This Week in African Tech 🌍

Kenya passed the finance bill 💔

Caleb Maru
June 23, 2024

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Despite the public outcry, the Kenyan government has passed the Finance Bill, implementing new taxes for people and businesses in Kenya. This has turned into a nationwide protest led by young people, and they’re not backing down despite government resistance.

South Africa’s Vodacom has arrested 15 employees and fired 631 staff after completing an investigation into fraud and irregular activities at the telecoms giant. Customer complaints, whistleblowers, and internal checks sparked the investigation.
eClat, the health-tech subsidiary of Interswitch, has partnered with the Lagos State Government in Nigeria to move the medical files for seven million patients at state hospitals to the cloud. Interswitch acquired eClat in 2019, and this is its second government partnership in one year.

China’s EV maker, BYD, has partnered with Rwanda’s Ampersand to build 40,000 electric-powered motorcycles locally. Africa’s motorcycle market is expected to hit $5 billion by year-end, and this project is expected to be fully done by 2026.
Paystack has expanded its virtual terminal solution to Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. With this, merchants can now generate unique QR codes for their employees, cashiers, and delivery riders, to receive money from customers with different payment options.
Safaricom, Kenya’s biggest telecoms company, has partnered with a digital lender, Pezesha, to provide credit to small business owners in Kenya. The service, known as Mpoko wa Pochi, will complement M-PESA’s business wallet, which currently has 632,000 active merchants.
Nigeria plans to send its first citizen to space, after the recent partnership between SERA, a global Space Agency, and NASRDA, Nigeria’s space agency. The partnership will see SERA reserve a seat on an upcoming Blue Origin New Shepard spaceflight for a Nigerian.

Paris-based VC fund, Breega, has closed “Africa Seed I”, its Africa-focused fund at $75 million with a plan to back pre-seed and seed-stage startups across Africa. Breega plans to invest between $100,000 and $2 million in startups in the Big Four and Francophone African markets.

Cadana founders, Albert Owosu-Asare and Ameer Shujjah. Source: TechCrunch

Immobazyme, a South African biotech startup, has raised $1.3 million in a round led by the University Technology Fund and the University of Stellenbosch Enterprises. The company created a way for food and pharmaceutical companies to simplify things like fermentation and growing meat in labs.
London-based climate startup, Downforce Technologies, has raised $4.2 million to build soil fertility measurement tools for Africa. The funds from the round, led by Equator VC, will be used to power its expansion across Africa and other emerging markets.
Congolese logistics startup, Noki Noki, has secured $3 million in funding to expand its food and grocery delivery service across Central Africa, in a round led by Uma Ventures. The company serves 10,000 customers and did over 1 billion CFA ($167 million) in transactions in 2023.

Noki Noki team. Credit: TechCabal

Resilience17, a venture studio and VC fund in Lagos, is hosting an AI Builders Event on the 27th of June. The event connects builders, founders, investors, and enthusiasts using AI to build solutions within African sectors like agriculture, healthcare, and financial services. Save yourself a spot here.

African agrifood startups are invited to apply for the $1 million THRIVE Global Impact Challenge, which aims to support a net-zero future for agriculture in Africa. The winning startup receives $1 million in funding from SVG Ventures, and a chance to pitch at the THRIVE Global Impact Summit in Silicon Valley. Apply here before July 12th.

And that's a wrap for this week!

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