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Softbank is betting big on Africa for the first time ever with a hefty investment in Nigerian fintech startup Opay. Bloomberg reports that the financial giant’s SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led a $400 million funding round for the fintech company, now bringing its value to $2 billion. Others that participated in the round include Sequoia Capital China, Redpoint China, Source Code Capital, Softbank Ventures Asia, DragonBall Capital and 3W Capital. Opay — a one-stop payment platform for consumers’ everyday needs founded in 2018 — previously raised two funding rounds back in 2019 with a $50 million Series A and $120 million Series B, TechCrunch shares. According to an emailed statement from OPay Chief Executive Officer Yahui Zhou, the hope is that the new funding will help the company “be the power that helps emerging markets reach a faster economic development.” “We believe our investment will help the company extend its offering to adjacent markets,” said Kentaro Matsui — a SoftBank Group...
African mobility is taking on a new meaning thanks to fintech startup Moove and its company mission. Today, the Nigerian tech-based vehicle financing platform — also Uber’s exclusive car financing and vehicle supply partner in sub-Saharan Africa — announced the raise of a $23 million Series A funding round to help empower more African drivers to buy and own their own cars. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Moove (@mooveafrica) According to a press release, the round was led by Speedinvest and Left Lane Capital, with participation from other investors such as DCM, Clocktower Technology Ventures, thelatest.ventures, LocalGlobe, Tekton, FJ Labs, Palm Drive Capital, Roka Works, KAAF Investments, Spartech Ventures, Class 5 Global, and Victoria van Lennep, co-founder of Lendable. Additional investors also include Africa specialist, Verod Kepple Africa Ventures and existing Moove lender Emso Asset Management. For many of its U.S.-based venture capital backers, Moove is their...
Nigerian fintech and lending startup Lidya has announced the raise of an $8.3 million pre-Series B funding round in an effort to continue expanding operations for the company in Europe. According to TechCrunch, investment firm Alitheia Capital led the funding round via its uMunthu Fund, with participation from other investors such as Bamboo Capital Partners, Accion Venture Lab and Flourish Ventures. “Lidya is tackling the fundamental challenge of providing access to credit for dynamic small and growing businesses that otherwise have limited options for financing working capital to scale their businesses in Africa and Europe,” Alitheia Capital co-founder and managing director Tokunboh Ishmael said in a statement. “Alitheia Capital and Goodwell are pleased to be backing a team whose mission aligns with our objective of driving growth and social impact by enabling access and inclusion to finance and financial services.” In addition to its latest round, Lidya has raised a total of $16.5...
Last year, Nigerian startup Paystack was bought by fintech giant Stripe in a $200 million deal that sent shockwaves across Africa’s tech ecosystem. Now with more validation for the company, Paystack — already operating in both Nigeria and Ghana — has positioned itself to expand and launch its next location in South Africa. “South Africa is one of the continent’s most important markets, and our launch here is a significant milestone in our mission to accelerate commerce across Africa,” the company shared in a statement. “We’re excited to continue building the financial infrastructure that empowers ambitious businesses in Africa, helps them scale and connects them to global markets.” According to the company’s statement, this new launch also “takes us one step closer to our goal of accelerating commerce and removing barriers to trade across Africa.” The company’s South African launch comes after a six-month pilot project that kickstarted a month after it was acquired by Stripe....
Within its first year of launching, Nigeria-based fintech company Okra has secured yet another million-dollar plus funding round to help the startup continue to scale across the West African nation. According to a blog post published by the company, Okra announced a $3.5 million seed round led by Susa Ventures, with participation from existing investors such as TLcom Capital and newly-joined Accenture Ventures. The round also brought in super angel investors to contribute, including Rob Solomon — Chairman at GoFundMe; Arpan Shah — founding engineer and ex-Head of Data Platforms/Data products at Robinhood; and Hongxia Zhong — founding engineer and ex- Senior engineering manager at Robinhood. TechCrunch reports Okra has raised a total of $4.5 million between its first two funding rounds to date. Now the company intends to use the new investment to expand its financial data infrastructure across Nigeria. Okra — which was founded in 2019 by Fara Ashiru Jituboh and David Peterside — is...
New York-based startup Andela is building up its remote engineering base to expand into other territory across the globe. Today, the global talent network — which connects companies with vetted, remote engineers in emerging markets — announced its global expansion efforts to accept applications from engineering talent in Latin and South America. By moving into these new regions, Andela’s client base will have an opportunity to lean on regional expertise and nuances to help bolster their international growth. Andela’s track-record has proven to secure opportunities for remote engineers with businesses all over the world. Its esteemed reputation is what will allow the startup company to continue supporting global talent moving forward. A press release shared with AfroTech reports that the startup has achieved a 750% increase in applications outside of Africa over the last six months, and a 500% increase within the continent. Now accepting applications from 37 countries across five...
Africa’s fintech space has garnered more attention in recent years as more and more companies emerge on the continent to redefine proper banking solutions for consumers. Appzone — a fintech software provider that digitizes banks and financial services — was founded by Emeka Emetarom, Obi Emetarom, and Wale Onawunmi back in 2008 as a means to offer commercial banks custom software development services through homegrown financial technology versus tech of foreign origins, according to TechCrunch. Today, the Nigerian-based startup has announced the raise of a $10 million Series A investment round to build upon the success the platform has already seen and position itself as innovators of fintech in Africa. TechCabal reports the funding round was led by Lagos-based investment banking firm CardinalStone, with participation from other firms such as V8 Capital, Lateral Investment Partners, Constant Capital, and Itanna Capital Ventures. According to the outlet, Appzone plans to use the new...
Several reports have shared just how difficult it is to send money overseas, but when the destination is Africa it can be an even bigger burden to deal with limited options, transfer fees and extended processing periods. To help resolve this issue, Lagos and San Francisco-based fintech startup Afriex — a Summer 2020 Y Combinator-backed company — launched a digital payments platform to provide instant, zero-fee money transfers to Africans at home and in the diaspora. Today, it announced a raise of a $1.2 million seed round to continue scaling its platform across the African continent, according to TechCrunch. The round was led by Pan-African VC firm Launch Africa, with participation from other investors such as Y Combinator, SoftBank Opportunity Fund, Future Africa, Brightstone VC, Processus Capital, Uncommon Ventures, A$AP Capital, Precursor Ventures, and Ivernet Holdings. Angel investors for the round included Russell Smith, Mandela Schumacher-Hodge Dixon, Furqan Rydhan, and Andrea...