crops. And though Nigeria’s food processing systems have a keen resemblance to
Egyptian startup Capiter raises $33M to expand B2B e-commerce platform across MENA
Funding startups that help manufacturers and sellers distribute products and merchants access them on a single platform keeps increasing across Africa. Today, Cairo-based B2B e-commerce startup Capite
Nigerian one-click checkout platform OurPass raises $1M pre-seed, wants to build ‘Fast for Africa’
We like to buy things online ranging from e-commerce stores to subscription-based sites. However, no one enjoys the hassle when you have to always re-log into different sites and stores. I mean, shopp