Afridigest Week in Review: Cash for conversational commerce

+African tech M&A is heating up +Brand building from day one +Privacy vs. secrecy +Lessons to learn from Wordle +DFIs in Africa +Impact of pay on delivery +More

The Afridigest Week in Review is a must-read weekly recap for Africa-focused founders, executives, and investors, as well as interested observers. Share it liberally. 😊

Welcome back, friends! The most clicked link from last week was ‘A potent way to compete in Africa's fragmented markets is by deploying platforms.' And this week, African tech startups reached $1B in disclosed funding raised from announced deals for the year. With that said, let’s get into Week 8.

If you’re new, welcome 🙌 — you’ll receive a weekly digest like this one every Monday and, generally (but not always), an original essay/article on Saturdays. For past essays and digests, visit the archive.

Week 8 2022: Feb 20 - 26

Credit: Toan Nguyen Duy

📰 Deal of the Week

OLDIE BUT GOODIE

Clickatell, a South African mobile engagement & conversational commerce platform with US headquarters, raised a $91M Series C led by Arrowroot Capital, with participation from Kennedy Lewis Investment Management, Endeavor Global, and Harvest.

💡 Why it’s the deal of the week: Founded in 2000, Clickatell predates most of the shiny names in the African startup ecosystem today. While it’s from a different era, it’s a pioneer in an attractive global segment and, per its founders, it’s delivered profitable double-digit growth for more than a decade.