👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – A sUber Moove
In partnership with Share this newsletter: Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Good morning Here’s your reminder to move TC Daily to your Primary or Main folder so you don’t miss any edition of the newsletter. In today’s edition Uber leads $100 million Series B round in Moove Brass secures new funding Vodacom announces layoffs in South Africa TikTok has new rewards The World Wide Web3 Opportunities Funding Uber leads $100 million Series B round in Moove Moove is on a fundraising spree. Last month, whispers of a potential $100 million equity investment in Moove from Uber made it into the media. The report by Bloomberg comes after the vehicle financing company raised about $10 million to expand into new Indian markets. Yesterday, the speculation came to a head as Uber confirmed its investment in Moove. The news: Moove has raised $100 million in a Series B round led by Uber, according to reporting from TechCrunch. The new funding round brings Moove’s total fund raised to date to about $460 million—$250 million in equity and $210 million in debt. Mubadala Investment Company, a sovereign wealth fund that also invested in Moove’s Series A round, also participated in the Series B round. Other investors in the round include The Latest Ventures, AfricInvest, Palm Drive Capital, Triatlum Advisors, and Future Africa. Moove, which operates in six countries, will use the new funding to expand to 16 more markets by the end of 2025. Why the Uber Moove? Uber’s investment in Moove might be a plot to secure a reliable stream of drivers for its ride-hailing platform. Ladi Delano, Moove’s CEO, thinks of the investment as a validation of the car financing startup’s business model. Moove, which operates in six countries, says it will use the new funding to expand to 16 more markets by the end of 2025. Experience fast and reliable personal banking with Moniepoint Give it a shot like she did . Click here to experience fast and reliable personal banking with Moniepoint. Fintech Brass secures funding after facing withdrawal delays Brass, a Nigerian business banking startup, had its customers face delayed withdrawals starting in October 2023, which caused frustration and prompted questions about its financial health. In early March, Brass attributed the withdrawal delays to an increase in its number of customers and the challenging funding environment for fintech startups—having only raised $2 million in 2021. In mid-2023, the company lost a key source of funding when a major liquidity partner pulled out. This could be another factor contributing to the delays. The startup explored various solutions. On March 4th, for example, Akindolu announced the layoff of an undisclosed number of employees, aiming to weather the storm until they can be reintegrated. According to sources, Brass also allegedly approached Flutterwave for a potential acquisition, but the deal did not succeed. The startup also sought capital injections from larger startups like Moniepoint but was unsuccessful. Helping hands save Brass: After navigating a rocky few months, Brass has received a lifeline in the form of a new funding round. Four sources familiar with the situation revealed that the funding, comprising both debt and equity, was concluded last week, but the precise amount remains undisclosed. Notably, several Nigerian fintech leaders collaborated to support Brass over the last few weeks. With the new funding secured, Brass claims to have resolved the withdrawal issues, and customer reports confirm successful transactions. Whether this financial injection marks a complete turnaround or just a reprieve remains to be seen. Telecom Vodacom lays off 80 employees in South Africa Despite recent successes like achieving significant revenue and operating income—35% and 32%, respectively, as per its latest financial report— Vodacom, a South African telecoms giant, is also grappling with several challenges. One notable challenge is its high-profile legal battle with a former employee regarding compensation for the popular “Please Call Me” service, which could potentially cost the company 10% of its market capitalisation—R20 billion (~$1 billion). Now, the company plans to trim its South African workforce. Layoffs: Vodacom has announced plans to cut 80 jobs across various departments to ensure “sustainable operations and maintain financial resilience.” In essence, to cut costs. The telecom company justifies the job cuts as a necessary step in its transition from a traditional telecom company to a leading technology player. A company spokesperson emphasised their commitment to “ensuring business operations are fit for purpose.” Vodacom, which employs roughly 5,400 people, has seen its stock price dip 2% following the news. Zoom out: Now branding itself as an African-focused connectivity, digital and financial services firm, Vodacom Group Limited has a presence in seven African countries including Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Lesotho, Kenya, Ethiopia and Egypt. No hidden fees or charges with Fincra Collect payments via Bank Transfer, Cards, Virtual Account & Mobile Money with Fincra’s secure payment gateway. What’s more? You get to save money for your business when you use Fincra. Start now. Social media TikTok introduces new rewards A year ago, TikTok moved beyond its signature short video format to allow longer videos. The play was to allow creators on the platform to make more money. TikTok ran the invite-only programme in beta, requiring creators to videos exceeding one minute to qualify for monetization. TikTok has now officially launched the feature and renamed it the Creators Reward Programme. How do I qualify? To qualify for the Creator Rewards Programme, creators must be at least 18 years old, have at least 10,000 followers with a minimum of 100,000 views in the last 30 days, and have a personal account in good standing where the programme is available. TikTok says it will reward creators based on four core metrics: originality, play duration, search value, and audience engagement. Since its debut last year, TikTok claims some creators have maxed out their earnings, pulling in $14,000 per effect and $50,000 monthly. TikTok also claims creators’ earnings have increased by 250% in the past six with a double increase in the number
Read Moretappi partners MTN to help Ivorian businesses create online presence
tappi, the end-to-end digital commerce startup backed by Mercy Corps Ventures, has expanded its services to Côte d’Ivoire, its third African country after Kenya and Nigeria. The expansion was made through an existing partnership with telco giant MTN, the company said in a statement. tappi helps small businesses create and manage an online business profile, bringing improved visibility to showcase their products and services, engage with customers, and accept payments. “With a strong GDP growth rate of 6.9%, Côte d’Ivoire not only represents the ideal market to empower MSMEs primed to digitise and significantly expand their customer base but will act as a critical gateway to access Francophone Africa,” said Kenfield Griffith, tappi’s CEO and co-founder. Small businesses in Côte d’Ivoire will now gain access to tappi’s software-as-a-service solution and enterprise-grade tools. This will enable businesses to generate SEO-optimised websites in less than two minutes, distribute online ads, and access a range of additional digital services for an $8 monthly subscription fee. Through tappi’s existing partnership with MTN Côte d’Ivoire, the telecom’s customer base of 17 million subscribers will have access to Tappi’s services through integrated data bundles, enhancing their online presence and customer reach. According to UNECA, SMEs form over 98% of total businesses in Côte d’Ivoire but despite their importance to the economy, many businesses still face major difficulties building a trusted online presence. This is primarily due to current tools being too complex, the requirements for an international credit card or the listing of websites in places where trust is difficult to gauge, making it harder to access and convert new customers. The expansion comes three months after TechCabal exclusively reported that tappi raised a $1.5 million pre-seed in December 2023, which was led by Mercy Corps Ventures and Chui Ventures. Founded in 2022, the Kenyan digital commerce platform helps to digitise these small businesses by creating an online business profile or websites for them. Once a business owner creates a profile on the tappi app and supplies their business information, tappi creates a website that is SEO-optimised and indexed on Google. Tappi claims to have engaged with over 150,000 consumers who used its platform to complete transactions totalling $3 million.
Read MoreExclusive: Brass secures new funding as customers confirm an end to withdrawal delays
Brass, the Nigerian business banking startup that has been receiving criticism from customers for failing to process withdrawals on time, has received a capital injection from a group of investors, four people with knowledge of the deal told TechCabal. The deal, a mix of debt and equity, was concluded last week, those people said, while declining to share the exact funding amount. Over the last few weeks, some Nigerian fintech leaders began working together to keep Brass going, said one person with knowledge of the initial talks. “Brass is a great product that is valuable to customers,” that person said. “The ultimate goal of this investment is service delivery,” said an investor who asked not to be named to speak freely. The new capital injection will provide much-needed working capital for the startup after it furloughed employees on March 4. “I’m happy to share that we’ve resolved these issues, and transactions are working seamlessly once again,” Brass said in an email to customers on Tuesday. On Tuesday afternoon, several Brass customers shared on X that they had begun receiving pending withdrawals. Brass did not respond to a request for comments. Struggles at Brass Users began noticing withdrawal delays in October 2023, and Sola Akindolu, the company’s CEO, told TechCabal that a major liquidity partner pulled out of a partnership, leaving the startup under significant strain. That partner was a major Nigerian fintech, said two people familiar with the matter. Until the middle of 2023, that fintech offered uncollateralised loans to several startups but eventually discontinued this service. After it began experiencing liquidity problems, the startup approached Flutterwave for an acquisition, but that deal ultimately did not materialise, sources familiar with those talks said. A spokesperson for Flutterwave told TechCabal there were no acquisition plans between the two startups. “It is not in any way new for fintechs to approach and support one another behind the scenes,” Brass told TechCabal via mail in March. The startup also approached larger startups like Moniepoint for a capital injection. Moniepoint declined to provide funding to Brass, according to a source familiar with those proceedings.
Read MoreDOB Equity shakeup: Co-CEOs step down in leadership overhaul
Reporting by Adonijah Ndege Saskia Van Der Mast and Hayo Afman, the co-CEOs of the Dutch family fund DOB Equity, have stepped down, throwing open the leadership of one of the largest private equity funds in East Africa. Der Mast and Afman led the fund for 19 and 9 years. Coen Boevé, the fund’s chief finance officer, will take over the day-to-day running of the firm while DOB Equity begins the search for a replacement for the two. “During their tenure, Saskia and Hayo have been instrumental in driving the growth and success of DOB Equity and shaping the landscape of impact investment in East Africa,” the fund said on Monday. Under Saskia and Hayo, the family-owned fund doubled its Kenyan portfolio with investments in local startups and acquiring mid-sized agribusiness, retail, energy, and education companies. It has invested in Twiga Foods, M-Kopa, and low-cost private school Bridge International Academies. Others include Kenya-based health tech Ilara Health, which recently secured $4.2 million in a funding round led by DOB Equity, and tilapia producer Victory Farms, which raised $35 million last year. “They have grown the portfolio from the first investment in 2007 to over 30 impactful companies to date, winning multiple awards, amongst others, for best Impact Investment Firm by the East Africa Venture Capital and Private Equity Association,” DOB Equity said. Recently, the firm has featured in several high-profile fundraising for mid-sized firms and local startups as a funding winter hit the ecosystems on the back of mass exits of other investors for greater gains on investments in advanced economies.
Read MoreVodacom to cut jobs in South Africa at all levels
Vodacom, South Africa’s largest mobile network operator by subscriber base, will cut 80 jobs to reduce costs, according to reporting by Bloomberg. The job cuts will impact all levels of the telco’s operations. Vodacom currently employs 5,400 people. The company’s stock price is down by 2% following the news of the retrenchment. “We routinely ensure that our business operations are fit for purpose as we transition from a telco to a leading technology company,” said a spokesman for Vodacom. “Additionally, Vodacom South Africa continues to proactively implement various cost reduction measures to ensure sustainable operations and maintain financial resilience.” Per Vodacom’s latest financial report released in September 2023, the company’s revenue and operating income increased by 35% and 32%, respectively. However, the company’s profit margin and cash in hand were also down 20% and 57%, respectively, with the company citing investment into alternative power sources because of load-shedding as a contributing factor. Vodacom’s next financial results are set to be released in May for the financial year ended March 31, 2024. With the news of the retrenchments, Vodacom continues to face a flurry of issues in recent times. The company is currently involved in a protracted legal battle with a former employee about remuneration for the invention of the “Please Call Me” service. According to a court ruling, the ex-employee is eligible for a percentage of revenue from the service which might go as high as R63 billion. This would be equal to about 10% of Vodacom’s market capitalisation.
Read MoreNigeria’s 8 subsea cables spur new investment in hyperscale data centres
Investors are committing more funds to building larger data centres across the country in view of the increased data storage demand that will follow the existence of eight subsea fibre optic cables in Nigeria. Ayotunde Coker, CEO of Open Data Access Centre (OADC), told TechCabal that the increasing number of submarine cables means that a lot of big data will be captured and require massive storage capacity. This is responsible for the renewed deployment of capital into hyperscale mega data centres in the country. The companies currently building hyperscale data centres in Nigeria include Kasi, Rack Centre, and OADC. Kasi Cloud Limited began construction of its hyperscale or Tier IV data centre, modelled after the Silicon Valley technology parks, in 2022. The facility, worth $250 million, will be located in Lekki, Lagos, and is expected to go live in 2024. Rack Centre, a Tier III data centre company, started building a 12-megawatt IT data centre at Ikeja, Lagos in 2023. The data centre is situated on a 20,000 square metre green field site and sits at over 30 metres above sea level. Construction of OADC’s hyperscale data centre began in 2022. The company is building a data centre with a capacity of 24 megawatts of power. “You will see that from the end of this year, the facilities with hyperscale spec will become available, almost like every quarter into the year after. It is like the tipping point is happening,” Coker said. Before now, most investors have built Tier III data centres, the second-highest certification in the Uptime Institute’s system of classifying data centre performance into four tiers. Tier III data centres such as MainOne Data Centre and Rack Centre offer additional reliability over Tier II in the form of N+1 redundancy and multiple power and cooling distribution paths. Hyperscale data centres have much larger capacities and infrastructure. These facilities are massive business-critical facilities designed to efficiently support robust, scalable applications and are often associated with big data-producing companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, IBM, and Microsoft. Hyperscale data centres usually exceed 5,000 servers and 10,000 square metre. South Africa built the first hyperscale data centre in sub-Saharan Africa seven years ago. In Nigeria, companies like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook stored some of their data with data centres like MainOne, but the majority of their data storage needs have come from outside the country. A MainOne spokesperson told TechCabal that it had been providing storage for companies like Google and Microsoft. There is also an increase in the construction of other tiers of data centres. In March, Airtel broke ground on Nxtra, a data centre with a total capacity of 180 megawatts distributed across 13 major data centres and over 48 Edge data centres. Medallion also recently expanded its data centre facility to add a three-floor building with 1 megawatt of IT capacity and 232 racks. So far, the eight subsea cables that have landed in Nigeria include MainOne cable with a capacity of 10tbits; ntel’s SAT-3 with 800gbits; Globacom’s GLO-2 12Tbits); Africa Coast to Europe Cable System with a capacity of 5.5tbps; WACS (14.5tbits);, Equiano (144tbits); the Nigeria Cameroon Submarine Cable System (NCSCS) with capacity of 12.8tbps; and 2Africa (180tbits).
Read MoreTechStars-backed GetEquity is raising $1 million to add stocks and bonds offerings
When GetEquity launched in 2021, months after Stripe’s $200 million acquisition of Paystack, it entered a market where retail investors dreamed of big returns from angel investing. GetEquity helped these hopeful investors find and fund startups. However, a pullback in venture funding on the continent and worsening macroeconomic conditions means retail investors are unlikely to invest in risky asset classes. As once well-funded startups struggle and shutter, it is becoming clear to retail investors how difficult venture investing is. GetEquity, whose primary offering has been a platform for retail investors to buy equity in startups, will now offer investors the opportunity to buy relatively safer asset classes like stocks, fixed-income funds and bonds. The startup says it is raising $1 million to make it happen. The startup’s cofounders, Jude Dike, Chigozirim Ugochukwu and Temitope Ekundayo are making this change after a clear-eyed look at the data on how customers have been investing. “Only 20% of investment portfolios are in high-risk investments like venture capital. 50% of these portfolios are low-risk investments, and the rest are in medium-risk investment vehicles,” said Jude Dike, the startup’s CEO. Specifically, only 12% of GetEquity’s 14,000 registered users actively invested in equity deals, Dike shared, pointing out the need to raise investment activity if the startup is to reach its revenue goals. The company claims it generated $320,000 in revenue in 2022 and planned to reach profitability by 2023. It didn’t hit that target despite facilitating 31 funding rounds and three exits. Uber leads $100 million round in African fintech startup Moove Avoiding the well-beaten path “We are ignoring the popular VC advice that you need to conquer your niche first before expanding and realigning the platform to operate the way traditional investment companies for high net-worth Investors do.” It will compete with wealth management platforms like Risevest, which recently acquired Chaka, Cowrywise, and Piggyvest. However, unlike these companies, GetEquity will not manage funds. Instead, it will pool users’ funds to meet minimum thresholds set by fund managers. “If you want to speak to invest in an ARM dollar fund, for instance, you need at least $100,000 as an individual. But if GetEquity was providing that access to you at $100, this means we are compiling at least $100 from 1000 People to meet that threshold. It’s a win-win situation for everybody.” [ad] In Nigeria, the startup’s home country, this method of fund aggregation elicited concerns and a viral WeeTracker article that questioned if the company had the requisite licence. “Nothing the company does is tied to crowdfunding,” Dike said, although the platform pools funds from retail investors to invest in startups. “The article got us face-to-face with one of our current largest investors.” This investor, according to Dike, “had been trying to also talk with the SEC about regulations for such a platform as they thought it was the new frontier.” [ad] “In Europe, there is just one license for it all, but in Africa, you have 54 distinct countries, where there’s not even a regulatory framework yet, in about 52 of those 54.” The company currently lists all its offerings through Regulation S offerings of the US Securities and Exchange Commission and says it expects to do a lot of handholding with the regulators as it threads this new path.
Read MoreUber leads $100 million round in African fintech startup Moove
Moove, a car-financing startup that allows anyone interested in ride-hailing to get a brand new car and pay in installments over four years, has raised $100 million in a Series B round reportedly led by Uber, according to reporting from TechCrunch. In February, Bloomberg reported that Uber was considering an equity investment in the company. The new funding round brings Moove’s total fund to about $460 million—$250 million in equity and $210 million in debt. Mubadala Investment Company, a sovereign wealth fund that also invested in Moove’s Series A round, also participated in the Series B round. Other investors in the round include The Latest Ventures, AfricInvest, Palm Drive Capital, Triatlum Advisors, and Future Africa. Moove, which operates in six countries, will use the new funding to expand to 16 more markets by the end of 2025. Per TechCrunch, the move signals a push by Uber—which has partnered with several others, including SWVL and Kobo—to secure a reliable stream of drivers for its ride-hailing platform. Moove’s CEO, Ladi Delano, views the move as a validation of Moove’s business model. The mobility fintech leader, which offers vehicle financing to ride-hailing and delivery app drivers, has secured a staggering $460 million across equity and debt, bringing its valuation to $750 million. In February, the company raised $10 million to expand its presence in India after it launched in three cities in the country. In 2023, Moove partnered with Uber to deploy about 25,000 electric vehicles on its ride-sharing platform in India. Launched in 2020 by Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, Moove tackles low credit access in mobility markets by offering revenue-based car financing to ride-hailing drivers. Customers buy new vehicles with a share of their weekly earnings, and the startup boasts $90 million in annual recurring revenue. Per TechCrunch, Moove is also considering inking a deal with Bolt to expand its ride-hailing options in its key emerging markets.
Read MoreQuick Fire with Koffi Kelvin
Koffi Kelvin is a QA Engineer at GitHub and an Andela technologist. He is passionate about learning and recently graduated from an 11-month leadership course. Koffi is an Andela community champion, supporting and mentoring other community members across the globe, as well as organizing region-wide events for Andela. Outside of tech, Koffi is interested in music, art, and African culture. Explain your job to a five-year-old. Imagine you built the world’s most incredible treehouse ever! It has slides, secret tunnels, and a throne made from your softest teddy bear. But before you invite all your friends over, wouldn’t you want to ensure it’s perfect? That’s where a QA engineer comes in, like the ultimate fort inspector with a magnifying glass! We’re the ones who crawl through the tunnels, bounce on the pillows, and push all the buttons (carefully, of course!) to see if anything is wonky or doesn’t work quite right. We might find a slide that topples over too easily or a tunnel too small for even the tiniest teddy bear. We’ll then tell the treehouse builders (the programmers) about these funny mishaps so they can fix them and make the treehouse even more epic! Can you share a memorable experience where your attention to detail in QA uncovered a critical issue in a project? Off the top of my head, I discovered a critical OS issue when I was at Hewlett-Packard. I was analyzing data, and it revealed a bug; I would upload a particular file to an RGB keyboard app, which then caused the entire operating system to crash. This was precarious because, of course, apps require operating systems to run. We were building the operating system alongside the required apps; one needed the other to perform efficiently. It was a close shave! Your background also showcases a transition from hands-on QA engineering to customer support. What sparked this shift in focus, and what excites you most about the support role? QA is a very customer-centric role where, in some instances, during user acceptance testing (UAT), one works with the actual application users to address any issues they might have with the product, making customer support a function within QA. Hence, the transition was as seamless as running from walking. What skills would you say have been critical to your career growth and trajectory? Curiosity and tenacity. I remain curious and interested in all functions within and around my work. I’m constantly researching, reading, and learning. This exposes me to as many recent and emerging technologies as possible, which helps keep me sharp and up-to-date. I tend to seek out content from some notable thought leaders within QA like James Bach, who is christened “ The father of Agile testing” through his blog https://www.satisfice.com/blog, and a few others like Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory ( https://agiletestingfellow.com/): Crispin and Gregory are the founders of the Ministry of Testing, a global community for testers, and co-authors of the book “Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams.” I gravitate towards the daunting and challenging tasks many people avoid, which has ensured I’ve learned the most within the team. I welcome a challenge, as it makes me learn the most or fail spectacularly. And when you fail, you learn; you never make the same mistake twice. You’ve been a digital business mentor for two years now. What would you say is the most rewarding thing about mentoring? At this point in my career, I would love to give back to the Andela community as much as possible because I realize how privileged I have been in my career journey. This is why I am drawn to mentoring and supporting other technologists. The Andela community is a network of global technologists, and I regularly speak to people worldwide. The most rewarding part is helping others be successful in specific fields using tools that improve the quality, efficiency, and even the quantity of their output. I guide new members through the Andela talent community landscape, offering support and advice on everything from how to navigate the job engagement process, to questions about tax and – of course – technology and skills guidance. What would you say are your proudest achievements? Leading my team through the COVID-19 pandemic, as they became entirely distributed, was immense. It was a traumatic experience, and I gained a lot of bumps and bruises along the way, but we made it through successfully. To help guide the team, I created a daily routine of morning and afternoon standups to ensure we were all on the same page and that we all had a forum to communicate openly with each other. I would also give team members the chance to peer review each other’s work, which led to a drastic improvement in the quality of work that would be sent to me for final review. In our hyper-connected world, what’s your strategy for maintaining a healthy digital detox? For starters, having a life beyond my laptop is extremely helpful. In my spare time, I race go-carts and am very interested in motorsports. I also belong to a second community of people not really in the tech space: my church! What are some of your hobbies or passions that fuel your creativity and energy outside of work? I always make time for physical activity, regularly playing at the local rugby club and swimming. Recently, I’ve embraced farming, starting with building two beehives, planting some fruit trees (mango and apple), and growing hot chilies. I love being outdoors as much as possible. Finally, what lessons have you learned from your experiences in QA that have had the most significant impact on your professional growth and development? Developing my teamwork and collaboration skills during our day-to-day QA operations has impacted my leadership. Most recently, I took an 11-month leadership development program led by renowned scholars including Dr Phidel Baraza (Ph.D.) and Professor Emmanuel Bellon, where I was recognized as one of the course’s top performers. When I first began
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👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – Egypt’s billion-dollar bailout
In partnership with Share this newsletter: Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Good morning Later this year, you may get the chance to win $5 million. Mr Beast is at it again, and this time, he’s creating a game show that will have over 1,000 contestants competing for a grand prize of $5 million. There’s not a lot of info about the show just yet though. And if you think you don’t stand a chance, its worth noting that a similar event by Mr Beast in January 2024 saw a Nigerian and a Ghanaian win $25,000 each for simply tweeting. If they can do it, you can too, and we’ll bring you more info on how as soon as we have it. In today’s edition Egypt gets $8.1 billion bailout Kuda gets fintech licences in Canada and Tanzania Zone gets $8.5 million in funding Apple might integrate Google’s Gemini into its ecosystem The World Wide Web3: The Meme Token making millions Opportunities Economy Egypt receives $8.1 billion bailout from EU Like many other African countries, Egypt is presently suffering from one of its worst economic crises in a decade. Inflation currently stands above 35%, the country has devalued its currency thrice in three years to keep up with the pace of its weakening pound. The country was also on the brink of defaulting on a $165 million foreign debt before the United Arab Emirates swung in with a $35 billion cash injection. Now, more international communities are lending a helping hand to the embattled country. A big bailout: The European Union promised Egypt a $8.1 billion bailout fund to help salvage its ailing economy. The new capital injection—a mix of grants and loans—is the latest support the North African country has gotten from the international community to help support its economy. The EU aid package to Egypt consists of €5 billion loan, €1.8 billion investment in renewable energy and food security projects, €600 million worth of grants, and €200 million allocation for ‘migration management—as Egypt is a major route for migrants travelling to Europe. The EU favours priority areas including economic stability, investments and trade, migration, and security in its fund disbursement to the northern African country. Egypt, which has become a new alternative for natural gas exports to Europe, will continue its journey in navigating a way of its dwindling economy. The country is in agreement with the World Bank, the UK, and Japan for more capital injection. Experience fast and reliable personal banking with Moniepoint Give it a shot like she did . Click here to experience fast and reliable personal banking with Moniepoint. Fintech Kuda Bank secures payment licences in Tanzania and Canada Since its launch in August 2019, Kuda, a Nigerian digital bank, has processed ₦55.8 trillion ($35.4 billion) in transactions, serving over five million customers. In August 2021, the neobank also closed a $55 million Series B round at a $500 million valuation. In 2022, Kuda made its first foray into the cross-border payment space, by securing a payment licence in the United Kingdom and rolled out a subscription-based remittance offering, which according to sources was reportedly discontinued. Even more licences: In another attempt, the Target Global-backed fintech has secured payment licences in both Canada and Tanzania, allowing it to offer remittance and multi-currency wallet services. Kuda’s current focus seems to be on catering to the financial needs of Africans living abroad, particularly in countries with large African populations like the UK and Canada. The company is now only present in two African countries—Nigeria and Tanzania. In January 2023, Kuda also acquired a digital banking licence to operate in Pakistan. What this means: Kuda will go head-to-head with other startups like LemFi and Nala, targeting the African diaspora with financial services. With a rising number of Nigerians migrating to countries like Canada—22,085 in 2022 alone—the demand for remittance services is high. This trend is mirrored across Africa, with remittance inflows reaching an estimated $100.1 billion in 2022. Funding Nigerian fintech startup Zone secures $8.5 million Founded in 2008, Appzone started by building custom software solutions specifically tailored for banks. In 2012, it became a pioneer in facilitating branchless banking for Diamond Bank, a revolutionary concept at the time. This success continued with internet and mobile banking services for Providus Bank and an instant card issuance system for Guaranty Trust Bank. But Appzone’s vision extended beyond traditional solutions. It decided, in 2022, to carve out a new subsidiary—Zone—a blockchain-enabled payment infrastructure company dedicated to building a future-proof payment network, and made its original banking-as-a-service business into a separate standalone company, Qore. First funding milestone: After it spun off from its parent company, Zone has secured its first VC funding of $8.5 million. Its funding comes amidst a challenging fundraising environment for African startups, where funding in 2023 dropped by 36% compared to $5 billion in 2022. Investors like Flourish Ventures and TLcom led the seed round. With this funding, Zone plans to expand its network domestically, improve its technology—particularly instant settlements—and develop new use cases for its blockchain network beyond ATMs. Zone claims over 15 of Africa’s largest banks and fintech companies use its network to process payments including Access Bank Plc and United Bank of Africa. Zoom out: The company will spend part of the fresh funding to conduct a comprehensive pilot program to test its cross-border capabilities, as it plans to launch a remittance product in 2025. No hidden fees or charges with Fincra Collect payments via Bank Transfer, Cards, Virtual Account & Mobile Money with Fincra’s secure payment gateway. What’s more? You get to save money for your business when you use Fincra. Start now. AI Apple in talks to integrate Google Gemini AI to iPhones Apple is looking outward for AI solutions. Since the inception of ChatGPT and generative AI, the race for domination in AI and AI-enabled systems has been a rush. Tech startups have looked for smart ways to incorporate AI into their existing systems, while established tech
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