Author: Akin Naphtal

Kenya’s Bamba, a mobile-first enterprise software for micro-merchants in Africa, has secured US$3.2m in seed funding to scale its app and build out its team. Founded in 2022 by serial entrepreneur and investor Bastian Gotter, Bamba provides a mobile application allowing small businesses to easily manage their customers and stock levels, get paid, payout, and takeout cash advances against their future cash flow. The startup’s US$3.2 million seed round was led by VC firm 468 Capital, with participation from Presight Ventures, Jigsaw VC, and high profile angels Mato Peric, Leonard Stiegeler, Laurin Hainy and Thomas Stafford. The company is currently…

South African agri-tech startup Nile, which enables buyers to purchase directly from Africa’s leading food producers through its marketplace, has raised a ZAR83 million (US$5.1 million) equity funding round led by Naspers Foundry. Nile was founded in 2020 to provide farmers with digital solutions that can address various pain points inherent to food trading – including price transparency, quality verification, speed of payments, the traceability of the produce and food waste. The startup’s end-to-end process connects farmers to commercial retailers of fresh produce both in South Africa and across the continent. The B2B platform facilitates transactions and safeguards payments on…

Oracle plans to establish a new branch of Oracle Labs, Oracle’s advanced research arm, at Casanearshore Park in Casablanca to house up to 100 researchers. Researchers at the new facility will use Oracle’s cloud, AI, and machine learning technologies to tackle the most pressing challenges facing business, science and the public sector. According to Oracle, the team will collaborate with Morocco’s technology sector to support the identification, exploration, and transfer of new technologies that can advance Oracle’s customer’s businesses worldwide. This effort will include expanding intern and graduate recruitment programs, undertaking joint research with local universities and working with the…

The Bank of Zambia, the country’s central bank, has become the latest target for cyber-criminals after its IT systems and some applications were hacked recently, and resulted in disruption to operators within the financial services market. The incident has occurred amid warnings from the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) about an increase in cybercrime, specifically targeting the country’s financial services market. The regulator has identified the increase in adoption and use of the internet as a contributing factor. Bank of Zambia Assistant Director in charge of communication Besnart Mwanza said the Bank experienced a partial disruption of its…

Egyptian startup Instabug, a mobile monitoring, crash and bug reporting solution for mobile teams, has raised US$46 million in Series B funding to add to its product and build what it says will be the first mobile observability and performance monitoring platform. Founded in 2016, Instabug helps developers better understand the performance of their mobile applications, and its impact on user experience. The company’s robust platform scales with any sized business, allowing independent developers and enterprises alike to seamlessly monitor, alert, prioritise and debug during critical phases of the application life cycle. Its US$46 million Series B round was led…

Kenyan fintech startup FlexPay has raised funding from the Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund as it looks to supercharge its growth and help more people avoid debt. FlexPay is an online and offline payment gateway that allows merchants to offer interest-free targeted savings to their customers in Africa. Through FlexPay, merchants give their customers the freedom to choose how and when to pay for high-value goods and services. Shoppers get to spread the cost over time, increasing flexibility and spending power. Merchants can choose to integrate FlexPay as a checkout option online, or offer offline in-store flexibility. The startup has now…

Ugandan startup Eversend, a digital-only finance platform providing cross-border money transfers among other services, is entering its “growth and expansion phase” in 2022 after achieving sustainability last year. Founded by Stone Atwine and Ronald Kasendwa in 2017 and launched to the public in 2019, Eversend is an all-in-one payments platform offering cross-border payments, virtual cards, currency exchange, and crypto buying and selling, focusing on Africa. In addition, the startup is building financial infrastructure for collections, payouts, currency exchange, and crypto through a web app and APIs. “We are the leading FX startup on the continent, and our crypto-fiat business offering…

The National Information Technology Development Agency’s  (NITDA) Computer Emergency Readiness and Response Team has warned ministries, departments, and agencies of rising cyberattacks in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This warning was made in a press statement distributed by NITDA’s spokesperson, Hadiza Umar. It read in part, “Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, cyberattacks on businesses and government organizations have grown, with the possibility of spillover cyberattacks against non-primary targets becoming far more frequent. There is a greater danger for countries doing business in or with these countries’ governments, as well as businesses or countries that apply sanctions or are believed…

Azentio Software, a Singapore-headquartered technology firm owned by funds advised by Apax Partners, announced today that BigPay, a Ghana-based global digital payment solutions company, has gone live with AmlockTM, Azentio’s Financial Crime Detection and Management Solution (FCDMS). AmlockTM will meet BigPay’s requirements for an effective transaction monitoring process, through an online workflow system. A unique feature of this workflow is the ability of the system to group or link together accounts belonging to a customer and investigate all transactions and the underlying alerts under a single case ID. The business challenges for BigPay arose on account of the different formats…

Halo Financial Services Limited, a fintech start-up that offers banking, investment, lending, and other financial services to formal and informal communities, has launched an innovative approach to help Nigerians manage and grow their money. Halo Financial Services Limited, a fintech start-up that offers banking, investment, lending, and other financial services to formal and informal communities, has launched an innovative approach to help Nigerians manage and grow their money. Speaking at a media round table the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, Chidimma Onyeokoro, disclosed that Halo enables communities to provide financial services to their members. Halo defines a community as any…