Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Fold 8: Full breakdown before launch
Table of contents When and where Why this launch matters more than usual Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Z Fold 8 Ultra vs. Z Fold 8: At a glance Software: What both phones get Should You Buy the Z Fold 8 Ultra or Z Fold 8? Samsung is heading to London on July 22 for Galaxy Unpacked, and this year the Fold lineup is different: two book-style foldables at the same event. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra builds on everything the Z Fold 7 started, with a bigger battery, faster charging, and upgraded cameras. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is an entirely new shape, shorter and wider, built around a 4:3 inner display that sits closer to a small tablet than a phone. Here is everything we know about both, before Samsung makes it official. When and where Samsung is expected to hold Galaxy Unpacked on July 22, 2026, in London. Korea Economic TV was the first outlet to report the date, and it has since been confirmed by Android Police, SamMobile, Android Authority, and Tom’s Guide. This will be Samsung’s first summer Unpacked event in the UK. Samsung has not issued an official media advisory as of mid-June 2026. Pre-orders are expected to open the same day as the announcement. If Samsung follows its usual pattern, you should be able to buy both phones in the first week of August 2026, roughly two weeks after the event. Three foldable phones are expected at the event, alongside the Galaxy Watch 9 series and what is being reported as Samsung’s first Galaxy Glasses (a Gemini-powered audio device made with Gentle Monster, no display): Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (traditional tall book foldable) Galaxy Z Fold 8 (new wider, shorter 4:3 foldable) Galaxy Z Flip 8 Galaxy Watch 9 series Why this launch matters more than usual Apple’s first foldable phone, widely referred to as the iPhone Fold or iPhone Ultra, is expected to arrive at Apple’s September 2026 event. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported in April 2026 that it is on track to launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, with a starting price exceeding $2,000 in the US. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo projects the price landing between $2,000 and $2,500, with Apple shipping 3 to 5 million units in its first year. It is expected to use a wider 4:3 form factor. Samsung’s July 22 launch gives both Fold devices roughly a two-month window in the market before Apple ships a single unit. That means two months of reviews, accessories, trade-in deals, and carrier promotions before anyone can compare them side by side. Samsung chose London for this event as well, a move seen as a direct entry into one of Apple’s strongest premium markets. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is the phone Z Fold 7 owners have been waiting for. It keeps the same tall book-style form factor but adds a meaningfully larger battery, faster charging, and the most significant camera upgrade the Fold line has ever seen. Here is what we know. Specs 1. Design The overall shape stays the same as the Z Fold 7. Renders from SamMobile put the dimensions at 158.4 x 143.2 x 4.5mm unfolded and 158.4 x 72.8 x 9mm folded. There is a conflict on thickness: tipster Ice Universe says the unfolded thickness drops slightly to 4.1mm. Both figures come from different streams, so treat the exact as unsettled until Samsung announces. Key design details: Weight: 215g, the same as the Z Fold 7 (per Ice Universe), despite the larger battery inside IP48 rating for dust and water resistance Aluminum frame with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the cover Side-mounted fingerprint reader S Pen support: expected to be dropped. Ice Universe reported in May 2026 that neither the 2026 Fold will support the S Pen. No credible supply-chain source has contradicted this. The digitizer was already removed starting with the Z Fold SE, so this fits Samsung’s thinness direction Color options: not yet known 2. Display The Z Fold 8 Ultra keeps the same display sizes as the Fold 7. Both panels use LTPO OLED technology with adaptive 1-120Hz refresh: Cover display: 6.5-inch LTPO OLED, Full HD+, up to 2,600 nits Inner display: 8-inch LTPO OLED, QHD+, HDR10+, up to 2,600 nits The inner panel is reported to use a dual-layer Ultra-Thin Glass structure with a laser-drilled metal support plate On the crease: This is the most contested detail. Ice Universe said in May 2026 that the crease will not improve significantly over the Z Fold 7 and that there is no Privacy Display. A separate SamMobile report suggests crease control could come close to the OPPO Find N6, which is nearly invisible. These two positions conflict. The consensus across most outlets is that the crease will improve by roughly 20%, but the phone will not be crease-free. On the CES 2026 “Mont Flex” panel: Samsung Display showed a genuinely crease-free foldable OLED panel at CES 2026. Samsung told The Verge it is an R&D concept with no fixed commercialization timeline. The weight of current information suggests this panel will not ship on the Fold 8 generation. 3. Performance Chipset: Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, globally. No Exynos variant has been reported for the Fold line RAM: 12GB on the 256GB and 512GB models; 16GB on the 1TB model Storage: 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. No microSD slot Connectivity: 5G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, UWB, NFC, USB-C (USB 3.2 Gen 1) 4. Camera The camera is where the Z Fold 8 Ultra makes its biggest leap. The ultrawide upgrade alone closes a gap that has been criticized across four Fold generations: Main: 200MP with OIS, retained from the Z Fold 7 and in the same sensor family as the Galaxy S26 Ultra Ultrawide: upgraded from 12MP to 50MP. This is the headline change. Source: SamMobile (via Tech Maniacs), corroborated by GSMArena, OnLeaks, and Digit Telephoto: 10MP
Read MoreSamsung Galaxy Z Flip 8: Full breakdown before launch
Table of contents When and where Specifications of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 What about the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 FE? Should you wait for the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8? Samsung is heading to London on July 22, 2026, for Galaxy Unpacked, and the Galaxy Z Flip 8 is the star of the clamshell side of the lineup. Alongside it, Samsung is expected to announce the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. Here is everything we know right now, before Samsung makes it official. When and where Samsung is expected to hold Galaxy Unpacked on July 22, 2026, in London, UK. This would be the first time Samsung launches a foldable phone on UK soil. The date comes from Korea Economic TV reporter Kim Dae-yeon and has since been corroborated by SamMobile, Android Authority, Tom’s Guide, and SammyFans, citing Korean supply chain sources. Samsung has not made an official announcement yet. Pre-orders are expected to open the same day as the announcement. If Samsung follows its usual pattern, you should be able to buy the phone in the first week of August 2026, roughly two weeks after the event. Three foldable phones are expected at the event: Galaxy Z Flip 8 Galaxy Z Fold 8 (wider, 4:3 book-style foldable, also referred to as the Z Fold Wide) Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (the direct successor to the Z Fold 7) Galaxy Watch 9 series Note: The naming across these devices is still unsettled. Some sources refer to the wider model as the “Z Fold 8″ and the standard successor as the “Z Fold 8 Ultra.” Samsung has not confirmed the final names. Specifications of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 This is a refinement year for the Z Flip line. The Z Flip 8 keeps the same display size, cameras, and battery as the Z Flip 7, but gets a newer chipset, a slightly lighter and thinner body, and a display that may finally have a much less visible crease. Here is what we know across each category. 1. Design The overall look stays the same. CAD renders leaked by OnLeaks via MyMobiles in April 2026 show a body that is nearly identical to the Z Flip 7 in height and width, with one key change: the phone folds down to about 13.2mm, down from 13.7mm on the Flip 7. That is a 0.5mm reduction that might not sound like much on paper, but on a phone you open and close dozens of times a day, it is noticeable. Key design details: Dimensions (unfolded): 166.8 x 75.4 x 6.6mm Folded thickness: ~13.2mm (down from 13.7mm on the Z Flip 7) Weight: ~180g, which is 8g lighter than the Z Flip 7’s 188g (single-source leak via Naver, corroborated by Gizmochina and SammyFans; treat as credible but not confirmed) IP48 rating for water and dust resistance, same as the Z Flip 7 Side-mounted capacitive fingerprint reader, built into the power button Stereo speakers A redesigned hinge that enables the thinner fold and a reduced crease Color options: not known yet. The Z Flip 7 came in Jet Black, Blue Shadow, Coral Red, and Mint 2. Display The Z Flip 8 keeps the same display sizes as the Flip 7: Inner display: 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X, FHD+ resolution, adaptive 1-120Hz refresh rate, up to 2,600 nits peak brightness, HDR10+ Cover display (FlexWindow): 4.1-inch Super AMOLED, 120Hz, protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2 On the crease: Multiple outlets including SammyFans, GSMArena, and SamMobile have reported that the Z Flip 8 could arrive with a “no visible fold line” display structure, essentially making the crease near-invisible. This claim is supported by multiple sources, and the redesigned hinge reinforces the logic. That said, Samsung has not confirmed it, and “dual-layer Ultra Thin Glass (UTG)” is described by GSMArena as an informed assumption. Expect a significantly reduced crease, but do not take “crease-free” as guaranteed until Samsung says so officially. 3. Performance The biggest story in the Z Flip 8’s performance isn’t just the new chipset, but which chipset you get depending on where you buy the phone. The Z Flip 7 used Samsung’s Exynos chip in every region. The Z Flip 8 is reportedly going back to a split approach. According to The Bell (a Korean publication), backed up by SamMobile, Android Authority, and Naver leaker Lanzuk (June 2026): Exynos 2600 (2nm): South Korea and Europe, including the UK Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy: North America, South America, most of Asia, and Australia The reason, according to sources, is cost. Qualcomm reportedly offered Samsung a lower-than-usual price for the Snapdragon chip, making the split financially practical. One Samsung insider told The Bell that Z Flip buyers tend to prioritize design and portability over raw performance, which makes the Exynos trade-off easier to justify on this line compared to the Fold. Other performance specs: RAM: 12GB LPDDR5X (no 16GB variant expected) Storage: 256GB and 512GB, UFS 4.0 or 4.1, non-expandable Connectivity: 5G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, NFC, USB-C (USB 3.2 Gen 2) 4. Camera The camera hardware on the Z Flip 8 is unchanged from the Z Flip 6 and Z Flip 7. GalaxyClub confirmed that the camera module part numbers are identical across all three generations. This will be the third consecutive year with the same setup: Rear: 50MP main sensor and 12MP ultrawide lens Front: 10MP Video: Up to 4K at 60fps, 10-bit HDR No telephoto lens (not expected until the Z Flip 9 at the earliest) Any camera improvements will come from software, specifically Samsung’s ProVisual Engine and Enhanced Nightography, which will benefit from the faster NPU in the new chipset. 5. Battery and charging The battery capacity and charging speeds carry over from the Z Flip 7 without any upgrade. GalaxyClub identified the two battery cells by model number and confirmed they are identical to those in the Flip 7. Battery: 4,300mAh (4,174mAh rated capacity) Wired charging: 25W (unchanged since the Z
Read MoreSamsung phones that lost software support in June 2026
Table of contents Galaxy M53 5G: The phone that lost software support About the Galaxy M53 5G Software support history What losing software support means for your phone Samsung phones still receiving software updates How to check for software updates on your Samsung phone What to do if you own a Galaxy M53 5G Samsung updates its software support chart monthly. Each update can quietly drop a phone from the list, meaning that the device will no longer receive security patches. In June 2026, only one Samsung phone lost its software support: the Galaxy M53 5G. Every other device on the May chart carried over unchanged. If you own a Galaxy M53 5G or you are thinking of buying one secondhand, here is everything you need to know. Galaxy M53 5G: The phone that lost software support The Galaxy M53 5G was removed from Samsung’s quarterly security update row in June 2026. According to Sammy Fans, Samsung’s quarterly chart showed the removal of one Galaxy M-series phone, with no other additions or changes observed. The M53 5G had been grouped with the M54 5G, M55 5G, M55S 5G, and M56 5G. After the June update, that row now starts from the M54 5G. The last firmware the M53 5G received was M536BXXSFGZE2, which carries the May 2026 security patch and was released on May 28, 2026. Sammy Fans confirmed this is likely the final update for the device. About the Galaxy M53 5G Samsung launched the Galaxy M53 5G in India on April 22, 2022, with sales starting April 29. Here are the key specs: Software support history The Galaxy M53 5G launched on Android 12 with One UI 4.1. At launch, Samsung promised two years of OS updates and four years of security updates. The phone ended up getting far more than that, receiving four major Android upgrades in total: Android 13 (One UI 5.0/5.1) Android 14 (One UI 6.0/6.1) Android 15 (One UI 7) Android 16 (One UI 8.0) in October 2025, its final OS version The phone was excluded from One UI 8.5, which is based on Android 16 QPR2 and began rolling out on May 6, 2026. Some sources speculated the M53 5G might receive 8.5 as one final feature update, but that did not happen. One UI 8.0 is its last version. Throughout its lifespan, the M53 5G was always on a quarterly security update schedule, not a monthly one. What losing software support means for your phone Your phone does not stop working. Calls, texts, Wi-Fi, your camera, and apps you already have installed keep working. The hardware is unaffected. What changes is the security maintenance that runs in the background. Here is what losing support actually means: No more security patches: Samsung will no longer send fixes for newly discovered vulnerabilities. To put that in perspective, the June 2026 patch that the M53 5G will not receive fixes 45 security issues, including five rated Critical and 28 rated High, covering problems in Android and Samsung’s own software. App compatibility can decline over time: Apps that check your device’s security patch level, especially banking and payment apps, may eventually limit features or block access entirely. Samsung services may flag your device: Samsung Pay, Knox, and Secure Folder rely on a healthy security setup. An unpatched device becomes a weaker link over time, and some services may reflect that. Google updates continue for a while: Google Play Protect, Play Services, and Google Play system updates come from Google, not Samsung, so those will keep arriving for some time. They do not replace Samsung’s system-level patches, but they do offer some continued protection. Samsung phones still receiving software updates Samsung’s June 2026 scope page currently lists two update tiers: monthly (flagships) and quarterly (mid-range and older flagships). The biannual tier that used to cover the oldest budget devices no longer exists. Samsung discontinued it in 2026. Monthly security updates Galaxy Z series (foldables): Z TriFold, Z Fold4, Fold5, Fold6, Fold7, Fold Special Edition, Z Flip4, Flip5, Flip6, Flip7, Flip7 FE, and the W-series (W23 through W26) Galaxy S series: S26, S26+, S26 Ultra, S25, S25+, S25 Ultra, S25 Edge, S25 FE, S24, S24+, S24 Ultra, S24 FE, S23, S23+, S23 Ultra, S23 FE Enterprise and A-series on monthly: Galaxy A54 5G, A55 5G, A56 5G, A57 5G, Tab Active5 Pro, XCover6 Pro, XCover7, XCover7 Pro Quarterly security updates Galaxy Z series: Z Fold3 5G, Z Flip3 5G Galaxy S series: S22, S22+, S22 Ultra, S21 FE 5G Galaxy A series: A04 to A07 range, A14 to A17 range, A23 5G, A24, A25 5G, A26 5G, A33 5G to A37 5G range, A73 5G Galaxy M series: M04 to M07 range, M13 to M17e 5G range, M34 5G to M36 5G range, M44 5G, M54 5G to M56 5G range (M53 5G removed) Galaxy F series: F04 to F07 range, F13 to F17 5G range, F34 5G, F36 5G, F54 5G to F56 5G range Galaxy C series: C55 5G Tablets: Tab S11/S11 Ultra, Tab S10 series, Tab S9 series, Tab S8 series, Tab S6 Lite (2024), Tab A11/A11+, Tab A9 series Galaxy Wearables: Watch8/Watch8 Classic, Watch Ultra, Watch7, Watch FE, Watch6, Watch5, and Watch4 series, Galaxy XR How to check for software updates on your Samsung phone If you want to see your current software version or check for a new update, follow these steps: Open Settings on your phone. Scroll down and tap Software update. Tap Download and install. Your phone will check for updates. Follow the on-screen steps to install if one is available. Samsung recommends doing this on Wi-Fi with your battery above 60%. To check your Google Play system update separately, go to Settings > Security and Privacy > Updates > Google Play system update. Google sends these updates independently, so they continue to arrive even after Samsung ends its own support. What to do if you own a Galaxy M53 5G Your phone is safe to keep using for now.
Read MoreOne UI 8.5 missing features explained: Which Galaxy phones miss out
Table of contents What the June 2026 update finally added What One UI 8.5 still does not give you Which phones are affected What Samsung has said Will One UI 9 fix this? What to do right now Samsung’s One UI 8.5 update arrived with a lot of promise: Galaxy AI features, camera upgrades, and smarter notifications. But if your phone is a Galaxy S25, S24, or older, you’ve probably noticed that some of the headline features Samsung showed off on the Galaxy S26 simply aren’t on your device. This is what’s missing from One UI 8.5, which devices are affected, and what you can expect in future updates. What the June 2026 update finally added When One UI 8.5 stable rolled out in May 2026, three Galaxy AI features were missing from the Galaxy S25 series. Samsung quietly fixed that with a June 2026 update, released on June 11. The package was about 900MB, noticeably larger than a typical security patch, and for good reason. The three features now available on the Galaxy S25, Z Fold 7, and Z Flip 7 are: Prioritize Notifications: Galaxy AI reorders your alerts so the most important ones appear at the top. Everything is processed on your phone, not in the cloud. One catch: it only works when your notifications are in the same language as your phone’s system language. Supported languages include English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Hindi, Thai, Polish, Italian, and Vietnamese. Summarize Notifications: Long group chats and email threads get collapsed into a short, plain-language summary without you having to open each app. The same language requirement applies. File Summaries: In the My Files app, you can now get AI summaries of PDF and TXT files, as well as voice recordings saved in the Voice Recorder app. On-device only. The update started rolling out in South Korea first, with North America, Europe, and India expected to follow within a week, according to Android Authority and GSMArena. What One UI 8.5 still does not give you The June update closed part of the gap, but several S26 features are still absent from the S25 and older devices. Here is what you are still waiting on. 1. Now Nudge This is the most talked-about missing feature. Now Nudge is a context-aware AI tool that reads what is on your screen and surfaces helpful suggestions in your Samsung Keyboard toolbar. It might offer to add an event to your calendar, save a contact, or share a photo, based on what you are looking at in the moment. It only works with the Samsung Keyboard, so if you use Gboard, it will not apply. As of June 2026, Now Nudge is only available on the Galaxy S26 series. It is missing from the S25, S25+, S25 Ultra, Z Fold 7, Z Flip 7, and every older device. Samsung has not explained why. Digital Trends noted that Now Nudge does not appear to rely on any Galaxy S26-exclusive hardware, which makes its absence on the S25 harder to justify. Samsung markets it as a headline One UI 8.5 feature, which makes the omission even more noticeable. According to a firmware leak spotted by SamMobile, Now Nudge appears in internal One UI 9 builds for the Galaxy Z Fold 7, suggesting Samsung may be saving it for the One UI 9 update. But this is based on a leak, not a Samsung statement. 2. 24MP camera mode On the Galaxy S26 Ultra, a 24MP shooting option sits between the standard 12MP and the maximum 200MP modes. It uses AI Fusion processing to produce more detailed shots without the file sizes that come with high-resolution captures. You access it through the Camera Assistant app. On the Galaxy S25 Ultra, that option does not exist in Camera Assistant at all, even though both phones run the same version of the app. SammyGuru confirmed this. There is no confirmed plan to bring the 24MP mode to the S25 or any older device. 3. Video softening This is a Camera Assistant setting with three levels: Off, Medium, and High. It reduces the sharpening and noise processing that Samsung applies by default, giving your videos a more natural, less over-processed look. Think of it as a processing intensity dial. Android Authority found it in One UI 8.5 code, but it was never activated on the S25. It is currently reserved for the Galaxy S26. The S25 Ultra is also missing related autofocus speed and sensitivity controls, as well as 8K recording via Smart View or HDMI output. 4. Fingerprint accuracy booster This feature lets you rescan your registered fingerprint up to 10 times so your phone gets better at recognizing it. It is a software feature with no hardware requirement, which makes its rollout history odd. It reached the Galaxy S25 FE in May 2026 via a security patch, and the Z Fold 7 also has it. But as of the June 2026 update, the standard Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra still do not have it. Android Authority noted that no one has publicly explained why the S25 FE received it before the S25 Ultra. 5. Horizon Lock and other missing features A few more S26 features are also absent. Horizon Lock (also called Horizontal Lock) is a Super Steady video stabilization feature on the S26 Ultra that keeps footage level even when your hands are shaky. It is missing from all older Ultra models after the June update. Other omissions on the S25 build, reported by PiunikaWeb and Digital Trends, include: The ‘Show Finder on Home screen’ shortcut Samsung Browser’s ‘Ask AI’ feature A high-magnification photo remaster tool (30x+) Some 8K recording options Which phones are affected Here is how the missing features break down by device: Galaxy S25, S25+, S25 Ultra, S25 Edge: Got stable One UI 8.5 in May, then the three notification and file features in June. Still missing Now Nudge, 24MP mode, video softening, Horizon Lock, and the fingerprint accuracy booster.
Read MoreWhy more Lesotho migrant workers are choosing fintechs to send money home
Every month, Mampe Seema, a Johannesburg-based domestic worker, remits part of her salary to her family in Lesotho. The money covers school fees, groceries, and other household expenses. For years, sending money across the border was straightforward. Then the process began taking longer and required additional steps. “When the banking process became more difficult, I worried that my family would not receive the money when they needed it most,” Seema told TechCabal. “I decided to try Mukuru after hearing about it from a friend. The registration was straightforward, and I could send money without the uncertainty I had started experiencing elsewhere.” The 53-year-old mother of two is among a growing number of the estimated 400,000 Basotho migrants in South Africa turning to fintechs like Mukuru, Sasai, Ria Money and hello Paisa as cross-border payments become more complex. The shift highlights how regulatory changes are reshaping consumer behaviour and expanding the role fintechs play in regional payments. In 2025, the South Africa Reserve Bank’s (SARB) changes affecting low-value cross-border electronic fund transfers (EFTs) within the Common Monetary Area (CMA) introduced stricter processing and verification requirements for some transactions. The CMA includes South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia, and Eswatini. The measures were designed to strengthen anti-money laundering controls, reduce illicit financial flows, and improve compliance with international financial standards. While the changes aim to improve oversight of the financial system, they have also added friction for some consumers accustomed to moving money between South Africa and Lesotho with minimal documentation. In some cases, users have faced additional verification requirements and longer processing times. For Lesotho, where remittances are a significant source of household income, these changes have direct implications. According to data from the World Bank, personal remittances account for almost 20.9% of Lesotho’s GDP. Statistics South Africa estimates that the 400,000 Basotho living and working in South Africa make up about 11% of the country’s immigrant population. Cape Town-based Mukuru, a global fintech which says it serves over 17 million across Africa, Europe, Asia and North America, says the SARB’s ban on EFTs to CMA countries has attracted new customers who previously relied on traditional banking channels. Mama Money, Shoprite and Nedbank’s Zaca are the other major money transfers that have entered the Lesotho market. “Historically, Mukuru focused on serving unbanked customers, but we are now seeing that even banked customers are facing difficulties when trying to send money home,” said Maleseli Mohapinyane, Mukuru’s country manager for Lesotho. The company launched its South Africa–Lesotho corridor in 2016 and now operates across 22 remittance corridors globally. According to Mohapinyane, the company is seeing increased interest from customers looking for alternatives to conventional cross-border payment channels. Cost is another factor. For Thabiso Nthunya, a mineworker in the Free State Province, what matters most is that the money reaches his family quickly. “When your family is waiting for money to buy food or pay bills, you need to know it will arrive without delay. Travelling home just to take money to my family is expensive, and carrying cash is not ideal,” he said. Moroesi Koali, Sasai Econet Financial Services Marketing Manager, agreed with Nthunya that convenience is one of the main reasons migrant workers are increasingly opting for their fintech-based remittance services. “For many migrant workers, convenience is key,” she said. “They can send money home knowing recipients can access the funds immediately through a wallet or an agent network, without needing to travel long distances or navigate multiple banking processes,” she said. However, Access Bank says its remittance business to Lesotho has remained largely upbeat despite the regulatory changes and competition from digital payments platforms. Naco Bolote, the bank’s Head of International Remittances, described Lesotho as an important corridor and said the lender had continued to serve the market effectively. “As a bank, there has not been any noticeable impact for us because our market dynamics are a little different from those of remittance companies. That is because our cross-border payments are at a more formalised level,” he said.
Read MoreWhy Africa’s most-funded EV startup is thinking beyond motorcycles
On June 1, Spiro, the electric motorcycle startup, announced a $215 million funding round, one of the largest capital raises ever secured by an African mobility company. The figure grabbed headlines, but the company’s plans for the capital offer the clearest insight into how it sees its future. Across Africa’s tech ecosystem, investors have become more demanding about business fundamentals. Growth remains important. However, investors now want clearer evidence that startups can generate sustainable revenue, move towards profitability and maintain sound economics as they scale. Spiro’s latest strategy speaks directly to that shift. The company still earns most of its revenue from selling electric motorcycles, yet it spends far more time talking about batteries, swap stations and energy infrastructure than motorcycles. Few mobility startups have consistently attracted capital. Spiro has now raised more than $500 million through a combination of debt and equity financing, including a $50 million facility from Afreximbank, a $100 million funding round announced in 2025, and the latest equity raise led by Impact Fund Denmark and Equitane. In a statement to TechCabal on Tuesday, Gagan Gupta, the company’s co-founder and chairman, described a business focused on expanding battery capacity, growing its swapping network and building energy services around it. Motorcycles remain the main source of revenue, but batteries and swap stations dominate the growth strategy. “Spiro’s revenue mix today is primarily driven by vehicle sales, with energy services, operations and maintenance contributing the remaining share,” Gupta said. Vehicle sales still drive the business Spiro is clear about where its revenue comes from today. Vehicle sales generate the largest share of the company’s revenue—Spiro declined to disclose the figures—while energy services, operations and maintenance account for the remainder. The revenue mix reflects the company’s current stage of development, with motorcycle adoption still growing before battery-swapping services can generate meaningful demand. “Vehicle sales serve as the entry point for market adoption, but as fleet density increases, energy demand scales in a compounding manner and with it, the recurring, high-margin revenue profile that defines infrastructure businesses,” Gupta told TechCabal. Gupta’s comments help explain how Spiro views the relationship between its vehicles and its infrastructure. The motorcycles bring riders onto the platform. The battery-swapping network is designed to generate ongoing activity after the initial sale. That model differs from that of a traditional vehicle manufacturer, where revenue is largely tied to unit sales. Spiro’s approach depends on building a network that riders repeatedly return to. Every additional vehicle deployed creates another potential user of the company’s battery-swapping infrastructure. The company expects the balance of revenue to evolve, declining to disclose its revenue from battery swaps or provide projections for when energy-related activities could rival vehicle sales. Revenue today remains tied primarily to getting more motorcycles on the road. “While we do not disclose market-level payback data at this stage, we can confirm that our most mature markets are already demonstrating the utilisation trajectory consistent with the target unit economics,” Gupta said. Why Spiro needed another $215 million The latest funding round will not be used to launch a new business or test a new market. According to Gupta, previous funding rounds enabled the company to establish its platform, validate product-market fit and build operational capacity for growth. The latest raise is intended to accelerate the expansion of the infrastructure already in place. The new capital will be used to expand battery capacity, roll out more swap stations, deepen the company’s presence in existing markets and support further localisation of manufacturing. The plan is notable for what it does not include. Gupta did not point to a new product category, a major technology shift or a new business model. The focus remains on expanding the existing network. Spiro says it has deployed more than 2,500 battery-swapping stations across Africa. Gupta argues that scale matters because riders need confidence that energy will be available wherever they operate. The company refers to this as “rider anxiety”—the hesitation to switch to electric motorcycles when access to battery-swapping services remains uncertain. Commercial motorcycle riders earn money only when they are moving. A battery that runs out far from a swap station can lead to lost trips and income. Spiro argues that a dense network reduces much of that uncertainty, making electric motorcycles a more practical option for riders who depend on them for daily earnings. The latest funding round is built around that premise: rather than pursuing a new line of business, Spiro is directing fresh capital towards expanding battery capacity and extending the reach of its swapping network. The race to electrify Africa’s motorcycles Africa’s electric motorcycle sector is attracting a growing number of startups, drawn by a simple calculation. Some estimates put Kenya’s boda boda operators at three million, who spend a large share of their daily earnings on fuel. That has created an opportunity for companies that can offer a cheaper alternative without sacrificing convenience. The result has been a wave of investment into electric motorcycles, battery-swapping networks and the infrastructure needed to keep them running. Besides Spiro, startups such as Ampersand, Roam and ARC Ride are also building businesses around electric two-wheelers, with many relying on battery-swapping networks to address charging constraints and reduce operating costs for riders. Despite differences in approach, these companies are pursuing the same objective: lowering fuel costs, reducing downtime and making electric motorcycles practical for commercial transport. Where Spiro stands apart is the amount of capital it has raised. Ampersand, one of the region’s best-known electric motorcycle companies, has raised over $43 million to expand its fleet, battery-swapping network and charging infrastructure across East Africa. Roam has raised nearly $32 million to expand production of electric motorcycles and buses. Spiro, by contrast, has now secured more than $500 million in debt and equity financing, giving it significantly more firepower to build infrastructure across multiple markets at the same time. The size of that opportunity helps explain the investor interest. Motorcycle taxis form the backbone of transport in many African cities, while rising fuel costs continue
Read MoreMoroccan proptech Agenz raises $5 million to digitise real estate transactions
Agenz, a Moroccan proptech startup that digitises real estate transactions, has raised $5 million to support product development and strengthen its investments in artificial intelligence. The funding round saw participation from Breega, a European venture capital firm, Attijariwafa Ventures, and Saviu Ventures, an Africa-focused growth capital fund. The raise comes three years after Agenz’s $1.3 million pre-Series A financing round as activity in Morocco’s property market picks up. Residential land transactions surpassed 140,000 in 2023, an increase from 2022, according to a World Bank document, highlighting the opportunity for digital platforms that simplify property transactions for users. “We believe the future of real estate will be built on the responsible use of data and artificial intelligence,” said Malik Belkeziz, Co-founder and CEO of Agenz. “Our ambition is to leverage technology to create a more transparent, secure and accessible market, while keeping user trust at the centre of everything we do. This funding will allow us to accelerate this vision for the benefit of the entire Moroccan real estate ecosystem.” Founded in 2021 by Malik and Badr Belkeziz, Agenz operates an integrated real estate platform that combines property valuation tools, market intelligence, solutions for professional services, and digital transaction solutions. The fresh capital will also be used to expand the company’s services for individuals, real estate agents, developers, investors and financial institutions, according to the company. “Agenz has built, in just a few years, the platform the Moroccan real estate sector was missing, bringing together data, tools and transactions into one seamless experience,” said Driss Ibenmansour, Partner at Breega. “We believe this funding will help accelerate an already ongoing transformation of the market.” The company said it has recorded growth in transaction volumes since launching its transaction platform in 2023, including surpassing 730,000 monthly visits on its Agenz.ma website in May 2026.
Read MoreQuick Fire 🔥 with Bolaji Anifowose
Bolaji Anifowose is a product marketing manager and go-to-market (GTM) engineer with over 7 years of experience helping startups across Africa and beyond sharpen their positioning, launch products, and build compounding growth engines. He has led growth, GTM, and marketing efforts for high-impact companies such as Simpu, Distrobird, Chatbase, and Tecno, delivering successful product launches, demand generation campaigns, and market expansion strategies that produce significant results. Before tech, Bolaji studied Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, a background that shaped how he approaches marketing today: systems-first and evidence-led. He is a graduate of the pioneer cohort of the GTM Engineer School and spends a lot of his time these days at the intersection of marketing and AI, building automations and workflows that let small teams punch far above their weight. Explain your job to a five-year-old. You know when you make something really cool, like a drawing or a sandcastle, but nobody comes to look at it? My job is to make sure people come and look. I help companies that have built something good figure out how to tell the right people about it, in a way that makes them go “I want that.” I find the people who would love it, work out what to say to them, and build little machines that help do it again and again. Did your 16-year-old self ever imagine he’d end up in marketing? Not even close. At 16, I was deep in science, headed for engineering, convinced my future involved metals and lab coats. Marketing wasn’t on the map. If you’d told that kid he’d spend his days writing, building automations, and obsessing over why people buy things, he’d have laughed. But here’s the funny part: the engineer never left. I still approach marketing the way I’d approach a materials problem. Test, measure, find the system underneath the noise. I didn’t abandon engineering. I just changed what I was building. Who’s a GTM engineer, and what’s the path to becoming one? GTM engineering is a term Clay coined in 2023. The simplest way to think about it is this: a GTM engineer builds systems that generate revenue. You’re combining artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and creative problem-solving to do work that would normally require a much larger team. That’s the core of it: giving a small team the firepower of a big one. Think about traditional growth work. You’re manually searching LinkedIn for leads, writing outreach emails one by one, juggling inboxes, and tracking replies. Now flip that. Clay finds and enriches leads. A signal tool identifies who’s actually in-market. Claude and OpenAI personalise outreach. A sequencer sends it, and an n8n agent handles responses. Same goal, far less manual work. That’s what a GTM engineer builds. There isn’t just one type of GTM engineer. I usually break it into three. First, the software engineer who could work on a product or data team but chose revenue instead. Second, the systems specialist, often from revenue operations (RevOps) or marketing operations, who excels at orchestrating tools. Third, the marketer or salesperson who picked up technical skills and sits at the intersection of strategy and execution. That’s me, and for most people, it’s the most realistic path in. The skills transfer more than you’d think: systems thinking, customer understanding, copywriting, learning new tools quickly, and being comfortable working alongside code. You don’t need a computer science degree. To get started, learn the fundamentals first: ideal customer profile (ICP), positioning, channels, and messaging. Then look at your week and identify a repetitive task, whether that’s lead research, follow-ups, or reporting. That’s your first automation opportunity. Build with tools companies are hiring for today, like Clay, n8n, and Claude Code. Turn a real task into a working system, then run it on actual campaigns. After that, document what you built, make it part of your portfolio, and join the communities where jobs and collaborations happen. Every system you ship becomes proof that you can do the work. In this field, proof beats a fancy résumé every time. What’s your hot take on why most product launches fail? Here’s my hot take—and the numbers back me up on this: most product launches don’t fail because of the product. They fail because teams mistake shipping for creating demand. The numbers back it up. Depending on the study, 80–95% of new products fail. Harvard’s Clayton Christensen put the figure at 95%. In B2B, only about one in four launches hits its revenue target. That’s not bad luck. That’s a pattern. The mistake is usually the same. Teams build the product, pick a launch date, post about it, then wonder why the market shrugs. But a launch was never an announcement. It’s the moment you prove you understand your buyer well enough to make them care. The data shows where things break. Simon-Kucher’s global pricing study found that 72% of new products miss their sales targets, and a quarter of companies said none of their recent launches met expectations. That’s rarely a product problem. It’s usually a failure to understand what buyers value and what they’ll pay for. Many teams build on assumptions and don’t test them with real customers until it’s too late. Messaging is another common culprit. Most launches focus on the company and its features: look what we built. Buyers care about something else: what’s changing for them, and why now. If that isn’t clear, no amount of launch-day promotion will save you. That’s why I think launches don’t fail on launch day. Launch day simply exposes months of skipped homework. If you can’t clearly explain who the product is for, what changes for them, and why it matters now, you don’t have a launch. You have an announcement nobody asked for. The teams that win do the unglamorous work first. They talk to customers, sharpen their positioning, and align around a clear story. By the time they hit publish, demand already exists. The launch just opens the door. What’s your favourite
Read MoreAlliance-backed Daya wants to help businesses manage money using stablecoins
A Nigerian business can send an email to a supplier in China in seconds. But paying that supplier can take days. Tomiwa “Aleph” Lasebikan encountered that disconnect repeatedly as the head of product at Y Combinator-backed crypto startup Helicarrier, which he co-founded after leaving Microsoft in 2018. Customers who came to the company for crypto services often had a more practical problem: receiving dollars, paying overseas suppliers, and moving money across borders. Now Lasebikan is betting stablecoins can help solve it. His new startup, Daya, is building a payments platform that helps businesses access dollar liquidity, settle international transactions, and move money across borders using dollar-backed digital currencies. It raised $350,000 from Alliance DAO, a US-based crypto accelerator, in 2025. The startup is part of a growing list of companies building financial infrastructure around stablecoins, arguing that blockchain-based settlement can do for cross-border payments what the Internet did for communication: help businesses move money more quickly across borders. Stablecoin as an alternative rail for businesses Stablecoins as a financial rail for businesses are gaining traction. In 2024, stablecoins settled $15.6 trillion in transactions globally, according to US-based investment manager Ark Invest, a volume comparable to Visa’s and nearly double Mastercard’s. By 2025, that figure grew 79% to $28 trillion, according to blockchain research firm Chainalysis. Most of the transaction activities driving stablecoin use cases are economic, including business-to-business (B2B) payments, treasury management, and remittances, according to Chainalysis. Daya is building a business-focused payments platform that connects traditional banking systems with blockchain networks. It provides businesses with dollar-denominated accounts, converts incoming payments into stablecoins for settlement, and allows firms to move funds across borders or convert them into local currency for withdrawal in Nigeria. Founded by Lasebikan and Paul Joe in October 2025, Daya is seeking to capture a share in the global commercial B2B payments market. In 2024, the global B2B cross-border payments market was worth $31.7 trillion and was projected to reach $47.8 trillion by 2032, according to US-based research firm FXC Intelligence, dwarfing consumer remittances. By comparison, consumer remittances totalled $905 billion globally in 2024, according to the World Bank. Businesses move far more money than individuals, yet much of that activity still depends on correspondent banking infrastructure. “The world we’re born into is one where communication across borders is incredibly fast,” Lasebikan said. “But sending money across borders is horrendous.” How Daya’s model works When a business signs up on Daya, it completes know-your-customer (KYC) and know-your-business (KYB) checks, including director-level verification and validation against Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) registry, according to the startup. Once approved, the business receives a dollar-denominated account provided through regulated financial partners in the United States. When a customer abroad sends dollars to that account, the funds are converted into stablecoins and credited to the business’s Daya wallet. From there, businesses can hold stablecoins as dollar-equivalent balances, pay international suppliers, or convert funds into Naira for withdrawal into local bank accounts. To handle currency conversion, Daya aggregates a network of professional over-the-counter (OTC) traders under anti-money laundering (AML)-compliant terms, rather than relying on a single off-ramp partner. The startup charges 0.1%–0.3% per transaction, according to Lasebikan. The model relies on stablecoins as a settlement layer, while regulated banks and payment partners handle fiat onboarding and withdrawals. “The USD account is an account in the US,” Lasebikan said. “Whoever wants to send you money sends funds into this account managed by our partners—reputable, licenced partners in the US. They settle us in stablecoins. So now the user has stablecoins: this is your global money, so to speak. Businesses can hold the stablecoins or convert them to Naira straight into their bank account.” According to Lasebikan, the company is positioning stablecoins as backend infrastructure, with customers primarily focused on receiving payments, accessing dollar accounts, or moving money across borders rather than interacting directly with blockchain technology. Similar approaches are already being used in global payments infrastructure. Bridge, the stablecoin company Stripe acquired in 2025, has built banking-linked settlement rails using stablecoins. Stripe, the payments giant, said in its 2025 annual letter that Bridge’s transaction volume grew more than fourfold. Visa and Mastercard have also expanded stablecoin settlement pilots; companies such as BVNK, the UK-based stablecoin neobank that Mastercard agreed to acquire, are building payment infrastructure around stablecoin rails globally. In Africa, players including Yellow Card, Juicyway, and Conduit are building similar infrastructure for businesses, focusing on cross-border payments and treasury flows. Daya operates in this same category: infrastructure for business payments using stablecoins. A problem older than crypto African banks have historically relied on correspondent banking relationships (CBRs), partnerships that allow local institutions to access the global financial system, clear international payments, and settle foreign currency transactions. But those relationships have been shrinking for years. A 2016 International Finance Corporation (IFC) report warned that African financial institutions were losing correspondent banking relationships as global banks withdrew from markets perceived as higher risk. Compliance costs, anti-money laundering (AML) requirements, and regulatory scrutiny made many relationships economically unattractive. For businesses, the effects are often indirect but significant. Fewer correspondent banking relationships mean fewer payment corridors, more intermediaries, longer settlement times, and higher costs. International transfers that appear simple on the surface often move through multiple institutions before reaching their destination. Since then, the decline of correspondent banking networks has persisted across emerging markets. Stablecoins, especially dollar-backed digital currencies, are increasingly being pitched to fill that gap for businesses in that region, especially in Africa. Why Daya is betting on stablecoin infrastructure For Lasebikan, Daya reflects how much the infrastructure layer around crypto has changed since his first foray into building his former startup and personal projects. He said that early attempts to build crypto products in Africa often meant assembling large parts of the technical stack manually while building in unclear regulatory markets and fragmented banking access. That has shifted. When Lasebikan first entered crypto, startups often had to build large portions of the underlying infrastructure themselves, from blockchain integrations to custody systems. Today,
Read MoreAI is now a geopolitical asset. African presidents are racing to catch up.
When African leaders gathered in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, on May 12 for the Africa Forward Summit, artificial intelligence (AI) took centre stage, alongside energy, agriculture and international finance for the first time. That alone marked a change. Only a few years ago, AI policy on the continent revolved around ethics, digital literacy and startup incubation. Now governments are discussing cloud infrastructure, sovereign data, regional computing capacity and local language models, subjects once confined to engineers and Silicon Valley executives. In the past two years, Kenya has unveiled a National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, Nigeria has launched its National AI Strategy, Rwanda has established a Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution to shape AI governance, South Africa has stepped up work on a national AI policy, while the African Union adopted its Continental AI Strategy calling for African-owned data, compute infrastructure and language models. The shift reflects a growing recognition that artificial intelligence is becoming a geopolitical asset. Just as countries once competed over natural resources and shipping lanes, they are now competing over semiconductors, data centres and computing power. But Africa enters that race from an uncomfortable position. Critical minerals The continent produces many of the minerals that power modern computing and generates some of the world’s fastest-growing volumes of digital data through mobile money, e-commerce and government digitisation. Yet the infrastructure that turns those inputs into economic value largely sits elsewhere. That dependence appears to have informed Section 6 of the Africa Forward Declaration, adopted by African and French leaders in Nairobi. The declaration, signed by 30 heads of state, documents calls for investment in data centres, cloud computing, trusted data systems, broadband infrastructure, and African-led ownership of data and AI systems. “Digital transformation and artificial intelligence are reshaping economies, public services, knowledge systems, security, creative industries, and global competitiveness,” said the declaration, “Africa’s participation in the AI age requires investment across the full digital and AI stack.” Despite accounting for nearly 20% of the world’s population and some of its fastest-growing internet markets, the continent still hosts less than 1% of global data-centre capacity, according to industry estimates. Mobile data consumption is growing at roughly 40% annually—almost twice the global average—but the infrastructure needed to process and store that information remains severely constrained. A decade ago, African startups could build globally competitive products using rented cloud services and relatively modest computing resources. Generative AI has changed the economics entirely. Training and deploying frontier models requires thousands of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), sophisticated cooling systems, and uninterrupted electricity supplies. African governments’ investment in AI infrastructure is still low, with most commitments coming from the private sector and development finance institutions (DFIs). In April, the International Finance Corporation committed $100 million to regional data-centre operator Raxio Group, its largest investment in African digital infrastructure, backing facilities from Ethiopia to Angola as demand for cloud services and AI workloads accelerates. The World Bank’s investment reflects a growing recognition that digital infrastructure has become as important to economic development as roads and ports. Private investments Cassava Technologies, founded by Zimbabwean telecoms billionaire Strive Masiyiwa, announced in July 2025 plans to deploy Nvidia-powered AI infrastructure across Africa through a $700 million investment programme, positioning itself as one of the continent’s first large-scale AI compute providers. In 2024, Microsoft and Abu Dhabi-based AI company G42 unveiled an ambitious $1 billion AI data centre in Kenya, powered by geothermal energy. The project has since been put on hold. Some of these investments, like the Kenyan one, illustrate the continent’s infrastructure constraints. Negotiations have stalled over electricity requirements and financing arrangements, with Kenyan officials acknowledging that the original proposal would require more power capacity than the country can currently dedicate to a single data centre. Discussions continue, but they show that computing power requires supporting infrastructure, which the continent currently struggles to provide. It is forcing policymakers to rethink AI as much an infrastructure question as a technology one. The Nairobi Declaration referred to this, shifting debates on AI investments to the centre of the continent’s economic policy. “We commit to mobilise public and private investment in resilient digital infrastructure and AI infrastructure, including broadband connectivity, regional data centres, cloud and compute capacity, clean energy and trusted data systems,” African heads of state declared. The implications stretch far beyond data centres. For much of the past decade, Africa’s digital ambitions have been defined by rising smartphone adoption, the spread of fintech, and the emergence of startup hubs from Lagos and Nairobi to Cape Town. Artificial intelligence is changing that conversation. The focus is shifting away from consumer applications and towards the infrastructure that enables them. The same shift is taking place around the world. In the US, AI leadership has become intertwined with national security, with the Trump administration accelerating investment in AI infrastructure and treating advanced AI capabilities as a strategic asset in geopolitical competition with China. Washington has issued executive orders to accelerate data centre construction and strengthen America’s AI technology stack, while officials have described AI as critical to maintaining economic and military leadership. Gulf states are deploying sovereign wealth to finance hyperscale data centres and semiconductor partnerships. Europe, meanwhile, increasingly frames AI through the lens of technological sovereignty rather than simply innovation policy. Africa is beginning to adopt a similar approach. The Nairobi declaration repeatedly emphasises digital sovereignty, African ownership of data and the development of local AI ecosystems. It also calls for African language models, locally generated datasets and open-weight AI systems, reflecting a growing recognition among policymakers that AI is not just another software industry but a strategic asset that could shape future economic growth. Technological sovereignty comes with a substantial price tag, which the continent might not marshal soon. Building a competitive AI ecosystem requires far more than skilled engineers. It depends on reliable electricity, fibre networks, advanced chips, research capacity and billions of dollars in patient capital. For many African governments already facing fiscal constraints and competing development priorities, those investments remain difficult to finance. But the declaration’s
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