Afridigest Fintech Review: A historic moment for crypto in South Africa
Week 42: October 16-22
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, the regular Week in Review goes out on Mondays, and the French-language Revue de la Semaine goes out on Wednesdays. (Assuming no delays.)
📌 While there weren’t many fintech fundraising deals this week, a lot did happen. From Flutterwave’s new strategic advisor to new reports from Chainalysis & the European Investment Bank to media appearances by Yoco’s Marcello Schermer, VALR’s Farzam Ehsani, Bitmama’s Ruth Iselema & others, we’ve got you fully covered. Become a paid supporter or start a free trial to read this Fintech Review in full & stay up to date. (See previous full versions here, here, and here.) If you have questions or comments, send me a note on Whatsapp, Twitter, or by Email.
On to this week’s highlights:
• Two Africa-focused fintechs raised ~$9M in disclosed equity funding. (And an Africa-originating 'mobility fintech' raised $17M in debt funding.)
• South Africa's financial watchdog took the first step towards formal crypto regulation.
• Interesting partnerships: Pezesha, GafaPay, TerraPay, ImpalaPay, & others.
• Notable launches: NALA, Solv, MoneyHash, Ivorypay, & others.
• And McKinsey, Sacra, and a16z released insightful fintech-related reports that are well worth reading.
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Week 42: October 16-22
💸 FundraisesEQUITY
🇳🇬 Maplerad, a Nigerian banking-as-a-service platform, raised a $6M seed round at a $30M valuation led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures.
🇪🇬 Nexta, an Egyptian digital banking platform, raised $3M from state-owned digital financial services provider eFinance.
DEBT
🇳🇬 Nigerian mobility fintech startup Moove raised a ~$16.8M (£15M) debt financing facility from Emso Asset Management to scale UK operations following a successful London launch in August.
🤝🏼 M&A, Strategic Investments, & JVs🇪🇬 Egyptian BNPL platform valU acquired a minority stake in Egyptian youth-focused, social payment app Kiwe for an undisclosed amount. The investment builds on an existing partnership between Kiwe and valU; moreover, valU is a subsidiary of EFG Hermes which is itself a Kiwe shareholder.
🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches
Pezesha, a Kenyan embedded lending platform, partnered with Ugandan agtech platform EzyAgric. The partnership will see EzyAgric offer Pezesha-powered BNPL solutions to its merchants. Pezesha announced an $11M ($6M equity, $5M debt) pre-Series A round eight weeks ago.