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After the ₦100 million AI fund from Google faced significant backlash, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy announced that the government will launch a $1.5 million (₦2.5 billion) fund from Luminate on October 7.
The African Development Bank has approved €9.51 million ($10.5 million) for Comoros to build and operate a new data centre, enhance an existing one, and establish an incubator. The project will also create a National Authority for the Protection of Personal Data and Access to Information.
African-focused venture capital firm, TLcom Capital, leads fintech LittleFish’s seed round in its first South African investment, with Flourish Ventures as a co-investor.
Itana and the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) have formalised an agreement to jointly develop the first digital economic zone in Africa. The partnership was announced yesterday at the Global Africa Business Initiative (GABI), held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. The AFC will lead the financing of the first phase of the…
Kenya’s Safaricom, a telecommunications company, has led a consortium of companies that will invest KES 104,808,136,478 ($812.4 million) over a ten-year period in the implementation of an Integrated Healthcare Information Technology System (IHTS).
Uncap, a VC firm that operates out of Germany and Kenya, has launched a $33 million Unconventional Fund to drive the growth of African small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The UK government’s West Africa Research and Innovation Hub has announced up to £1.9 million ($2.5 million) in funding to support science, technology, and innovation in Ghana and Nigeria. Proposal applications and submissions are expected by October 25, 2024.
Sultan Ventures, based in the United States, has expanded into the Middle East and Africa (MENA) region by acquiring Egypt’s Acasia Group, a multi-incubator operator and angel investment syndicate. However, Acasia Ventures is excluded from the acquisition.
The European Investment Bank and the Development Bank of South Africa have announced an additional commitment of $1.1 million each to the initiative launched to support private sector solar and wind energy projects in South Africa.
AgDevCo, a specialist investor in African agriculture, has closed $32 million in funding from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) to launch a new investment initiative to back African early-stage agribusinesses.
In Nigeria today, it is almost taken for granted that you can start a business and begin collecting online payments immediately. But in 2015, when Paystack launched, online payments were as common as electric cars are today, and businesses struggled with things like recurrent billings. Fast-forward to 2024, social commerce has taken off and is…
Fundraising is a critical component of startup success, but it can be a daunting task even for experienced founders. A fundraising strategy for many founders involves cold calling or emailing every investor they can find a contact for and hoping for a response. But while a scattergun approach might yield some results, it’s unlikely that…
The 2024 Olympics came to an end last week, and while I hardly followed it, there’s a sub-plot that provides some food for thought. On the Japanese football team were 22-year-old Joel Chima Fujita and 23-year-old Leo Kokubo. Elsewhere, Giannis Antetokounmpo flew the Greek flag. All three athletes are part of Africa’s rapidly growing diaspora,…
The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) will commit $10 million in junior equity to the KawiSafi II Fund, following board approval, to support local businesses developing climate-focused projects for vulnerable communities.
South African accelerator Founders Factory Africa has rebranded as 54 Collective, a venture capital firm with a $40 million fund. The firm aims to support early-stage African startups across various sectors and back 42 companies by the end of 2024.
Plentify, a South African climate tech company, has closed a 50% oversubscribed funding round to support its expansion efforts within and outside South Africa.
One Acre Fund, a Kenyan-based social enterprise serving around 1 million smallholder farmers in East Africa, says it has raised $1.4 million to enhance its operations.
Swedfund, Sweden’s development finance institution, has partnered with Access Bank to launch a $30 million investment fund to support underserved micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria.
Funding to African startups is down 61% year-on-year. Kenyan startups are still seeing more funding buoyed by debt rounds, while funding for early-stage startups continues to slow down as investors prioritise sustainability.
Innovate Africa, an angel investment fund focused on assisting early-stage founders, plans to support up to 20 African startups following the launch of an initial $2.5 million funding initiative.