Hi Fintech friends 👋,

Here are the highlights of what happened in African Fintech this week;

• Senegal based B2B ecommerce startup raised $3.2 Million to embed Fintech on their operations.
• London headquartered VC launched a $10 Million fund to invest in African Fintechs and other sectors.
• Non-profit organization launched a $152.5 Million fund to support financial institutions in Africa.
• World’s largest payment company selected 20 startups for its African Fintech accelerator.
• African based payments Unicorn partnered with Jack Dorsey’s company for cross-border payments.
• African payments Unicorn lost $7 Million in a security breach.
• Two Africa-based fintech founders sat down to reveal why cross-border payments are hard.

💸Fundraise and Exits

• Maad, a B2B ecommerce startup which connects suppliers and small retailers of fast-moving consumer goods, raised $3.2 Million to introduce financial services like Buy Now, Pay Later via a digital wallet and expanding to a second French-speaking African country.

💰 Venture Funds

• Early-stage VC firm OpenseedVC launched with a $10 million fund for African startups.The London-headquartered VC firm will invest up to $150,000 in startups across B2B software, artificial intelligence, fintech, digital health, and the future of work.

• Non-profit Accion launched a $152.5 million fund to support financial institutions in Africa.
• Glint, an Egypt-based investment firm, raised $3 million in the first close of its second venture fund with the Wadi Degla Group's support to empower Egyptian entrepreneurs and startups while fostering innovation and growth.

• Visa Shortlisted 20 Startups for its Africa Fintech Accelerator Program Cohort 2.

🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

• Chipper Cash Partnered with TBD, part of Jack Dorsey’s Block for African Cross-Border Payments.

• Zeepay, a Ghanaian fintech startup received regulatory approval from the Bank of Ghana for outbound money transfer services within the sandbox.

• Bamboo launched Nigerian stocks to help Nigerians diversify their portfolio.

👔 Leadership Lineup

• Binance expressed disappointment as Nigerian court denied executive bail in money laundering trial.

World’s largest crypto exchange, Binance has expressed disappointment over a Nigerian court ruling that its executive detained on charges of tax evasion and money laundering, Tigran Gambaryan can face trial on behalf of the company. According to a statement by a company spokesperson, Tigran continues to be detained although he has no decision-making power in the company.

📰 News of the Week

• Flutterwave lost $7 Million in a security breach.

One month after obtaining a court order to recover $24 million lost to unauthorized POS transactions, Flutterwave suffered another security breach that allowed unknown persons to divert billions of naira to several bank accounts.

The perpetrators illegally transferred $7 million to several accounts in April 2024, one financial services insider with direct knowledge of the incident said. A second insider claimed the amount involved was at least $13.5 million.

“As is common in the financial services industry, there will always be attempts by bad actors to

compromise the security of systems set up to protect and monitor services,” Flutterwave said in a statement to TechCabal.

Flutterwave did not specify the amount involved but insisted that “no customer funds were lost or compromised, and the confidentiality of our customers’ data remains intact.”

👀 Eye Openers

• Where is the best country to launch a new generation of mobile money in East Africa?

Where is the best country to launch the next generation of mobile money in East Africa? Is it where one giant owns 97%? Is it where the big four own 97%? Why does it matter and where? Today, I want to hear your thoughts. 

If you were to launch a new mobile money service between Tanzania and Kenya, where would you launch and why? I will be reading your comments and sharing them in next week’s newsletter.

📑 Read of the week

• “You see, Almost every fintech is building APls for other businesses, But why now?” (Substack)

📖 Other News, Reads, and Media

• OmniRetail, Moniepoint, and AFEX were listed as Nigeria's fastest-growing startups. OmniRetail makes its first appearance on the list with revenues of $139.8 million, a significant increase from its 2019 revenue of $250,000.Moniepoint is the second Nigerian startup on the list, with a 2022 revenue of $148.6 million, up from $1.84 million in 2019.Afex, FairMoney, ThriveAgric, and SeamlessHR completed the Nigerian startup contingent. Afex's 2022 revenues of $415.5 million see it comfortably claim the top spot in terms of revenues generated by Nigerian startups. FairMoney generated $142 million, while ThriveAgric generated $73 million. Meanwhile, SeamlessHR revenues rose to $2.6 million from $380,000 in 2019.
• The Central Bank Of Nigeria withdrew a controversial 0.5% cybersecurity levy on electronic transfers three days before it was supposed to take effect.
• Global crypto exchange Kucoin suspended p2p naira trading three  weeks after Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) met blockchain industry players and asked that they stop peer-to-peer trading.
• Paystack’s payments push paid off as bank transfer volume doubled in 2023.
• Tanzania targeted predatory loans: Central Bank excludes unlicensed apps.
• Nigerian banks might start collecting customers’ social media handles after a court ruling.

🎥 VIDEO INTERVIEWS/DISCUSSIONS

• Why Are Cross-border payments so hard? In conversation with Benjamin Fernandes, founder of Nala and Dan Kleinbaum, a co-founder of Beyonic, which sold to Onafriq, and now the Founder of the FX platform GTXN.

🦉 Tweet of the Week

🎯 Fintech Opportunities

• If you are looking for an opportunity to showcase your innovative fintech startup to the world and a platform to gain recognition and build credibility, the Visa Everywhere Initiative competition is for you where finalists get to win $100,000 USD. Apply now.

Made in Tanzania 🇹🇿 with 💚

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