Afridigest Fintech Review: 'Momentum is building around fintech in Africa'
Week 3 2023: January 15-21
The Afridigest Fintech Review is a weekly recap of what happened 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:
• $3M raised by a Kenyan platform digitizing SACCOs/credit unions.
• There’s a new MSME-focused lending-led fintech in Egypt, and it’s backed by some heavyweights.
• Some great recommended reading this week — on the continent’s overall fintech landscape, on what may be missing in scaling insurtech across Africa, and on what Flutterwave achieved in 2022 — plus a solid deep-dive podcast breaking down M-KOPA.
• Companies appearing in today’s Fintech Review: Kwara, Flutterwave, Sympl, Chimoney, Kuda, Fincra, M-KOPA & more.
• Executives appearing: OnePipe’s Yvonne-Faith Elaigwu, Carbon’s Ngozi Dozie, McKinsey’s Topsy Kola Oyeneyin, Lendsqr’s Adedeji Olowe, HerVest’s Solape Akinpelu, CV VC’s Brenton Naicker, WorldRemit’s Imane Charioui, Korefusion’s Ifunanya Chiegboka, OnePipe’s Ope Adeoye & more.
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Week 3 2023: January 15-21
💸 Fundraises
AFRICA
🇰🇪 Kwara, a Kenyan neobank-cum-software provider for credit unions, raised a $3M seed extension.
ADJACENT
🇦🇪 Tabby, an Emirati BNPL platform focused on the MENA region, raised a $58M Series C. A good chunk of the proceeds will be directed towards its operations in Egypt.
💡 Executive Insights: Payments are evolving in Nigeria (thanks to NIP)
🧐 Read the full post on our LinkedIn page and connect with Yvonne-Faith here.
🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches
Egyptian BNPL/SNPL platform Sympl announced a partnership with the Arab African International Bank. As a result, AAIB’s debit card holders will be able to make use of Sympl’s 0% interest short-term BNPL offerings without any pre-registration.