This Week in African Tech 🌍

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Author

Caleb Maru
April 14, 2024

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Welcome to This Week in African Tech!

Tech roundup

  • Africa Data Centres (ADC), a South African data center services provider, has started building a 12-megawatt solar farm in Free State, South Africa. It aims to avoid South Africa’s energy crisis while making data centres shift towards sustainable energy.

  • M-Pesa, Africa’s largest mobile money service, has signed an International Money Transfer Agreement with Onafriq, Africa’s largest digital payment network to streamline payments in Ethiopia. This partnership will allow Ethiopians to easily receive remittances from different parts of the world through M-Pesa.

  • Mono, a Nigerian fintech startup, has thrown its hat in the digital banking ring by launching Ok Microfinance Bank. Its features include interest-free loans and seamless business registration. It’s currently open for early access.

Deal roundup

  • Sunculture, a climate tech startup based in Kenya, has raised $27.5 million in series B funding. The round is led by Acumen Funds, Reed Hastings (Founder of Netflix) and Eric Schmidt (Former Google CEO). The funds will be used to expand solar irrigation for smallholder farmers.

  • ThriveAgric, a Nigerian AgriTech startup partners up with Acorn Rabo Bank to generate $56 million in carbon revenue for 30,000 Nigerian farmers. This could remove 1.3 million metric tonnes of carbon emissions, and farmers with at least one hectare of land can earn up to $1,700 yearly.

  • Canal+ has finally upped its acquisition bid for Multichoice to $2.9 billion. This is happening after a few months after Multichoice turned down its $1.7 billion offer.

  • Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures closes its first fund at $60m. This fund was led by Japanese institutional investors like SBI Holdings, Toyota Tsusho Corporation and Japan ICT Fund. It plans to use the funds to support 21 growth-stage startups in Africa.

Events and Opportunities

  • The 2024 African Business Heroes Competition is now open for applications. It aims to support the next generation of African entrepreneurs who are impacting their local communities with grant funds of up to $300,000 and practical training programs. Apply here by the 19th of May, 2024.

  • Calling all devs, startups, and tech enthusiasts! After three fully booked Infobip Connect Meetups held last year, we’re back in Nairobi! 🇰🇪 The next meetup will highlight local tech initiatives and introduce the Infobip Developer Community’s tools and solutions. Details below.

🏫 Location: Nairobi Garage Kilimani, 7th Floor, Pinetree Plaza Kaburu Drive, Nairobi, Kenya

📆 Date & time: Tuesday, April 30, 2024, 5:00 pm

🎙 Speakers include Wayne Gakuo, Angular GDE and Frontend Engineer at Sky Garden, Caleb Maru, Founder and Writer at Tech Safari, Kendi J, Associate Flutter Developer and Duncan Mochama, Account Executive at Infobip.

And that's a wrap for this week!

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