This Week in African Tech 🌍

Future Africa launches Africa’s Y Combinator

January 20, 2024

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Welcome back to This Week in African Tech.

This is officially our first roundup for the year and we’re excited to share tech news and deals from around the continent with you.

Please read, share, and don’t forget to send us your opportunities.

Alright, let’s get into it.

Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and Mia von Koschitzky-Kimani are joining forces to launch Accelerate Africa, an accelerator supported by a $750,000 USAID grant. Their goal? To shape it into Africa's Y Combinator. We’ll be watching this space.

TymeBank, the South African digital bank, says it has made history. In December 2023, it made a profit for the first time since launching five years ago. This follows a R858 million ($45 million) loss posted just six months prior.
Nigerian fintech startup, Kippa, has lost ₦30 million because of internal fraud linked to Kippa Pay, its discontinued agency banking product. The fraud was exposed after Kippa Pay shut down.
South African telco Cell C is thinking about cutting jobs to reduce costs because of a lack of growth and some operational hiccups. Up to 40% of its junior management and semi-skilled employees may be affected.
Amazon Prime is reducing staff and local content production in Africa and the Middle East. It wants to focus on more profitable areas like its European market.

Egyptian payments solution fintech, Zeal, raises $4 million in funding for its tech expansion across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). Raed Ventures, Cur8 Capital, and several angel investors led the round.

Canza Finance, a Nigerian Web3 financial platform, raises $2.3 million to scale the development of its DeFi products, including the newly launched Baki. The round was led by Polychain Capital, Protocol Labs, Blizzard Fund, 99 Capital, Stratified Capital, and Hyperithm.
Vodafone and Microsoft have formed a ten-year partnership to deliver generative AI, digital services, and cloud solutions to over 300 million businesses and consumers in Africa and Europe.
Kenya's climate-tech startup, KOKO, raises an undisclosed amount of funding from Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) to help scale its platform across Africa.
Cairo's FriendyM, an auto tech startup, raises $2 million from undisclosed investors to grow its car management and maintenance footprint across Egypt.
Yodawy, a digital pharmacy startup from Egypt, raises $10 million from Ezdehar to expand its customer base.
Seedstars Africa is set to receive an extra $10.5 million in funding from the African Development Bank (AfDB). This additional investment will help boost startups with high growth potential.

Bosta, the Egyptian overnight delivery logistics startup, raises undisclosed funding from Axian Group, a pan-African investment firm. The funding will help improve Bosta’s delivery and logistics services in the region.

Founders, are you ready to scale your startup with Visa? Applications are now open for the second cohort of the Visa Accelerator Program - Africa! Apply here before the 18th of February, 2024.

The sixth edition of the Africa Tech Summit takes place in Nairobi at the Sarit Expo Center on the 14th and 15th of February, 2024. Get your early bird tickets here.
Hey founders! Want to take your business to the next level? Join the Innovate Nigeria 2024 Conference and Expo on the 6th and 7th of February, 2024 and meet corporate executives and technology founders. Register here.
Calling all African entrepreneurs! Applications for the BlueInvest Africa 2024 pitch competition are now open. Apply here before the 26th of January, 2024.
Ed-Tech startups, are you ready? Applications are now open for the second edition of the Ed-Tech Fellowship Programme run by Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) and Mastercard Foundation in Nigeria. Apply here before the 17th of February, 2024.
Safaricom, M-PESA Africa, and Sumitomo Corporation are inviting applications for the newest edition of the Spark Accelerator in Kenya. The accelerator aims to support early-stage startups to scale their businesses. Apply here before the 16th of February, 2024.

And that's a wrap for this week!

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