Hi Fintech friends 👋,

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

• A  2-year-old Nigerian Fintech company acquired a 10-year-old US company.
• Two Egyptian Fintechs raised seven figure dollar funding rounds:
• Nigeria based Neo Bank tripled revenue to $22 Million in 2022.
• A $40 Million African VC rebranded and ready to fund more startups.
• Two executives of one of Africa's mobile money fintech companies have left the company.

💸Fundraise and Exits

• Sendsprint, a cross-border payments startup, expanded to the US with the Nobel Financial Inc acquisition.

• Egypt’s Lucky ONE secured $3 Million to expand operations and enter new markets.

• Egyptian lending startup Qardy raised a 7 figure dollar pre-seed funding round.

💰 Venture Funds

• $40 Million African VC, Founders Factory Africa rebranded to 54 Collective.

🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

• dLocal and iTransfer partnered to simplify cross-border payments in Nigeria.

• Kenya’s BuuPass and insurtech startup, mTek partnered to assure passenger safety with easy travel insurance.

• Kenya based Payments Fintech PesaPal acquired a payment license in Zambia.
• Tanzania based CRDB Bank partnered with Union Pay to power merchant payments.

👔 Leadership Lineup

• Eli Hini, CEO of MTN’s MoMo Payment Service Bank (PSB), and Elsa Muzzolini, Chief Commercial Officer,  left the company in a surprising leadership change at the fintech. Muzzolini joined M-PESA Ethiopia, Safaricom’s mobile money business as CEO on July 15.

📰 News of the Week

• Kuda, the Target Global-backed challenger bank, tripled revenue to $22 million in 2022.

Kuda, a digital bank focused on Nigeria and backed by Target Global, tripled its revenue to $22 million in 2022, thanks to a surge in user adoption, with its customer base growing from 2.4 million to 4.9 million. Operating primarily through its Nigerian subsidiary, Kuda MFB, the company has been expanding its services, including international remittances, and is entering new markets like the U.K., Canada, Ghana, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Kuda’s deposits more than doubled to $100 million, with business banking services seeing significant growth, serving over 100,000 businesses. The company also earned $3.5 million from treasury investments in Nigeria, benefiting from rising interest rates. However, Kuda’s net losses grew to $32 million in 2022 due to higher staffing costs and aggressive marketing during its expansion. 

Although cash reserves fell, Kuda has cut marketing expenses and is working toward breakeven, with its CFO confident that they have sufficient funds to reach this milestone.

👀 Eye Openers

• Can the below idea help to fight fraud locally in Africa? 

Share your thoughts in the comments, and I will publish them in the next newsletter.

📑 Read of the week

• Banks and Fintechs new revenue model, Selling Ads like Google, and I bet you love it.(By Reuben Mwantosya, COO at Tembo Plus)

📖 Other News, Reads, and Media

• Jumia narrowed losses to $19 million as currency problems pressured revenues.
• First Bank sacked over 100 employees after $25.6 Million fraud, freezes their personal accounts.
• The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) provided a facility to support the merger between Providus and Unity Bank, a bank that recorded losses of $24.8 Million during the first half of 2023.

🎥 VIDEO INTERVIEWS/DISCUSSIONS

• From Setbacks to $3M Seed Fund: Building an African Startup with Mohammed Awami, Co-founder at Settlo, Tanzania based Fintech. 

🦉 Tweet of the Week

🎯 Fintech Opportunities

• Want to sponsor or share your fintech story and reach over 100,000 fintech enthusiasts each week? reach out to john@thisweekinfintech.com to get started.

Made in Tanzania 🇹🇿 with 💚

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