| Date | Title | Description |
| 14.11.2023 | uqudo-TECH5 Technology Successfully Used for Elections in Oman for the Second Time | uqudo in Partnership with TECH5 Provided its Biometric-Based Digital ID Platform for Electronic Voting October 29 th , 2023. Following the successful application of a biometric-based digital ID platform, developed by uqudo and powered by TE... |
| 07.11.2023 | Venture Forward: How This VC Fund Got To 133 Startups In 22 African Countries. | Launch Africa, a leading early-stage pan-African venture capital fund has invested in 133 startups in 22 African countries closing over $36 million in its first round. Janade du Plessis, its co-founder, shares the crucial highlights of this... |
| 07.11.2023 | Solving the Significant Funding Gap for Venture Capital with Launch Africa
1. Tell us about yourselves and the role you play at Launch Africa.
2. Can you provide an overview of Launch Africa and the... | AVCA speaks with Zachariah George, Managing Partner and Janade du Plessis, Managing Partner at Launch Africa about their experience in the market and solving the significant funding gap for venture capital in Africa. |
| 27.06.2023 | ShopZetu raises pre-seed funding to fuel growth of its fashion marketplace beyond Kenya | Kenyan fashion e-commerce startup ShopZetu is set to add beauty and home décor categories to its portfolio, in response to the growing needs of the young and style-conscious women in Africa. This is as it currently scales regionally over th... |
| 26.06.2023 | Kidato Selected for the 2023 Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship Cohort | In an era marked by the rapid growth of educational technology, startups are playing a pivotal role in revolutionizing the way students learn and acquire knowledge. The iHub Nairobi in conjunction with the Mastercard Foundation recognized t... |
| 09.06.2023 | Africa’s Green Economy: ‘AIR IS AN UNDERUTILIZED RESOURCE’ | Savoring the mild nippy weather in New York City, a far cry from South Africa’s autumn sun, Spencer Horne seems to have come full circle. |
| 08.05.2023 | Acasia Ventures leads Balad’s seven-figure pre-Seed round | Press release: |
| 04.04.2023 | Shuttlers raises $4M to fuel its shared mobility solution across Nigeria | |
| 04.04.2023 | Apis Partners leads €29M (US$31M) Series A funding for African fintech Peach Payments | London, 4th April 2023 – Apis Growth Fund II, a private equity fund managed by Apis Partners LLP (“Apis Partners”), a UK-based asset manager, today announces its proposed investment of €29M (US$31M) in Baobab Payments GmbH (trading as Peach... |
| 21.02.2023 | YC-backed HR-payroll provider Workpay raises $2.7M to scale in Africa | The HR payroll market across the world is expected to record a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.2%, reaching a $14.31 billion valuation by the close of this decade, buoyed by the increased demand for payroll and other HR solutions. |
| 07.02.2023 | Gameball raises $3.5 million Seed round | Press release: |
| 02.02.2023 | uqudo in partnership with TECH5 supports countries in organizing free and fair elections | GCC, 2nd Feb 2023: uqudo’s leading digital identity platform combined with TECH5’s top-tier facial authentication and liveness technologies provides a smooth and secure voter identity verification for elections. |
| 16.01.2023 | Kenyan fintech Kwara raises $3M seed extension, signs deal to reach over 4,000 credit unions | Kwara, a Kenyan fintech digitizing credit unions (Saccos), more than doubled its client base last year, and it’s eyeing enormous growth in the coming years after raising a $3 million seed extension and signing an exclusive digital solutions... |
| 11.01.2023 | Shopstar launches Flick Live, Africa’s first live shopping app | South Africa-founded e-commerce platform Shopstar has launched the first live shopping app in Africa. Flick Live is a dynamic social commerce platform, powered by Shopstar, in which brands and retailers can sell their products, interact wit... |
| 09.01.2023 | Nigerian agritech Releaf gets more capital as it launches new tech for food processing | Releaf, a Nigerian agritech startup that supplies ingredients (starting with the oil palm) to consumer goods manufacturers and their food factories, has received $3.3 million in an oversubscribed pre-Series A round. |
| 05.12.2022 | Egypt’s Sideup raises $1.2m to grow its e-commerce platform | Sideup, the MENA region’s platform for e-commerce services has announced the completion of a $1.2m seed round. |
| 26.11.2022 | MarketForce: Building an Operating System for Merchants in Africa | By Stephen Ciesinski, Lucy Montgomery |
| 26.11.2022 | Consumer finance app Djamo eyes Francophone Africa expansion, backed by new $14M round | Last February, Djamo announced that it got accepted into Y Combinator, the first from Ivory Coast. Months later, the two-year-old fintech has raised $14 million in funding from the famed accelerator, as well as from three lead investors — E... |
| 23.11.2022 | Tanzania’s YC alum Ramani raises $32M to digitize CPG supply chains, lend resellers | Ramani, a Tanzanian startup focused on consumer-packaged goods (CPG) supply chains, plans to introduce new financial services as it expands its operations in the East African country after raising $32 million in Series A debt-equity funding... |
| 10.11.2022 | Nigerian Money App Kuda Launches in UK | The Nigerian money app Kuda, announced Wednesday (Nov. 9) that it is launching in the U.K. as part of a global expansion drive with a view to serving the cross-border transfer needs of U.K.-based Nigerians. |
| 04.10.2022 | Spleet secures $2.6M seed to scale its residential rent-focused products in Africa | The urban population of Nigeria constituted 48% of the country’s population, according to the United Nations. This indicates that 73.92 million Nigerians out of the estimated total population of 154 million people live in urban centres. |
| 28.09.2022 | YC-backed fintech Numida raises $12.3M led by Serena Ventures to extend loans to MSMEs beyond Uganda | Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) across Africa make up the bulk — over 90% — of businesses in the continent but are still marginalized in accessing credit from formal institutions because of the nature of their operations; ... |
| 28.09.2022 | Ivorian fintech Julaya gets $5M to become banking partner for businesses in Francophone Africa | Ivorian payments-led fintech startup Julaya has extended its pre-Series A round by $5 million. The company, which facilitates B2B payments for businesses in Francophone West Africa, mainly via mobile money channels, has raised a total of $7... |
| 09.09.2022 | Nigerian blockchain payments startup Bitmama closes $2M pre-seed as it scales to new markets | Africa is the world’s third fastest-growing crypto market, with crypto adoption increasing by more than 1,200% over the last two years. Countries such as Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa are majorly responsible for skyrocketing adoption rate... |
| 03.08.2022 | SA gaming startup Skrmiish secures $2.5m seed round to speed growth | The Cape Town-based Skrmiish, a mobile “play-to-earn” app that enables gamers of every level to earn cash in every match they play across the AAA+ games they love, has raised a US$2.5 million seed round to speed its global growth. |
| 20.07.2022 | Sudanese fintech Bloom nabs $6.5M, backed by Y Combinator, GFC and Visa | Bloom, a Sudan-based fintech that offers a high-yield savings account and adjacent digital banking services, has raised a $6.5 million seed round. This investment is coming after the startup’s undisclosed pre-seed round last year. |
| 16.07.2022 | South Africa’s Largest Student Housing Start-Up Secures Investment To Spearhead International Growth | DigsConnect.com has secured backing from Launch Africa, Goodwater Capital, Five35 Ventures and Delta Ventures in its pre-Series A seed extension funding round |
| 15.07.2022 | Launch Africa Ventures to invest in early-stage tech start-ups across the continent | The Money Show with Bruce Whitfield |
| 06.07.2022 | Zuri Health Closes Pre Seed Round at $1.3m | Zuri Health, the digital healthcare company which provides affordable healthcare via mobile, has completed a funding round attracting investment from DOB Equity, Launch Africa and Founders Factory Africa to expand across Africa. |
| 14.06.2022 | Launch Africa, the VC firm that has backed over 100 startups, closes first fund at $36.3M | Pan-African venture capital fund Launch Africa Ventures today is announcing the close of its $36.3 million fund, which it has primarily used to invest in B2B and B2B2C startups across Africa. |
| 25.05.2022 | Blockchain entertainment company, AMP Global, raises $5.6 million to expand its watch-to-earn offering | AMP Global Technologies, a blockchain-based video entertainment platform, has raised a $5.6 million seed round, with a $2 million investment from MaC Venture Capital, according to a statement from the LA-based VC firm on Tuesday. |
| 07.05.2022 | Strove, a South African employee wellness firm, plans to expand throughout Europe following its launch in the United Kingdom | Strove, founded in 2020 by Chris Bruchhausen in collaboration with venture builder The Delta, is an activity-based mobile rewards program that enables businesses to urge their staff to live a healthy and active lifestyle, combating inactivi... |
| 07.05.2022 | Cameroonian e-health startup Waspito raises $2.7m seed funding round | Cameroonian e-health startup Waspito has raised a US$2.7m seed funding round to grow its user base in its home market and expand to Ivory Coast. |
| 07.05.2022 | Nigerian Fintech Startup Afriex Raises $10 Million For Its Blockchain Money Transfer Platform | When Tope Alabi moved back to Nigeria in 2019 after 20 years in the U.S., he knew he wanted to start a company applying what he learned working at blockchain consultant Consensys. He and future cofounder John Obirije started testing a numbe... |
| 07.05.2022 | French-Malagasy start-up Sayna raises $600k | Orange Ventures, the Orange Group’s multi-stage know-how funding fund, Launch Africa Ventures, a pan-African enterprise capital fund based mostly in South Africa, and the Malagasy Funding Membership (Membership MAIC) are offering a complete... |
| 07.05.2022 | Newly launched African recruitment platform attracts venture capital firm | Venture capital firm Launch Africa has invested in pan-African recruitment firm Homecoming Revolution’s new on-demand expertise platform Insights By Experts. |
| 20.04.2022 | MarketForce raises $40 million Series A, introduces BNPL merchant stock financing | MarketForce, the retail B2B and end-to-end distribution platform founded in Kenya, has raised $40 million in Series A funding for its merchant inventory financing and expansion across Africa. |
| 22.03.2022 | Almashari Former Legal Consultant in the Saudi Government Appointed as the Managing Partner of Elmetr in KSA | With vast legal experience advising some of the largest Saudi companies on how to start and scale in the Saudi Market, Taghreed Almashari is now appointed as the Managing Partner of the legal platform www.Elmetr.com. According to an intervi... |
| 12.03.2022 | Wattnow raises $1.3 million in pre-Series A round | Press release: |
| 13.02.2022 | Zach George: From Wall Street to investing in African startups | 2010 was a watershed moment in football. For the first time, the World Cup was hosted by an African country. 3.2 billion people watched the matches from their homes while 3.18 million fans attended the matches live in South Africa—Zach Geor... |
| 01.02.2022 | Kenyan tech-enabled logistics platform Amitruck raises $4 million, embarks on Uganda, Tanzania expansion | The shipping business in Africa has for years been inefficient and costly due to the traditional ways of managing operations — traditional in the sense that a shipper has to physically look for a transporter, sometimes through a middle-man,... |
| 30.01.2022 | BBC Hard Talk with Zach George on the African Venture Funding Landscape | Zachariah George, Managing Partner at Launch Africa Ventures (Africa’s leading early-stage venture capital fund) breaks down how we can bridge the finance gap, and create a conducive environment to support locally founded tech companies in ... |
| 26.01.2022 | True or False: Early Stage Capital | On our Grit & Growth masterclass on raising capital, featuring Zach George, general partner at Launch Africa Ventures and co-founder of Startup Bootcamp Africa, Zach provides honest, practical advice on what founders really need to focu... |
| 24.01.2022 | Kenyan fintech Zanifu nabs $1M to bridge MSME financing gap, eyes Ghana, Uganda expansion | Kenyan fintech Zanifu is set to upgrade its platform and grow the number of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) it extends stock financing to after securing $1 million in seed funding. |
| 12.01.2022 | Medical records at your fingertips with Egyptian company Bypa-ss | https://edition.cnn.com/videos/tv/2022/01/11/bypa-ss-medical-records-egypt-spc-intl.cnn?utm_source=cnn&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=cnnvid |
| 07.01.2022 | Nigerian ethical credit-recovery fintech Bfree secures $1.7M, expands to Asia, Europe, South America and across Africa | Bfree, a Nigerian credit management fintech has embarked on global expansion after raising $1.7 million in a pre-Series A round, to tap the opportunities in emerging markets, where digital lending apps have recently sprung up in droves. |
| 21.12.2021 | Nigeria’s Payhippo raises $3 million in seed funding | Payhippo has announced a seed round raise of $3 million its seed round funding of $3 million led by some of Africa’s influential fintech founders, CNBC Africa spoke to the Co-Founder and COO of PayHippo, Chioma Okotcha for more. |
| 09.12.2021 | Kenya’s fintech Kwara lands $4 Million in seed round from Breega, SoftBank to build neobank for credit unions | The Kenyan fintech Kwara was launched in 2019 to help credit unions (savings and credit cooperatives societies, SACCOs) in the East African country shift to digital platforms by providing them with its proprietary Back-end-as-a-service (Baa... |
| 27.11.2021 | Fixit45 acquires Parkit, unveils subscription-based VIP programme | |
| 16.11.2021 | Nigerian shared mobility startup Shuttlers raises $1.6M, plans pan-African expansion | Shared transportation in Nigeria, Africa’s largest country by population, is a thriving business, at least when done the conventional way: offline. |
| 04.11.2021 | Edtech Startup, Semicolon Africa, Raises $1.2 Million in Seed Funding | Semicolon Africa, an EdTech startup, creating employment and economic opportunities by training software engineers and techpreneurs, has closed a $1.2M Seed round of funding. Semicolon is focused on preparing young people and companies in A... |
| 03.11.2021 | Local Venture Capitalists Impacting Africa Venture Capital Market | The African Venture Capital Market over the past few years has seen major developments and an increase in volume. In a report by Max Cuvellier, African startups since the beginning of the year have raised more than $2.9 billion through over... |
| 03.11.2021 | African founders lead Payhippo’s $3m seed investment | There’s a new exciting trend in the African tech ecosystem; it’s African founders backing fellow founders especially in pre-seed and seed funding, which is an indication that the African tech ecosystem is maturing. |
| 03.11.2021 | Bypa-ss raises $1M pre-seed to expand health tech product across Egypt | Digital healthcare continues to thrive globally following the effects of the pandemic last year, but venture capital inflows differ regionally with Africa lagging behind the rest of the world. |
| 03.11.2021 | Kasookoo Communications Raises $500,000 | Kasookoo Communications announces a successful seed raise worth $500,000, led by angel investor South Southeast Angels Network (a member of the African Business Angels Network (ABAN)) and Launch Africa Ventures, a Pan-African VC fund. |
| 02.11.2021 | Kasookoo Communications Raises $500,000 in seed round | - |
| 25.10.2021 | Can a motorcycle-hailing company create an African super app? | (CNN Business)Super apps have taken off in Asia, with users able to book flights, reserve hotels, play games and more all in one place. |
| 25.10.2021 | Perspectives on early stage venture capital in Africa | In 2020, tech startups in Africa raised over $1.5 billion in 400+ funding rounds, with a further $1 billion in M&A activity. Although the amount of capital deployed was down -30% compared to 2019, due to ticket sizes being slashed as Af... |
| 25.10.2021 | The investors rocking 2021 so far👨🎤 | This week we thought we’d look at the investors that have been involved in the most deals so far this year. We’re talking disclosed deals, but also some confidential ones they’ve kindly shared with us 😉. Two players in particular – Launch A... |
| 25.10.2021 | Omnibiz gets $3M to digitize Nigeria’s informal B2B supply chain | Despite the prevalence of shopping malls and the emergence of VC-backed e-commerce companies like Jumia, informal retail in Africa is still king. |
| 25.10.2021 | Nigerian digital freight provider MVX lands $1.3M | In Africa, chartering vessels and processing ocean freight can be challenging. The sector is largely inefficient and fragmented. Merchants also struggle to access finance to perform cross-border trade in the continent. A couple of digital f... |
| 25.10.2021 | Ivorian fintech Julaya raises $2M to digitize business payments in Francophone Africa | There are over 1 billion mobile money accounts globally. Africa leads the way in transaction value and volume thanks to M-Pesa, largely used in East Africa. Other regions across the continent are also growing fast. |
| 25.10.2021 | Kenyan foodtech startup Kune raises $1M pre-seed | While there has been a wave of innovation in food tech worldwide, it’s still in early days for Africa. There are only a handful of African food-tech startups, and a year and a half’s worth of global pandemic has added a couple to that list.... |
| 25.10.2021 | RxAll grabs $3.15M to scale its drug checking and counterfeiting tech across Africa | Research says that counterfeit medication is the cause of 1 million deaths per year. One-tenth of this number comes from Africa. Counterfeiting is hard to detect, investigate, quantify or stop. It is a global problem, with annual earnings f... |
| 25.10.2021 | Kenya’s MarketForce raises $2M | A 2016 study by global consultancy PwC states that an estimated 90% of sales in Africa’s major economies come through informal channels like markets and kiosks. In sub-Saharan Africa, 90% of these household retail transactions are carried o... |
| 25.10.2021 | Chekkit Closes $500k Pre-seed Round | Chekkit Closes $500k Pre-seed Round To Save More Lives and Secure The Pharmaceutical & FMCG Industries |
| 25.10.2021 | Kuda, the African challenger bank, raises $55M at a $500M valuation | Kuda Bank, the London-based, Nigerian-operating startup that is taking on incumbents in the country with a mobile-first, personalised and often cheaper set of banking services built on newer, API-based infrastructure, has been on a growth t... |
| 30.09.2021 | 🚀 Africa’s top investors of 2021 | Back by popular demand (our April post on the same topic has been our most-read so far), this week we are looking at the most active investors in Africa, and Boy, haven’t they been busy! |
| 30.09.2021 | Egypt-based FinTech Kashat raises $1.75M | Egypt-based FinTech and microloan solutions provider Kashat has successfully raised $1.75M in its latest funding. The Bridge round was led by the Pan-African fund Launch Africa, whose mandate is to back companies that tackle the most meanin... |
| 30.09.2021 | K-12 School digital infrastructure, Edves raises $575,000 USD | Edves is an Education Technology company that serves African k-12 schools by digitizing learning and administration to ensure multi-curricular lesson delivery online and offline. And as digital infrastructure, it enables collaboration betwe... |
| 30.09.2021 | Senegalese logistics startup Yobante Express raises $1.2m seed round | Senegalese delivery startup Yobante Express, an online marketplace that connects local couriers with local commerce to optimise domestic, cross-border and last mile delivery, has raised a US$1.2 million bridge funding round as it looks to b... |
| 28.09.2021 | Senegalese logistics startup Yobante Express raises $1.2m seed round | Senegalese delivery startup Yobante Express, an online marketplace that connects local couriers with local commerce to optimise domestic, cross-border and last mile delivery, has raised a US$1.2 million bridge funding round as it looks to b... |
| 16.09.2021 | Apex Group expands relationship with Launch Africa Ventures | Apex Group (Apex) has expanded its relationship with Launch Africa Ventures (Launch Africa), a Pan-African Venture Capital fund, addressing the significant funding gap in the Seed and pre-Series A investment landscape in Africa. |
| 12.09.2021 | Egypt-based FinTech Kashat raises $1.75M | Egypt-based FinTech and microloan solutions provider Kashat has successfully raised $1.75M in its latest funding. The Bridge round was led by the Pan-African fund Launch Africa, whose mandate is to back companies that tackle the most meanin... |
| 06.09.2021 | Apex Group expands relationship with Launch Africa Ventures | Apex Group (Apex) has expanded its relationship with Launch Africa Ventures (Launch Africa), a Pan-African Venture Capital fund, addressing the significant funding gap in the Seed and pre-Series A investment landscape in Africa. |
| 11.08.2021 | Perspectives on early stage venture capital in Africa | In 2020, tech startups in Africa raised over $1.5 billion in 400+ funding rounds, with a further $1 billion in M&A activity. Although the amount of capital deployed was down -30% compared to 2019, due to ticket sizes being slashed as Af... |
| 10.08.2021 | Chekkit Closes $500k Pre-seed Round | Chekkit Closes $500k Pre-seed Round To Save More Lives and Secure The Pharmaceutical & FMCG Industries |
| 10.08.2021 | Omnibiz gets $3M to digitize Nigeria’s informal B2B supply chain | Despite the prevalence of shopping malls and the emergence of VC-backed e-commerce companies like Jumia, informal retail in Africa is still king. |
| 05.08.2021 | Nigerian digital freight provider MVX lands $1.3M | In Africa, chartering vessels and processing ocean freight can be challenging. The sector is largely inefficient and fragmented. Merchants also struggle to access finance to perform cross-border trade in the continent. A couple of digital f... |
| 02.08.2021 | Kuda, the African challenger bank, raises $55M at a $500M valuation | Kuda Bank, the London-based, Nigerian-operating startup that is taking on incumbents in the country with a mobile-first, personalised and often cheaper set of banking services built on newer, API-based infrastructure, has been on a growth t... |
| 28.07.2021 | Ivorian fintech Julaya raises $2M to digitize business payments in Francophone Africa | There are over 1 billion mobile money accounts globally. Africa leads the way in transaction value and volume thanks to M-Pesa, largely used in East Africa. Other regions across the continent are also growing fast. |
| 21.07.2021 | Can a motorcycle-hailing company create an African super app? | (CNN Business)Super apps have taken off in Asia, with users able to book flights, reserve hotels, play games and more all in one place. |
