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Symphonic Capital has launched its inaugural fund targeting overlooked founders in fintech and health care. Symphonic Capital’s Inception Sydney Thomas, who always displayed an “entrepreneurial spirit,” founded the venture capital (VC) firm in 2022. Having already dedicated years to being a serial investor, her work in venture capital began in 2016. It was during that time that she observed a common pattern: Many firms placed broad bets on numerous founders, accepting that most would fail in hopes that a few would yield outsized returns. However, she believed it was possible to have a more refined approach that would put more early-staged founders in a better position. “While it is still incredibly risky to work in early stage, a way to actually de-risk your investment is to have a much more structured and focused support strategy with those companies that increases the likelihood that they graduate from pre-seed to seed, and increases the likelihood that they graduate from seed to...
After her first business failed, Carolyn Rodz is now making it her mission to help other entrepreneurs succeed. Rodz was an investment banker for JPMorgan Chase between 2001 and 2005, per her LinkedIn. After exiting her job, she ventured into entrepreneurship , but that did not fare well, leading her to reenter the workforce. Although this was a trying time, it did not deter her from entrepreneurship altogether — she launched Cake, a digital media company, in 2009 and exited in 2015 — and it paved a pathway of opportunity for a wider community. “I knew very little about starting a company and my first business failed,” Rodz said in an interview with the “Black Tech Green Money” podcast. “I went back to work, paid off debts, licked my wounds for a bit, started a second company that I ultimately sold, ran it very differently with the lessons that I learned and feel very fortunate that I got to start over again because many people don’t have that opportunity. I was young and single and...
African fintech platform Mansa has secured new funding. Mansa, founded in 2023 by Mouloukou Sanoh (CEO) and Nkiru Uwaje (COO), enables seamless cross-border payments and instant transactions for its customers. Its offerings include competitive exchange rates, virtual card processing to support cash flow management, and automated matching of financial transactions to bank statements. This is made possible by leveraging a stablecoin infrastructure, its website mentions. “We’re starting by being the primary liquidity provider to the biggest payment companies across emerging markets,” Sanoh explained to TechCrunch. “From there, we can handle payouts and also offer additional services like foreign exchange. The goal is to create a one-stop payment platform where they can finance their payments, settle transactions instantly, and access foreign currency seamlessly — all in one place.” The inception of Mansa, based in Dubai, UAE, originated from Sanoh experiencing issues receiving money...
Fintech platform Raenest has raised new funding to support African businesses. The company, founded in 2022 by Victor Alade, Sodruldeen Mustapha, and Richard Oyome, offers a range of services, including virtual and physical dollar cards, international transfers, invoicing for global payments, the ability to create USD, GBP, and EUR bank accounts, and currency conversion, among other features listed on its website. Raenest’s original platform was structured as an Employer of Record (EOR), helping foreign companies pay employees on the continent while remaining compliant, TechCrunch reports. The founders recognized a deeper-rooted issue, leading them to update Raenest to assist the continent’s gig economy and businesses directly. “A U.S. company might not care if a payment is delayed by five days, but for someone in Nigeria or Kenya, that’s a big deal — especially when converting to local currency becomes another hurdle,” Alade told TechCrunch. Looking ahead, Raenest intends to secure...
Moove, marketed as an “African-born, global mobility fintech,” has announced an acquisition. The company, founded in Nigeria by Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, enables delivery drivers to finance vehicles and start driving with partners like Uber in three simple steps: apply, get verified, and drive. TechCrunch notes that Moove launched with 76 cars in Lagos in 2020 and has expanded to 36,000 cars. Per the company’s website, over 52,787,109 trips have been completed. Additionally, it is available in 19 cities across six continents. Over the years, Moove has secured significant funding. In 2023, $8 million had been by Absa Corporate and Investment Banking to reach Ghana, bringing its total investment from the bank to $28 million, Fintech Global reports. In March 2024, $100 million had been raised in a Series B round led by Uber to further its expansion, TechCrunch mentioned. The company has also attached a sustainability mission to its business model, seeking to create “the largest and...
Hip-Hop icon RAKIM is aligning himself with artificial intelligence (AI). According to a news release, the rapper, who released the studio album “G.O.D.’s Network” in 2024, is now the founder of the fintech platform Notes Technology, which will benefit artists by providing them access to loan and credit providers to fund creative projects, AI-powered education around financial literacy and entrepreneurship, and fintech tools to manage capital and income. By merging music, finance, and technology, Notes seeks to empower artists with the tools they need to succeed and maintain control over their careers. “With Notes, getting ‘paid in full’ is beyond just the money, it’s also about the knowledge and understanding of the urban music game from a position of being conscious of how it all works as a business, and how to leverage that to thrive and succeed as independent urban music artists and creators,” RAKIM said in a statement shared on the company website. Notes Technology’s other...
African fintech company Moniepoint has received strategic funding from Visa. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Moniepoint was reportedly the fastest-growing fintech company in 2023 and 2024. Launched by Tosin Eniolorunda (CEO) and Felix Ike (chief technology officer), the fintech company has a banking app that connects customers to a “debit card that always works,” Eniolorunda said in a YouTube video. Moniepoint’s offerings include: Banking accounts Loans Expense cards Instant payouts Accounting and bookkeeping solutions Moniepoint’s business model has been an overwhelming success. In fact, it processes over 1 billion transactions monthly, with total payments volume exceeding $22 billion, according to a press release shared with AFROTECH™. As it looks to expand its efforts, the company has received a strategic investment from Visa. “We are thrilled to announce Visa’s investment in Moniepoint,” Eniolorunda said, per the press release. “Visa’s backing is a strong endorsement of our...
Richard Merritt II had a clear vision for his next career step. Journey In Technology Richard Merritt II’s journey in technology began at the age of seven when he showed interest in old Dell computers and learned to code graphing calculators in math class. “I was actually pretty interested in how computers work. In math class, they gave me those graphing calculators, and I was able to code them to do calculations for me. So, I kind of always wanted to do something with computers,” he told AFROTECH™. Between 2007 and 2012, Merritt attended Texas Tech University. He initially pursued a degree in computer engineering but pivoted to business administration in management information systems after realizing he wanted to explore the intersection of technology and people. Immediately after graduating, Merritt jump-started his career as an IT Analyst Intern at Valero Energy Corporation, as noted on his LinkedIn profile. This internship led to a full-time role as a Technical Product Manager...
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...
Ismail Ahmed, who is behind the first Black-founded fintech company to reach unicorn status in the U.K., has secured additional funding, Bloomberg reports. In 2009, Ahmed launched Zepz, formerly WorldRemit, and was inspired by the high transaction fees from sending his loved ones money to East Africa. The venture also followed his experience working on a transfer project as part of the United Nations Development Programme, which led him to discover corruption in the UN’s Somalia remittance programme, The Guardian mentions. “My boss said if I went and submitted the dossier, I would never be able to work in remittances again, and I took that threat very seriously. I lost my job to uncover the fraud,” he told the outlet. While working through the legal case, Ahmed decided to attend London Business School, a move that would provide him with the blueprint for the company — originally called AfricaRemit. Furthermore, he would receive a financial award for his mistreatment as a result of...
Keyeriah Miles walked away from a career in fintech to empower women golfers. Inception Keyeriah currently leads Ladies Who Golf, a company created alongside her mother, Lashonda. An interest in sports had always been ingrained in the family. In fact, Keyeriah had been playing golf for the past four years, and her brother was involved in golf, track, and football, while Lashonda had launched an adult softball team in the early 2000s alongside her sister, called Lady Majestics. “We had that team probably for about maybe about six years… but the other funny thing was our colors. My initial colors for that softball team was green, navy blue and white, which is now the exact same colors for Ladies Who Golf,” Lashonda told AFROTECH™ in an interview. Keyeriah added, “And we didn’t realize that until after we implemented the blue, and she was like, ‘These are Lady Majestics’ colors.’ I completely forgot that she even had that team, and it didn’t ring a bell until we implemented the blue…...
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...
Morgan State University is receiving extended financial backing from a leading company that works to “build breakthrough crypto solutions.” On May 14, the National FinTech Center at the Baltimore, MD-based HBCU announced it had been awarded a three-year $1,050,000 grant from Ripple. The new funding will go toward advancing the center’s blockchain and fintech research, education, programming, faculty and student technical projects, ecosystem development, operational support, educational workshops, blockchain clubs, and a fintech solution incubator, per a news release. “This generous $1,050,000 grant is not just an investment; it’s a catalyst that propels our ability to innovate, collaborate, and prepare our students to be at the forefront of the FinTech revolution,” said Ali Emdad, Ph.D., f ounding director of the National Center for the Study of Blockchain and FinTech. “The ongoing partnership with Ripple stands as a beacon, illuminating the path toward a transformative educational...
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...
Chris Paul has entered into a partnership that considers the financial futures of the youth. Goalsetter, a fintech company founded by Tanya Van Court, has shared results from a study it conducted with Ivy League university students revealing a significant lack of understanding when it comes to personal finances. When surveying 1,065 undergraduate students from Harvard University, Stanford University, and the University of Pennsylvania, t he study revealed that the students answered on average only 51% of its financial education questions correctly. The questions were at the high school standard, and the percentage of acuity decreased even further when looking at only underclassmen, with scores of 48%. Furthermore, only 13% of students who took the quiz scored above a C-. To create better outcomes, Goalsetter is committed to targeting financial initiatives towards the youth, and the company is strengthening its efforts through a partnership with NBA player Chris Paul, Oakland Fund...