The biggest African tech moves from April
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Loading... - Marcelle Simon
- 22 Aug 2022
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Several important moves were made across Africa’s tech ecosystem in April.
From MTN’s PSB license approval and Airtel’s super-agent license in Nigeria, to Sun King’s $260 million raise in Kenya, and CAR’s crypto adoption, here are the top 10 biggest tech moves in April.
In April, startups across the continent raised $413,143,000 across 38 fully-disclosed* deals.
This means April ranks the lowest in terms of funding announcements made, 41% (~ $296 million) less than what was announced in March, and 34% (~ $216 million) less than February’s announcement.
Per sector, the top 3 sectors are energy-tech, fintech, and logistics. Energy leads with $289,800,000 (70.1%); fintech with $53,500,000 (12.9%); and logistics with $34,000,000 (8.2%).
Per region, East Africa leads with announced raises in April 2021, with Sun King’s $260 million Series D raise at the helm of the 4 announced raises. West Africa comes in second with $90.5 million announced across 18 funding deals. North Africa is next with startups from Egypt and Morocco announcing a combined raise total of $39.3 million across 11 deals.
The top 5 disclosed deals of the month are:
Sun King’s $260 million Series D raise to expand into Africa, and Asia.
Nigerian logistics startup Sabi’s $20 million funding round.
Egypt-based energy tech company Pylon’s $19 million seed round.
Umba’s $15 million round to expand its digital bank into new markets.
Ghanaian agritech Farmerline’s $12.9 million pre-Series A round.
*Note: This data is inclusive only of funding deals announced in April 2022. Raises are often announced later than when the deals are actually made.
This data is exclusive of the Bboxx/PEG Africa acquisition deal which has numbers that have yet to be confirmed. It also excludes estimated grants from accelerators like Techstars or Y-Combinator.
This month, a slew of good news came for the mobile money sector in anglophone and francophone West Africa.
The Nigerian arms of telecoms MTN and Airtel made important strides in ramping up mobile money adoption in the country.
First, MTN received final approval from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to run a payment service bank in the country.
Weeks later, Airtel laid its hands on a super-agent license from CBN that will allow it to recruit agents for agency banking and deliver essential financial services to customers through a network of third-party agents on behalf of financial institutions.
Meanwhile, in Senegal, fintech unicorn Wave was granted an e-money license by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) to expand its mobile money services in the country.
Africa’s most valued startup, Flutterwave, faced a series of heavy accusations in March.
Following an article by journalist David Hundeyin, Fco-founder and CEO Olugbenga Agboola, was accused of insider trading, fraud, and sexual harassment.
Agboola, as well as ex-CEO Iyinoluwa Aboyeji who was also mentioned in the article, has also responded to some of the allegations. Read More...
