- Nigerian startup fitted has developed a digital platform that uses machine learning to eliminate inefficiencies in the custom tailoring industry. Founded in 2021 by Ibi Cookey, fitted empowers tailors and retailers with tools that support them in the unique context of fashion, thus creating an…
- South African digital fuel management solutions and telematics startup Payment24 has expanded into new markets in North America and Europe, as well as announcing ongoing product innovation in other areas. Payment24 supports companies with large fleets and has already seen wide adoption of its fuel…
- Disrupt Africa will in July release a three-part podcast series focused on the continent’s accelerator and incubator space, analysing its history, discussing its impact, looking at niches, and examining its future opportunities and challenges. Disrupt Podcast has released a number of focused series…
- Kenyan retail-tech startup Wasoko, which leverages innovative technology to transform the informal retail supply chain, has expanded into Zambia, the company’s first location in Southern Africa. Launched in 2016 as Sokowatch, Wasoko provides free same-day delivery of essential goods and financing…
- Nigeria has a huge percentage of students aspiring to study abroad, but the journey has been challenging for her youths. A report from RED, in partnership with Sussex University, shows that more than 89 percent of Nigerians are willing to study abroad, with their sponsors ready to cater to their…
- Kenyan startup TopUp Mama, which simplifies restaurant procurement processes, has rebranded as Caantin, saying its new brand identity and enhanced platform embodied its dedication to boosting the restaurant industry’s contribution to Africa’s GDP and providing better financing access for…
- Africa Tech Summit (ATS), a leading tech conference series that drives business and investment across the continent, will host the seventh edition of its London event on June 23 at the London Stock Exchange. ATS is a leading African tech conference series providing insight and networking with the…
- Ever wondered what the process is behind raising a venture capital (VC) fund? For the latest episode of Disrupt Podcast’s “The month in VC” series, produced in partnership with Katapult Africa, Kalon Venture Partners, and Hlayisani Capital, we discussed the mechanics of raising a fund, and how GPs…
- Egyptian fintech startup Balad has raised a seven-figure USD pre-seed round of funding to launch its remittances platform, build out its team, and obtain required licenses. Founded in 2022 by Adham Azzam, Sally Asaad and Mohamed Assem, Balad is a remittance-driven financial service provider…
- South African digital student accommodation platform DigsConnect has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Intaba Capital as part of its ongoing Series A round. Launched by Alexandria Procter and Greg Ramsay-Keal in 2018, the DigsConnect platform allows landlords, estate agents and property…
- Nigerian startup Salad has built an employee financial services offering that caters to the financial health of employees in Africa, to enhance their general wellbeing and productivity. Founded in March 2022 by CEO Chikodi Ukaiwe and CTO Seunfunmi Omotunde, Salad launched its MVP into the market in…
- The Nairobi developer community was hosted by BudPay, a leading payment processor this past Saturday. The event was designed to attract developers eager for chances to demonstrate their coding prowess, discover new technologies, and connect with other developers. It was themed themed “FINTECHATHON…
- Nigerian startup Dojah, a leading provider of identity verification solutions for digital businesses onboarding African users, has launched EasyDetect, an advanced fraud detection tool that empowers businesses to identify and prevent fraudulent activities on their platforms. Y Combinator alumni…
- African startups are invited to apply for the GSMA Innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and Adaptation 2.0, which aims to to pilot and scale-up digital technology innovations that make a positive socio-economic and environmental impact in areas with communities most vulnerable to current or…
- South African e-health startup Quro Medical has raised ZAR25 million (US$1.3 million) in funding from the Mineworkers Investment Company (MIC). Founded in 2018, Quro Medical has developed an affordable and accessible hospital-at-home solution that combines state-of-the-art hardware and software…
- Kenyan startup Fingo has partnered Ecobank to launch a new app aimed at powering financial inclusion across Africa. Fingo, which took part in Y Combinator in 2021, empowers Africa’s youth by enabling them to open a bank account via their mobile phone in less than four minutes, send money to other…
- Four African founders were among the 10 from around the world that participated in the just-concluded Westerwelle Young Founders Programme and have now been chosen to pitch at the Young Founder Conference in Berlin. The Westerwelle Foundation for International Understanding supports collaboration…
- Kenyan company Raise, an end-to-end fundraising platform, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Carta, a San Francisco-based company that specialises in capitalisation table management and valuation software. Founded in 2018 by Marvin Coleby and Eugene Mutai, Raise launched its alpha in…
- Egyptian investment platform Exits MENA has obtained the final securities promotion and underwriting license from the Egyptian Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA), enabling it to expand its services and provide further investment channels. Founded in 2022 by Mohamed Aboulnaga, Ahella El Saban and…
- Applications have opened for the African Food Fellowship, which is building a radical movement of leaders in Africa working to transform food systems across the continent. The fellowship, which is initiated by leading institutions Wageningen University and Research and Wasafiri Consulting with…
- The Ivory Coast-based Mon Artisan is a skill-on-demand digital platform for artisans and gig workers in the informal sector, offering a wide range of services, including plumbing, home repairs and maintenance, IT support, and others. Also available in Burkina Faso, Mon Artisan allows customers to…
- Nigeria’s Yuki, which simplifies digital assets for African web2 fintech companies, has partnered neobank Aladdin Digital to take digital assets mainstream in Africa. Yuki is a product of Nigerian investtech startup ComiBlock, which launched in February 2021 as a goal-based investing crypto robo-…
- Disrupt Africa will in June release a three-part podcast series zeroing in on the state of Africa’s agri-tech space, looking at trends, opportunities and challenges within the vital sector. Disrupt Podcast has released a number of focused series in the last year, including ones on venture capital…
- Nigeria’s Towntalk has built a data infrastructure that leverages “hard to collect” location data and implements AI methodologies to develop a range of risk protection solutions for security, logistics and agriculture companies in Africa. Formed in 2020, Towntalk has built a “data ecosystem” that…
- Tunisia-based e-commerce platform Drest has raised US$336,000 from 216 Capital Ventures to fund its expansion into the African market. Founded in 2020 by Omane and Malek Mzabi, Drest specialises in online sales of lifestyle products, selling ready-to-wear to beauty as well as accessories and…
- The Innovation for Ecosystem Restoration Africa 2023 programme, run by Village Capital and supported by Moody’s Corporation, aims to support entrepreneurs promoting ecosystem restoration by addressing deforestation, land degradation, water scarcity, loss of biodiversity, and adverse climate change…
- Startup-focused news and research company Disrupt Africa will this month release the first ever publication focusing on gender equality in the African tech startup landscape, in partnership with Africa-focused pre-seed investment programmes Madica as well as other leading investors and industry…
- Nigeria’s Nestcoin, which builds products aimed at making modern finance borderless and trustless, has announced the launch of Onboard, a digital finance platform aiming to provide modern, world-class digital finance services that connect Africans to the global economy. Nestcoin recognises that…
- Applications have opened for the latest Global Cleantech Innovation Programme in Nigeria, which offers support for individuals who are passionate about clean technologies, tackling climate change and making a positive impact. The Global Cleantech Innovation Programme (GCIP) Nigeria accelerates the…
- Nigerian payments startup Nomba has raised a US$30 million pre-Series B funding round to support the delivery of bespoke payment solutions for African businesses. Founded by Yinka Adewale and Pelumi Aboluwarin in 2017, and formerly known as Kudi, Nomba has evolved over the years into a profitable,…
- South Africa’s Convergence Partners has announced the acquisition of a strategic stake in 42Markets Group, an incubator, investor and builder of high-growth specialist businesses in the financial and capital markets sector. Convergence Partners is a leading private equity investment manager…
- The National Advisory Boards (NABs) for Impact Investing in South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia will host the first Africa Impact Summit in South Africa on July 13-14 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC). Supported by affiliated African task forces, Bertha Centre for Social…
- Kenyan women-only taxi service An Nisa is planning expansion to Saudi Arabia after clocking up 10,000 users in its home market. Founded by Mehnaz Sarwar in 2018, An Nisa Taxi went app-based last year, and has more than 10,000 users. “We have a team of female drivers and we cater for women and…
- Payday, a pan-African neobank issuing global accounts to Africans, has announced its re-entry into Rwanda, following the official launch of SpaceX’s Starlink in the East African country. Launched in June 2021 by Favour Ori, Payday was developed to support African remote workers, freelancers and…
- Investing in Innovation Africa (i3), a pan-African initiative for startups building the future of healthcare supply chains, is calling for leading innovators to join its second cohort. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and sponsored by AmerisourceBergen, Merck Sharpe & Dohme (…
- Nigerian fintech startup Storspay has raised a US$320,000 funding round and been selected to participate in the Techstars NYC accelerator, backed by JP Morgan Accelerator. Storspay has developed a decentralised retail lending infrastructure platform for the internet, connecting retail investors…
- Nigerian fintech startup Touch and Pay (TAP), a leading processor of micro-transactions in Africa, has announced the democratisation of interstate travel from Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos, to other parts of the country. Founded in 2019 by Olamide Afolabi, Michael Oluwole and Kabir Yabo, TAP was…
- Impact Investing Ghana (IIGh) and the Nigeria National Advisory Board for Impact Investing (NABII), together with impact investing taskforces in Burkina Faso and Senegal, have announced the first West Africa Deal Summit and second Ghana Impact Summit, slated for May 16-17. The flagship summit,…
- Capria Ventures, a leading Global South specialist firm investing in early-growth Global South startups, has announced the first close of its US$100 million fund. Capria invests in tech founders with limitless aspirations, connecting them into a uniquely-collaborative network, and activates strong…
- Today, Smile Identity announced that it has acquired Appruve’s parent company (Inclusive Innovations, Inc.) and is actively fulfilling regulatory requirements to finalise the transaction for the affiliated entities in Africa. This strategic acquisition will expand Smile Identity’s footprint across…
- South African startup Maholla, a viral consumer rewards app, has concluded a US$1.5 million seed funding round to help it continue to scale. Maholla is a viral consumer app that rewards users for scanning any receipt from any store, allowing users to earn rewards irrespective of where they shop.…
- Applications have opened for the US$100,000 Africa Food Prize, which recognises an outstanding individual or institution that is leading the effort to change the reality of farming in Africa. The Africa Food Prize celebrates Africans who are taking control of the continent’s agricultural agenda,…
- Nigerian startup Peppa is making it safer to shop online in Africa, with a focus on social buying and selling, via a payment protection scheme that means buyers are protected from fraud and sellers are protected from losses that come from cancelled orders. Founded in September 2021, though…
- South African mobile operator Telkom’s Enterprise and Supplier Development programme, Telkom FutureMakers, has partnered with venture builder firm, Aions Creative Technology to grow local startups. This partnership comes on the back of a competitive pitching process where Aions was awarded ZAR58…
- African startups are invited to apply for the Stanford Seed Transformation Programme, which aims to help established businesses further scale. The Seed Transformation Programme is an unconventional, in-person and online learning experience exclusively for founders and CEOs with annual revenue of…
- There is an argument that any African business is a social impact business, but is that true? And what are the repercussions of being a social venture on the continent? Disrupt Africa has partnered the Jack Ma Foundation’s Africa’s Business Heroes Programme to release a special four-part podcast…
- Cape Town-based startup Stiint-it has launched a platform it says “uberises” the job market by removing potential bias and sharing revenue. Stiint-it is a private labelling recruitment platform that empowers clients, agencies, and candidates to work and earn together. Its skills-matching technology…
- Applications have opened for the Standard Chartered Women in Technology Incubator Kenya, which combines world-class startup support with local and international experience to support female founders and help them grow their businesses. The programme, an initiative of Standard Chartered in…
- Nigerian fintech startup Vittas is a digital lender that utilises machine learning and partnerships in order to provide loans. Founded in July 2019 by Sulav Singh and Collins Uche, with its first loan going out in January 2020, Vittas built an inventory financing solution for Nigerian healthcare…
- The DRC-based Altech Group has raised US$18 million in debt financing and grants to continue strengthening its market position and expand access to energy across the country. Founded in 2013, Altech has created a sales and distribution network with a national footprint, counting 4,500 employees and…