Author: Akin Naphtal

TymeBank, a South African fintech, has announced that it reached its first-ever profit in December 2023. The neobank says it’s the first digital bank to break even and become profitable in South Africa and on the continent. This news comes six months after the digital banking service, which operates online with no physical branches, posted a loss of R858 million (~$45 million). Founded in 2019, TymeBank claims to have added 150,000 customers monthly since it targets the underprivileged and economically marginalised groups in society with its easily accessible, affordable, and quality banking services. The Founder and Chairman of African Rainbow…

Vodafone and Microsoft unveiled a strategic alliance that promises to reshape the digital landscape for millions of businesses and consumers throughout Europe and Africa on Tuesday. The 10-year partnership is set to harness the companies’ combined prowess in digital technology, impacting over 300 million entities. The collaboration will see a transformation in Vodafone’s customer experience, using Microsoft’s cutting-edge generative AI. It aims to supercharge Vodafone’s managed IoT connectivity platform and spawn innovative digital and financial services, with a keen focus on supporting SMEs across the two continents. This partnership will catalyse a comprehensive revamp of Vodafone’s global data centre cloud…

Multi-asset broker, Exness, has announced the start of applications for its Fintech Scholarships program in South Africa (SA), as part of the company’s commitment to supporting education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The Exness Fintech Scholarships program aims to provide a platform for outstanding South African students, particularly those facing financial challenges, to pursue academic excellence and foster career development in STEM disciplines. By empowering these individuals, Exness aims to contribute to the creation of the next generation of tech leaders in the country. Collaborating with the University of Cape Town (UCT), Exness will continue its support…

New York-based growth equity firm, General Atlantic, managing $83 billion in assets, has agreed to acquire London-based energy infrastructure investor Actis, in a move to deepen its investment in sustainable infrastructure. The deal, expected to conclude in the second quarter of 2024, will result in a combined platform with $96 billion in assets under management (AUM), spanning sustainable infrastructure, real estate, growth equity, and credit. While financial terms of the acquisition are yet to be disclosed, the joint statement released by the companies stressed the creation of a diversified global platform. Head of EMEA, and Head of Climate of General…

Canza Finance, a pioneering Wb3 neobank specializing in facilitating cross-border payments for African startups, has successfully closed a funding round, raising an amount of $2.3 million. The company plans to utilise the funds to acquire licenses from various financial regulators across Africa, while focusing on laying the groundwork for its innovative FX DeFi platform, Baki. With this latest funding round, Canza has now raised a total of $5.5 million, following a $3.27 million seed round last year. Led by Polychain Capital, the funding round saw participation from notable investors such as Protocol Labs, Avalanche’s Blizzard Fund, 99 Capital, Stratified Capital,…

After six years of operation in South Africa, Lyca Mobile has announced its decision to discontinue its operations in South Africa by January 9, 2024. Since its launch, Lyca Mobile has been instrumental in facilitating connections for South Africans with their friends and family, both locally and internationally. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, Lyca Mobile finds itself unable to sustain its service in South Africa. As a result, Lyca Mobile services are scheduled to cease operations on January 9, 2024. Customers currently using Lyca Mobile services are advised to transition to another mobile network operator before the specified date to…

Vodafone, the leading technology communications company in Europe and Africa, and Tech giant, Microsoft Corp., has recently announced a new, far-reaching 10-year strategic partnership that leverages their respective strengths in offering scaled digital platforms to more than 300 million businesses, public sector organisations, and consumers across Europe and Africa. The partnership is set to benefit more than 60 million customers and 5 million businesses across M-PESA’S eight markets with Microsoft hosting the M-PESA platform on its Azure cloud while also co-developing new cloud applications with M-PESA Africa. Through the partnership, the companies will collaborate to transform Vodafone’s customer experience using…

Nigeria’s fintech startups amassed $243 million in funding over the past year, marking the lowest among the “Big Four” African nations, according to a recent data survey. According to the report, despite a 16% funding decline in Nigeria for 2023, noteworthy startups like Moove ($66 million) and Lemfi ($33 million) successfully raised substantial amounts. Among the Big Four nations, Egypt took the lead in 2023, securing the highest fintech funding with $541 million, followed by South Africa ($367 million), Kenya ($301 million), and Nigeria ($243 million). While Nigeria experienced the highest number of deals reported in one year (60 deals),…

The Republic of Korea’s industry ministry is set to invest $2.26 billion (3 trillion won) in the robot sector with private businesses by 2030, with a goal of supplying 1 million robots to local industries. According to the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, the plan for intelligence robots will focus on securing 80 percent of key robot parts locally by 2030, compared with the current estimate of 44 percent. The robotics market in South Korea is expected to witness significant growth in the coming years. Furthermore, the revenue in the Robotics market is expected to showcase an…

Most recently, many international financial institutions, including multilateral development banks are partly funded by financial instruments known as promissory notes, most of which are still paper-based. While the current system provides the operational controls for member nations to make subscription and contribution payments to institutions like the World Bank, the custody of outstanding promissory notes can be digitised to address operational challenges and enhance efficiency. Project Promissa is a joint experiment of the BIS Innovation Hub Swiss Centre, the Swiss National Bank and the World Bank that aims to build a proof of concept (PoC) of a platform for digital…