Afridigest Fintech Review: MTN MoMo making moves with open APIs
Week 8 2023: February 19-25
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.
Seems like there was more chatter about virtual cards this week in Nigeria than ever before. In any case, on to the week’s highlights:
• Two fintech/fintech-adjacent equity deals were announced totaling ~$18M in equity raised.
• Some very interesting reads of the week below, particularly the articles on embedded finance and Generative AI in fintech. There’s a good article highlighting MTN MoMo Open APIs under the image of the week. And there’s a solid tweet of fintech brand building.
• News worth noting: UAE’s Tabby shut down it’s Egyptian operations after less than six months in Egypt, and what’s being promoted as Kenya’s 'first digital-only bank' is launching soon.
• Companies appearing in today’s Fintech Review: Planet42, Workpay, Hollydesk, Copal, M-Pesa, Tabby, Fingo Africa, & more.
• Executives appearing: MNT-Halan’s Mounir Nakhla, Fonbnk’s Chris Duffus, Paymob’s Imane Adel, Cellulant’s David Waithaka, Ecobank’s Isaac Kamuta, Express App’s Fidèle Nsadi, Abubakar Nur Khalil, & more.
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Week 8 2023: February 19-25
💸 FundraisesFINTECH & FINTECH-ADJACENT EQUITY FUNDRAISES
🇿🇦 Planet42, a South African/Estonian vehicle financing, ‘rent-to-buy’ car subscription platform, raised $15M in equity.
🇰🇪 WorkPay, a Kenyan payroll, HR, and benefits solution for businesses, raised a $2.7M pre-Series A.
DEBT RAISES
🇿🇦 Planet 42 also raised $10M in debt financing and secured a $75M credit facility.
🇪🇬 Hollydesk, an Egyptian expense management platform, raised $1M in venture debt.
💡 Executive Insights: Consumer education builds trust & loyalty.The more innovative a service offering is, the more customer education is necessary. And nvestments in education often drive business results.
Pair with: The untold story of Africa's newest unicorn, MNT-Halan
🚀 Partnerships & Product LaunchesPARTNERSHIPS
CoPal, an Egyptian payments platform targeting families, announced a partnership with Mastercard. Mastercard will power CoPal’s pre-paid cards and other offerings.