Hi Fintech friends, Eid Mubarak 👋,

It has been a busy week with a lot of Fintech announcements, here are the highlights of what happened in African Fintech this week;

• Three Funding deals were announced.
• Kenya’s ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ Fintech entered administration after failed fresh fundraising efforts.
• Stripe-owned Nigerian fintech launched its first consumer platform to facilitate rapid and secure bank transfers. 
• Nigeria’s latest Unicorn tested its Remittance platform.
• VP of Growth of Africa’s cross-border payments fintech left to build his “Send Now, Pay Later” startup.

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This Week in FintechSabrina Baxter

💸Fundraise and Exits

• Nigerian fintech Payhippo rebrands as Rivy, raised $4 Million for clean energy financing.

• South African HR-Fintech startup Jem HR raised $3.3 Million in pre-Series A funding to scale its WhatsApp-based HR and employee benefits platform.

• South Africa’s Trade Shield, a credit risk management startup, raised $824K from FNB’s Investment arm.

💰 Venture Funds

• 16 venture capital firms in Africa actively funding startups in 2025

🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

• Paystack, the Stripe-owned Nigerian fintech, launched Zap to facilitate rapid and secure bank transfers within 30 seconds. Paystack also issued cease and desist notice to Zap Africa amid product trademark controversy.

• PalmPay rolled out Verve debit cards as Nigerian fintechs shift to local providers.

• Cleva secured IMTO licence from Nigeria’s central bank.
• Moniepoint tested a remittance product with competitive rates.

• dLocal integrated Airtel Mobile Money for Google Play Payments in Kenya.
• Chippercash partnered with Ripple to power over $70 Billion in cross border payments.

👔 Leadership Lineup

• Ovie Esiekpe, VP of Growth at Verto left to launch Yyenza, a “Send Now, Pay Later” Remittance startup.

📰 News of the Week

• Lipa Later entered administration after failed fresh fundraising efforts.

Lipa Later, a Kenyan buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) fintech, which had previously strong investor backing, raising $12 million in seed funding in January 2022, has been placed under administration effective March 24, 2025, after months of financial struggles and failed fundraising efforts. The company’s financial position came under scrutiny in December 2023 when it acquired struggling e-commerce platform Sky.Garden for $1.9 million.

👀 Eye Openers

• Africa’s biggest startups based on valuation:

📑 Read of the week

• Why African Fintechs Are Now Going to Asia: Dominating Africa while trying Asia.(Co-foundersNotebook).

📖 Other News, Reads, and Media

• United Bank for Africa (UBA) lost $744K to fraud in 2024, even as the Nigerian lender reported a profit after tax of $493 million.

🎥 VIDEO INTERVIEWS/DISCUSSIONS

• Interview with Benjamin Fernandes, CEO and Founder of Nala, one of the most prominent fintech startups in the world. NALA has raised over $50 million to build Payments solutions in emerging markets.

🦉 Tweet of the Week

🎯 Fintech Opportunities

• Opportunity to connect and network with founders, partners, and investors in the global stablecoin ecosystem. Register now!

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