Hi Fintech friends 👋,

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

• Tanzania based Fintech raised $40 Million series A to scale Remittance and its B2B payments platform.
• South Africa based Neo Bank raised $77.8 Million pre-series C.
• A new $2.5 million fund was launched to support African startups, along with a planned $1 billion fund for African startups.
• Kenya based Fintech became the first on-ramp and off-ramp blockchain fintech to receive a Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) license in South Africa.
• Tlcom backed Nigerian fintech expanded to cloud services.
• NYSE listed African startup's shares closed trading at $12.08 on Friday, compared to $8.46 on July 8, lifting its market value to $1.32 billion.

💸Fundraise and Exits

• South African Fintech Company TymeBank raised  $77.8 Million Pre-Series C.

💰 Venture Funds

• UNDP, African governments and the private sector announced plans to raise $1 billion and open a string of technology hubs across the continent to boost start-up innovation.

• Innovate Africa launched with $2.5 million fund to support 20 early-stage African startups.
• Venture capital funding in Africa’s tech ecosystem continued to decline.  Founders only raised $779.7 million in H1 2024, the lowest amount since 2020.

🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

• TLcom-backed open banking platform Okra expanded into cloud services.

• Payaza, African payment solutions provider, rebranded to support its ambitious global expansion and the launch of new innovative products.
• Nigeria’s Africhange, a global remittance services provider launched operations in the United Kingdom (UK), offering efficient, cost-effective and reliable solutions for individuals to send and receive money internationally.

• Kuda expanded to Canada as Scramble For African Diaspora Heats Up.

• Kotani Pay became the first on-ramp and off-ramp blockchain fintech to receive a Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) license in South Africa.

👔 Leadership Lineup

• South African digital bank, TymeBank, named Karl Westvig as new CEO.

Westvig, has been a Chief Executive for Retail and Business Banking at the bank, brings extensive leadership experience in lending and fintech to his new role. His tenure has seen significant strides in business banking and enhancing the bank’s lending offerings.

📰 News of the Week

• Tanzania based Nala raised $40 Million Series A to build a B2B payments platform and scale remittance services.

Nala founder and CEO Benjamin Fernandes told TechCrunch the new capital injection, which follows a $10 million seed round in 2022, will fuel the company’s global growth plans that involve scaling its remittance business to serve the Asian and Latin America markets.

Currently, Nala, through its consumer app, enables people domiciled in the E.U., U.K. and U.S. to send money across 249 banks and 26 mobile money services in 11 markets across Africa. Where Nala has integrated with mobile money services like Kenya’s M-Pesa, remitters can pay bills directly into local mobile wallets.

“This $40 million funding round marks a pivotal moment for Nala. It will enable us to go beyond remittances and extend our reach beyond Africa, building a robust payments ecosystem. We’re reinvesting this money to enhance our infrastructure, ensuring reliable, low-cost payments for all. With the launch of our own payment rails and the expansion of our B2B platform Rafiki, we’re not just talking about change, we’re building it. We’ve got some bold, ambitious plans, give us a couple of years,” said Fernandes.

“For Rafiki, live customers on Nala range from global payroll providers such as Cadana to global remittance companies such as TransferGo and global banks doing cross border payments. The focus is enabling financial institutions and services to make cross border payments,” said Fernandes.

Nala is profitable and on the path to cross 500,000 customers and has already attained profitability.

👀 Eye Openers

• From Zero to $40 Million series A , what did it take Nala to achieve this?

📑 Read of the week

• What Nigerian digital lenders can learn from the informal sector.(Techpoint)
• 1% Built: Our journey with NALA.(Medium)

📖 Other News, Reads, and Media

• Jumia’s share price surged 55% over the last five days suggesting growing investor confidence in the e-commerce company in recent months. Jumia’s share price closed trading at $12.08 on Friday, compared to $8.46 on July 8, lifting its market value to $1.32 billion.
• A six-week freeze on customer onboarding slowed card demand for OPay and Moniepoint.

• Six African Fintechs were named among the top 250 fintech companies globally by CNBC in partnership with Statista.

🎥 VIDEO INTERVIEWS/DISCUSSIONS

• How Norrsken22's $205 MillionFund is Empowering African Growth-Stage Startups. Interview with the team behind Norrsken Foundation and Norrsken 22: Niklas Adalberth, Hans Otterling, and Lexi Novitske.

🦉 Tweet of the Week

“Talent is evenly distributed, but opportunity is not. Even when you have that opportunity, the green passport will stare at you and be like, where tf do you think you’re going?”

🎯 Fintech Opportunities

• Visa opened Applications for the 3rd Cohort of its Fintech Accelerator Program for Africa.
• 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 💚

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