Toheeb Popoola found Photoshop by accident. It changed his life.
If you ask Toheeb Popoola what he does, he won’t give you the one-word answer people expect. “I like to just call myself a creative,” he says. Popoola traces that identity back to his childhood, when his parents wanted him to become an engineer. “That was when I started asking, ‘Why should I study this? Why should I become an engineer?’” After secondary school, he applied to study Mass Communication at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) in 2012 but was not admitted. He tried again the following year, but when that attempt proved unsuccessful, he decided not to delay his education any longer. Instead, he accepted admission to study Business Management at the same university. Before he could begin, however, financial realities pushed him in a different direction. As his family’s financial situation worsened, earning an income became just as important as pursuing a university education. Around that time, his father came home with a laptop installed with Adobe Photoshop 7.0, unaware that it would shape his son’s career. Curious, Popoola says he searched online to find out what Photoshop was, then began teaching himself through trial and error. Internet access was limited, and tutorials were scarce, but his father encouraged his growing interest by bringing home other creative software, including Cinema 4D and 3ds Max. As he experimented with motion design, he discovered something he had not expected: a sense of purpose. “I think this was where I went from zero to 90,” he says. “I realised I want to be solving problems.” By November 2013, the family’s financial pressure had become impossible to ignore. When a friend working at the e-commerce platform Jumia could not confirm whether the company was hiring, Popoola searched online for the email address of its design lead and sent a cold email. “I sent him an email telling him, ‘I can do this and that. I would like to work with you guys,’” he says. He expected nothing in return but received a reply that same evening inviting him for an interview the following morning. He travelled to Lekki, a commercial and residential district in Lagos, where the interview ended with an immediate job offer. In November 2013, Popoola joined Jumia in his first professional design role. Although he enjoyed the work, he quickly realised the salary would not be enough to sustain him. “I wasn’t there to have fun,” he says. “I was there to work and make money.” Around the same period, Popoola says he feared he would lose his job after his manager warned that either he or a struggling colleague whose workload he had been helping to manage would be laid off. Before his manager announced who would be leaving, he says he received a phone call from digital pay-TV company Montage Cable TV, which was looking for a 3D animator. He was invited to interview immediately. At the interview, he says he used Cinema 4D, which he had taught himself, to recreate a tutorial he had studied the previous week. “They were quite shocked,” he recalls. “They were like, ‘We’re going to hire this boy.’” He says the company offered him a monthly salary of ₦150,000 ($110)—more than double what he was earning at Jumia. “In my mind, I was screaming,” Popoola says. “But I smiled and said, ‘Let’s make it ₦200,000 ($147)’” The company declined his counteroffer but assured him it would support him as he continued his education. he accepted the offer. Rather than wait for Jumia to announce who would be laid off, he resumed work at Montage. Looking back, he says he wishes he had handled his departure differently. “It was my first time resigning,” Popoola says. “I don’t think I handled that very well. I should have done better.” At Montage, Popoola became the company’s first designer, building its visual identity from the ground up while sharpening his skills in 3D design and visual effects. “It was a really nice time for someone like me that liked to experiment,” Popoola says. “I had a computer that was really fast, so I became really good at 3D.” Using his first salary from Montage, Popoola says he was finally able to pay the fees for the Business Management admission he had secured earlier and enrolled at university in 2014, graduating in 2018. Finding a place in advertising Outside work, Popoola spent much of his free time creating personal projects and sharing them on Facebook. One of those posts caught the attention of the creative director at Centre Spread, a Lagos-based advertising agency. It led to a job offer. “I was told I would be the digital executive. The word ‘executive’ to me then was like, ah, something very big. So I was so excited,” Popoola recalls. Centre Spread ushered Popoola into the advertising industry, where he says he worked on campaigns for brands including Kia Motors Nigeria and earned a reputation as the “Pitch Doctor.” “I was in charge of pitching. That was how I slowly started building this whole ‘Pitch Doctor’ name. Anytime we wanted to win a new account, they would say, ‘Let’s bring this guy in.’ I would jump on it, do my magic, and then go back to my normal work,” he says. Popoola says he first applied to X3M Ideas, a Nigerian creative agency, while he was still at Montage Cable TV but was unsuccessful. After leaving Centre Spread, he applied again and joined the agency, which he had long admired, in September 2015. “X3M was where I sharpened my design and thinking skills,” Popoola says. “I had to step up my design game and my thinking game.” At X3M, he worked on campaigns for brands across a range of industries, including Dangote, Chivas Regal, Jameson and Martell, further cementing his reputation as the Pitch Doctor. “I wanted to do work that would compete with the guys outside Nigeria. I didn’t want to just do design,” he says. In 2017, Popoola joined DDB Lagos, the Nigerian affiliate of
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👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – Crypto winter at Luno
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Happy midweek. Standard Chartered Kenya is about to become a tenant in its own headquarters. Business Daily reported that the lender is working through bids to sell the Westlands property while leasing back the space it still needs, another sign that many banks are deciding they don’t need to own as much real estate as they once did. Let’s look at the key events across African tech yesterday. Become smarter about tech and commerce in Francophone Africa, and the policies shaping them. Read our newsletter here first or subscribe below. Subscribe Layoffs at Luno Airtel Money Kenya appoints acting MD Sport powers DStv comeback Kenya drafts labour policy around AI World Wide Web 3 Opportunities Layoffs UK-headquartered crypto firm Luno cuts global workforce by 20% Image Source: Tenor There was a time when crypto exchanges were obsessed with getting everyone to buy Bitcoin. Luno is still very much in the retail trading business, but it is trying to build additional revenue streams beyond individual crypto traders; its staff is the price to pay for that restructuring. What happened? Luno, the UK-headquartered crypto firm operating a regional base in South Africa, is cutting 20% of its global workforce as it reorganises the company. According to local publication TechCentral, part of Luno’s South African team was affected. Why now? The company said it is restructuring after investing heavily in automation, and wants to build products and infrastructure for banks and other large businesses. Explain like I’m five: Luno makes money every time people buy or sell crypto on its platform. When Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are rising, excitement pulls more people into the market and trading volumes climb, but when prices fall, most people fold their hands. So, no trading. Luno pointed to that as its reason for the cuts. Bitcoin slipped below $59,000 in June, its lowest level since September 2024, while Ethereum, Solana, XRP and Dogecoin all posted steeper weekly declines. Those price drops tend to reduce trading activity, making it harder for exchanges that depend on transactions. Not the first time: In 2023, after Bitcoin crashed from nearly $69,000 to below $17,000, the company cut 35% of its workforce during the crypto winter. This time might be different, though. The 2023 layoffs were about surviving a market crash, while the 2026 layoffs are about changing the business itself. Getting paid in cedis just got easier for African businesses operating in Ghana. Fincra now issues dedicated GHS virtual accounts to enable businesses to collect payments. See how Fincra GHS virtual accounts work. Fintech Airtel Money Kenya replaces former managing director Bonke Michael, Airtel Money Kenya’s acting managing director. Image Source: LinkedIn. Airtel Money Kenya, the mobile money challenger to Safaricom’s M-PESA, is undergoing an important leadership transition as the broader Airtel Money business, which operates in 14 African markets, prepares for its anticipated London public listing this year. The mobile money operator, owned by the telco Airtel, has appointed Bonke Michael as its acting managing director, three days after former boss Anne Kinuthia-Otieno resigned from the role. What happened? Airtel Money Kenya has promoted Michael to acting managing director after nearly a decade at the company. The appointment comes at the moment Airtel Money is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) later this year. Between the lines: Under Anne Kinuthia-Otieno, the company’s total income rose to KES 1.68 billion ($12 million) in 2025 from KES 1.09 billion ($8.4 million) a year earlier, while profit after tax nearly doubled to KES 143 million ($1.1 million). Michael will now have to prove those gains weren’t a one-off and keep Airtel Money growing as it heads towards a London IPO. The bigger picture: This appointment says as much about Airtel’s IPO strategy. When Kinuthia-Otieno took over in 2021, Airtel Money controlled just 3.1% of Kenya’s mobile money market. By March 2026, that figure grew to 10.9%, while market leader M-PESA’s share fell from 96.8% to 89.1%. Kenya now has 53.4 million active mobile money subscriptions. Zoom out: Airtel Money Kenya likely also chose a veteran in the role because, with its upcoming IPO plans, it needs someone with institutional memory who can help steer the process in the near term. The mobile money operator is seeking a $10 billion valuation, hoping to convince global investors that it is building an investable business. Winning investor confidence will be Michael’s biggest test in the role. Download PalmPay. Bank smarter. Transaction Guard lets you set single, daily, or monthly transaction limits. Whenever a transaction exceeds your chosen limit, facial verification is required before it can be completed, helping to prevent unauthorised transfers. With PalmPay, you stay in control. Learn more. Streaming Canal+ is fixing MultiChoice with DStv Stream and sport Image Source: Tenor If you paid for a DStv subscription in the last ten months, congratulations, you’re a part of the company’s growth numbers. Ten months after taking over MultiChoice, Canal+, the French media giant, has posted numbers that suggest its turnaround is working. Subscriber acquisition across MultiChoice markets rose 40% year-on-year, while adjusted operating profit surged 160% to €143 million ($162 million). In South Africa, June just recorded the strongest month for new subscriber acquisitions in a decade. What’s happening? But this isn’t just a story of cheaper decoders. Canal+ has been pushing DStv Stream, a version of the service that needs no satellite dish, just an internet connection and a subscription. The company also slashed decoder prices for new subscribers by up to 40%, removing a big barrier to entry in African pay-TV. It also expanded its physical sales network by more than 15% since March, betting that in many markets, people still sign up for TV at a shop, not on a website. What else? On content, the French owner is doubling down on live sport: MultiChoice’s one category that still commands reliable paying audiences. It has locked in long-term rights to South Africa’s Premier Soccer League and
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Africa no longer wants to import technology. It wants to write the rules
On Thursday, July 23, the International Conference Centre in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, was filled with the familiar language of telecommunications—spectrum, standards, cybersecurity, satellite networks—but underneath the technical vocabulary was something much larger unfolding. For perhaps the first time in decades, African ministers were not gathered to discuss how the continent could adopt the next wave of technology. They were debating how to influence it before someone else did. Over two days at the African Telecommunications Union’s Conference of Plenipotentiaries, officials from across the continent argued that Africa has spent too long importing not just digital infrastructure but the rules that govern it. Now, they said, the continent wants to help write those rules itself. “Our continent must not remain a passive consumer of technologies, standards and platforms developed without sufficient consideration for African priorities,” Sid Ali Zerrouki, Algeria’s minister of post and telecommunications, told delegates. “Africa must become a recognised architect of their design, governance and responsible use.” The statement captured a broader shift taking place across Africa. For years, conversations about the continent’s digital future centred on expanding internet access, building mobile networks and attracting investment from global technology companies. Those goals remain important. But as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, satellites and cybersecurity become instruments of economic power and geopolitical influence, African governments argue that the continent can no longer afford to simply implement rules written elsewhere. That sense of urgency drew ministers, regulators and technology leaders from across Africa to Abuja ahead of next year’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference in Doha, where countries will negotiate the standards and policies that increasingly determine how the world’s digital economy operates. Africa’s push reflects a broader shift in how governments around the world now view technology. Countries are no longer treating digital infrastructure as simply an engine for economic growth but as a strategic asset that underpins national competitiveness, security and global influence. India has invested heavily in developing its own digital public infrastructure, known as the India Stack. The European Union has become one of the world’s most influential digital regulators through legislation such as major laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), and the Digital Services Act. The United States and China increasingly view semiconductors, AI and cloud computing as strategic assets as important as oil or military capability. African governments argue they cannot afford to remain spectators. “For too long, global technology policies have been developed without adequate representation of African priorities and perspectives,” Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima said in remarks delivered on his behalf by Senator Ibrahim Hadejia, Deputy Chief of Staff to the President. “That must change.” The argument is becoming easier to make because Africa’s economic weight is growing. According to the GSMA, mobile technologies generated about $220 billion in economic value across Africa in 2024—roughly 8% of the continent’s GDP. Within five years, that figure is expected to climb to $270 billion. The continent is also becoming the world’s youngest digital market. More than six out of every ten Africans are under 25, creating what industry executives increasingly describe as the largest generation of digital consumers entering the global economy. Collectively, that should give Africa influence. Individually, however, most African countries remain small players in international negotiations. That is why unity became the recurring theme in Abuja. “We must continue to invest in technical preparation, strengthen regional cooperation and speak with one voice where our interests align,” Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, said. Achieving that unity, however, will not be easy. African countries approach technology governance from very different starting points. Some prioritise privacy and data protection, while others focus on attracting investment, encouraging innovation or expanding digital inclusion. Legal systems differ, economic interests diverge, and even data protection frameworks vary significantly between countries such as Nigeria and South Africa. Economic priorities also divide the continent. Countries grappling with debt crises, including Zambia, Ghana and Ethiopia, pushed for more aggressive global debt restructuring, pressing both Western bondholders and bilateral lenders such as China for broader relief. By contrast, countries with stronger credit profiles, including Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Benin, adopted a more cautious stance. Keen to preserve access to international capital markets and avoid credit-rating downgrades, they resisted sweeping debt-relief demands that could unsettle investors. The contrast underscored how differing economic realities often make it difficult for African countries to present a unified position, even when they face common structural challenges. Yet speakers at the conference insisted the alternative—continuing to negotiate separately—would leave Africa reacting to rules written elsewhere. The conference ended with delegates adopting the Abuja Declaration on Meaningful Connectivity, a roadmap that commits member states to expanding affordable internet access, strengthening cybersecurity, improving digital inclusion and coordinating more closely on technology policy before the ITU conference in Doha. Nigeria also left the conference with a more prominent diplomatic role. The country formally assumed the chairmanship of the Conference of Plenipotentiaries for the next four years, while Zambia’s Kezias Kazuba Mwale was elected the next Secretary-General of the African Telecommunications Union. More than routine leadership changes, the appointments reflected Africa’s growing determination to speak with greater influence in shaping the global digital agenda. “Africa will not simply participate in the digital future,” Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Secretary-General of the ITU, told delegates. “Africa will help shape it—not only as a consumer of technology, but as a creator, an innovator, a standard setter and a trusted global partner.” Whether that ambition becomes reality remains uncertain. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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Egyptian startup Fincart raises $2.8 million to expand AI commerce platform
Fincart, an Egyptian startup building an AI-powered operating system for e-commerce merchants, has raised a $2.8 million seed round to expand across Africa and the Middle East after pivoting beyond logistics software into merchant finance and business automation. Launch Africa, a pan-African venture capital fund, and Antler MENAP, the early-stage fund focused on the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan regions, co-led the funding round, with participation from Yango Ventures, Five35 Ventures, Bluestream Capital, Hi2 Global, Kalahari Venture Labs, and other unnamed investors. The raise comes 18 months after Fincart’s undisclosed pre-seed round and coincides with the startup’s pivot from a logistics management platform into an AI-powered operating system for e-commerce merchants. Egypt’s e-commerce market is projected to grow to $20.15 billion by 2031, creating opportunities for startups building software and financial infrastructure for merchants. Fincart said it will use the funding to scale its commercial and tech teams, invest in product development, and forge new commercial partnerships to strengthen its position in its home market. “With our strategy focused on strengthening the e-commerce ecosystem, this investment will enable us to deepen our partnerships, enhance our AI-powered platform, expand our infrastructure, and accelerate our growth across Africa and the Middle East,” said Mostafa Masry, Fincart’s co-founder and chief executive officer. Founded in 2023 by Masry and Nihal Ali, Fincart began by helping online merchants manage last-mile deliveries and reconcile cash-on-delivery payments. Over time, the company has expanded into a merchant operating system that combines logistics management, embedded financing and AI-powered customer engagement. It noted that merchants on the platform can connect to more than 40 shipping providers and access short-term cash advances. According to Masry, the pivot was driven by merchants’ reliance on a myriad of software to manage shipping, customer support, marketing, and payments. That fragmentation, he noted, left valuable business data siloed across systems, which made it harder for merchants to automate operations. Fincart’s response was to consolidate those functions into a single AI-powered platform. “Everything we build starts with sitting down with merchants and understanding where they’re losing time, money, or customers,” said Ali. “We built Fincart to replace all of that with a single control panel where merchants can sell more, deliver faster, and manage their customers, without the friction of stitching tools together.” Fincart operates in a market where regional players such as MaxAB-Wasoko and global commerce platforms like Shopify provide merchant services to e-commerce platforms. The company said it has onboarded more than 450 merchants and enterprise customers and has processed nearly EGP 1 billion (nearly $20 million) in merchandise value through automated shipping and cash reconciliation workflows. Fincart generates revenue from shipping fees and tiered software subscriptions that range from EGP 1,584 ($31.2) to EGP 7,199 ($141.96) monthly, depending on the features merchants use. Fincart said part of the funding will finance its expansion beyond Egypt from 2027. For Launch Africa, the investment is a bet on the region’s commerce infrastructure rather than a single startup. “Egypt’s e-commerce market is one of Africa’s most compelling infrastructure opportunities: high volume, CoD-dominant, and deeply underserved at the SME level,” said Lina Kacyem, investment manager at Launch Africa. “The organic, referral-driven growth tells you everything about product-market fit, and we’re excited to support Fincart’s expansion across Egypt and into new African markets as co-lead investors in this round.” True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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Cape Verde got the world’s attention. Francophone African tech still needs it.
28 juillet 2026 Hello , Welcome back to Francophone Weekly by TechCabal, your weekly deep dive into the tech ecosystem across French-speaking Africa. For readers who want to understand Francophone Africa beyond headlines—through markets, startups, and systems. New editions of the newsletter will land directly in your inbox every Tuesday at 12 PM WAT. By default, this newsletter is in French. If you’re reading this in your email inbox, click the “Read in English” button below to switch to the English version. If you’re reading on our website, you can either click the button below or toggle the language selector at the top right-hand side of the page to view the English edition. Read in English Le Cap-Vert n’a jamais été facile à vendre. Dix îles volcaniques, 527 000 habitants, et une langue que presque personne d’autre sur le continent ne parle comme première langue. Puis les Requins Bleus se sont qualifiés pour leur première Coupe du Monde, et ce mois de juin, l’équipe est allée encore plus loin : un match nul sans but face à l’Espagne le 15 juin, un 2-2 contre l’Uruguay le 21 juin, un blanchissage de l’Arabie Saoudite le 26 juin, et un huitième de finale contre l’Argentine de Lionel Messi le 3 juillet. Le pays est devenu la plus petite nation à avoir jamais atteint un tour à élimination directe en Coupe du Monde. Tous ceux qui avaient ignoré le Cap-Vert pendant cinq décennies savaient soudainement exactement où le trouver. Les mêmes forces qui ont maintenu le Cap-Vert dans l’invisibilité jusqu’il y a trois semaines maintiennent en ce moment même l’économie bleue de l’Afrique de l’Ouest francophone dans l’invisibilité. L’Afrique francophone passe des années à faire face à un problème de visibilité similaire. La région abrite certaines des économies à la croissance la plus rapide du continent et un vivier de fondateurs en pleine expansion. Pourtant, les réseaux d’investisseurs, les écosystèmes d’accélérateurs et les médias tech qui façonnent les récits des startups africaines restent massivement anglophones. Comme pour le Cap-Vert avant son parcours en Coupe du Monde, beaucoup de marchés francophones ne sont pas invisibles parce qu’il ne s’y passe rien ; ils sont invisibles parce que les personnes qui allouent attention et capital regardent ailleurs en premier. Entrons dans le vif du sujet. 1. Une colonisation de marché conçue pour l’isolement Des supporters arrivent avant le match du groupe H de la Coupe du monde de la FIFA 2026 opposant l’Uruguay au Cap-Vert au Miami Stadium, le 21 juin. Photographe : James Jackman/Bloomberg Le Cap-Vert était inhabité jusqu’à l’arrivée des navires portugais au XVe siècle, qui ont transformé l’archipel en hub de ravitaillement pour les routes commerciales atlantiques. L’indépendance n’est venue qu’en 1975, après plus de cinq siècles de domination portugaise. Ce qui en a émergé est une nation créole : lusophone, profondément connectée à sa diaspora, et économiquement orientée vers l’Europe bien plus que vers ses voisins ouest-africains. Deux fois plus de Cap-Verdiens vivent aujourd’hui à l’étranger — principalement aux États-Unis, en Europe et au Brésil — que sur les îles elles-mêmes. Cette orientation vers l’extérieur continue de façonner la façon dont le pays s’insère dans les marchés africains. Le Cap-Vert partage un océan, des dynamiques migratoires et des défis de développement avec le Sénégal, la Côte d’Ivoire, la Guinée et le reste du littoral ouest-africain. Et pourtant, il opère dans un univers linguistique et institutionnel différent de presque tous ces pays. Il commerce à peine avec les pays qui lui sont les plus proches et utilise une langue officielle différente de presque tous ceux à sa portée. L’argent parle d’abord anglais, à l’échelle mondiale. Sur ce continent, les deux autres langues qui permettent à un investisseur d’entrer dans une salle de conseil d’administration sont le français et l’arabe. Le Cap-Vert n’a ni l’un ni l’autre. La taxe sur la visibilité Le portugais isole le Cap-Vert à peu près de la même façon que le français a isolé la zone de l’Union Économique et Monétaire Ouest-Africaine (UEMOA) à huit pays. Vingt-neuf pays africains utilisent le français comme langue officielle, faisant du continent le premier espace francophone au monde, et la zone économique francophone représente près d’un quart du produit intérieur brut (PIB) mondial, selon un rapport de 2022de l’Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. L’UEMOA seule abrite plus de 140 millions de personnes et certaines des économies à la croissance la plus rapide du continent. Et pourtant, quand les investisseurs mondiaux pensent « tech africaine », la carte mentale par défaut reste remarquablement étroite : Lagos, Nairobi, Le Cap, Le Caire. Ce déficit ne tient pas uniquement au PIB ou à la population. Il tient aux effets de réseau. Les accélérateurs qui produisent les startups africaines reconnues à l’échelle mondiale, les fonds de capital-risque qui fixent les références de valorisation, les podcasts et newsletters qui façonnent les récits des fondateurs, et les conférences où se nouent les partenariats opèrent massivement en anglais. Un fondateur à Abidjan ou à Ouagadougou pitche souvent dans une deuxième langue à des investisseurs qui n’ont jamais eu à en apprendre une. C’est ce que j’appelle une taxe sur la visibilité : le travail supplémentaire exigé des fondateurs francophones pour devenir lisibles aux yeux du capital mondial. On la voit dans la façon dont beaucoup de startups francophones à succès constituent des équipes bilingues anormalement tôt. On la voit dans le nombre croissant de fondateurs qui s’incorporent en dehors de leurs marchés d’origine pour simplifier les conversations de levée de fonds. Et on la voit dans l’émergence d’opérateurs panafricains comme Wave, Djamo, Julaya et InTouch, qui ont dû construire des produits et des partenariats capables de traverser à la fois les environnements d’affaires francophones et anglophones. Pourtant, rien de tout cela ne s’est traduit par une échelle de financement plus large. Selon les données de Weetracker, les économies africaines francophones ont crû à un rythme annuel de 4,9 % entre 2012 et 2018, contre 2,9 % pour le reste du continent — et ont quand même perdu largement
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Airtel Money wants a $1 billion IPO. Can London deliver?
Airtel Africa has finally settled on where it wants to take one of Africa’s biggest fintech businesses public. The bigger question is whether that market can still deliver what the company is looking for. The telecom giant has confirmed London as the preferred listing venue for its mobile money business, saying the exchange offers one of the world’s deepest pools of institutional capital. “We believe a London listing will provide access to a broad international investor base and support our ambition to unlock the long-term value of one of Africa’s leading fintech platforms,” Sunil Taldar, chief executive officer of Airtel Africa, said during the company’s earnings announcement on July, 23, 2026. The company is reportedly seeking to raise between $1 billion and $2 billion at a $10 billion valuation. On paper, London should be capable of financing a deal of that size. It remains one of the world’s largest financial centres, with thousands of listed companies and trillions of dollars in market capitalisation. Yet Airtel Money’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) arrives at a time when the London Stock Exchange is attempting to reverse years of subdued IPO activity. The exchange has spent years losing listings, liquidity, and prestige to rivals in New York, Asia and the Middle East. That raises a more difficult question than where Airtel Money will list: is London’s IPO market now too small for a billion-dollar African fintech offering, or has its recent decline been more about a shortage of companies than a shortage of capital? London’s IPO numbers On the surface, the numbers suggest Airtel faces an uphill battle. London’s IPO market has endured several years of decline. In the third quarter of 2025, it fell out of Bloomberg’s ranking of the world’s top 20 IPO markets, dropping to 23rd after being overtaken by exchanges in Mexico and Singapore. The weakness has not simply been about the number of companies choosing London. It has been about the size of the deals. Only 18 companies listed in London in 2024, raising a combined £777.7 million ($1.03 billion). Airtel Money is reportedly seeking as much as $2 billion, meaning its fundraising target alone could exceed the amount raised by every company that listed on the exchange throughout the previous year. Activity improved in 2025, with 23 IPOs raising £2.1 billion ($2.79 billion), according to EY-Parthenon, a global strategy consulting organisation and part of the Ernst & Young (EY) global network. That represented a 170% increase from the previous year, but the recovery was less broad than the headline suggests. Eleven companies accounted for almost £1.9 billion ($2.53 billion) of the proceeds in the final quarter alone, meaning the rebound was driven by a handful of large transactions rather than a sustained return of IPO activity. Even then, London struggled to produce truly blockbuster offerings. Fermi Inc., a Texas-based company focused on developing electric grids, was the largest IPO in London in 2025, raising $680 million at a valuation of almost $12.5 billion. Airtel Money is reportedly looking to raise at least $320 million more than Fermi while seeking a lower valuation, a reminder that investors would have to write one of London’s largest equity cheques in recent years if the IPO proceeds as planned. The decline has also become visible in where companies are listing. Wise, a UK fintech company, announced plans to move its primary listing to New York in July 2025; British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said, in September 2025, that it intends to list its regular shares on the New York Stock Exchange. Bloomberg previously reported that Airtel Africa itself considered exchanges in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere in Europe before settling on London. Yet London may have offered advantages beyond fundraising. Airtel Africa is already listed there, many institutional investors already follow the company, and spinning off Airtel Money on the same exchange reduces the need to introduce an entirely new issuer to the market. Listing on another exchange, while potentially attracting higher fintech valuations, would also expose the company to more demanding disclosure requirements and a different investor base. As companies leave, London’s share of European IPO fundraising has steadily eroded. In 2013, UK listings accounted for more than half of all European IPO proceeds. By the third quarter of 2025, that figure had fallen to just 3%, according to Bloomberg. A capital or confidence problem? Those figures paint a picture of an exchange that has become smaller, attracted fewer companies and lost ground to competing financial centres. But they do not necessarily prove London lacks the capacity to finance Airtel Money. Annual IPO proceeds measure how much companies collectively raised in a given year. They do not measure how much capital investors have available to deploy. London remains home to some of the world’s largest pension funds. UK pension funds have steadily reduced their exposure to domestic equities, with allocations falling from 53% in 1997 to just 4.1%, according to a November 2025 Reuters report. For Airtel Money, the challenge is therefore not simply attracting investors to London, but convincing them that an African fintech deserves capital they are sitting on. Airtel Money’s business model is built on mobile money, merchant payments and digital financial services operating on top of Airtel Africa’s telecommunications network. The platform now serves 56.5 million customers, processes more than $245 billion in annualised transaction value and generated $404 million in quarterly revenue, accounting for nearly 22% of Airtel Africa’s total revenue. Those numbers help explain why Airtel Africa wants to separate the fintech business from the broader telecom group. The IPO is as much about valuation as it is about raising fresh capital. If public market investors assign Airtel Money a valuation close to the reported $10 billion, Airtel Africa would unlock value that it believes is not reflected within its broader telecom business. If investors demand a substantial discount, the company could still complete the IPO while falling short of its larger objective. Airtel’s second London test Airtel Africa’s 2019 listing offers a reminder
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Vodacom’s $548 billion mobile money business shows fintech is driving its future
Vodacom, a pan-African technology group, processed nearly $548 billion in mobile money transactions over the past year, signalling that the telecom giant’s future lies beyond phone calls and data bundles. In a trading update for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, released on Monday, the company said its mobile money platforms, including Safaricom’s M-PESA, processed nearly $548 billion in transactions over the 12 months to June 30, 2026. The milestone comes weeks after Vodacom completed its acquisition of an effective 20% stake in Safaricom, increasing its shareholding to 55% and giving it controlling ownership of East Africa’s largest telecom operator. While the South African-headquartered operator built its business on voice and data, its future growth strategy is now firmly centred on digital financial services across the continent. Vodacom’s latest quarterly trading update reveals a company undergoing a profound transformation. The Safaricom transaction not only expands its geographic footprint but also accelerates its ambition to become a leading pan-African fintech player. According to the trading update, financial services now contribute more than 22% of Group service revenue, up from 13% before the transaction, while mobile money platforms processed nearly $548 billion over the past year. Those figures signal that fintech, not traditional telecoms, is becoming the company’s primary growth engine. “This quarter marked a defining moment for Vodacom with the completion of our acquisition of a controlling stake in Safaricom,” said Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group chief executive officer (CEO). “This strategically important transaction represents a major milestone in our Vision 2030 journey, significantly enhancing the Group’s scale, diversification and long-term growth prospects.” The acquisition strengthens Vodacom’s position in Kenya through Safaricom while broadening its exposure to fast-growing digital finance markets across Ethiopia, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Lesotho, alongside its established operations in South Africa and Egypt. The deal also gives Vodacom greater access to M-PESA, Africa’s largest mobile money platform, at a time when digital payments, remittances and financial inclusion are reshaping the continent’s financial services landscape. Joosub said the stronger financial services business had prompted the company to raise its long-term ambitions. “Reflecting this stronger growth profile, we have upgraded our medium-term Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) and operating free cash flow growth targets from double-digit to early-teens growth,” he said. The company also increased its Vision 2030 revenue ambition from more than R200 billion ($12 billion) to more than R300 billion ($18 billion), reflecting confidence that fintech, digital services and higher-growth African markets will become increasingly important contributors to future earnings. While South Africa remains Vodacom’s largest and most cash-generative market, the latest results illustrate why the operator is looking across Africa for growth. Joosub said South African service revenue grew 2% during the quarter, supported by an improvement in prepaid performance. Egypt delivered one of the strongest performances across the group, with service revenue increasing 32.8% in local currency, while financial services revenue surged 73%. Vodacom’s International business, which includes Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho and Mozambique, recorded 14% normalised service revenue growth. Beyond mobile connectivity, digital services generated R7.8 billion ($467 million), representing almost 23% of Group service revenue. Financial services remain the largest component of that business. Vodacom is also expanding the role of financial technology across its markets. During the quarter, its Tanzanian operation launched what it described as Africa’s first mobile money tap-to-pay solution, allowing more than 22 million M-PESA customers to make contactless payments directly from their mobile wallets. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the company used anonymised mobile data analytics to support Ebola preparedness and public health planning, demonstrating how its digital platforms are extending beyond financial services. The Vodacom trading update noted that the acquisition of Safaricom represents more than a larger telecom footprint. It cements the company’s transition from a connectivity provider into a diversified technology business spanning mobile networks, digital platforms and financial services. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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AI is making it harder to hide income from South Africa’s taxman
For millions of South Africans, tax season still feels like an annual ritual of gathering documents, checking deductions and submitting returns. Inside the South African Revenue Service (SARS), the country’s revenue authority, however, tax season looks very different. Long before many taxpayers log into eFiling, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and advanced data analytics have already assessed risk, matched third-party information and helped determine which returns deserve closer scrutiny. What was once a labour-intensive process driven largely by manual audits is becoming a technology-powered operation fuelled by data. The shift marks one of Africa’s most significant examples of AI being deployed at scale in government. Beyond improving tax collection, it offers a glimpse into how algorithmic decision-making is reshaping public institutions and the relationship between citizens and the state. SARS has quietly become one of the continent’s most sophisticated users of AI, embedding data science across virtually every stage of tax administration, from auto-assessments and fraud detection to compliance verification and audit selection. The approach reflects a broader trend of African governments using AI not only to improve efficiency but to close revenue gaps in digital economies. “SARS uses data science, machine learning and AI as part of its broader modernisation programme to continuously innovate and improve tax compliance processes,” Siphithi Sibeko, Head of Communication and Media at SARS, told TechCabal in an interview on Monday. “The SARS strategy focuses on the customer experience and applying these capabilities to ensure that ‘tax just happens’.” The scale of the technology’s impact is already becoming visible. According to Sibeko, the SARS compliance programme contributed R304 billion ($18.2 billion) during the 2024/25 financial year. AI-assisted fraud detection and verification prevented more than R417 billion ($25 billion) in impermissible refund outflows over the past five years. Sibeko further stated that 100% of verification cases and 88.41% of complex audit cases are now selected using automated risk-assessment functionality, illustrating how algorithms have become central to identifying compliance risks. Rather than relying solely on information submitted through tax returns, SARS built a comprehensive digital picture of taxpayers by integrating data received under its statutory mandate from employers, financial institutions, medical schemes, retirement funds, insurers, investment managers and other reporting entities. It also receives information from domestic government registers, foreign tax authorities and cryptocurrency reporting frameworks. In a July 1 statement, SARS said the enhancements are designed to make tax compliance “simpler, faster and more secure” for millions of taxpayers, adding that as of 1 July 2026, more than 1.9 million taxpayers had been auto-assessed, with about R8 billion ($479 million) in refunds paid out within 72 hours. That expanding data ecosystem has become particularly important as South Africa’s e-commerce market expands. Online retail sales are projected to reach R130 billion ($7.8 billion), representing nearly 10% of total retail sales, reflecting the growing volume of digital transactions that generate taxable income and data trails. Income generated through freelancing platforms, remote work, e-commerce businesses and crypto assets often leaves digital trails that traditional tax systems struggle to follow. AI now enables SARS to analyse these complex datasets at a scale that would be impossible through manual investigation. “The focus is not on any single technology, but on a platform approach that integrates data, analytics, AI and modern compliance capabilities to make compliance easier for honest taxpayers and harder to evade for those who choose not to comply,” Sibeko told TechCabal. “We are seeing increased participation in the digital economy, which reinforces the importance of ensuring that all taxable income is declared, regardless of how or where income is earned.” SARS insists that technology is designed to support, not replace, human judgement despite the growing reliance on AI. Despite its growing reliance on AI, Sibeko noted that technology supports rather than replaces human decision-making. Risk indicators generated by its AI systems are reviewed through governance processes and human oversight, with the models continuously refined to improve accuracy and minimise false positives before any enforcement action is taken. He believes that the human-in-the-loop approach will become important as governments worldwide grapple with questions around AI accountability, transparency and citizens’ rights when automated systems influence public decisions. For South Africa, the implications extend well beyond tax collection. SARS’ Modernisation 3.0 strategy aims to create a smart, digital and data-driven revenue authority built around digital identities, unified taxpayer records and AI-powered compliance systems. As governments across Africa search for ways to improve revenue collection without increasing tax rates, SARS is demonstrating that AI may become one of the most powerful fiscal tools available. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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African venture capital is backing fewer founders than ever
This is Follow the Money, our weekly series that unpacks the earnings, business, and scaling strategies of African fintechs, financial institutions, companies, and governments. A new edition drops every Monday. Africa’s startup ecosystem raised roughly the same amount of venture capital in the first half of 2026 as it did a year earlier. Startups across the continent raised about $1.4 billion in the first six months of the year, broadly matching H1 2025 despite a global venture capital market that remains cautious, according to Africa: The Big Deal, a monthly funding tracker. But a closer look at where the money went tells a different story. The question is no longer whether capital is flowing into African startups, but where it is going. Rather than being spread across hundreds of young companies, venture capital is increasingly concentrating in a small group of mature businesses with proven business models and established revenues. The startups raising the largest rounds are attracting more money than ever before, while founders seeking their first institutional backing are finding fewer investors willing to take the risk. The 30 most-funded startups absorbed 84% of all disclosed capital raised during the first half of the year, according to data from TechCabal Insights. The remainder was shared among more than 100 other ventures. Stability is the new order According to TechCabal Insights, startups secured $1.44 billion across 146 disclosed transactions during the first half of the year. Yet the number of deals fell 42% year on year, suggesting investors are writing fewer but significantly larger cheques. Mid-sized rounds between $10 million and $99 million accounted for 66% of total funding, while early-stage rounds below $500,000 represented just 19% of all deals, underscoring investors’ retreat from riskier bets. The shift has been years in the making. In 2020, African startups closed 454 early-stage deals, 38% more than the 282 recorded in 2021, according to TechCabal Insights. Since the first half of 2021, rounds below $500,000 have fallen from 52% of deals to just 19% in H1 2026. Africa: The Big Deal also found that the number of ventures raising more than $100,000 fell to 190 startups, the lowest tally since at least 2021. The sharpest decline came among companies raising between $100,000 and $1 million, which dropped from 179 startups in H2 2025 to just 100 in H1 2026. The trend extends well beyond Africa. The data tracker firm notes that globally, venture capital is becoming concentrated into fewer companies, particularly in markets such as the United States where artificial intelligence continues to attract outsized investment. Even grants are slowing For a time, grants helped cushion the retreat in venture capital. Development finance institutions (DFIs) and philanthropic organisations increasingly financed experimentation that private investors had become reluctant to support. According to Africa: The Big Deal, 2025 recorded the highest number of disclosed grants above $100,000 since 2021, with 160 grants awarded to 154 ventures. So far, however, 2026 is running well behind that pace. During the first quarter, only 15 disclosed grants worth more than $100,000 were announced, totalling roughly $4 million, compared to 27 grants worth about $20 million during the same period a year earlier. DFIs remain critical to the ecosystem. Between 2022 and 2024, DFIs accounted for roughly 45% of commitments into Africa-focused venture funds. That figure fell to 27% in 2025 as global venture fundraising entered a third consecutive year of contraction. “If grants are meant to help de-risk innovation and keep the early-stage engine running, those Q1 numbers should worry us a bit,” Africa: The Big Deal wrote. “So, yes: totals are holding up. But the ecosystem’s future is written in the base. And right now, the base is thinning, in small equity cheques, and (so far this year) in grants too. If this trend continues, Africa might still be producing big rounds in 2026, while silently starving the pipeline that produces the next generation of breakout companies.” Those early-stage rounds rarely dominate headlines because they account for only a small share of total capital deployed. Yet they finance product development, customer acquisition, and market validation, the investments that eventually produce tomorrow’s Series A companies and unicorns. Some investors are deliberately swimming against the tide. Launch Africa Ventures, whose portfolio includes more than 180 companies across 25 African countries, completed 15 new investments in 2026, focusing on precisely the early-stage cheque sizes many investors have abandoned. “If nobody writes that cheque in 2026, there’s no Series A class in 2029,” Uwem Uwemakpan, Head of Investments at Launch Africa Ventures, told TechCabal in July. “We’d rather own that pipeline than inherit someone else’s gap in three years.” The companies carrying the ecosystem After a sluggish start to the year, June rescued the funding market. Electric mobility company Spiro announced a $327 million financing round, Flutterwave reportedly secured about $100 million, while MNT-Halan completed another major raise, according to Africa: The Big Deal. Those transactions transformed what would otherwise have been a disappointing first half into one that appeared broadly flat year-on-year. Spiro’s financing alone accounted for nearly one-quarter of all startup funding raised during the first half of the year. Debt becomes part of the growth story While equity remained the largest source of startup capital at $818 million during the first half, debt financing climbed to $614 million across a record 36 transactions, according to TechCabal Insights. The research outfit argued that founders are increasingly using non-dilutive, asset-backed financing to expand while avoiding further equity dilution. The rise of debt reflects the changing profile of companies attracting investment. Businesses operating electric vehicle fleets, logistics networks, and energy infrastructure possess tangible assets and predictable revenues that lenders are comfortable financing. Egypt leads, but concentration remains Egypt attracted the most funding during H1 2026, raising $327 million, followed by Nigeria with $254 million, Kenya with $126 million, and South Africa with $83 million, according to Africa: The Big Deal. Together, the traditional “Big Four” accounted for 58% of total funding. Looking only at equity investments, however, Nigeria led
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Airtel Money Kenya chief exits months before planned London listing
Anne Kinuthia Otieno has stepped down as managing director of Airtel Money Kenya after nearly five years, leaving the mobile money business just months before parent company Airtel Africa plans to list the unit in London. Her departure comes weeks after Airtel Kenya appointed a new managing director and days after Safaricom announced the exit of its top financial services executive, extending a wave of leadership changes at Kenya’s two largest mobile money providers. Kinuthia Otieno announced her departure in a LinkedIn post on Saturday, saying she would soon begin a new chapter but did not disclose her next role. “Together with an incredible team, we strengthened Airtel Money’s position in the market,” she wrote, citing an expansion of its merchant and agent network, new partnerships and an overhaul of its core mobile money platform. She joined Airtel in August 2021 after more than a decade in banking, including senior roles in governance and sales distribution at Absa Group and more than seven years at Barclays. During her tenure, Airtel Money significantly narrowed the gap with market leader M-PESA, albeit from a low base. Airtel Money held just 3.1% of Kenya’s mobile money subscriptions in September 2021, shortly after she took over, compared with M-PESA’s 96.8%, according to Communications Authority of Kenya data. By March 2026, Airtel Money’s share had climbed to 10.9%, while M-PESA’s had fallen to 89.1%. Kenya had 53.4 million active mobile money subscriptions at the end of the period, up 3.9% from the previous quarter, bringing the penetration rate to 100.1%. The leadership change comes at a pivotal moment for Airtel Africa. On July 23, the company confirmed London as its preferred venue for the initial public offering (IPO) of its mobile money business, targeting a listing in the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and market conditions. Airtel Money had 56.5 million customers across Africa at the end of June, up 23.3% from a year earlier, while annualised transaction value exceeded $245 billion, according to Airtel Africa’s first-quarter results. Kinuthia Otieno’s exit follows a leadership change at Airtel Kenya’s telecommunications business. On July 1, Djibril Tobe succeeded Ashish Malhotra as managing director of Airtel Kenya after previously leading the company’s operations in Congo Brazzaville and Chad. Malhotra moved to head Indus Towers’ African operations. Airtel Money Kenya has operated independently from Airtel Kenya since 2022, when the group transferred its mobile money operations to a standalone company regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya. Her departure coincides with leadership changes at rival Safaricom. Esther Waititu, the company’s chief financial services officer, is due to leave on July 31 after nearly three years in the role. Safaricom announced on July 20 that Boniface Mungania would serve as interim chief financial services officer. The move follows the earlier departure of Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, former managing director of M-PESA Africa, who has since joined Absa Group. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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