Hi Fintech friends 👋,

A few health issues kept me from checking in earlier, but I’m feeling much better now so today, I’m sharing key highlights of what happened in African fintech over the past two weeks.

• Five funding deals were announced.
• Africa’s most profitable bank planned to raise $100 Million to back African startups.
• Nigeria’s former president who courted Big Tech while battling online dissent died at 82.
• Nigerian high profile founder left her $16.5 Million backed fintech to join a global startup.
• Kenya's second biggest bank expanded fraud crackdown to Uganda after firing 1,500 employees in Kenya.
• African Unicorn launched ads as product.

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This Week in FintechSabrina Baxter

💸Fundraise and Exits

• Roqqu acquired Kenya’s Flitaa as Nigerian startups eye East Africa.
• South Africa based earned wage access startup Paymenow raised $22.5 Million working capital facility.
• Stitch acquired Efficacy to take full control of card payments in South Africa.
• Liquify, a Ghanaian female-led startup, raised $1.5 million seed to close Africa’s trade finance gap.
• Nigeria’s BFREE secured $3 Million To Scale ‘Ethical Debt Recovery’ Across Africa

💰 Venture Funds

• Stanbic Kenya planned to raise $100 million to back startups in rare VC-style move.

🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

• LemFi launched free remittances in Egypt, targeting the $20.6 billion diaspora market.
• Flutterwave secured full license to empower businesses in Senegal.
• Chipper Cash launched ads product.

👔 Leadership Lineup

• Nigeria’s former president who courted Big Tech while battling online dissent, died at 82.
• Flutterwave cut 50% of staff in Kenya and South Africa in a major cost-cutting move.
  

📰 News of the Week

• Okra CEO Fara Ashiru joined Kernel, a UK RevOps startup but her startup isnt dead.

Fara Ashiru, co-founder and CEO of Nigerian open-finance startup Okra which raised $16.5 Million, joined UK-based Kernel, which builds custom AI agents for revenue operations.

While most news outlets reported that Okra is dead, it has now been confirmed that the company is not. Although its nine-month-old cloud services business, Nebula (by Okra), has shut down, the company’s core payments business is undergoing restructuring. A portion of customer funds was reportedly returned to investors

👀 Eye Openers

• Five months ago, Timi Ajiboye, founder of YC-backed Helicarrier (formerly Buycoins), stepped away from the company to join The Browser Company. This week, Nigerian fintech founder Fara Ashiru also left his $16.5 million-backed company,  to join Kernel.

Is it burnout? Global pull? Local push? A shift in what “impact” and “success” mean?

Share your thoughts, and we might feature them in our next newsletter.

📑 Read of the week

• USSD, trust, and the future of payments: What Africa can teach the U.S.( Techcabal)
• Kuda’s second attempt at multicurrency banking comes with lessons and $15 Million backing from investors. (The Condia)

📖 Other News, Reads, and Media

• Visa’s billion-dollar bet positionsed Francophone Africa as Africa’s next fintech frontier.
• South Africans ditched cash and cards for digital payments.
• Equity Group expanded fraud crackdown to Uganda after firing 1,500 employees in Kenya.

🎥 VIDEO INTERVIEWS/DISCUSSIONS

• Nigerian fintech Okra is scalling back after raising $16 Million But 5 months ago, their CEO told Emeka Ajene some harsh truths about why African startups often diversify early. Here is the interview;

🦉 Tweet of the Week

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