Ghanaian fintech Float raises $17M seed to power cash flow for commerce in Africa

Cash flow is a major pain point for small businesses in Africa. Long payment cycles, which can take 30-90 days after services or products have been rendered, and little or no capital, of which research says 85% of African small and medium businesses are subject to, are the main culprits of cash flow issues. Many […]

Ugandan fintech Asaak raises $30million to support acquisition of motorbikes, smartphones by taxi operators

Asaak, a Ugandan asset financing startup, has secured $30 million in pre-Series A equity and debt funding. The round saw the participation of new and existing investors including Resolute Ventures, Social Capital, HOF Capital, Founders Factory Africa, End Poverty Make Trillions, Decentralized VC and a number of angel investors. Asaak offers motorbike financing to operators, […]

Shell-founded startup fund receives $13 million from Canadian DFI to accelerate clean energy access in Africa

FinDev Canada has injected $13 million into Energy Entrepreneurs Growth Fund (EEGF), which invests in early and growth-stage energy startups in sub-Saharan Africa. Part of the funding that will go towards increasing access to clean energy for off-grid households and businesses in the region. The $120 million EEGF, which was founded in 2019 by the […]

Covid live news: poorer nations forced to reject 100m near-expired coronavirus vaccines; Spain to offer fourth dose to vulnerable

More than 100m vaccine doses were rejected in December alone due to rapidly expiring donations from wealthy countries; Spain continues vaccine push with 90.5% of population aged 12 and above jabbedFrench teachers walk out of classrooms in strike over C…

Global Processing Services adds $100M to its coffers to grow its embedded finance and API payments platform

Embedded finance continues to be the engine driving the growth of fintech, with one group of companies building core banking, payments and other financial technology, and a much bigger group tapping that technology through APIs to build customer-facing businesses. Today, one of the bigger players on the core technology side — Global Processing Services — […]

Fintech Farm nabs $7.4M to launch neobanks in Nigeria and other emerging markets

Fintech Farm, a newly launched fintech startup based in the U.K. that creates digital banks in emerging markets, confirmed to TechCrunch today that it has raised $7.4 million in seed funding. The company said it plans to use the investment to launch neobanks in eight countries over the next 24 months. Flyer One Ventures and […]

Kenyan BNPL startup Lipa Later eyes more African markets after raising $12 million

Lipa Later, a Kenyan tech-led consumer credit platform, is planning to expand to new markets in Africa after raising $12 million in pre-Series A funding. The equity and debt funding round saw the participation of Cauris Finance, Lateral Frontiers VC, GreenHouse Capital, SOSV IV LLC, Sayani Investments and Axian Financial Services. The startup, a buy-now-pay-later […]

Nigeria lifts ban on Twitter, says the social media giant has met conditions

The Nigerian government has lifted the suspension of Twitter operations more than six months after it first declared a crackdown on the social media giant in the country. Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, the director-general of Nigeria’s tech agency, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), made this announcement via a statement today. He was put in charge, […]

Fact-checkers write open letter urging YouTube to get serious about COVID misinformation

A group of more than 80 prominent fact-checking organizations around the world is pressing YouTube to take action against COVID misinformation, which still prevails on the platform now two years into the pandemic. “As an international network of fact-checking organizations, we monitor how lies spread online — and every day, we see that YouTube is […]