History of Africa’s Unicorns
Hi Fintech friends 👋,
Here are the highlights of what happened in African Fintech this week;
Global payments giant invested in four African Fintechs
A new $250 Million planned fund for African startups was announced.
Africa’s biggest e-commerce reported a $20.1 million operating loss despite the growth of its fintech arm.
African Fintech investors shared about what kind of Fintechs they want to back now.
Owner of Africa’s biggest mobile money secured insurance license after a four year wait.
Africa’s newest fintech unicorn poached a CFO from Africa’s most profitable bank.
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
Visainvested in Orda, Oze, WorkPay, and OkHi to boost African financial inclusion.
Some Visa Africa portfolio startups
💰 Venture Funds
From cross-border payments to micro-insurance; African fintech investors shared what they wanted to see and fund.
Africa’s Fintech Landscape
Startupbootcampannounced its planned $250 Million African Startup Fund.
🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches
Africhange, a bootstrapped remittance company acquired an IMTO license for its Nigerian subsidiary.
Payment and remittance startups dominate Nigerian fintech
M-pesa app by numbers
Kenyan Fintech startups category
Kenyan savings and investments fintech startup Chumzexpanded to Rwanda after hitting 200k users.
👔 Leadership Lineup
MoniepointhiredStanbic IBTC CFO for its microfinance bank after a $110 million raise.
Bayo Olujob
📰 News of the Week
Jumiacommitted to a “disciplined approach” as operating losses hit $20.1 million in Q3 2024.
Quarterly figures of Jumia Group's active customers and orders between 2019 and 2023
Jumia’s Q3 2024 revenue declined by 14%, heavily influenced by currency depreciation in key markets. The company saw a 6% rise in orders, with growth in local currency. Expansion of JumiaPay and focused operational improvements were highlighted as growth drivers.
The giant reported $20.1 million in operating losses in the third quarter of 2024 and a 14% year-on-year revenue decline to $36.5 million.
👀 Eye Openers
How the African Fintech landscape is evolving and where growth may head next;
From Vertical Specialists to Financial Ecosystems
📑 Read of the week
Africa's unicorns in focus(The Big Deal)
📖 Other News, Reads, and Media
KCB customers overdrew accounts by $7.7 million following system glitches during migration.
🎥 VIDEO INTERVIEWS/DISCUSSIONS
Interview with Seye Bandele, Co-founder and CEO of PaidHR, a platform that enables employees to receive salaries in 49 local currencies. He shared the entire journey of building the company, attracting investors, and now scaling it.
🦉 Tweet of the Week
If Moniepoint is poaching the CFO of a top consumer bank to run financial ops & planning at its microfinance bank, it suggests they have plans to upgrade to commercial banking license.
Curious why they would want to go in this direction considering it could cause OpEx to surge? https://t.co/MNgIUEtI8j— Abubakar (@IAtalkspace) November 6, 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
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