This Week in African Tech 🌍

Amazon kicks off its journey in Africa

Caleb Maru
May 12, 2024

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We’re teaming up with Vesti to host a webinar on migration-as-a-service on Wednesday the 15th of May at 5pm WAT.

Olusola Amusan, CEO of Vesti, joins us to talk about how his startup is helping people solve migration challenges using tech.

Amazon, the global retailer, has launched an online marketplace in South Africa, marking its entry into the African market. The launch has been in the works for two years, and Amazon is promising discounts, same-day deliveries, and free deliveries on orders above R500 ($27).

Airtel Africa’s mobile money unit, Airtel Money, has announced its plans to go public in 2025, but the CEO won’t tell what exchange they’re listing on. This is Airtel Africa’s fastest-growing business unit and analysts predict it could IPO for as much as $4 billion. This is coming after a $100 million investment in the unit from Mastercard.
eTranzact Global Limited, a payment technology provider based in Nigeria, has announced its expansion into Uganda after receiving an operational license from the Central Bank of Uganda. The company is publicly traded and operates in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Cameroon, Liberia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Go on an exciting journey with tech ecosystem builder Gerald Black as he explores Benin Republic's thriving tech scene in the latest episode of "Discovering New Tech Destinations Across Africa"! Discover the untold story of tech innovation in new destinations across Africa! 🌍✨Subscribe to the Backend by Gerald Black on YouTube.

Last week, we said iProcure has been put under administration by its creditors. This week, the company filed for bankruptcy. The company’s co-founder, Stefano Carcoforo, confirmed to a Kenyan court that iProcure needed bankruptcy protection due to financial difficulties and failure to meet its debt obligations.
According to a blog post by Richard Teng, Binance’s CEO, Nigerian officials allegedly asked for a $150 million bribe after detaining Binance employees back in February. The officials said the secret payment would “make all of this go away in 48 hours”.
Profits escaped the hands of Jumia once more even after it lowered its losses by 70% in Q1 of 2024. Jumia had an operating loss of $73 million in 2023 and has been on a quest for profitability over the last decade.
News broke that Alerzo, the Nigerian B2B eCommerce player, laid off around 70 folks two months ago, even though they raised $10.4 million in 2023. This is its third round of layoffs in 13 months, and the last one affected 400 employees. The company confirmed the layoffs but claims this is happening because of warehouse automation.

South Africa’s Lesaka, a fintech startup, has acquired Adumo RF, an online payment platform for $86.4 million in cash and equity. This is happening three months after it acquired 100% of Touchsides, a data analytics company formerly owned by Heineken.
B2B healthcare marketplace, Axmed, has raised $2 million in seed funding from Founderful Ventures. It will use the funds to expand into its target markets - Rwanda, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Rwanda.

Axmed’s founding team

Egyptian fintech startup, Swypex, is launching with $4 million in seed funding from Accel, Foundation Ventures, and The Raba Partnership. The startup is building an all-in-one fintech platform for businesses.
Seamfix, a Nigerian startup building identity tech for African businesses, has raised $4.5 million from Alitheia IDF in a private equity round. The funds will be used to scale its technology infrastructure and kickstart the expansion of its digital ID services into five African countries.

Seamfix founders: Chimezie Emewulu, Chibuzor Onwurah, and Frank Atube.

Are you coming to Afrotech Fest? It’s a festival to celebrate Africa’s tech ecosystem, and it’s happening on the 1st of June in London. It’s for everyone - Founders, Operators, Investors, Ecosystem players, or if you're just curious about tech. Tickets are moving fast - grab them here.

Servercore and Tech Safari are hosting their first Developer Meetup in Nairobi on Tuesday the 14th of May. Servercore Meetups are a series of in-person meetups for developers and technology leaders to connect and share practical insights. Register here to save your spot.
Google has officially opened applications for its Google for Startups Accelerator Africa program's eighth cohort. It’s a three-month, equity-free virtual program that provides African startups with mentorship, technical resources and access to a global network of experts and investors. Applications are open from April 29 to May 20. Apply here.

The African hub network, AfriLabs, has partnered with Intel to launch the Intel AI Programme for African deep-tech startups and ecosystem stakeholders. It’s a three-day event that will feature panel discussions on various aspects of deep-tech in Africa. Registration for the event ends today. Sign up here.
We’ve partnered with The Kenyan Wall Street for an exclusive side event at the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, Rwanda. The event, titled Institution Meets Innovation is on Thursday, the 16th of May, and will feature CEOs of these tech companies. Register here if you’ll be in Kigali.

And that's a wrap for this week!

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