This Week in African Tech 🌍

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Your tour guide on African Tech 🧭

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Happy Sunday! 👋🏽

Two things.

1. I’m in Croatia this week to speak at Shift, a developer Conference hosted by one of our strongest partners, Infobip. If you’re around, come say hello. You can get tickets here. 🎫 

2. Our Wednesday edition was about tech and media, and how founders can leverage it best.

   Here’s one of the key takeaways: invest in your own platform.

   Over the last three months, we have worked with 12 companies to do just that: Creating great organic content and GTM strategies that hit growth goals.

   And a lot of great things have happened

   • One company took their B2B product to market and got their first paying customers

   • Another got over 50 leads in one month, pre-launch. 20% will convert to paid customers.

   • One built a waitlist of over 300 users for their B2C app.

   All through great, organic content.

   Today we’re taking three more companies in to work with us.

   Interested? Apply here.

Now, let’s get straight into This Week in African Tech!

Tech Roundup

• Moove, the Uber-backed mobility startup, is moving into the US market and hiring for leadership roles in California. Just like it did after expanding into the UAE, the company is focusing on electric vehicles and sustainability.

• Namibia’s state-owned power company, NamPower, entered a deal with two Chinese firms to build its largest solar power plant for $89 million. The country currently depends on Zambia and South Africa for power, but this new plant will add an extra 100MW to the country’s installed capacity of 500MW.

• It’s EV season in Nigeria. Local automaker, Innoson, unveiled its first locally made electric vehicle this week. The company has also finalised plans for its manufacturing plant, but details on timelines are still under wraps.

• Zimbabwe’s telecoms regulator has rolled out hefty fines for telcos that experience network outages. Any disruption lasting more than three hours will attract a fine of $5,000 - with an extra $5,000 for every hour after that.

• Investors in ThePeer, a defunct Nigerian fintech, have moved on from wanting an audit of the company’s books. In April, the founders returned $357,000 to investors after shutting down, despite having 20 months of runway left.

• Bolt price hikes finally hit Nigeria after a week of fuel price hikes and driver frustration. The company announced a 15% fare increase across all categories. The decision is to ease the burden on Nigerian drivers who have seen fuel prices surge 45% in the last few months.

• Starlink went live in Zimbabwe, offering its kit at $350 a piece, with a $50 monthly subscription. It also offers the Starlink Mini for $200 and a $30 monthly subscription. This launch comes three months after Starlink got approved by Zimbabwe’s telco regulator.

Deal Roundup

• Risevest has completed its acquisition of Hisa, a Kenyan investment startup. This acquisition is its second in a year, and it will help Risevest expand into Kenya without needing new licenses. Hisa will continue operating under the same name and brand.

• Brotinni, an Egyptian startup that allows customers to buy meat and poultry online, has raised undisclosed funding from Entlaq. The funds will be used to expand its operations in Egypt and other regional markets.

• Field, a Nigerian health-tech tackling maternal mortality has raised $11 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Field will use the funds to build a supply-chain service for maternal health drugs and therapies in Africa.

• South Africa’s Talk360 has raised $1.4 million in Pre-Series A funding from HAVAIC. The startup lets users make free international calls and has grown to four million users since 2023. With this new funding, they plan to hit seven million users and build a single checkout platform for African merchants.

• Paymob raised an extra $22 million in Series B funding from EBRD VC to chase more growth in North Africa and the Middle East. The Egyptian fintech raised $50 million in Series B funding in 2022 and has recorded 6x growth since then.

Events and Opportunities

• Are you an aspiring venture capitalist looking to gain the skills, knowledge, and network to break into VC? Applications for CatalyzU’s 6th Venture Capital Fellowship Cohort are now open. Classes start on the 1st of October, and you can Apply here.

  

• Are you building engineering solutions to fix local problems in Africa? The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation is offering up to $25k for viable engineering products with social and environmental impact. Apply here by the 15th of October.

• Compete at the Future of Capitalism Tech Startup Competition for up to $1 million in investment by pitching your startup. Eight finalists will pitch to a panel of investors, founders, and entrepreneurs in London. Applications are open till the 30th of September.

• The Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) has launched the sixth edition of its Africa Challenge, focusing on Agri-Tech startups. Winners will get $50,000 in equity funding and support to help them grow their businesses. Applications are open here till the 4th of October.

And that's a wrap for this week!

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