Africa’s B2B enabling Fintechs
Hi Fintech friends 👋,
Here are the highlights of what happened in African Fintech this week;
Ivorian based Fintech raised $820K to expand its inventory financing service.
France’s largest Venture Capital expanded to Africa.
Nigerian open banking platform expanded into cloud services.
The CEO of the most valuable African Fintech spoke about new hires, product focus and IPO plans.
The executive of the world's largest crypto exchange was denied bail in one of Africa's most active fintech countries.
Parliament pushed for the separation of telecom and mobile money services by the owner of East Africa's largest mobile money provider.
💸Fundraise and Exits
Ivorian fintech Waribeiraised $820K to expand inventory financing solutions for local merchants.
Debt providers financing Africa’s ventures
💰 Venture Funds
Bpifrance, France's largest venture capital firm opened a new base in Egypt as part of its expansion strategy into Africa and the Middle East.
2023 Africa Tech VC - Top Equity Funded Verticals (in $M)
Endeavor South Africa’s Harvest Fund achieved its first close, securing commitments of $10.8 Million as part of its goal to raise $28.4 Million.
🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches
Nigerian fintech Okraexpanded into cloud services.
African companies using African cloud
South Africa’s Peach Paymentspartnered with Kenya’s Sukhiba to power conversational commerce.
Strong penetration of social commerce in Africa, particularly among women.
👔 Leadership Lineup
Binance executive denied bail, court says no evidence his health can't be handled.
Tigran Gambaryan
📰 News of the Week
Flutterwave’s CEO spoke about the company’s executive hires, product focus, and IPO plans.
Flutterwave funding rounds
Flutterwave appointed Mitesh Popat as its new chief financial office after the resignation of Oneal Bhambani, who stepped down 10 months ago for personal reasons. This new hire might help the company clear its best IPO road.
The 2022 valuation multiples of some global payments platforms.Of all the companies listed, Flutterwave had the highest valuation relative to revenue generated.
Flutterwave’s enterprise product which banks, startups, and companies in e-commerce, transportation, and FMCG use to accept payments, generates 90% of the fintech’s revenue. Its remittance product, Send App, makes up the remaining 10%.
The CEO said they sunset the Barter product because their focus shifted toward where the majority of their customers were.
👀 Eye Openers - Does Africa really need cards?
In Tanzania, a country of 60 million people, there are 12 million cards, but only 2 million are active.
Only 3% of Africans own credit cards, the lowest credit card penetration rate of any region worldwide.
Does Africa really need cards, or will it leapfrog them to find its own best way to make payments? Share your comments and i will publish them in the next newsletter.
📑 Read of the week
The Big Baas Opportunity in Africa.(Frontier Fintech)
Mobile Money Charges: The Main Barrier to Digitizing B2B Transactions in Africa. How do we bypass Mobile Money altogether? (Cofoundersnotebook )
📖 Other News, Reads, and Media
Kenyan parliament pushed for Safaricom, M-PESA split.
M-pesa’s revenue
It was reported that 31,000 merchants in South Africa now accept crypto on Luno.
Crypto awareness in South Africa is raising rapidly
🎥 VIDEO INTERVIEWS/DISCUSSIONS
Interview with Ken Njoroge, the dynamic force behind Cellulant and founder of boutique investment firm PANI, on the secrets of his success in the tech world.
🦉 Tweet of the Week
Digital payments are growing rapidly across the Middle East & Africa
Here's a quick look at how select MEA markets stack up relative to key drivers of digital payments growth
💡 Nigeria leads in e-commerce growth, but it's also the hardest place to gain market share in payments pic.twitter.com/71Yx8y56be— Emeka Ajene ✍🏽 (@eajene) October 7, 2024
🎯 Fintech Opportunities
Bloomberg is working on Africa Startups to Watch list to find the smartest ideas and founders from all over the continent. Apply to be featured.
Made in Tanzania 🇹🇿 with 💚
