Nigeria officially rolled out its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the eNaira, on October 25. This makes it the first country in the African continent to officially allow the use of a CBDC as legal tender. Originally scheduled for an October 1 launch, the roll out was delayed at the last moment, on September 30. The delay was reportedly due to a reassessment of potential users, with the eNaira website averaging 2.8 million daily visits pre-launch, Nairametrics reported. Accordingly, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) changed its estimation of potential users to 10x more than the original figure. Reuters reported…

A new study has found that governments in six African countries have been spying on citizens through the use of technology (The Conversation). Governments in Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Sudan have been surveilling citizens, either through legal loopholes or illegally. This is according to a research paper by Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. These governments were closely watching political opponents, business rivals and peaceful activists. Meanwhile, the mass surveillance of citizens was also taking place, the report suggests. “Governments are purposefully using laws that lack clarity. Or they ignore laws completely in order to carry…

MSME lending startup Asante Financial Services Group announced that it has raised US$7.5 million in the first tranche of its Series A fundraise. The round was led by Goodwell Investments with participation by investors including Sorenson Impact Foundation and Forsage Holdings. This is the 20th investment made under the uMunthu fund by Goodwell Investments. Half of the fund is invested in financial inclusion ventures. The funding will be used to scale Asante’s credit offerings in Kenya and Uganda, and expand its presence to Nigeria and Rwanda. The company is currently testing a Business Lending Platform, which comes with solutions such as a Business…

Global consumer financing app Tala has raised US$145 million in a Series E round, the startup announced recently. The funding was led by California-based AI lending platform Upstart. Participating investors included new investors Stellar Development Foundation, Kindred Ventures and the J. Safra Group. They were joined by existing investors IVP, Revolution Growth, PayPal Ventures, and Lowercase Capital. The Series E round takes the 2011-founded company’s total capital haul to over US$350 million. Upstart Co-founder Paul Gu, and Stellar Development Foundation’s CEO and Executive Director Denelle Dixon will now be on Tala’s board following the fundraise. Tala is working on a…

This week marked a new win for digital banks in Nigeria. Neobank Sparkle raised US$3.1 million in a seed round for expansion efforts (TechCrunch). Founded by former CEO of Diamond Bank Uzoma Dozie, Sparkle provides both individual and business banking services. It is licensed in Nigeria as a micro financing bank. The seed round was led by Leadway Assurance, along with participation from Trium Network and undisclosed high-net-worth individuals. The investment comes after Sparkle closed a friends and family pre-seed round of US$2 million within the past year. Funding will be used towards building a robotic automation system for repetitive…

Sudan-based ecommerce platform alsoug has closed a US$5 million (SDG 2.2 billion) fundraise, according to an announcement. The company is looking to use the funds to build a national payments network Cashi. Cashi will be enabled for deposits, withdrawals and transfers, as well as digital transactions. Egyptian payments giant Fawry and a consortium of Western venture capital funds co-led the round, the statement said. This is Fawry’s debut investment outside of Egypt, and the company will be providing support to alsoug to build its payments infrastructure through in-house technology and experience. Fawry founder and CEO Ashraf Sabry noted that the…

Lagos-headquartered open banking startup Mono has raised US$15 million in a Series A. The round was led by Flutterwave’s backer Tiger Global. Participating investors included a mix of new backers Target Global (which also invested in Kuda Bank), General Catalyst, and SBI Investment, alongside previous investors Entree Capital, Lateral Capital, GPIC, Acuity VC, and Ingressive Capital. The funding brings Mono’s total capital pool to US$17.6 million, the company said. Prior to the Series A, Mono has also raised US$500,000 in a pre-seed round in September last year, and a US$2.1 million seed round from Y Combinator in January this year…

In last week’s MEA fintech news, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has once again hinted that it will be keeping a close watch on fintech startups in the country. At a recent seminar, Director of the Banking Supervision Department of CBN Mustapha Haruna said that the CBN would continue monitoring fintechs in the country (Nairametrics). Haruna added that the CBN was keen to manage the associated risks of fintech services, including the “threat to consumer data protection.” “While we may not exactly eliminate these threats, we must ensure that we are able to minimise those threats to consumers and…

In last week’s MEA fintech news, mobile money took centre stage once again in the African continent. Meanwhile, UAE sees some funding and M&A activity, Egyptian banks launch a fintech fund, and a Nigerian startup raises US$10 million. Mobile money continues to pioneer payments in sub-Saharan Africa Mobile money is a driving force behind the growth of Africa’s fintech space, and especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Mobile money accounts in the region have grown 11x between 2011 and 2020, accounting for over half of the world’s 310 live mobile money services. Moreover, at least 11 countries in the region feature five…

Verto, a Nigeria-based B2B payments startup,  has raised US$10 million in a Series A round of funding according to reports. The SME-focused startup provides cross-border payments solutions for 39 currencies, on its web platform or by integrating with Verto’s API. The round was led by VC firm Quona Capital. It also had participation from Treasury, Middle East Venture Partners, TMT Investments, Unicorn Growth Capital, Zrosk Investment Management, and P1 Ventures. Funding will be used towards the development of Verto’s platform, and expansion into other markets across Africa. “We plan to expand our presence in emerging markets with this fund through…

Three Egyptian banks will be launching an Egypt fintech fund of EGP 1 billion (US$63.6 million) to support fintech companies next month, according to a recent statement. The three banks are National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, and Banque du Caire, and participation from other banks and financial institutions was welcome, the statement said. The move is aimed at leveraging fintech solutions to transform Egypt into a “regional centre for the Arab and African financial technology industry,” the statement said. The Egypt fintech fund is especially looking at the digital banking and financial services sector, and fintech apps that can…

Cryptocurrency exchange Yellow Card, which has a pan-African presence, has secured US$15 million in a Series A round. This is the largest ever funding round to have been raised by an African crypto exchange, a statement from the company said. Valar Ventures, Third Prime, and Castle Island Ventures led the round. Participating investors included Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s Square, Blockchain.com Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, BlockFi, Fabric Ventures, Raba Partnership, MoonPay, and GreenHouse Capital, amongst others. Funding will be used to boost hiring and expansion across Africa, the US and Africa-based company noted. Yellow Card allows users to buy, sell,…

Nigeria-based energy distribution and collection fintech startup Infibranches Technologies has secured US$2 million in a funding round raised from All On, Nairametrics reported. All On is the impact investment arm of oil and gas multinational Shell. The funding will be used to accelerate customer acquisition in current markets, improve existing products, and launch new products and services in the energy distribution sector, Infibranches CEO Olusola Owoyemi, said in the statement. Further, funding will also support inventory and agent acquisition, and product and technology development. It will also finance working capital for the distribution of Solar Home Systems for both household…

Egypt-focused B2B2C payments platform dopay has secured US$18 million in a Series A funding round, the company announced in a statement last week. The company is based out of London and currently caters to its initial market Egypt. Force Over Mass Capital, FMO and NN Group led the round. Meanwhile, participating investors included Mbuyu Capital and Alder Tree Investments. Funding will be used to scale in Egypt, and also build a suite of financial services to top the company’s currently available cashless payroll and prepaid employee cards. The company also has plans to expand across the MENA region. The company’s…

Global cross-border payments company Thunes has announced a partnership with M-Pesa Tanzania to launch a new service corridor, a statement from the company said. The service will allow users of M-Pesa Tanzania to transfer money directly from M-Pesa mobile wallets to bank accounts in Kenya and Rwanda. The two companies have been collaborating since 2018, the statement said. Thunes’ cross-border payments network allows M-Pesa Tanzania users to access remittances to most major e-wallets in East Africa. Currently, Thunes has over 50 intra-Africa corridors in place, providing payments access to over 200 million Africa-based mobile wallets. In July this year, the…

In last week’s MEA fintech news, we saw US-Israeli fintech startup Melio raise a quarter billion dollars at a hefty valuation, while another US-Israeli fintech company Pagaya announced its SPAC listing. Elsewhere, Nigeria emerged the top funded fintech hub in Africa for 2020, while the Central Bank of Bahrain upped the stakes with its Open Banking Framework. Melio is now a US$4 billion payments giant In the biggest MEA fintech news of last week, US-Israeli payments fintech Melio bumped up its valuation 3x within the year with its latest fundraise (Fintech News Middle East). The company raised US$250 million in…

Kashat, an Egyptian micro loan solutions provider, has raised US$1.75 million in a new bridge funding round, Magnitt reported. The round was led by pan-African VC fund Launch Africa Ventures, and had “key” regional investors participate, the report said. This included existing backers of the company Cairo Angels. The fresh funds will be used to develop Kashat’s platform and expand operations. Earlier this year, Kashat raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Cairo Angels, two months after it launched its mobile app for short term loans in February. Kashat has built a mobile platform for micro lending Kashat is a…

Funding rounds made a splash in Africa fintech news last week. African fintech startups Wave, Pezesha and Prospa all raised funding, along with a mega round by Egyptian startup MNT-Halan. The funding news came amidst a new report highlighting that African fintech companies have raised over US$1 billion in investor dollars since the start of the year. Elsewhere, Flutterwave made the headlines twice with some pretty big announcements, asserting its dominance in Africa’s fintech ecosystem. Africa funding boom 2021 African fintech companies have raised US$1.44 billion since January this year, higher than the overall amount they raised over the past…

SME banking fintech Prospa has raised US$3.8 million in the largest pre-seed round to have been raised by a Nigerian fintech startup, according to an announcement by the company. The pre-seed round is the largest of its kind in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa, TechCrunch reported. Across the African continent, it is second only to Egyptian fintech startup Telda’s US$5 million pre-seed round raised in May this year. The round was oversubscribed by 380%, and was raised from Global Founders Capital and Liquid 2 Ventures. Numerous angel investors also participated. They included Mercury’s Immad Akhund, Ramp’s Karim Atiyeh, Teachable’s Ankur Nagpal,…

Egyptian financial and logistics super app MNT-Halan has secured US$120 million from private equity and venture capital investors, the company announced in a statement today. The funding was raised from Apis Growth Fund II by Apis Partners, Development Partners International, through its African Development Partner III fund, and Lorax Capital Partners’ Lorax Fund II. They were joined by Middle East Venture Partners, Endeavor Catalyst, and DisruptTech. This is Apis Partners’ maiden investment in Egypt. The funding will help the company enhance its technology and product development, scale its business, and expand beyond Egypt. The MNT-Halan super app provides a host…