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Sote, an African supply chain-focused company, has announced its recent round of funding. In a press release announcement provided to AfroTech, it was revealed that the company — which launched the “continent’s first licensed tech-enabled customs clearing and forwarding service“ — raised an additional $4 million in its seed funding extension round. The funding, which was led by Social Capital , Chamath Palihapitiya’s fund, brought Sote’s total fundraising efforts to $8 million. In addition to the African supply chain-focused company completing the funding round, it also placed Ray Ko, the growth partner, on its board. Other participating financiers include Harry Hurst, Founder/CEO at Pipe; MaC Venture Capital “doubling down,” per the press release; and K50 ventures. “Sote has always been about the people. A group of passionate individuals driven to build the future of Africa. We’re excited about bringing Samora and John under one roof with our Logistics and Engineering teams to...
On Feb. 14, 2020, Africa recorded its first confirmed COVID-19 case in Egypt. According to the World Health Organization (WHO ), the virus reached the continent via travelers from Asia, Europe, and the U.S. As of last week, WHO reports that cases in Africa have risen to over 30,000 with nearly 1,400 deaths. While some doctors saw Africa as nothing more than a testing lab for COVID-19 vaccines, citizens of Africa have honed their intelligence and innovation to create inventions that aid in the reduction of the virus within their continent. Check out these three Africa-based inventions that are contributing to COVID-19 solutions. RESPIRE-19 Portable Ventilator According to Face2Face Africa , Usman Dalhatu, a 20-year-old mechanical engineer student at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria, invented and built a local ventilator. With the help of his partners, Dr. Yunusa Muhammad Garba of the Human Anatomy Department, Gombe State University, and Aliyu Hassan, a graduate of Mechatronics...
The lack of communication between healthcare providers can be damaging. Physicians worldwide rarely communicate with other physicians who are outside of their practice or hospital. Instead, they solely depend on the patient’s verbal history. Medcera is changing this for the citizens of Africa. Medcera is a web-based EMR (electronic medical record) and EHR (electronic health record) system with a patient portal. By providing both EMR and EHR, it gives the physician a more well-rounded picture of the patient’s health. Essentially, it provides them with personal health records for patients. Under the leadership of Federal University of Technology and Johns Hopkins University alum, professor Ndubuisi Ekekwe — Medcera technology is exclusively serving the entire continent of Africa. Once a patient has a record with Medcera, every approved healthcare professional will have access to that record irrespective of time and location. This is a game-changer for physicians and patients alike,...
United Bank for Africa (UBA) has collaborated with the award-winning U.S. -based FinTech powerhouse Ovamba Solutions Inc. to provide modern solutions to Cameroon’s small and medium-sized business customers. UBA has engaged with Ovamba’s flagship innovation, “Growth-As-A-Service,” a TradeTech solution designed for businesses involved in trade, imports, and manufacturing. Ovamba — founded in 2013 — began operations in Cameroon in 2014 and focuses on making business growth simpler. “Ovamba provides short-term capital to micro, small and medium-sized businesses in Africa, emerging markets and the GCC for trade, inventory purchases and growth. The capital is provided by International investors from the US, U.K. and Japan,” according to their website. They were inspired by how the under-developed business ecosystem was exacerbating the problem of access to capital. Ovamba’s technology aims to give creative freedom of innovation to markets and demographics previously restricted by...
Flex Club wants to be the middleman between Uber drivers and investors. The South Africa-based company just reached $1.2 million in funding and plans to expand its teams and products, according to TechCrunch. Flex Club also has a new partnership with Uber Mexico that lets investors buy cars rented out to Uber drivers. Drivers can “link their gig accounts” to Flex Club, which uses drivers’ Uber stats to determine payment option. “Our goal is to make this completely passive… where investors can invest in different kinds of assets on our platform, login to a dash, and see this is how my five cars in South Africa are doing, my vans in Mexico, my motorbikes in Indonesia — with a diversified portfolio around the world,” Flex Club Co-founder and CEO Tinashe Ruzane said to TechCrunch. Flex Club drivers can pay as little as $160 a week for their cars, while investors use the platform to track how their cars across the world are doing. There’s also no obligation for drivers to buy the...
Energise Africa , an initiative by U.K. based online investment platform Ethex, is partnering with Azuri Technologies to give solar panels and access to electricity to low-income families in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, and Tanzania. Azuri Technologies, also headquartered in the U.K., builds solar products for Sub-Saharan communities. The company has provided products to 12 countries, helping provide energy to more than 750,000 Africans. Energise Africa and Azuri Technologies’ partnership works to curb some of the struggles associated with living with a lack of electricity, including access to the internet, education, and improving one’s quality of life. According to a 2018 Brookings report, 588 million people in sub-Saharan Africa did not have access to electricity in 2016. The report said that 71 percent of residents in urban African communities have electricity. For rural communities, only 23 percent of people had power. In America, singer Akon has also made a name for himself...
TeamApt — the Nigeria-based fintech startup — has recently finished a $5 million funding round that will help the company expand to other regions across Africa, according to TechCrunch. TeamApt is helping facilitate transactions between banks, companies and people in partnership with some of Nigeria’s largest banks. So far, TeamApt is working with Zenith, UBA, and ALAT to provide banking access to Nigeria. “We’re beginning to pilot into much more merchant and consume facing products where we’re building payment infrastructure to connect these banks to merchants and businesses,” CEO Tosin Eniolorunda said to TechCrunch. The company offers four products that offer personalized banking services, business organization tools, payment infrastructure and automation. Financial inclusion has been a growing issue in Africa for some years. Countries like Zimbabwe have been suffering from inflation rates that make their money worth pennies in U.S. dollars. More companies are looking to offer...