Egypt’s largest national banks – Banque Misr, National Bank of Egypt, and Banque du Caire – and Global Ventures, a leading MEA-focused venture capital firm – announce the launch of Nclude by Global Ventures, following approval by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE). This bold and unprecedented step is an implementation of the country’s strategic vision to support young innovators who will build the Egyptian Economy of the future, Nclude by Global Ventures will focus on accelerating Fintech Innovation and driving Financial Inclusion. The initial amount equivalent to $85 million investment in the Fund is led by Banque Misr as…

Over the past few years, Egypt’s fintech sector has grown at a rapid pace as the startup ecosystem thrives and investment surges. In its first industry report, Fintech Egypt, an initiative of the Central Bank of Egypt, delves into that growth, sharing key growth metrics and emerging trends. According to the inaugural Egypt Fintech: Landscape Report 2021, Egyptian fintech companies are increasingly catching the eye of the investors community, which poured a new record of US$159 million in 2021, up X4 from just US$37.1 million in 2020. The figure makes Egypt the fourth largest country in fintech investments in Africa…

Moove, a Nigeria and London based mobility fintech, which provides revenue-based financing to mobility entrepreneurs across Africa, has raised $105 million in an oversubscribed Series A2 round consisting of equity and debt. The round is led by existing investors, Speedinvest, Left Lane Capital and thelatest.ventures, with participation from new investors including AfricInvest, MUFG Innovation Partners, Latitude and Kreos Capital. Launched in 2020 by Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, Moove is democratizing vehicle ownership across Africa by providing mobility entrepreneurs access to revenue-based financing in markets with low access to credit. Using its alternative credit scoring technology, Moove provides vehicle financing…

World Mobile Group, a global mobile network combining renewable energy with blockchain technology, partners with COTI, creator of the DJED stablecoin and ADA Pay, which allows merchants to accept ADA for their goods and services. Through the partnership, COTI brings ADA Pay to retailers and merchants in Africa and integrates stablecoin DJED into the World Mobile Ecosystem. The World Bank pledged Universal Financial Access by 2020, but many are still left in the dark. In Africa, 95 million people don’t have access to banking services, severely stunting their ability to succeed financially. Without access to traditional banking services, such as…

In 2021, African fintech startups raised a new all-time high of US$2 billion, surpassing the previous record of US$773 million raised in 2018 by 159% and overshadowing 2020’s figure of US$230 million by a staggering X8, new data from Crunchbase show. 2021’s sum, which excludes funding raised by African born startups but which are now headquartered overseas (e.g. Flutterwave and Chipper Cash), is reflective of the global surge in fintech funding observed last year during which fintech companies raised a whopping US$132 billion, more than double the 2020 figure. In 2021, key markets remained Nigeria in the West, Kenya in…

Temenos, the banking software company, today announces that Bank of Kigali Plc, Rwanda’s largest bank by assets and market share, has gone live on Temenos. Replacing its core banking system with Temenos open platform for composable banking allows the bank to break free from legacy constraints and accelerate its digital transformation. Bank of Kigali can now quickly expand its digital channels and engagement to deliver faster, smarter customer experiences. Powered by Temenos, Bank of Kigali aims to double its retail and SME customer base to over one million in the next year through increased automation and new digital services such…

Thndr, the Egyptian digital investment platform, announced a new $20 million series A investment. The round was co-led by Tiger Global, BECO Capital and Prosus Ventures, in addition to participation from Base Capital, first-minute and existing investors Endure Capital, 4DX Ventures, Raba Partnerships and JIMCO. The new funding will go towards product development and expanding Thndr’s presence across MENA. Thndr has grown assets under custody rapidly – 29x during 2021 – and monthly traded values up are by similar levels. Thndr also accounted for 36% of all new registrations in the local Egyptian exchanges during 2021. Launched in late 2020…

NALA, Founded by Tanzanian, Benjamin Fernandes (Founder & CEO). Led alongside, Nicolas Esteves (CTO), and Nicolas Eddy (COO), raised $10m round backed by Amplo, Accel, and Bessemer Partners with participation from Angels such as Jonas the co-founder & CTO of Monzo, Robinhood founder Vlad, Laura, the co-founder of Alloy, Deel founder Alex Boaziz and Peeyush Ranjan, the head of Google Payments. Amplo’s GP, Sheel Tyle joins the board of NALA. Sheel sits on the board of Andela and has been a seed investor and former board observer in Robinhood. NALA will be launching a crowdfunding campaign this year where their…

In 2021, the momentum in Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem continued, driven by a blooming local startup scene, significant growth amongst large, established players, and a dynamic funding landscape. Fintech was investors’ favored tech sector last year. They injected a whopping US$800 million in startups in the sector, making fintech the largest subset in tech by funding raised in 2021 (76.2% of the 2021 total), an analysis by Techpoint, a digital media company, shows. Looking at fintech funding activity throughout the years, investors’ appetite in the local fintech sector was clearly visible in 2021: the US$800 million raised in 2021 was 120%…

Africa is home to a number of widely differentiated fintech centres. Some of these African fintech hubs, such as Nigeria or South Africa, have emerged as dominant destinations for fintech in the continent. Many others, however, remain small but interesting spaces to watch. Apart from Nigeria and South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Egypt, and Uganda have all seen success with a growing fintech sector. A majority of the continent’s fintechs come from these countries, and a large chunk of the investor dollars in the continent also land up in these African fintech hubs. This doesn’t mean that Africa’s smaller economies are…

Although there is vast potential for ecommerce in Africa just by sheer market size, the ecommerce sector is currently concentrated in a handful of markets. According to an ITC report, a total of 78% of all online business in Africa comes from just 5 African countries – South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria, and Kenya. Typically, larger and more active platforms are accessible only in bigger economies in Africa, while just three international marketplaces are open to sellers from 50+ African countries. As of 2019, the continent’s 631 online marketplaces saw 2.2 billion visits. This is relatively smaller on the global…

UK-headquartered global cash payments platform Pipit Global and pan-African payments company Cellulant have extended their partnership agreement to include eighteen new countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Through the partnership, the two companies will provide both B2B and B2C payments services to existing and potential customers, according to a statement by Cellulant. These customers include financial institutions, ecommerce merchants, billers and billing platforms, mobile money providers and ewallets, and digital financial service providers. The expansion comes five months after Pipit and Cellulant partnered to enable remittances into Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mali, Senegal, and Ghana. Cellulant was founded in 2002, and is…

South Africa is one of the top hubs for fintech, with several fintech startups in South Africa dominating headlines in 2021. The country, known for its “clearly defined startup ecosystem with multiple players across capabilities,” sees a relatively high fintech penetration rate in Africa. For instance, a third of Johannesburg’s startups come from the fintech sector, while 94% of the population has regular access to the internet, and 67% have a bank account. Digital payments and alternative financing are some of the hottest fintech sectors in South Africa right now. Digital payments in South Africa are expected to reach US$10.8…

Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund Mubadala has made investments in the crypto ecosystem amidst its growing value, Reuters reported. “This is a business that had, what $200 billion worth of crypto value two years ago, and it’s two and a half trillion dollars today and growing,” the report cited Mubadala CEO Khaldoon Al Mubarak as saying. Al Mubarak added that while many people remained sceptical about crypto as an investment, “I don’t fall in that category.” Without disclosing how much the fund expects to plough into crypto investment, Al Mubarak noted that Mubadala was investing in crypto-related infrastructure, such as…

Uganda-headquartered superapp SafeBoda has become the first company to receive funding from Google’s US$50 million Africa Investment Fund. The undisclosed round also saw participation from GoJek’s GoVentures, Allianz X, Unbound, Beenext, and Justin Kan, TechCrunch reported. SafeBoda has reportedly raised over US$20 million so far. Funding will be used to help the 2017-founded superapp scale in Uganda and Nigeria, and provide new payment and financial services solutions. Initially launched as a two-wheel ride-hailing platform, the startup now provides rides, parcel delivery, food and shop, payments, savings and other financial services. The company has accumulated over 1 million customers in Uganda…

Canada-based digital transaction platform BlocPal International and its majority-owned Nigerian subsidiary PayPassage have partnered to launch a financial services marketplace in Nigeria. The partnership marks BlocPal’s first launch in Africa, a statement from the company said. This is BlocPal’s third partner activation in 2021. The company is also looking to extend its solutions to India, Mexico, and indigenous communities in Canada. Through the partnership, BlocPal is looking to build a solution that provides a range of mobile financial services through physical on-the-ground retailers in Nigeria. These services include deposits and withdrawal of funds, domestic money transfers, prepaid credit cards, micro-loans,…

Singapore-headquartered challenger bank Tyme has closed a US$180 million Series B round with fresh infusions from Tencent and CDC. The company raised US$70 million from the China-based internet giant and UK impact investor, a statement from Tyme said. Funds will be used to grow TymeBank in South Africa, and to fund its GOTyme solution in the Philippines. It will also help Tyme boost its risk management, and expand into markets where CDC has a presence. Tyme had secured a digital bank licence with Filipino conglomerate the Gokongwei Group in August this year, with room for further international expansion. The company…

Fintech events in Africa can be centres of crucial conversation, considering the traction that the sector has gained in the continent just in the past year. In many ways, the development of the fintech industry across the African continent represents a turning point, as mobile technologies take over even as the population remains largely underbanked. From the striking rise of crypto in the continent, and the funding boom across the fintech sector, to the launch of central bank digital currencies, and the dominance of mobile money, fintech has had a coming-of-age in the continent in 2021. Going into 2022, not…

Cape Town-headquartered device identity and authentication solutions provider Entersekt has bagged an investment from Accel-KKR. According to a statement, the investment from the technology-focused private equity firm will allow the company to boost hiring and expansion into new markets. “We are very excited to have Accel-KKR on board. The industry is experiencing a wave of innovation in areas like omnichannel and password-less authentication, 3-D Secure and open banking, all of which are strategic focus areas for Entersekt. The investment from Accel-KKR will help us scale our business to reach more organisations across more regions with our cloud-first solutions,” said Schalk…

Arab Bank Egypt has concluded the first edition of its fintech bootcamp for Egyptian startups, with cash funding provided to three winning fintech startups. The one-week bootcamp took place between the 21st and the 25th of November this year, according to a statement. Shortlisted startups participate in bootcamp workshops that were led by fintech entrepreneurs, investors, and experts from the fintech industry and Arab Bank Egypt. Enrolled startups pitched their solutions to a judging panel, comprising Arab Bank senior management and independent investors, at a demo day. Three winning startups received cash rewards of up to EGP 100,000. These were…