Afridigest Fintech Review: An appruved deal worth smiling about
Week 17 2023: April 23-29
Afridigest is your intelligent guide to Africa’s tech ecosystem. The Fintech Review is a weekly recap of what matters in African fintech.
Hello again, friends! Remember: this Fintech Review goes out on Sundays and the regular Week in Review goes out on Mondays.
On to the week’s highlights:
• Three fintech fundraises were announced across the continent.
• News of the week: KYC & identity verification platform Smile Identity expands its footprint with a deft acquisition of its Ghanaian counterpart Appruve.
• Companies appearing in today’s Fintech Review: Storspay, Raise, 42 Markets Group, Appruve, Smile Identity, VigiPay, Pyypl, Kaf Insurance, Hover/Stax, and more.
• Executives appearing: Appruve’s Paul Damalie, FairMoney’s Laurin Hainy, Wave Mobile Money’s Ben Kolesar, Binance’s Nadeem Anjarwalla, Unlimint’s Trevor Goott, Wleepay’s Lionel Bernard, Finch Technologies' Christopher Ball, Ukheshe’s Mark Dankworth, DFS Labs’ Chernay Johnson and Joseph Benson-Aruna, & more.
➜ If you find Afridigest valuable, upgrade your subscription. If you’re a free subscriber, you’ll only see a preview below.
⭐ Not interested in fintech? No problem: visit the Notifications section of your Account Settings page and deselect the Fintech option.
A MESSAGE FROM AFRICREATETrusted intelligence.
Africreate is a trusted research & advisory firm that offers customized intelligence-led solutions including:
Custom Research, Analysis, & Advisory for Bespoke Projects
Training, Executive Education, & Corporate Innovation Solutions
Strategic Communication & Thought Leadership Services
Week 17 2023: April 23-29
💸 Fundraises42Markets Group, a South African fintech incubation platform, raised $10M. (The bulk of the raise is to be deployed in its mesh.trade subsidiary.)
Storspay, a Nigeria decentralized cross-border SME lending platform, raised $320K and announced its selection for the Techstars New York accelerator.
Raise, a Kenyan/pan-African compliance & capitalization table management platform, raised an undisclosed amount from Carta.
🤝🏽 Mergers & AcquisitionsJSE-listed South African fintech group Capital Appreciation acquired South African IT software & services group Dariel Solutions for $7.2M in cash and shares.
Africa-focused identity verification & digital KYC platform Smile Identity acquired its Ghanaian counterpart Appruve for an undisclosed amount of cash and stock.
📰 News of the WeekThe news of the week was the Smile Identity/Appruve acquisition.
More precisely, Smile Identity, which has offices in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and London, bought Inclusive Innovations, the parent company of Ghana’s Appruve, for an amount rumored to be “not more than $20 million.”
By doing this deal now, Smile Identity effectively buys market share and a wider pan-African footprint at a discount.
Here’s what Smile Identity CEO Mark Straub said in the acquisition video:
“Appruve has actually developed a lot of areas of expertise and understanding in some of the newer growth markets that we're really excited to enter and we're taking that expertise and that knowledge and adding it to our team.”
Four-year-old Appruve raised less than $500K in VC funding since inception and the acquisition likely offers solid returns to the team and early investors.
Here’s a Twitter exchange with Appruve’s CEO & Founder Paul Damalie that’s worth checking out:
🚀 Partnerships & Product LaunchesLAUNCHES
