This Week in African Tech 🌍

Plus, an African island gets a new tech university 📚 ☀

Caleb Maru
July 16, 2023

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Your tour guide on African Tech 🧭

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Morning, and Happy Sunday!

Hope you’ve had a great week. I finally got a few days off in Coastal Kenya, and I’m stunned. Another point to Kenya for providing the goods.

I’m excited that the Sunday Tech Roundups are back! We had a bit of a break while I was travelling.

Now that we’re more settled and structured, you can expect a weekly roundup on what’s happening in Africa’s Tech Ecosystem every Sunday 💌

PS - if you have any events, opportunities or news for these roundups, send me an email. If they’re relevant I’ll give them a feature 🙂

Would you study on the beach? Well, Zanzibar is getting a new tech university. The Indian Institute of Technology is setting up its first global campus on the island. I wrote more about the announcement (and Zanzibar’s tech grand plans) here .

The Central Bank of Nigeria approves Naira payout for diaspora remittances. Banks and Money Transfer Operators can now pay their recipients in Naira (after a three-year ban).
Flutterwave has entered a partnership with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) which will let international airlines process payments from Africa easily.

Safaricom, (the Kenyan telco behind mobile money service MPesa), is launching two venture capital funds which will invest in tech startups in the seed and growth stages.

Propel, an HR-tech African startup headquartered in Berlin, has successfully raised €2.5 million in seed funding. No Such Ventures led this round. They intend to use these funds to connect more tech communities in emerging markets to global jobs.
Kenyan e-pharmacy MyDawa raises $19.9 million from Alta Semper Capital, and acquires the Ugandan pharmacy chain Guardian Health.
Egyptian fintech startup, Exits MENA, raises a seed round of $1.25 million with backing from Practical VC.
Nigerian mobility fintech Moove, a key vehicle supplier for Uber has raised $8 million in funding from Absa Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB).

Want to exhibit at the Innovate Nairobi Tech Week? They're accepting applications for founders to showcase their startups to over 500 investors, government heads, corporates, and development partners. Application deadline is 21st July.
UK and South Africa-based scaleups: Applications for the Grindstone are open. Grindstone picks out ten scale-ups and helps them scale to new markets. Learn more and apply here.

And that's a wrap for this week! We will be back with a feature story next week.

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Catch you soon!

👋🏾 Caleb