Hi Fintech friends 👋, Before all, today I would love for you to know that on May 29th, I’ll be heading to New York for Stablecon, the number one event for the stablecoin ecosystem that will feature speakers like the Founder of Bridge, CEO of BitGo, CEO of Zero Hash, CEO of Mesh, Co-Founder and CBO of BVNK, CEO of Bitso, CEO of Yellow Card, Superintendent of the NY Dept of Financial Services, Former Commissioner of the CFTC, Head of Crypto at Revolut, Head of Crypto at Visa and Head of Europe at Coinbase. Will you be there? Sign up at stablecon.com .

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

• Africa’s fastest growing Remittance company raised $53 Million.
• Egyptian Fintech acquired other Fintech to broaden its product offerings and introduce instant loans.
• YC backed African Fintech launched Mercury alternative for African startups.
• OpenAI appointed a prominent African investor to its board.
• African VC made $8 Million from its $150K investment in Africa’s Unicorn.

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This Week in FintechSabrina Baxter

💸Fundraise and Exits

• Nigeria's SeamlessHR raised $9 Million to expand HR and payroll solutions across Africa.

• CreditChek raised funding from The Baobab Network to revolutionize cross-border credit assessments for African immigrants.

• Egyptian fintech startup Raseedi acquired counterpart Kashat in an equity deal to broaden its product offerings and introduce instant loans.

💰 Venture Funds

• How African VC firm Oui Capital turned $150K to $8 million in five years.

• Global accelerator Techstars entered Botswana to fuel startup growth.

🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

• YC-backed Waza launched Lync, an alternative to Mercury for African startups after a $8 Million raise.

👔 Leadership Lineup

• OpenAI appointed Adebayo Ogunlesi, one of Africa’s and the world’s most respected investors, to its board.

📰 News of the Week

• Lemfi raised a $53 Million Series B round and acquired a European firm.

Lemfi’s expansion into Europe came off the back of a partnership with Modulr, but its acquisition of an unnamed Republic of Ireland-based company will allow it to begin its European operations independently from next month.The 4-year-old fintech helps over 1 million active users to transfer money to friends and family in countries like Nigeria, Kenya, India, China, Pakistan, and 15 others.

The company recorded over $2 billion in annual transaction volume in 2023 and now processes $1 billion in monthly payment volume.

👀 Eye Openers

“To improve livelihoods, the continent needs more scaled enterprises, more productive SMEs, more salaried employees — and less subsistence micro-entrepreneurs”

📑 Read of the week

• Top 10+1 African Fintechs to watch in 2025(John Haule)

📖 Other News, Reads, and Media

• Safaricom and Kenyan commercial banks claimed the Central Bank’s (CBK) plan to build a fast payment system (FPS) could cost at least $200 million and take up to four years to complete. 

🎥 VIDEO INTERVIEWS/DISCUSSIONS

• What does it take to build a reliable mobile money payment solution? An interview with Nikolai Barnwell, Founder and CEO of PawaPay

🦉 Tweet of the Week

Ezra said he is at least thankful that he invested in two funds that invested in LemFi.

🎯 Fintech Opportunities

• Applications open for 4th Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator. Apply 

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