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Socium has raised new funding to expand its reach within Francophone Africa. The company, founded by Samba Lo (CEO) and Serigne Seye (chief operating officer), began as a recruitment website before scaling to offer HR solutions for businesses, notes TechCrunch. Per its LinkedIn, company offerings include: Payroll management Workflow management Performance evaluation Document management “Our customers started to ask us if we had solutions for payroll, time management, and performance management. So, we decided to build a global HR platform to help HR teams manage all their processes,” Lo told TechCrunch. Thanks to Socium, more Africa-based companies can now launch their businesses within a matter of weeks in the French-speaking countries. The company also leverages artificial intelligence to vet CVs and create job descriptions, TechCrunch notes. “Focus on people means focus on performance, their evaluation and competence, and career path for each individual,” Lo added. “And for this...
Tosin Eniolorunda and Felix Ike are reportedly behind Africa’s fastest-growing fintech company. According to a press release shared with AFROTECH™, the founders lead Moniepoint, which initially launched under the name TeamApt in 2015. The company has since become a trusted provider of financial solutions, reaching millions of entrepreneurs across Africa and processing over 800 million transactions a month, with those having a monthly total value of more than $17 billion. Moniepoint offers a free personal banking app that allows customers to benefit from a “debit card that always works,” Eniolorunda said in a YouTube video. In addition to banking accounts, the company offers loans, expense cards, instant payouts, and accounting and bookkeeping solutions, its website lists. Photo Credit: Moniepoint Moniepoint’s business model has made it Africa’s fastest-growing fintech in both 2023 and 2024, per the press release. It is now poised for further growth following a $110 million equity...
Waza has raised $8 million to improve the financial technology sector in Africa. TechCrunch mentions that emerging economies tend to buy more from other countries than they sell, leading to an increase in demand for U.S. dollars to trade internationally. Combined with limited supply, trading can be more expensive. The outlet also notes that Africa’s lack of technological solutions worsens the issue. Thus, Waza’s efforts are timely for Africa because it exists to ensure Africa-based companies and traders can have liquidity and more seamless B2B payments using U.S. dollars, euros, and Great Britain pounds, per the company website. Within its first month of operations, the company’s payment volume reached $280,000, according to TechCrunch. In May 2024, those numbers had dramatically increased, with $70 million in monthly payment volume equating to $700 million in annualized transaction volume, Co-Founder and CEO Maxwell Obi confirmed to TechCrunch. “Cross-border payments in the context...
Ethiopian sustainable tech startup Kubik has scored a first for the country. According to a press release sent to AFROTECH™, it has raised $5.2 million in a seed round. Investors include East African venture capital firm African Renaissance Partners, Endgame Capital, and King Philanthropies. It will now further its work in using plastic waste to make affordable buildings and removing waste from the environment. “Kubik’s vision to build safe and affordable living for all speaks directly to King Philanthropies’ mission to catalyze solutions at the intersection of climate and livelihoods,” Kartick Kumar, managing director at King Philanthropies, said in a press release. “Kubik is at the forefront of innovation in Ethiopia and across the African market, and we’re proud to support the tremendous impact they’re making combatting plastic waste and providing safe, durable, and affordable housing.” The funding round makes Kubik the first Ethiopian country to earn a multi-million-dollar...
Canza Finance’s co-founders are leaning into Web3 to financially empower the African continent. Pascal Ntsama IV and Oyedeji Oluwoye are looking to create “the world’s largest non-institutional-based financial system” through the creation of Canza Finance, the company website mentions. They both share distinct journeys on how they arrived to the company’s inception. For Chief Technology Officer Oluwoye — born in Nigeria, Africa, and raised in Sydney, Australia, before moving to the United States at 14 — he began taking various CompTIA Certifications, early-career data analytics certification, during his senior year of high school. After graduation, he headed to the Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science. While in college, he was able to secure a position with Adtran, a networking and telecommunications company based in the U.S., as a co-op engineer. He then transitioned to work at AT&T as a senior specialist-network...
Ghana is stepping up to the plate to be a part of Africa’s electric vehicle (EV) movement. Wahu Mobility seems up for the challenge as it has opened Ghana’s first EV assembly plant that has the capacity to build about 200 e-bikes per month, CNN reports. The e-mobility brand was founded to create a more sustainable last-mile delivery option. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Valerie Labi (@valerielabi) “It really kind of struck me that I didn’t want the mobility to be fulfilled by petrol motorbikes,” Wahu Mobility Co-Founder and CEO Valerie Labi told CNN. “By 2030, there will be 30 million delivery riders across Africa and it just made me think, as a continent, we are more conscious around becoming sustainable and moving to net zero.” Labi added, “And transport was just a huge opportunity to make a difference in that way.” According to the outlet, Wahu Mobility’s e-bikes take around four hours to charge. Labi also noted that the e-bikes were designed to suit Ghana’s...
Mr Eazi is taking greater control in the gaming sector. Music In Africa reports the Nigerian musician, born Oluwatosin Ajibade, has launched Choplife.ci, a venture that will offer casino games as well as cater to the sports betting industry. Responsible gaming practices and reinvestment in African creativity and sports development are also benchmarks for the company, the outlet notes. The launch of Choplife.ci will piggy-back off the strength of Mr Eazi’s knowledge since he first supported betting company betPawa as a brand ambassador in 2017. The company has involvement in countries such as Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, per Graphic Online. Mr Eazi’s role with the company eventually scaled to ownership through its parent company, with roles such as investor, shareholder, and licensed operating partner. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Choplife Côte d’Ivoire (@choplife.ci) Now, Mr Eazi is set to further...
Investments are continuing to pour in for African tech entrepreneurs. TechCrunch reports that Founders Factory Africa (FFA), an early-stage investment firm, has raised $114 million “to scale its model to better serve founders across the African tech ecosystem.” The funding for the South Africa-based accelerator was led by Mastercard Foundation and Johnson & Johnson.
As talent across the African continent consistently rises in numbers, its tech ecosystem is growing right along with it. From securing millions of dollars for funding initiatives such as for climate change to creating innovative technology that aims to disrupt industries, there is a movement of African founders and tech entrepreneurs who aim to build a promising future. At the same time, there are global events taking notice of this powerful movement and bringing it to center stage including AfroTech Executive D.C. On May 11, executive leaders will join together to discuss Africa’s growth in the tech industry. View this post on Instagram A post shared by AFROTECH Events (@afrotech.events) Ahead of AfroTech Executive D.C., Prosper Africa, the leading U.S.-Africa trade and investment initiative, has partnered with the Africa Fintech Summit. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Africa Fintech Summit (@afrifintechsummit) Africa’s fintech sector, leaders, and pioneers...
People don’t refer to her as Mother Africa for nothing. The home of some of the world’s greatest natural resources is getting an economic boost with 24 African startups chosen to receive funding for startups. As released by Tech Crunch, Y Combinator released its most recent batch of awardees – W22 – that will receive seed funding for new businesses. Of the 414 startups representing over 80 sectors that are a part of this batch, the continent of Africa has received notable funding with Nigeria ranking third, having delivered 18 startups. Per the company’s norm, the United States has the most representation and India ranks second with 32 startups a part of this most recent batch. Although the United States has the largest amount of representation from a single country each year, about 50 percent of Y Combinator’s awardees come from countries outside of the country. Based on previous award batches, this is the first time an African nation has appeared this high on the list. With 24...
The African continent is the next stop for Nas’ investment portfolio. Bloomberg reports that the rapper has joined Andreessen Horowitz in a $20 million funding round for Carry1st, an African mobile games publisher. Google, Avenir Growth Capital, Riot Games, Konvoy Ventures, Raine Ventures, and TTV Capital were also investors in the round.
Since Twiga Foods’ launch in 2014, the startup has been using technology to build more efficient supply chains in food and retail distribution in Kenya. With the announcement of their latest funding, the company aims to take their mission across the African continent. Twiga Foods raised $50 million on Nov. 1 in a Series C round, TechCrunch reports. The round was led by private equity firm Creadev and majority of the participants from their previous Series B round invested in Twiga. New investors included OP Finnfund Global and Endeavor Catalyst Fund. “We are deeply convinced in Twiga’s potential to revolutionize informal retail across Sub-Saharan Africa, ” said Pierre Fauvet, Africa director at Creadev, in a statement. “Tapping into a $77 billion urban market on the continent, Twiga has gained significant traction since inception, leveraging on technology to optimize the food supply chain in African cities and constantly innovating to better tackle logistics, commercial, social and...
Zambian startup Union54, which specializes in fintech, has announced that it’s developing Africa’s first card-issuing API. According to TechCrunch, the company founded by Perseus Mlambo and Alessandra Martini claims to be Africa’s first card-issuing API — and while, technically, they’re correct, they initially thought of the idea when they were part of Zazu, their previous startup. Back then, Zazu — which was launched in 2015 — was considered a “challenger bank,” and had to rely on outside vendors to issue debit cards to customers. According to Mlambo, some customers waited as long as 18 months to get a debit card issued in their name. “We just realized that either the processor or the bank was not necessarily well equipped to be able to answer our questions or to be able to give us the product that we’re looking for,” the founder of the Zambian startup said in an interview with the outlet. Because of that, Martini and Mlambo met directly with Mastercard so that Zazu could become...