Swoop raises $7.3 million seed for African super app, food delivery first
Swoop, an Eswatini food delivery startup, has raised $7.3 million in seed funding to support its expansion into Nigeria as it pursues its super-app model outside its home country for the first time. The round, backed by Silicon Valley investors including Long Journey, Variant, Version One, Dune Ventures, Soma Capital, and Zero Knowledge Ventures, will fund the buildout of a consumer platform starting with food delivery. Walter Kortschak and Base Capital also participated. Swoop’s seed raise is one of the largest seed rounds disclosed by an African consumer startup, and nearly as large as the $9 million Series A that Chowdeck closed in August 2025 after four years of operations and expansion into 11 cities. “It’s super hard to build a super app, and our investors recognise that. They recognise that you need a bit of runway and foundation to be able to do the things that you need to do operationally,” said Demola Adesina, Swoop’s Nigerian country manager. Swoop believes Nigeria’s food delivery market—valued at $1.1 billion in 2025—has more room to grow than its competitors suggest. According to Nigerian payments processor Paystack, which processes payments for Swoop and all the major food delivery companies in Nigeria, the sector grew by 187% between 2021 and 2024. Nigeria’s ratio of food ordered for delivery to food consumed outside the home is far lower in the country than in peer markets in Africa or Southeast Asia, and the real opportunity lies in converting non-consumers rather than poaching existing users, Adesina said. “We think that the food delivery space in Nigeria is still significantly under-penetrated. Our target is not existing consumption but the users that are not consuming,” he said. “We are not getting into a war with other platforms. We are trying to grow the pie.” Swoop, formerly known as Thumo, launched in Eswatini in August 2025 and acquired 6,000 users in its first month, according to co-founder Aubrey Niederhoffer. Edwin Ruiz, another co-founder, told local press in Eswatini that the goal was to build a pan-African super app combining food, groceries, and rides. The startup is starting with food delivery in Yaba, a neighbourhood in Lagos Mainland, already served by Chowdeck, Glovo, and FoodCourt, its competitors in Nigeria’s growing food delivery sector. “There is more confidence regarding regulatory risk, and international investors committing capital to us proves that,” Adesina said. “Beyond that, I am passionate about Nigerians. There is better market education and more interest in positively changing consumer habits. We think this is the perfect time to build on that.” Swoop says it uses a network of independent riders rather than an employed fleet, generating revenue through commissions on restaurant sales and customer handling fees. While riders retain 100% of delivery fees, the startup applies a 7% service charge to fund operations. Adesina declined to disclose the startup’s fee structure or unit economics, saying current fees are low because the priority is user acquisition. He added that the company is not interested in a price war. “Our approach is to find the reason why some people are not consuming [through food delivery] and to make them consumers. We are not just slashing prices and getting into a price war,” he said. Picking food delivery as the first vertical in a multi-product approach allows Swoop to acquire daily customers that create a habit with the app, a proven but costly growth engine for its super-app ambitions. OPay, one of Nigeria’s largest fintechs, initially bundled food delivery and ride-hailing with its payments wallet to drive daily usage for its wallet before shutting down the non-fintech products. “Food delivery is a metric for how developed the ecosystem is. If you get food delivery right, you can essentially be the node of the ecosystem,” Adesina said. “We believe that if we have a group of customers around that node, we are able to translate that into other areas and verticals,” he shared, adding that Swoop will let its users determine the next vertical to launch. Nigeria’s ‘difficult’ food delivery market Food delivery in Nigeria is a tightly contested sector that has claimed many startups and local divisions of well-funded international companies like HelloFood, Jumia Food, Bolt Food, and OFood, as the unit economics rarely work at scale. According to Jumia’s 2022 financial report, its food delivery arm lost $1.80 for every $10 it made. The logistics and marketing costs exceeded the revenue made from the order, which meant Jumia was essentially paying customers and restaurants to use the service. These unit economics are a primary reason why Jumia eventually shuttered its food delivery business in late 2023. Despite Jumia Food’s shutdown, Chowdeck, the largest food delivery platform in Nigeria, serves two million registered users with over 20,000 riders operating across 14 cities in Nigeria and Ghana while maintaining profitability, a rare feat for young food delivery startups. Swoop’s strategy will require acquiring high-volume, lower-income customers on the outskirts of Lagos and in smaller cities, where local restaurants and quick-service outlets dominate, if it is to create a new set of food delivery consumers. Whether Swoop becomes a success depends on three things: what it builds after food delivery and in what order, a monetisation strategy that ensures it is profitable, and whether it can scale beyond Yaba and Lagos before it runs out of cash.
Read MoreNigerian telecom customers to receive airtime refunds after disruptions, says NCC
Nigeria’s telecom subscribers will receive airtime refunds as compensation for poor service experienced between November 2025 and January 2026. The refunds will begin on Friday, April 24, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The NCC said operators failed to meet required performance benchmarks in several parts of the country following a March 29, 2026, directive. While this is not the first time the regulator has ordered compensation for service failures—MTN and Celtel (now Airtel) were fined in 2008—the latest directive signals a more assertive approach to holding telecom operators accountable. The NCC said it has also directed tower companies responsible for many of the outages to channel their compensation obligations into upgrading tower infrastructure. These investments, separate from their annual capital plans, will be monitored by independent auditors to ensure compliance. “It’s actually compensation for the quality of service experience you may have had,” NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman and chief executive officer, Aminu Maida, said at a press briefing on Thursday in Lagos, adding that subscribers will begin receiving alerts via SMS detailing the credits applied to their lines. Unlike previous enforcement approaches, which assessed service quality at the state level, the NCC said it has shifted to a more granular system. Performance is now measured at the local government level, allowing the regulator to better capture variations in network experience across the country. “What we have now adopted is to carry out the assessment at local government levels,” Maida said. “This ensures that whatever we measure is as close as possible to what subscribers actually experience.” Under this framework, operators are evaluated across multiple network layers—2G, 3G, and 4G—against key performance indicators set out in the commission’s quality of service regulations. Where operators fall short, penalties are imposed, part of which is now being redirected as compensation to affected users. Maida acknowledged the gap between demand and current network capacity but pointed to ongoing investments by operators as a sign of progress. In 2025, the industry invested over $1 billion upgrading networks, importing equipment, and building new towers. According to Maida, one operator has already invested $1 billion in infrastructure this year. “Things actually improve, but we need to be patient,” he said, noting that infrastructure expansion remains the primary driver of better service quality. According to him, operators deployed just under 300 new sites last year. In contrast, they have committed to rolling out about 12,000 sites in 2026. So far, around 2,800 have been completed, including new builds, spectrum additions, and upgrades such as converting 3G sites to 4G and deploying 5G in select locations. “You can see we’re already moving way ahead of what we did last year,” he said. Operators say they are complying with the directive while continuing to invest in network improvements. MTN Nigeria said in a statement on Thursday that all affected customers will receive airtime compensation in line with the NCC framework, describing the directive as one that “places customers at the centre of regulatory decision-making.”
Read MoreMauritius’ new AI policy makes ethics mandatory, not optional
While many African countries race to deploy artificial intelligence, Mauritius has made governance and ethics the starting point of its AI strategy, rather than a problem to solve after the technology is in use. Central to the strategy is the FAIR framework, a set of guidelines that governs how AI systems are designed, deployed, and managed. It sets clear expectations across sectors and applies to the entire AI lifecycle, from design and development to deployment, monitoring, and eventual decommissioning. Mauritius’s approach reflects a broader shift in how African countries may position themselves in the AI landscape. While larger markets such as Nigeria and Kenya emphasise scale and ecosystem growth, and South Africa focuses on institutional regulation, Mauritius is advancing a governance-led model centred on enforceable standards. The Mauritius National AI Strategy 2025–2029, alongside the FAIR Guidelines introduced in April 2026, is designed to be vendor-neutral and border-agnostic. Any AI system operating within the country, regardless of origin, must comply with a unified set of ethical and operational standards. Imported AI tools are subject to the same level of scrutiny as domestic systems. The framework requires compliance with principles of fairness, accountability, inclusiveness, integrity, and responsibility. In high-risk sectors such as fintech and gaming, systems must undergo bias audits to mitigate discriminatory outcomes. Accountability provisions also require foreign providers to designate locally based representatives who can be held responsible for system outcomes. Any AI system that affects individuals, organisations, or public interests in Mauritius falls within the framework’s scope, reflecting a recognition that AI risks are not bound by geography and that governance should be determined by impact rather than origin. Although the FAIR Guidelines are currently non-binding, there are no immediate legal penalties or fines for non-compliance—at least not yet; they are designed with a clear legal and policy trajectory. They are expected to shape government policy, inform sector-specific regulations, influence procurement standards, and eventually underpin future legislation. In effect, Mauritius is building a regulatory framework that can evolve alongside the technology, rather than locking in rigid rules too early. This contrasts with approaches like South Africa’s Draft National AI Policy, which proposes steep penalties—including fines of about $530,000 or up to 10 years in prison—for serious ethical breaches. The Mauritius approach allows the country to remain flexible while still establishing a stable reference point for accountability. Policymakers, regulators, businesses, and even courts can rely on these principles as AI adoption expands. The framework has four pillars: fairness, accountability, inclusiveness, and integrity. Each addresses a specific risk that has emerged in global AI deployment and is tied to concrete expectations. Fairness focuses on preventing bias. AI systems must not discriminate based on income, gender, ethnicity, or geography, the policy stated. This is particularly important in a small and diverse society, where flawed systems could quickly exclude entire groups from access to services or opportunities. To address this, the guidelines emphasise the use of representative local datasets and require bias testing, especially in high-impact sectors such as finance and public services. Accountability tackles one of AI’s most persistent challenges: the “black box” problem. Under the FAIR framework, there must always be a clearly identifiable party responsible for an AI system’s decisions. This includes defining liability, maintaining audit trails, and establishing mechanisms for redress when harm occurs. AI decisions are not meant to be opaque or unchallengeable. Inclusiveness ensures that the benefits of AI are widely distributed. Rather than concentrating advantages among large firms or urban populations, the strategy promotes AI literacy through initiatives like “AI for All,” supports small and medium-sized enterprises, and expands access to digital infrastructure. The goal is to prevent a new form of inequality—what the policy’s authors describe as a potential “digital divide 2.0.” The final pillar, integrity and responsibility, addresses the technical and ethical robustness of AI systems. It covers data governance, privacy, cybersecurity, and safeguards against misuse, including fraud and manipulation. For a government that plans to integrate AI into public service delivery, trust in system reliability is essential. What sets Mauritius apart is not just the inclusion of these principles, but how they are embedded into the broader economic strategy. The FAIR framework is tied directly to procurement decisions, system design, and policy development. It is positioned as a baseline requirement, not optional guidance. This reflects a broader strategic choice: as a small, open economy of just 1.26 million people and a roughly $15 billion GDP, Mauritius cannot compete on scale with larger economies like South Africa, with an over $400 billion GDP. It is not that South Africa and Nigeria are ignoring trust. The difference lies in priorities and timing. Mauritius is using its smaller size to position itself as a focused, “boutique” AI regulator, while South Africa and Nigeria must balance building trust with driving the scale of growth their larger economies demand. In doing so, it hopes to attract investment, build partnerships, and integrate into global AI value chains. The country’s economic ambitions reinforce this direction. AI is seen as a new growth pillar, alongside traditional sectors like manufacturing, whose contribution to GDP has steadily declined—from over 20% in the late 1990s to about 10.7% in 2020, and only a modest recovery to roughly 12.8% in 2024. According to the policy, the country now sees AI as a way to revitalise these sectors, improve efficiency, and create new opportunities in areas such as fintech, logistics, and the ocean economy. To drive this transformation, Mauritius is building institutional capacity in the form of an AI Council. The council would be supported by public and private sector stakeholders, and international experts, who will oversee implementation, coordinate projects, and measure socio-economic impact. Incentives such as tax credits, grants, and regulatory support are also being deployed to encourage adoption. This governance-led approach stands in contrast to other African AI strategies. Nigeria, for instance, is prioritising large-scale deployment and talent development, with governance structures still evolving. Kenya is focused on building a regional innovation hub and a powerful AI sheriff, while South Africa is leaning
Read MoreKenya’s BuuPass enters corporate travel market with new booking product
BuuPass, a Kenyan mobility startup, is expanding beyond its consumer roots with the launch of a corporate travel platform, Gavanpass, as it looks to capture a largely undigitised segment of Africa’s enterprise economy. The Nairobi-based company told TechCabal on Thursday that more than 20 enterprises across Kenya—including banks, fintechs, insurers, and manufacturers—are already using the platform to manage business travel. The move marks a strategic expansion for BuuPass, which has spent the past eight years building a consumer-facing marketplace for bus, rail, and flight bookings. Since its founding in 2017, the company says it has sold more than 30 million tickets and processed over $100 million in travel transactions in the past year alone, primarily across Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa. With Gavanpass, BuuPass targets finance and procurement teams that oversee corporate travel budgets, as well as operations staff who coordinate trips. The platform integrates bookings for flights, hotels, buses, ground transfers, and group travel into a single system, while embedding approval workflows, policy controls, and real-time spend tracking. “Finance leaders have been telling us their problem is bigger than consumer travel,” BuuPass co-founder and co-CEO Sonia Kabra told TechCabal. “They need one platform that handles everything, but also gives them the controls they actually need.” Corporate travel accounts for an estimated 3–5% of enterprise revenue globally, but in many African markets, the category remains heavily manual. Bookings are mostly handled via phone calls or messaging apps, while approvals are dispersed across email chains, and reconciliation can stretch weeks, particularly for companies operating in multiple currencies. The company argues that existing global corporate travel tools are poorly adapted to African operating environments, where currency volatility, supplier fragmentation, and cross-border travel present unique challenges. “Most enterprise software is built elsewhere and then localised,” said Wycliffe Omondi, BuuPass co-founder and co-CEO. “We built this from the ground up with African finance and procurement teams.” The launch comes as African startups look to enterprise software as a path to more predictable revenues, amid tougher funding conditions and rising pressure to demonstrate profitability. FrontEnd Ventures, an early investor in BuuPass, said the new product reflects the founders’ track record of building products that respond to user needs. “Gavanpass applies the same instinct to the enterprise market,” said Njeri Muhia, a general partner at the firm. BuuPass plans to roll out Gavanpass across sub-Saharan Africa in the coming months, betting that regional companies—especially those with operations in multiple countries—will adopt a unified system to manage travel spend and compliance.
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👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – New airtime lenders are in town
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Wazzup. In the world of Kenyan elites, wristwatches are becoming the new real estate. Yes, instead of land plots, some of the crème de la crème are now putting money into pre-owned luxury watches, because apparently, you can wear your investment and flip it later for profit. What makes this wild is how much it makes sense. Unlike property, a watch doesn’t need permits or months to sell. It can be liquidated in days and carried across borders on your wrist. If you were to invest in something unconventional, what would it be? In other news, Nigeria’s elections have a retention problem. A new Zikoko Citizen report predicts what participation in the 2027 election might look like, drawing on trends from previous cycles, and explores what could bring about a massive turnaround. Read the full report here. — Yemi FCCPC approves five airtime and data lenders M-Tiba to shut down health savings app Absa Kenya is spending $23M on digital banking Chery’s new EV in South Africa World Wide Web 3 Events Telecoms Nigeria’s consumer protection watchdog approves five airtime lenders Image source: The Punch After Nigeria’s largest telecom operators MTN and Airtel temporarily suspended airtime lending last week, new players have swooped in to take their place—at least temporarily. On Wednesday, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), Nigeria’s consumer protection watchdog, approved five companies to operate airtime and data lending services: Total TIM Nigeria Limited, Rane Interactive Medien CLS Limited, Mode NG Applications Nigeria Limited, Cloud Interactive Associate Limited, and Coverage Broadband Limited. The move comes as Globacom and T2, which round up the four telcos operating in Nigeria, have also quietly paused their own lending services, according to our checks. Will telcos resume airtime lending? Airtime lending has not been scrapped; it is being reorganised. Under the FCCPC’s 2025 regulations, services like MTN’s Xtratime are now classified as consumer credit, requiring proper licencing, disclosure of fees, and clearer accountability. For users, the immediate question is what happens to existing debt. Telecom operators haven’t addressed this yet. There is another wrinkle. The newly approved lenders, it is worth noting, do not yet have listed consumer-facing apps in the FCCPC’s disclosure, making it unclear how Nigerians can actually access these services for now. Between the lines: This is opening the door to new competition. Telcos have long dominated airtime credit, but once they secure approval and return, they may find themselves sharing that space with licenced third-party lenders operating under stricter rules. What is really happening? Airtime credit is being pulled into the formal lending system, where the business is clearer, and the players are easier to hold accountable. 20+ Markets. One API. Fincra connects your business to Africa’s payment rails without building market by market. For collection, payout, FX, and settlement through a single integration. See what this means for your business. companies M-Tiba is shutting down its health savings wallet Image Source: M-Tiba A curious little back story: In 2025, a cyberattack hit M-Tiba, a Kenyan healthtech platform, and went undetected for ten days. That attack exposed the personal and medical information of nearly five million Kenyans, including insurance claims, patient information, and clinical records. What’s the news here? The same platform is now shutting down its My Health Funds (MHF) wallet, the feature that allowed people to set aside money strictly for healthcare. M-Tiba users have begun receiving refunds of the amount in the wallet into their M-PESA accounts without requesting withdrawals. There is no confirmed link between the breach and the decision to shut down the wallet, but the timing raises eyebrows. Plus, the explanation that CarePay Limited, M-Tiba’s operator, gave is… thin. The official line is that it is evolving and will now shift its focus to “improving health insurance management.” Beyond that, there is very little detail on why the wallet is being retired, how many users were affected, no clarity on how affected users transition, and no real sense of what this new focus will look like. Will this mean deeper partnerships with insurers? A new insurance-led product? Or a full pivot away from individual users entirely? For now, it seems like a product shutdown wrapped in a vague strategy shift. While one can make guesses about what might be happening behind the scenes, this is one of those moments where CarePay needs to spill a bit more tea. TECHCABAL 4.0 In March 2013, TechCabal published its first article. Thousands of stories later, the work continues, and today, it goes deeper. TechCabal has always been free. That’s not changing. We’ve opened a new layer. Reporting that goes further, built on sources you won’t find anywhere else, and told in ways we haven’t tried before. You’re among the first to see it. Getting in takes less than 15 seconds. You’re one step away from the other side. Click the button below to see what TechCabal 4.0 looks like and what it means for you. Become an Insider banking Absa Kenya is spending $23.2 million on digital banking Absa Kenya headquarters in Nairobi. Image source: Absa Across Africa, walking into a bank branch is becoming a backup plan, as digital payments deepen. Absa Kenya, the country’s seventh-largest bank by assets, is leaning fully into that shift. The lender says it plans to spend up to KES 3 billion ($23.2 million) annually on technology as it pushes more customers toward mobile and self-service banking. The investment is not new, but it is becoming routine. Absa spent KES 2.16 billion ($16.7 million) on technology in 2025, and now treats digital spend as a recurring cost of staying competitive. The payoff is already visible: 94% of all transactions now happen outside branches, a sharp jump from roughly 40–50% a decade ago. This is less about innovation and more about survival. Kenya’s banking sector has long been shaped by mobile money, and customer expectations now revolve around speed, convenience, and always-on access. Traditional banks are adjusting
Read MoreAbsa Kenya to spend $23.2 million a year in digital banking push
Absa Bank Kenya will spend up to KES 3 billion ($23.2 million) a year on technology to deepen its digital strategy, according to a Business Daily report, as the lender seeks to move more customer activity to mobile and other self-service channels. The bank said the recurring investment will make transactions easier and support its push into digital banking, even as competition intensifies and customer expectations shift away from branches. The change reflects a broader migration across Kenya’s banking sector towards mobile and self-service channels, a trend accelerated by the country’s entrenched mobile money ecosystem and rising expectations for instant, always-on financial services. “Typically, we now do KES 2 billion ($15.4 million) to KES 3 billion ($23.2 million) of investments per year [in technology], and 2025 was no different in ensuring we are migrating transactions to digital platforms. We are making it easier for our customers to transact with us,” Absa Kenya chief executive Abdi Mohamed told Business Daily. The bank spent KES 2.16 billion ($16.7 million) on technology in 2025, underscoring how quickly digital investment has become a fixed cost in its operations. About 94% of all transactions in 2025 took place outside branches, compared with roughly 40–50% a decade ago, according to the lender. The technology push comes as Absa continues to reshape parts of its consumer banking leadership around digital banking. In February, the bank appointed former M-Pesa Africa chief executive Sitoyo Lopokoiyit to head its personal and private banking division, a move widely read as a signal of where it expects retail growth to come from. Lopokoiyit, who built his reputation overseeing the expansion of M-Pesa, is expected to bring mobile banking experience to retail and affluent banking at a time when the boundaries between banks and fintechs are becoming blurred. Efficiency gains The efficiency gains are already visible in the bank’s cost base. Other operating expenses fell 21% to KES 7.35 billion ($56.9 million) in the year to December 2025, with management attributing much of the decline to digitisation and automation. The impact of the technology push has also been reflected in performance metrics. Absa’s cost-to-income ratio—a measure of banking efficiency—improved to 36.5% in 2025 from 46% a year earlier, helped by lower costs and improved revenue generation. Net profit rose 10% to KES 22.9 billion ($177.3 million) over the period, suggesting that efficiency gains from digitisation are beginning to support bottom-line growth, even as investment spending remains elevated.
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Kenya’s M-TIBA refunds users after shutting health savings wallet
M-TIBA, a mobile health platform run by Kenya-based healthtech startup CarePay, is shutting down its My Health Funds (MHF) wallet that lets customers set aside money specifically for healthcare. On April 8, users began receiving refunds directly into their M-PESA wallets without initiating withdrawals, indicating payouts are already underway. Five M-TIBA users confirmed to TechCabal that they had received the funds. The decision marks a shift in M-TIBA’s model, from a consumer health savings wallet to an insurance management platform. The move, however, leaves users who depended on the service to set aside small amounts for care without a clear alternative for planning or paying for treatment. CarePay declined to comment for this story. M-TIBA first informed users on March 3 via SMS and its website that the MHF wallet would be discontinued, stating that access to insurance benefits on the platform would remain unchanged. An SMS from M-TIBA notifying users about the discontinuation of the MHF wallet. Source: Screenshot from an M-TIBA user Users were asked via SMS to withdraw their balances via USSD or receive M-PESA refunds by March 8, 2026. M-TIBA also said it would process refunds using verified details, with any unresolved balances sent to the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority, the government agency that holds unclaimed funds until owners come forward. Refunds began on April 8, and users who had not withdrawn their balances by the March 8 deadline received their wallet savings automatically. On its website, CarePay said withdrawals would be free, and funds would remain safe, but did not fully explain why the savings product is being retired. “M-TIBA has some exciting updates on how we’re evolving to better serve you and millions of others,” the company said on its website, without providing further detail. Launched in 2015, M-TIBA built its early momentum on the idea of ringfencing healthcare funds so they cannot be spent elsewhere. The MHF wallet allowed individuals, employers, and donors to allocate money strictly for medical use across a network of providers. It provided an option for users who could not afford insurance but wanted a structured way to save for care. CarePay said on its website it will focus on “improving health insurance management,” pointing to a model where insurers and partners drive usage rather than individual savings. “Since we launched the M-TIBA wallet, we’ve helped many people save and access healthcare, and thanks to your trust, we’re growing into something even bigger and better,” CarePay said on its website. “That’s why we aim to focus on improving health insurance management to ensure more people get access to more affordable healthcare and a better experience.” CarePay has not disclosed how many users are affected, the total value of refunds, or how many accounts may be transferred to the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority due to failed verification. It has not outlined clear alternatives for users who cannot transition to insurance products. The shutdown follows scrutiny in 2025 after a cyber attack exposed user data, as reported by TechCabal. M-TIBA said it will delete personal data once MHF accounts are closed, in line with its privacy policy. It has yet to disclose whether the decision is linked to security, compliance, or cost pressures.
Read MoreNigerian Web3 startups raised $43 million in 2025, but growth remains early
Nigeria’s Web3 startups, including crypto, blockchain, and stablecoin-based fintechs, raised $43 million in 2025, doubling the previous year’s figure, according to a report by Hashed Emergent, an India-based venture capital firm that backs early-stage African startups. The report, Nigeria Web3 Landscape Report 2025, shows that while capital is returning, it is heavily concentrated: 89% of funding—about $38 million—went to finance products tied to stablecoin use cases, such as payments and fiat-crypto exchanges. Early-stage deals accounted for $13 million, with most activity clustered around pre-seed and seed rounds, underscoring the limited depth of growth capital. Series A funding returned modestly in 2025 after a slowdown the previous year, with its first deal in two years, according to the report. The rebound masks an ecosystem still dominated by early-stage bets and a narrow focus on stablecoin-driven payments. That imbalance points to a market still in its formative phase, where startup formation is accelerating faster than scale capital. “A wave of stablecoin-focused startups is driving increased investment activity across the ecosystem,” said Tak Lee, chief executive officer and managing partner at Hashed Emergent. “This momentum led finance to dominate. Consumer adoption has also surged, further cementing Nigeria’s position as a global stablecoin hub.” The funding concentration mirrors a wider shift in Nigeria’s crypto market away from speculation toward utility. Stablecoin adoption is driving much of the activity, with deposits growing more than 9,000% between 2018 and 2025, while on-chain transaction value rose 56% year-on-year to $92 billion, according to the report. Despite the rebound, the deal volume still tilts to traditional funding avenues, signalling that global venture capital attention has yet to fully return to Nigeria’s Web3 sector. Nigerian Web3 startups recorded 82 deals in 2025, up from 72 in 2024, according to the report. Yet, 73 of those deals were grants, with just one Series A round recorded in 2025. The remaining deals were spread across seed, pre-seed, and token sales, highlighting the early-stage skew and reliance on crypto-based funding rounds. Sector performance also fell short in 2025. While the finance sector dominated, infrastructure-first startups, including those building stablecoin rails, developer, and payment interoperability tools, raised only $4 million in 2025, down from $11 million recorded in 2024, their peak in the last five years, the report noted. Nigeria’s Web3 entertainment sector, including gaming and social apps, declined to $1 million, down by 50% from 2024. Investor interest remained concentrated around stablecoin infrastructure, cross-border payments, and crypto-fiat withdrawal services, with limited appetite for emerging categories like gaming, creator platforms, or AI-driven infrastructure. The shift to utility as trading cools Crypto usage patterns are also changing. Withdrawal and deposit volumes for both fiat and crypto declined in 2025, signalling a cooling in speculative trading activity, according to the report. More Nigerians are using digital currencies, especially stablecoins, for remittance payments. According to the report, remittance flows between Nigeria and other countries expanded rapidly across intra-African and global corridors, recording transfers to and from Ghana, Kenya, the UK, Canada, China, and parts of Europe. Stablecoins are functioning as a payment rail rather than a store of value. The report shows that Nigerians recorded an 83% withdrawal-to-deposit ratio on exchanges; out of every $100 received in wallets, about $83 is quickly withdrawn, signalling that stablecoins are becoming money in transit, as users treat them as payment and transactional means, rather than savings. Get The Best African Tech Newsletters In Your Inbox Select your country Nigeria Ghana Kenya South Africa Egypt Morocco Tunisia Algeria Libya Sudan Ethiopia Somalia Djibouti Eritrea Uganda Tanzania Rwanda Burundi Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Central African Republic Chad Cameroon Gabon Equatorial Guinea São Tomé and Príncipe Angola Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Namibia Lesotho Eswatini Mozambique Madagascar Mauritius Seychelles Comoros Cape Verde Guinea-Bissau Senegal The Gambia Guinea Sierra Leone Liberia Côte d’Ivoire Burkina Faso Mali Niger Benin Togo Other Select your gender Male Female Others TC Daily TC Events Next wave Entering Tech Subscribe Regulation advances, but clarity lags Across Africa, regulators in countries like Kenya, Ghana, and Rwanda are moving toward formal oversight of digital assets. Nigeria has also shifted toward regulation after years of sidelining crypto firms from accessing the formal financial system. Yet, clarity remains uneven. Nigeria’s Investment and Securities Act, passed in March 2025, formally recognised digital assets as securities under the oversight of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). However, a February Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) white paper introduced a broader approach for crypto oversight. Nigeria created the Virtual Asset Regulatory Council (VARC), a multi-agency coordinating body for non-security virtual assets not under the SEC’s purview, including payment tokens, exchange tokens, stablecoins, utility tokens, and other digital representations of value. The country designated the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor and the Executive Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), the country’s tax authority, as co-chairs of the agency, overseeing payment-linked activities in the digital asset sector. On March 31, the CBN launched a supervisory pilot programme to monitor activities of stablecoin issuers, exchanges, and stablecoin-based payment processors—including Flutterwave and Paystack—for compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing standards. According to both the Investments and Securities Act (2025) and the VARA white paper, the SEC retains authority over tokenised securities. Yet, the capital markets regulator has also raised minimum capital requirements for Digital Asset exchanges (DAXs), which operate businesses tied to fiat-crypto withdrawals and payments, and now have to meet a ₦2 billion ($1.4 million) capital threshold. Digital Asset Custodians responsible for safeguarding users’ crypto assets are also subject to the same ₦2 billion ($1.4 million) capital requirement, raising entry barriers and deepening uncertainty around fragmented policies and the scope of regulatory oversight. “While progress on regulation has been slower than expected, the foundation of the ecosystem remains strong, driven by resilient founders and builders who continue to create, adapt, and push the space forward,” said Lee. “There are clear signs of progress, with increased engagement between stakeholders and regulators. One thing is clear: Nigeria remains an anchor for Web3 and
Read MoreKenya wants lenders to prove borrowers can repay before approving loans
Kenyan regulators will now require lenders to prove borrowers can repay before issuing loans, a major shift in a market defined by instant loan approvals through mobile apps and automated scoring systems. The new rules are contained in a March 2026 Financial Consumer Protection Framework draft backed by the Central Bank of Kenya, the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) and the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), and would apply across banks, fintechs and mobile money providers. The proposed rules would fundamentally change how credit works in one of Africa’s most active digital lending markets. Kenya has more than 227 licenced digital credit providers, but default rates have drawn sustained regulatory concern. The framework is the regulators’ attempt to address a market that expanded faster than the rules governing it. It would require lenders to check income, expenses and existing debt and document whether a borrower can afford a loan before issuing it, applying the same requirement across banks, fintechs and mobile money providers. Presently, lenders increase borrowing limits based on a customer’s repayment history, without fully assessing their ability to take on additional debt. “A Financial Services Provider (FSP) shall not provide a credit product… unless they have first undertaken a reasonable assessment to confirm the retail consumer’s ability to repay the credit without financial hardship,” the draft noted. Lenders must base that assessment on “appropriately reliable information” about a borrower’s financial position, including income, expenses and existing obligations. The requirement sets a baseline for how credit is issued, limiting the use of models that rely primarily on behavioural data or predictive scoring. Kenya’s credit market spans a wide range of providers. Banks such as KCB Bank Kenya, Equity Bank Kenya and Co-operative Bank of Kenya offer digital loans through mobile channels while operating under prudential regulation and established credit assessment processes. Alongside them are telecom-led products like Safaricom’s M-Shwari and Fuliza, which extend credit directly through mobile money platforms. Standalone digital lenders such as Tala and Branch MFB rely on app-based onboarding and automated decision-making. The lending market has expanded rapidly, but regulatory oversight has not kept pace. The Central Bank has so far licenced 227 digital credit providers following a clean-up of previously unregulated apps. As of February 2026, licenced lenders had disbursed 7.5 million loans worth KES 133.5 billion ($1.03 billion), reflecting the scale of mobile-based credit uptake. Default rates, particularly on small loans, have drawn regulatory concern. Data from the Central Bank shows that loans below KES 1,000 recorded default rates of more than 80%, while loans between KES 1,000 and KES 5,000 recorded default rates of about 69%. Larger digital loans perform better, but overall default rates for digital lenders have been reported as high as 40%, more than double those in the banking sector. The draft framework moves to standardise expectations across these providers by introducing a common requirement for affordability and suitability. Digital lenders typically approve loans using alternative data such as mobile money transactions, airtime usage and device metadata, with decisions made in seconds and little verification of income or expenses. Under the proposed rules, lenders would need to document how each loan aligns with a borrower’s financial capacity and assess whether the product is appropriate for that borrower. The framework also highlighted concerns around over-indebtedness, hidden fees, misuse of data and uneven consumer safeguards. It seeks to limit the build-up of unsustainable debt rather than manage defaults after the fact by requiring affordability checks at origination. The proposal also links loan origination to lenders’ handling of repayment difficulties. Firms would be expected to engage borrowers who show signs of distress and consider options such as restructuring or deferred payments before taking enforcement action. The framework applies across the financial sector, covering banks, mobile money operators and digital lenders. It sets common standards on disclosure, complaint handling, product design and digital platforms. If adopted, the rules would require lenders to not only justify loan issuance, but also the decision driving it.
Read MoreAXIAN’s Benjamin Toulouze says CVCs can move faster than VCs
Benjamin Toulouze, the head of corporate venture capital (CVC) at Axian Group, a multinational conglomerate, spent most of his career as a banker at Société Générale, France’s third-largest bank by total assets, working across France and several African markets. These days, he runs the CVC arm at AXIAN Investment, the investment arm of the Madagascar-headquartered AXIAN Group. Based in Dubai, his team of four is split between the UAE and Antananarivo. Toulouze got the green light to launch the corporate VC unit in late 2021, making it one of the first CVC vehicles from an African group. Four years in, AXIAN Investment has invested in 33 startups directly and holds stakes in 38 funds. Its direct portfolio includes MaxAB in Egypt, LipaLater in East Africa, Djamo in Côte d’Ivoire, Curacel, Anda in Angola, WideBot AI, and Nucleon Security in Morocco. Cheque sizes range from $50,000 for very early ideas up to $1.5 million in total exposure per company. AXIAN Group might not be a household name in African tech, but its footprint is significant. The pan-African conglomerate, founded half a century ago by the Hiridjee family, operates in 32 countries across Africa and the Indian Ocean, with interests in telecoms, financial services, energy, real estate, and innovation. Its telecoms arm was ranked 74th on the Financial Times’ 2025 list of Africa’s fastest-growing companies. The firm takes minority stakes of 1% to 5%, deliberately small, Toulouze says, to avoid conflicts with AXIAN’s operating businesses and to keep trust with founders and co-investors. It has not yet had an exit, but as the parent group builds out data centre infrastructure through its STELLAR-IX brand across four markets, the CVC is leaning heavily into AI, cybersecurity, digital assets, and what Toulouze calls the “sovereignty issue”; African countries controlling their own data. In our conversation, Toulouze explains why his team chose Dubai and Madagascar over Lagos or Nairobi, how he pitches against the “CVCs move slowly” objection, why he thinks 1–5% stakes are an important feature, how he sources in North Africa after living there, and what he looks for in founders. This interview has been edited lightly for clarity and length. You started your career as a banker in France before moving into venture capital. How did that transition happen? I actually wanted to be an investor before being a banker. I started my career in France, in Paris, at a big audit firm doing acquisition due diligence, standard CPA work at the time for big French groups listed on the CAC 40. I worked for a fund that wanted to acquire a startup in France. That was in 2004. From then on, I wanted to be an investor. But for different reasons, I got very good opportunities as a banker, first in France and then in different countries. But the dream of being close to the entrepreneur was already there. I came to AXIAN in 2019 with this idea, but it was a bit early. At the end of 2021, we got a green light internally to launch one of the very first corporate VCs from an African group. I enjoy it a lot. You’re based in Dubai, AXIAN is in Madagascar. Those aren’t typical tech markets. Why not operate from Lagos, Nairobi, Cairo, or Johannesburg? We are four at the corporate VC. Two of my teammates are still based in Madagascar, and we are two in Dubai. The point is, we are close to all the markets, including the big operational tech ecosystems in Africa. But the goal is to be everywhere, to be in touch with the entire ecosystem. That’s entrepreneurs, but also venture capitalists locally and internationally. The big tech companies and we have good examples like Flutterwave in Lagos, Moniepoint, FairMoney, or in Egypt, MNT-Halan, are based in their own countries, but they go beyond. That’s what we do. We’re ready to go and be as close as possible to different companies. All these big countries are our major zones of investment: Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, West Africa, and South Africa. We stay close to all these ecosystems, and we go on-site as soon as possible. We don’t see any issue with not being there permanently. We have a big network in different countries now, so it’s fine. A lot of corporate VC professionals I’ve spoken to say CVCs don’t move as fast as typical VCs or that there can be strings attached. How do you convince a founder that AXIAN is the best partner? We’ve already got these kinds of objections. The first part of my answer is that at AXIAN, we have a very strong entrepreneurship mindset. We are ready to decide quite quickly. Sometimes we move faster than the regular VCs. I don’t have any internal barriers to moving forward. If I need to get all my investment committee members for a decision, I can get one very quickly. Most of the time, when we take time, it’s because we are still questioning the business model and want to go deeper. In terms of governance and decision-making, we don’t have any issues. On convincing the entrepreneur, interestingly, entrepreneurs are really keen to add corporate VCs to their cap tables. Because we have a complementary value proposition to regular VCs. We know the operations, and most of the time we come from the operations themselves. We know the challenges of launching a company, of keeping it striving, of day-to-day operations, HR, accounting, organisation, and strategic vision. One of the values we bring is our experience as intrapreneurs or entrepreneurs who have led either divisions or departments within a very large group. The second thing is, as a corporate VC, we can bring potential new markets for the startup. It’s not a commitment, but when we invest in a company, we try to push for a solid partnership between the startup and the AXIAN Group—synergies, working together, going in the same direction. That’s why entrepreneurs are interested in working with us. We have a complementary value proposition,
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