Afridigest Fintech Review: Three weeks of fintech in one newsletter

Week 19-21 2023: May 7-27

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! Sorry for the delay with this newsletter — my enemies were after me. Today’s edition covers Weeks 21, 20, and 19. And next week’s Fintech Review will go out on Sunday as usual.

On to the highlights:

• Eight fintech fundraises were announced across the continent over the last three weeks.

• News to note: The Central Bank of Nigeria revoked the operating licenses of 100+ financial institutions across the country. A new IMF report shows "disappointingly low" adoption of Nigeria’s CBDC. And Brazilian cross-border payments unicorn EBANX plans to be in eight more countries in Africa before year-end.

• Companies appearing in today’s Fintech Review: M-KOPA, TymeBank, Jia, Balad, Brolly, Qardy, Pennee, Zeeh, Shara, Axis, Dojah, P2Vest, Emtech, Trove, Centbee, & others.

• Executives appearing: EBANX’s Wiza Jalakasi, Flutterwave’s Munya Chiura, TymeBank’s Cheslyn Jacobs, Paystack’s Shola Akinlade & Amandine Lobelle, Ecobank’s Djiba Diallo, Growth Factor Technologies' Itumeleng Moagi, Fingo’s Kiiru Muhoya, Visa’s Miranda Perumal, FiveWest’s Luke Schwartzkopff, Paymentology’s Drisha Kirkman, Machnet’s Jay Dahal, Mastercard’s Gabriel Swanepoel, Ozow’s Gary Stone, Churpy’s John Kiptum, Seerbit’s Omoniyi Kolade, & others.

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Week 19-21 2023: May 7-27

💸 Fundraises

WEEK 19

• Jia, a Kenyan blockchain-based SME lending platform, raised a $4.3M seed round.

• Balad, an Egyptian prepaid card remittances platform, raised an undisclosed ‘USD seven-figure’ pre-seed.

• Pennee, a Nigerian SME lending platform, raised an undisclosed amount.

WEEK 20

• M-KOPA, a Kenyan pay-as-you-go (PAYG) asset financing platform raised $55M in equity (and over $200M in debt).

• Brolly, a Ghanaian pay-as-you-go car insurance platform raised ~$120K.

• Zeeh Africa, a Nigerian financial data infrastructure platform, raised an undisclosed amount.

WEEK 21

• TymeBank, a South African digital bank, raised a $78M pre-Series C.

• Qardy, an Egyptian MSME lending marketplace, raised ~$100K.

ADJACENT

• TerraPay, a UK-headquartered cross-border payments platform incubated in Africa by India’s Mahindra Comviva, raised an undisclosed amount from Visa.

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🤝🏽 Mergers & Acquisitions

• e4, a South African technology solutions provider focused on the fintech sector, was acquired for ~$51M (ZAR 1 billion).

• Shara, a Kenyan financing platform, acquired a 55.8% stake in Kenya’s Maisha Microfinance Bank for an undisclosed amount.

• Creditinfo Group, a global provider of credit information and decision analytics, acquired two credit bureaus in Uganda and Namibia from Experian for an undisclosed amount.

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🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

LAUNCHES

• Egyptian SME financial platform Axis launched its AxisPay mobile wallet after securing a license from the Central Bank of Egypt.