Kenya’s Twiga raises $50M to scale food solutions across Africa

Years ago, Americans spent most of their disposable income on food but consistent investment in retail infrastructure has changed that. Now, they only spend 6% of their household income on food and beverages. Africa still battles with this and it is not hard to see why. The continent’s retail markets are highly fragmented and mostly made up […]

Stitch gets a $2M seed extension, hires Benjamin Dada to lead Nigerian expansion

Two months into 2021, South African fintech Stitch came out of stealth and raised $4 million in seed funding, allowing it to begin to make inroads into Nigeria some months ago. Today, Stitch formally announced the expansion into Nigeria and a seed extension of $2 million to go with it; the total seed investment now stands […]

Vendease gets $3.2M to help hotels and restaurants buy food supplies in Africa

Vendease, an online marketplace that allows restaurants and other food businesses to buy supplies straight from manufacturers and farms, has raised a seed round of $3.2 million, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The news is coming seven months after TechCrunch announced that the company, founded in January 2020, took part in Y Combinator’s winter batch […]

Meet the startups changing mobility for emerging middle classes

In emerging economies, where spending billions to build public transit infrastructure can be out of reach, startups are using technology to meet the mobility needs of a rising urban middle class. Swvl, Treepz, Jatri, SafeBoda, Urbvan, Chalo and Buser are just a few of the startups that have popped up in Africa, Asia, the Middle […]

Tiger Global backs African fintech Mono in $15M Series A round

Mono, an African startup that helps connect consumers’ bank accounts to financial applications, has raised a $15 million Series A round, the company confirmed to TechCrunch today. The round, led by Tiger Global — the VC firm’s third major investment in Africa this year after Flutterwave and FairMoney — also had participation from new investors […]

Twitter ban in Nigeria to be lifted if platform sets up a local office and pays taxes, president says

Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari announced on Friday that the ban on Twitter would be lifted, but only if the social media giant met certain conditions. The president disclosed this during his televised broadcast to Nigerians on the country’s 61st Independence Day anniversary. He acknowledged the fact that Twitter is used to disseminate information. Still, he […]

SoftBank sinks $200M into Andela, propels company into unicorn territory

CEO Jeremy Johnson sees more competition coming into the global tech talent hiring space as he saw the number of Andela applicants increase 5x in the past six months.