- The Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF) has announced the opening of registration for its annual conference and awards, which will take place in Kigali on November 9-10. AWIEF is an entrepreneurship, innovation and technology platform, which brings together more than 1,300…
- Nigerian fintech startup OnePipe has secured a US$4.8 million credit facility from TLG Capital, which it will use to provide inventory finance to small shops, while at the same laying off an undisclosed number of team members to extend its runway. Launched in August 2019, OnePipe aggregates APIs…
- Nigeria’s HouseAfrica, a prop-tech startup providing real estate digitalisation and transparency tools to property developers and their customers, has raised US$400,000 in funding. Founded in 2019 by Nnamdi Uba and Ndifreke Ikpoku, HouseAfrica aims to enhance the real estate industry’s efficiency…
- South Africa-based payments infrastructure company Stitch has expanded to become an end-to-end payments service provider, off the back of a host of new solutions including pay-ins via card and debit order, and payments orchestration and reconciliation system PayOS. Founded in February 2021, Stitch…
- Africa-focused startup SkyCliQ has launched its waitlist, intending to shake up the cross-border online shopping market with its community based shopping and delivery marketplace. SkyCliQ is disrupting the small parcel delivery segment of the market by enabling the community to participate in the…
- South African startup Bi-me is striving to make business insurance processes easier and smoother via its online platform, which makes insurance instant, easy, transparent and affordable for SMEs. Launched in March 2022, Bi-me – literally “Business Insurance Made Easy” – has developed a platform…
- Kenya-based VC firm Factor[e]Ventures has launched Delta40, a new venture studio that aims to increase incomes and tackle climate change in Africa by building and investing in technology ventures. Factor[e]Ventures invests in and supports early-stage technology companies working in energy,…
- Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing division for the world’s largest e-commerce retailer Amazon, has strengthened its footprint in Africa with a call for applications from early-stage startups to join the inaugural edition of the AWS FinTech Africa Accelerator. The AWS FinTech Africa…
- South African VC firm Kalon Venture Partners, which invests in digital disruptive technologies, is to raise a US$50 million fund which will see it make investments outside of South Africa for the first time. Formed in 2016, Kalon Venture Partners invests in post-revenue start-ups with high growth…
- South African Umbiie has launched a first-of-its-kind skills and experience matching platform for legal professionals globally. Umbiie aims to eliminate costly inefficiencies and deficits in the recruitment process to perfectly align legal professionals with jobs, consultants with projects, and…
- African businesses with innovative solutions that tackle existing challenges in any green sectors are invited to apply for the Greenovations Africa programme, which offers access to mentoring and investment opportunities. Startups in smart agriculture, renewable energy, waste management, water…
- Kenyan startup TIBU Health has raised an undisclosed amount of pre-Series A funding to allow it to strengthen its solutions dedicated to chronic diseases and improve its virtual care platform. Founded in 2018, TIBU Health is an omnichannel tech company that delivers health services where people…
- It is no surprise that Africans tend to be wary of investments, with the history of scams and fraud seeding distrust of financial institutions, a staggering lack of financial education and awareness, and an unstable economy that makes it difficult to prioritise investing. Despite this, the…
- Kenyan B2B e-commerce startup Zumi has closed down after failing to secure the necessary funding to continue operations. Launched in 2016, Zumi began life as a female-focused digital magazine, before closing down and pivoting into e-commerce in 2020. The end-to-end marketplace connected retailers…
- Applications have opened for the African Impact Challenge, which helps participants build market-creating innovations, which tackle the continent’s biggest challenges with technology. Following a 2020 pilot in Ghana, a 2021 challenge in Kenya and a 2022 edition in Rwanda, this year sees the African…
- Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV) has raised US$43 million for its pan-African venture fund, which invests in scalable, tech-enabled, post-revenue startups addressing difficult challenges on the continent. Formed in 2021 as a joint venture between Kepple Africa Ventures (KAV), a Japanese venture…
- Kenyan insurtech startup Turaco has partnered Airtel Money and Prudential in Uganda to launch Hospital Sente, a low-cost hospital cash insurance product with funeral benefits, aimed at increasing access to insurance for underserved communities, and low-income individuals and families. Turaco…
- Female-focused African investment firm ShEquity Partners has opened applications for the fourth edition of its ShEquity Business Accelerator (SHEBA). ShEquity is an investment firm providing smart investments for impactful, innovative, and scalable female-led and owned businesses in Sub-Saharan…
- South African company Fin, which is building Africa’s first credit-led neobank as it bids to accelerate financial inclusion throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, has completed the acquisition of the housing finance provider Thuthukani and integrated it as Fin Home Loans. Launched in mid-2018 by co-…
- Disrupt Africa has released the second episode of Changemakers, a special four-part podcast series produced in partnership with the Jack Ma Foundation’s Africa’s Business Heroes Programme. Applications have just opened for the fifth edition of the Africa’s Business Heroes initiative, a…
- African venture capital talent network Dream VC has opened applications for the 2023 cohort of its flagship VC accelerator programme, which helps current and aspiring investors to break into the African venture space. Founded in 2021, Dream VC has trained more than 80 African and Africa-focused…
- Nigerian startup SEND is a digital freight forwarder and customs broker with a vision of boosting Africa’s trade logistics and enabling intra-African and intercontinental trade. Founded in 2019, SEND provides software that helps businesses manage their entire supply chain, including customs…
- Moroccan startup Chari, which focuses on the digital distribution of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs), has launched a new chain of B2B stores to meet the needs of local grocery stores. Founded in 2020 by husband and wife team Ismael and Sophia Belkhayat, Chari allows traditional proximity store…
- Applications are now open for the 13th Orange Social Venture Prize in Africa and the Middle East, which aims to contribute to socio-economic development, support social and environmental innovation, and encourage entrepreneurship. Since 2011, the prize has been awarded to innovative projects by…
- When Mohamed Badr conceived of the idea for a mobile app that allows businesses and individuals to connect with transportation for items such as furniture, he wanted to launch it in his home country of Egypt. “Due to the economic conditions in Egypt, such as inflation and the low local currency, in…
- South African agri-tech startup swiftVEE has launched a new app – PrysWys – aimed at reducing input costs for farmers. swiftVee is an online livestock trading platform, and PrysWys leverages off its established customer base of approximately 100,000 commercial farmers. The app offers users a…
- German non-profit Impacc gGmbH, which supports local, green companies in Africa, has announced a call for application for its third venture cohort of investment in innovative entrepreneurs in Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania, which will get a smart equity investment to scale their businesses. Impacc…
- Egypt’s almentor, the leading online video learning platform in Arabic, has raised a US$10 million pre-Series C round of funding to accelerate its growth towards its goal of serving 10 million learners in the MENA region. Founded in 2016, almentor has worked with more than 950 prominent experts to…
- Social commerce has taken the African commercial landscape by storm recently, offering an easy and accessible way for consumers to purchase goods and services through social media platforms. One company at the frontlines of this is Peppa. Peppa is a social commerce platform making buying and…
- Nigerian startup Pocketfood has launched a “digital cafeteria” that offers corporate businesses and busy professionals individualised food selections. Founded in August, Pocketfood is a “kitchen as a service” tool that offers AI-supported, user-specific healthy meals made by ghost kitchens and…
- The Green Entrepreneurship Team at adelphi is now accepting applications for the Green Entrepreneurship Awards 2023. A collaboration between SEED and the Circular Economy Catalyst, this year’s awards is broken into two – the Climate Adaptation Awards by SEED, focusing on Botswana, Malawi, and…
- Nigeria’s Jand2Gidi is helping to take the guesswork out of logistics for global brands who wish to deliver lifestyle goods to Africa through the use of shipping APIs that power hassle-free, trackable and affordable importation and last mile delivery services. Having offered importation and last…
- Cameroonian startup Prepdia, which is helping learners improve their outcomes by reliably connecting them with professional tutors for in-person and online lessons, has expanded to Gabon after seeing impressive growth in its home market. Founded in 2019, Prepdia helps users quickly and efficiently…
- Nigerian fintech startup Pandascrow has launched a payments solutions platform built on escrow technology to help African businesses from new startups to market leaders in the commerce industry and beyond – grow. Pandascrow was born out of painful experiences of CEO Precious Tom and then several…
- MENA-focused seed investor Flat6Labs has announced the launch of a new US$95 million fund to nurture the growth and development of early-stage tech startups on the African continent. Flat6Labs is the MENA region’s leading seed and early stage venture capital firm, running a host of startup…
- The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)-based energy company Nuru is on track to build 13.7MWp of isolated solar-hybrid grids by mid-2024 after securing an initial US$1.5 million from investors in a convertible note round ahead of the close of its Series B funding round. Founded in 2020, Nuru…
- Tanzanian music streaming startup Jibu has launched a differentiated offering it claims gives a larger chunk of revenues to independent artists as opposed to labels and distributors. Launched in December of last year by Godfrey Kilimwomeshi, Jibu Music aims to provide independent music artists and…
- South African company Naspers has closed its locally-focused venture capital fund Naspers Foundry, citing the “global investment environment” as the reason. Naspers announced the launch of its ZAR1.4 billion (then worth US$96 million, now US$76.8 million) Foundry fund, an investment vehicle aiming…
- Fifteen startups from across the continent have been selected for the inaugural Google for Startups Accelerator: Women Founders Africa Programme. An extension of the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa programme established in 2017, the female-focused accelerator aims to empower and support…
- South African ed-tech incubator Injini has partnered the Mastercard Foundation to launch the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship Programme, which offers selected companies access to funding and other types of support. Founded in 2017, Injini, which is a member of the UVU Africa Group, is a…
- The Zimbabwe-based E-Livestock Global, which uses hardware and software to generate vital data on the lives of livestock, plans to move into a host of new markets in the coming months and years off the back of swift uptake. Founded in 2019 Chris Light and Max Makuvise along with founding board…
- Nigerian startup Ruubby has launched a platform that actively encourages users to build their credit scores while shopping for their favourite items online. More than 85 per cent of Africans do not have access to credit or other financial products, largely because banks and financial institutions…
- UCT GSB Solution Space and ayoba have opened applications for the latest edition of the e-Track programme, aimed at supporting startups from across the continent. Run by UCT GSB Solution Space – a specialised centre of the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business – the e-Track…
- Husband and wife John and Natalie White are co-founders of Birda, an app they say will revolutionise birdwatching across South Africa. John hails from Durban in the garden province of KwaZulu-Natal, the son of a British father and Afrikaans mother, and has spent a childhood and more in the bush.…
- South African startup Gradlinc has launched a bespoke career development platform that provides a national database to connect graduates and employers. Developed by the Innovation and Commercialisation unit at Stellenbosch University, and launched in October 2022, Gradlinc offers various…
- The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL) has opened applications for its latest Innovating Justice Challenge, seeking innovations with a focus on preventing or resolving a justice problem for many people, including small and medium sized businesses. HiiL is seeking justice innovators from…
- The Rwanda-based Katapult Africa is setting up accelerators and investment vehicles for startups within the climate and food-tech sectors in Africa, a novel approach, but one its country director Philip Gasaatura believes will pay off from both impact and profit perspectives. Gasaatura was speaking…
- Impact Investing Ghana (IIGh) has begun the operational setup of its Ci-Gaba fund of funds, which seeks to unlock US$75 million in local and international funding for local capital providers, who are investing in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs…
- The SAB Foundation has opened applications for the 13th annual Social Innovation Awards and the eighth annual Disability Empowerment Awards, with prizes ranging from ZAR200,000 (US$11,000) and ZAR1.3 million (US$71,000). The awards aim to support South African entrepreneurs and social enterprises…
- Startup-focused news and research company Disrupt Africa will next month release the first ever publication focusing on gender equality in the African tech startup landscape, in partnership with leading investors and industry stakeholders. Since launching its research arm in 2016, Disrupt Africa…