This Week in African Tech 🌍

Chowdeck raises $2.5 million in seed funding 💰

Caleb Maru
May 05, 2024

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Welcome to This Week in African Tech!

Kenyan AgriTech startup, iProcure, has been placed under the administration of KPMG by its creditors for being unable to pay its debts. The company raised $17.2 million in debt and equity financing. The administration is expected to restructure the company and generate returns for the creditors.

The iProcure team

Nigeria might be placing a ban on peer-to-peer crypto transactions soon. The government has declared crypto a national security issue, after a crackdown on Binance and the freezing of over 1,000 bank accounts.
Nigerian fintechs like Moniepoint, Opay and Palmpay have been asked by the government to stop onboarding new customers. This move comes after the recent freezing of 1,146 bank accounts linked to unauthorised forex transactions.
Egypt is having its first neobank soon as Misr Digital Innovation, a subsidiary of Banque Misr has received preliminary approval from the Central Bank of Egypt to launch OneBank, a digital bank for Egyptians.
Following the success of its Venture Capital Fellowships, CatalyzU has partnered up with Future Africa to launch the “How to Startup” fellowship. It’s an immersive programme that will offer customised, experiential training away from the typical entrepreneurship education.
CatalyzU founders - Luke Mostert and Karl Nchite
Infobip released a documentary on the African developer and startup landscape. The film is titled New Horizons: Developing African Tech Ecosytem(s) and was produced by Hanan Nanić & Al Jazeera Balkans. You can watch the documentary here on YouTube.
Pindo, a Rwandan AI start-up, has launched its pioneering Voice AI technology, which is available in Kinyarwanda and soon in Swahili and Luganda. Pindo’s mission is to help African companies integrate Voice AI products into their customer service systems.

Nigeria’s Renda, a fulfillment-as-a-service startup, raises $1.9 million in pre-seed funding from Ingressive Capital, Techstars Toronto, Magic Fund, and Founders Factory Africa. The funds will be used to enhance its technology and expand to new cities in Nigeria and East Africa.
Chowdeck, the Nigerian food delivery startup raises $2.5m in seed funding from Y Combinator, Goodwater Capital and FounderX Ventures among others. The startup plans to optimise deliveries and expand to categories beyond food.

Chowdeck’s founders - Olumide Ojo, Lanre Yusuf, and Femi Aluko

Kenyan mobility startup, BuuPass has acquired Nigeria’s QuickBus, a bus ticketing aggregator, to scale its operations in Nigeria and hit its revenue targets. The deal also involves the integration of the two platforms to help them navigate their new markets.
Ethiopia’s Kubik raises $5.2 million in seed funding from African Renaissance Partners, Engame Capital, and King Philanthropies. Kubik transforms hard-to-recycle plastic waste into low-cost building materials. It will use this round of funding to strengthen its tech to track environmental impact and empower female waste collectors.

Kubik’s team - Source: Disrupt Africa

Egyptian group-buying startup, Waffarha, raises an undisclosed seven-figure amount in funding from the Saudi Arabian Value Makers Studio (VMS). It will expand its tech stack, hire new talent, and expand into Saudi Arabia.
Village Capital and Norad, the Norwegian development agency, partner to launch Empowering Sustainable Entrepreneurship Africa. It’s an ecosystem-building programme to strengthen Entrepreneur Support Organisations (ESOs) and climate-focused startups in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania.
African pre-seed investment programme, Madica backs three African tech startups. Madica is a sector-agnostic investment programme designed to address structural gaps in Africa’s startup ecosystem. The funded startups are Ghana’s Kola Market, Kenya’s GoBEBBA, and South Africa’s NewForm Foods.

Afropolitan Ventures, a VC firm for Africans in the diaspora, has partnered with Future Africa to provide Africans with access to secondaries from two startups backed by Tiger Global and Mudabala Capital. Here’s a detailed introduction of the opportunity. If you’d like to be a part of it, fill out this form.
CatalyzU has launched the How to Startup fellowship in partnership with Future Africa, to take Africans through the practical experience of building a startup. Experienced founders and VCs in Africa will deliver the program, and applications are currently open. Apply here by May 14th, 2024.
NBA Africa has opened applications for Triple-Double, a startup accelerator that will provide early-stage African startups with cash prizes and other support. The accelerator is focused on startups developing solutions in event management and ticketing, youth development, AI, and digital marketing in the sports and creative industries. Applications are open here till May 31st, 2024.
Servercore and Tech Safari are hosting their first Developer Meetup in Nairobi. Servercore Meetups are a series of in-person meetups for developers and technology leaders to connect and share practical insights on data safety and security. It’s happening at 5:00 p.m. on the 14th of May, 2024. Speakers include Kip Maritim, CTO of Leta, Dr. Bright Mawudor, CEO of CyberGuard, and Ivan Romanko, CTO of Servercore. Save yourself a spot here.

And that's a wrap for this week!

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