Tag: africa
After its first $54M fund, Algebra Ventures launches $90M fund for startups in Egypt
The venture capital scene in the North African tech ecosystem will be absolutely buzzing right now with the announcement of two large VC funds in the space of two days. Today, Algebra Ventures, an Egyptian VC firm, announced that it has launched its $90 million second fund. Four years ago,…
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Airtel Africa receives $100M for its mobile money business from Mastercard
Two weeks ago, TPG’s Rise Fund invested $200 million in Airtel Mobile Commerce BV (AMC BV) — the mobile money business of telecom Airtel Africa. After closing the deal, the Bharti Airtel subsidiary noted that it was still in discussions to sell additional minority stake (25% of the issued share…
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African talent recruitment company TalentQL joins Techstars to further global ambition
African-focused talent recruitment and outsourcing company TalentQL today announced that it has been accepted into Techstars Toronto. The company will join nine other startups in the accelerator’s class of 2021. This comes two weeks after Nigerian bus-booking platform Plentywaka announced its participation in the program as well. TalentQL was launched last November…
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Most African YC-backed startups in today’s batch are focused on fintech
In Africa, Y Combinator is known to be a major backer of most of the continent’s well-known startups. Two of the most talked-about in the last two quarters — Flutterwave and Paystack — are YC-backed. Their successes (Flutterwave’s billion-dollar valuation and Paystack’s rare exit to Stripe) have greatly increased YC’s appeal…
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Afriex raises $1.2M seed to scale its payments and remittances platform across Africa
Sending money from the U.S. to Nigeria can be a painstaking process. For remittance platforms like Western Union, it will cost a transfer fee and take between one to five business days for money sent from a U.S. debit card to enter a Nigerian bank account. Crypto remittance platforms are…
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These undergraduates left university to build Flux, a payments startup now in YC
Traditional remittance companies, while necessary, currently have two flaws in speed and exorbitant fees. It can take a long while (days to weeks) for money sent from an immigrant in the U.S. to reach a relative in Nigeria. The fees charged depend on the amount sent — and let’s not…
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