Hi Fintech friends, Eid Mubarak 👋,
It has been a busy week with a lot of Fintech announcements, here are the highlights of what happened in African Fintech this week;
Three Funding deals were announced.
Kenya’s ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ Fintech entered administration after failed fresh fundraising efforts.
Stripe-owned Nigerian fintech launched its first consumer platform to facilitate rapid and secure bank transfers.
Nigeria’s latest Unicorn tested its Remittance platform.
VP of Growth of Africa’s cross-border payments fintech left to build his “Send Now, Pay Later” startup.
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💸Fundraise and Exits
Nigerian fintech Payhippo rebrands as Rivy, raised $4 Million for clean energy financing.
Annual average investment by sector in Africa in the SAS
South African HR-Fintech startup Jem HRraised $3.3 Million in pre-Series A funding to scale its WhatsApp-based HR and employee benefits platform.
Banking and Fintech in South Africa
South Africa’s Trade Shield, a credit risk management startup, raised $824K from FNB’s Investment arm.
💰 Venture Funds
16 venture capital firms in Africa actively funding startups in 2025
Overview of VC Firms in Africa in 2025
🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches
Zap By Paystack
PalmPay rolledout Verve debit cards as Nigerian fintechs shift to local providers.
Market share of Nigeria’s card market
FX rates Comparison between MonieWorld, a Remittance product by Moniepoint and other Fintechs.
dLocal integrated Airtel Mobile Money for Google Play Payments in Kenya.
Chippercash partnered with Ripple to power over $70 Billion in cross border payments.
We’re announcing an exciting and highly impactful partnership with @Ripple today. Ripple is a global leader in digital payments infrastructure, powering over $70B in cross border payments.
With this intergration into the @chippercashapp platform, Ripple Payments will expand… https://t.co/LOR0HO175K— Ham Serunjogi (@HSerunjogi) March 27, 2025
👔 Leadership Lineup
Ovie Esiekpe, VP of Growth at Verto left to launch Yyenza, a “Send Now, Pay Later” Remittance startup.
Yyenza
📰 News of the Week
Lipa Later enteredadministration after failed fresh fundraising efforts.
How Lipa Later Collapsed
Lipa Later, a Kenyan buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) fintech, which had previously strong investor backing, raising $12 million in seed funding in January 2022, has been placed under administration effective March 24, 2025, after months of financial struggles and failed fundraising efforts. The company’s financial position came under scrutiny in December 2023 when it acquired struggling e-commerce platform Sky.Garden for $1.9 million.
👀 Eye Openers
Africa’s biggest startups based on valuation:
Graph by This Week In Fintech
📑 Read of the week
Why African Fintechs Are Now Going to Asia: Dominating Africa while trying Asia.(Co-foundersNotebook).
📖 Other News, Reads, and Media
United Bank for Africa (UBA)lost $744K to fraud in 2024, even as the Nigerian lender reported a profit after tax of $493 million.
Most fraud attacks in Africa are directed at national ID cards
🎥 VIDEO INTERVIEWS/DISCUSSIONS
Interview with Benjamin Fernandes, CEO and Founder of Nala, one of the most prominent fintech startups in the world. NALA has raised over $50 million to build Payments solutions in emerging markets.
🦉 Tweet of the Week
🧵 1/ The world is trying to escape the US dollar. But paradoxically, USD stablecoins are entrenching it even deeper. Here's how the dollar is both being resisted and reborn — at the same time.— STONΞ (@StoneAtwine) March 28, 2025
🎯 Fintech Opportunities
Opportunity to connect and network with founders, partners, and investors in the global stablecoin ecosystem. Register now!
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