Hi Fintech friends 👋,
Here are the highlights of what happened in African Fintech this week;
An African fintech became a unicorn.
One of the world’s top three accelerators shut down its Nigerian office and operations.
Africa’s largest gender-equal VC closed its $78 million second fund.
A Nigerian investment platform expanded to Canada with a remittance product.
One of Africa’s central banks directed banks to obtain regulatory approval before changing their core banking software.
We are very excited to announce the TWIF Cape Town fintech happy hour on Friday 15th November.Big thanks to our lead sponsor, Deimos Cloud for supporting us.
💸Fundraise and Exits
Google and DPIbacked African fintech Moniepoint in a $110 Million round.
Moniepoint joins this list
💰 Venture Funds
Techstars Lagosshut down after two years and 24 investments worth $2.4 Million.
Techstars Africa Portfolio
Africa’s Largest Gender-Equal VC Firm, Janngo Capital,Closed its $78 Million Second Fund.
Africa’s top 6 countries by VC funding raised in H1 2024.
🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches
Nigeria based YC-backed investment platform Bambooexpanded to Canada with a remittance product.
Savings and investment platforms in Africa
Nigerian insurtech ETAPexpanded into Ghana with the Hollard partnership.
Africa's insurance market is $68 billion in Gross Written Premiums.
YC-backed Touch and Paylaunched a dollar feature for Nigerian transport.
Paystack launched Transfers in Kenya to power more payments for businesses.
👔 Leadership Lineup
African B2B E-commerce Startups Wasoko and MaxAB that merged to create Pan-African Fintech platform, appointed Mo Elshenawy as an independent board director and technical advisor.Elshenawy is the president and chief technology officer (CTO) of autonomous vehicle company Cruise.
Mo Elshenawy
📰 News of the Week
InsideMoniepoint’s $1 Billion valuation in a new funding round led by DPI.
Moniepoint
The Series C round was led by Development Partners International’s African Development Partners (ADP) III fund and landed Google’s Africa Investment Fund as a new investor. Other investors, including African private equity firm Verod Capital and existing investor Lightrock, also participated.
In 2023, Moniepoint grew transaction value by over 205%, processing 5.2 billion transactions worth over $150 billion. Moniepoint claims it now processes over 800 million transactions, with monthly total value exceeding $17 billion. The new fund will be used to scale beyond Nigeria.
👀 Eye Openers
Only 1 in 100 Nigerians spends $609 monthly, Piggyvest 2024 report showed.
Food and groceries top the list of the biggest monthly personal expenses for Nigerians.
Piggyvest’s report, based on a survey of over 10,000 Nigerians, revealed that 65% of Nigerians have no income or earn less than $61 per month, with this figure rising to 86% for those earning below $151 monthly. This comes amidst a decline in Nigeria’s headline inflation to 32.15% in August 2024, down from a peak of 25.08% in 2023.The number of Nigerians with multiple income sources also dropped by 10% compared to Piggyvest’s 2023 report. You can read the full report here.
📑 Read of the week
Why It's Hard to Digitize B2B Transactions Using M-pesa & Airtel Mobile Money(Co-founders Notebook).
📖 Other News, Reads, and Media
🎥 VIDEO INTERVIEWS/DISCUSSIONS
This week in Fintech Africa, Moniepoint became a unicorn.Three years ago, when it was processing $3 billion per month, some people doubted these figures but the founder publicly and confidently addressed these doubts.
Tosin Eniolorunda is CEO and Founder of Moniepoint
Today, Moniepoint processes over 800 million transactions, with a monthly total value exceeding $17 billion. Below is a throwback interview of Afridigest with Tosin Eniolorunda, CEO and Founder of Moniepoint, discussing how they built Nigeria’s largest business payments platform.
🦉 Tweet of the Week
First-mover advantage is a myth
The real advantage? Being first to reach 'product-customer love'
Look at @Moniepoint & @OPay_NG:
• Weren't 1st movers
• Understood users deeply
• Executed brilliantly
• Now dominate their markets
Being first doesn't matter, being loved does— Emeka Ajene ✍🏽 (@eajene) November 2, 2024
🎯 Fintech Opportunities
An opportunity to be a part of the largest special fintech event in Africa, taking place soon in South Africa. Reach out to [email protected] .
Sooo - we're back soon in Cape Town during the week of @africatechfest 🥳
Date: Nov 14th - sponsorship slots now open. Interested? Please email me for the details → [email protected] https://t.co/LKzhtjh8o0— Wiza Jalakasi (@wizaj) October 19, 2024
Made in Tanzania 🇹🇿 with 💚
