Hi Fintech friends 👋,

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

• Newest African Unicorn pushed for commercial banking license.
• Egypt based Vehicle payments gateway secured investment and venture support.
• A $270 Million Europe based growth debt fund opened an Africa franchise.
• Nigerian digital bank resumed card issuance after a six month pause.
• African founders shared their mental wellbeing status.

If you were at TWIF Cape Town fintech happy hour sponsored by  Deimos Cloud last friday, the photos are out.

Cape Town Fintech Meetup, Nov ’24

216 new items added to shared album

Google Photos

💸Fundraise and Exits

• Egyptian vehicle payments gateway Tafweela became T-Vencubator’s first investment and venture-building project.

💰 Venture Funds

• $270 Million growth debt fund Bootstrap Europe opened Africa franchise.

• East Africa startup funding declined, dropping to $196 million in 2024 from $480 million in 2023.

🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

• Nigerian digital bank Carbon resumed card issuance after a six-month pause.

• Accrue announced that it will discontinue its stock investment offerings by the end of 2024.

👔 Leadership Lineup

• African founders said their jobs have impacted their mental wellbeing.

📰 News of the Week

• Moniepoint aimed to acquire a commercial bank license.

Moniepoint, the Nigerian fintech unicorn that raised $110 Million a few weeks ago, is working to secure a commercial banking license in Nigeria that will make it the first Nigerian fintech to own a commercial banking license that requires $30 million capital.

The fintech began preparing for the license in the first quarter of 2024, shortly after hiring Bayo Olujobi as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) from Stanbic IBTC.

👀 Eye Openers

“In October 2024 alone, PoS agents process 493k transactions worth ₦30.7 trillion($18.3 Billion). For perspective, that's only ₦1.9 trillion($1.1 Billion) less in value than all ATMs combined did in the whole of 2022” - Muyiwa

POS Agents Aren't Going Anywhere, why? 👇🏿

• ATMs, which are agent’s alternatives, are unreliable.
• ATMs are expensive, have high maintenance cost and banks are no longer thrilled with them.
• ATMs have cash withdrawal limits and other restrictions.
• POS agents make it easy to cash in high amount deposits than ATMs.

Read more

📑 Read of the week

• How a Founder in Nairobi Bridged the African Currency Gap.(Forbes)
• The formalization of the African Market(Medium)

📖 Other News, Reads, and Media

• Nigeria's headline inflation quickened to 33.8% in October.

🎥 VIDEO INTERVIEWS/DISCUSSIONS

Interview with Jacques Marco, the founder and CEO of Axis. The company raised a $8 Million seed round and is now one of Egypt's fastest-growing fintechs.

🦉 Tweet of the Week

🎯 Fintech Opportunities

Post revenue African startups in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda are invited to apply for EUR 100,000 in non-dilutive funding and technical assistance.

Made in Tanzania 🇹🇿 with 💚

👍🏽👎🏽  Did you enjoy this edition of This Week In Fintech Africa? Please share your feedback with me on Twitter or LinkedIn .