Sunday, December 22

Fintech

Pan-African fintech startup, PawaPay, raises $9 million seed for expansion and talent recruitment
Fintech, Start-ups

Pan-African fintech startup, PawaPay, raises $9 million seed for expansion and talent recruitment

Africa-focused fintech company, PawaPay has announced the raise of $9 million in seed financing to strengthen its mobile money payment solutions team, scale operations, and foray into new markets. This investment saw cheques from five firms. The round was led by Uk-based 88mph — a company that invests in web and mobile-centric technology solutions — and Chinese VC firm, MSA Capital. Other participants include African VC firm, Kepple Ventures; South African Vunani Capital; and Zagadat Capital, an investment firm owned by Oluwatosin Ajibade, popularly known as Mr Eazi in the Nigerian music scene. Founded in 2020, PawaPay is a subsidiary of online betting platform, betPawa. It enables mobile payments for local and international transactions/financial activities by integrating data from ...
Meet Julaya, a startup solving payment frictions for the World Bank in Ivory Coast
Fintech, West Africa

Meet Julaya, a startup solving payment frictions for the World Bank in Ivory Coast

Grace Kouassi, an Ivorian construction retailer, goes through a lot of hassle when she has to pay employees their monthly salaries. Her challenges are not due to a lack of cash but stem from how best to disburse the funds. She has three options – use bank transfers, mobile money, or cash. In countries like Nigeria or South Africa, the first option, to an extent, is effective for business payments but not in Ivory Coast. Charges on real-time gross settlement (RTGS) interbank transfers can be as high as CFA17,000 ($30) and most times, the transfers take longer than expected – up to three days instead of a few hours – while also being prone to transaction issues. Continue reading
African fintech Pngme raises $15M for its financial data infrastructure platform
Fintech

African fintech Pngme raises $15M for its financial data infrastructure platform

Unbundling financial data through APIs and driving data-driven insights with value-add products in Africa keeps getting more exciting as major players continue to raise more money for scale. Less than a year after its $3 million seed round, San Francisco- and Africa-based fintech Pngme has snapped up another $15 million for its financial data infrastructure play. The company is also describing itself as a machine learning-as-a-service platform. Octopus Ventures led the Series A round, with follow-on investment from Lateral Capital, EchoVC, Raptor Group and Two Small Fish Ventures.  Other investors like Unshackled Ventures, Future Africa, Lagos-based Aruwa Capital, and The51 participated too. Continue reading (Image Credits: Pngme)
Robinhood Buys Communications Platform Say Technologies for $140M
Fintech

Robinhood Buys Communications Platform Say Technologies for $140M

Robinhood announced Tuesday (August 10) that it has signed an agreement to acquire investment communication platform Say Technologies for about $140 million as an all-cash deal, subject to customary purchase price adjustments. “Like Robinhood, Say was built on the belief that everyone should have the same access to the financial markets as Wall Street insiders,” the Robinhood announcement said. “We share a common goal of eliminating the barriers that keep people from participating in our financial system.” Continue reading (Image Credits: press.robinhood.com)
Moove Raises $23 Million Series A Funding to Democratize Vehicle Ownership in Africa
Fintech, Start-ups, West Africa

Moove Raises $23 Million Series A Funding to Democratize Vehicle Ownership in Africa

African mobility fintech start up provides revenue-based vehicle financing, empowering individuals across Africa to own their own vehicle LAGOS, Nigeria--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Moove, an African mobility fintech, today announced that it has raised $23 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Speedinvest and Left Lane Capital, with participation from DCM, Clocktower Technology Ventures, thelatest.ventures, LocalGlobe, Tekton, FJ Labs, Palm Drive Capital, Roka Works, KAAF Investments, Spartech Ventures, Class 5 Global, and Victoria van Lennep, co-founder of Lendable. Africa specialist, Verod Kepple Africa Ventures, and one of Moove’s existing lenders, Emso Asset Management, also joined the round. This brings Moove’s total funding to $68.2 million, including $28.2M in equity and $40.0M ...