This Week in African Tech 🌍

Tech Roundup

• Ugandan startup, Thiqa Digital Finance, and South Africa’s Paymenow have teamed up to bring earned wage access (EWA) to Uganda’s government employees. Employees can now receive some of their salary before the standard payday.

• Ghana’s government is partnering with Radisys Corporation to launch affordable 5G internet services later this year. The services will be rolled out through a joint venture called Next-Gen Infrastructure Company (NGIC).

• Flutterwave can now expand its operations to Mozambique after receiving a preliminary payment aggregator license from the country’s central bank. Digital transactions in Mozambique are expected to reach $15 billion over the next four years, and Flutterwave is going after that market.

• Glovo, the food delivery startup, has partnered with Siltech, an EV manufacturer, to use its e-bikes and charging stations in some parts of Lagos, Nigeria. This will help Glovo cut down fuel and maintenance costs on its current petrol-powered motorcycles.

• Mauritius has announced plans to launch a fully interoperable digital ID wallet in partnership with Thales, a French IT company. Thales will roll out an identity management system complete with digital ID cards that feature a high-res photo, barcode, electronic chip, and a digital ID wallet for secure document storage and sharing.

• Oracle has announced plans to open two new cloud regions in Morocco. This development enables Oracle customers and partners in Morocco to move mission-critical workloads from their data centres to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).

• Bolt, the ride-hailing startup, has launched a bidding system for drivers and riders in Nigeria. This will allow both parties to negotiate, and it could encourage more drivers to take up gig work, as this solves their pricing issues.

Deal Roundup

• M-Kopa, a startup that helps under-banked people pay for appliances easily, has raised $51 million in debt funding from the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). The funds will be used to increase its offerings and the product sets it covers.

• Brass, a Nigerian business banking startup, has been acquired by a consortium of investors and the founders have left the company. The consortium, led by Paystack, Piggytech, Ventures Platform, and P1 Ventures, will take on the company’s assets and liabilities.

  

  Brass founders - Emmanuel Okeke and Sola Akindolu

• Orca, a South African startup that helps banks and fintechs fight fraud, has raised $550,000 in pre-seed funding from Norsken22, Musha Ventures, First Circle Capital, Kara Ventures, and a few others. Orca plans to use this funding to expand its team and build, validate and iterate on their fraud and compliance products.

• Birdnest, an Egyptian Proptech startup that offers digital rental management and furnishing solutions for real estate investors, has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-series A funding in exchange for a 20% stake. The funds will go into expanding its quality assurance team and doing more marketing.

• Egyptian logistics startup, OneOrder has raised $16 million in series A funding from Delivery Hero Ventures and Nclude. The startup helps hotels and restaurants source large quantities of fresh and packaged food products directly from suppliers, and it will use this round of funding to double down on expansion.

• African mobility is on the move again as Roam Electric, Mogo Kenya, and BasiGo all secure $10 million each in debt funding from the US government to support the design and development of electric motorcycles and buses as well as charging stations for motorcycles and buses throughout Kenya.

• Kandua, a South African marketplace for hiring skilled home artisans, has been acquired by Santam, the country’s largest short-term insurer. Both parties disclosed no figures, but Santam’s CEO has called it a strategic buyout to help with its plan for digital expansion.

• South African mobility startup, Ratality, has been acquired by Busbud, a Canadian mobility firm. Ratality helps road transportation operators to manage their operations and optimize revenues.

• Bosso, a Zambian marketplace for construction supplies, has raised $400,000 from Leonardo by Vinci, Launch Africa, Launch Africa Ventures, and Change-Com.

Events and opportunities

• Leta, Paystack and Zucchini are hosting an event for business leaders and owners on June 6th. ​If you're looking for ways to optimize your business operations and drive growth, the "Tools to Grow Your Business" event is for you. Register here to save your spot.

• The 6th edition of the $100k GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize Competition is back. It’s the biggest agripreneurship competition on the continent. It will end in a final pitch contest in Kigali in September, and two winners will win $50,000 each. Applications are open here till the 10th of June.

• The third cohort of the Obuntu Launchpad Program is now open to African-focused fund managers. The fellowship features sessions by industry experts. Nominations are open until the 9th of June.

• The second Infobip Connect Meetup is happening in London this June and is being hosted in partnership with The Association of Croatian British Professionals. It’ll introduce the local tech community to Infobip Developer tools and solutions. Register here for free to attend. More details below 👇️ 

  • Location: Impact Hub London - King’s Cross, 34b York Way, London, N1 9AB

  • Date & Time: Tuesday, June 4, 2023, 6:00 - 9:00 pm

  • Speakers: Eli Holderness (Developer Advocate), Caleb Maru (Founder and Writer at Tech Safari), Filip Tremac (VP at Three Ships UK), Julia Biro (Head of DevRel at Infobip), and Nikola Pavesic (Director of DevEx & Startups at Infobip)

And that's a wrap for this week!

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