Hi Fintech friends 👋,

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

• An African fintech became a unicorn.
• One of the world’s top three accelerators shut down its Nigerian office and operations.
• Africa’s largest gender-equal VC closed its $78 million second fund.
• A Nigerian investment platform expanded to Canada with a remittance product.
• One of Africa’s central banks directed banks to obtain regulatory approval before changing their core banking software.

We are very excited to announce the TWIF Cape Town fintech happy hour on Friday 15th November.Big thanks to our lead sponsor, Deimos Cloud for supporting us. 

TWIF Cape Town Fintech Happy Hour · Luma

Get ready to experience the most vibrant fintech gathering in Cape Town! This Week in Fintech is delighted to invite you to the TWIF Cape Town Fintech Happy…

This Week in Fintech

💸Fundraise and Exits

• Google and DPI backed African fintech Moniepoint in a $110 Million round.

💰 Venture Funds

• Techstars Lagos shut down after two years and 24 investments worth $2.4 Million.

• Africa’s Largest Gender-Equal VC Firm, Janngo Capital, Closed its $78 Million Second Fund.

🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

• Nigeria based YC-backed investment platform Bamboo expanded to Canada with a remittance product.

• Nigerian insurtech ETAP expanded into Ghana with the Hollard partnership.

• YC-backed Touch and Pay launched a dollar feature for Nigerian transport.
• Paystack launched Transfers in Kenya to power more payments for businesses.

👔 Leadership Lineup

• African B2B E-commerce Startups Wasoko and MaxAB that merged to create Pan-African Fintech platform, appointed Mo Elshenawy as an independent board director and technical advisor.Elshenawy is the president and chief technology officer (CTO) of autonomous vehicle company Cruise.

📰 News of the Week

• Inside Moniepoint’s $1 Billion valuation in a new funding round led by DPI.

The Series C round was led by Development Partners International’s African Development Partners (ADP) III fund and landed Google’s Africa Investment Fund as a new investor. Other investors, including African private equity firm Verod Capital and existing investor Lightrock, also participated.

In 2023, Moniepoint grew transaction value by over 205%, processing 5.2 billion transactions worth over $150 billion. Moniepoint  claims it now processes over 800 million transactions, with monthly total value exceeding $17 billion. The new fund will be used to scale beyond Nigeria.

👀 Eye Openers

• Only 1 in 100 Nigerians spends $609 monthly, Piggyvest 2024 report showed.

Piggyvest’s report, based on a survey of over 10,000 Nigerians, revealed that 65% of Nigerians have no income or earn less than $61 per month, with this figure rising to 86% for those earning below $151 monthly. This comes amidst a decline in Nigeria’s headline inflation to 32.15% in August 2024, down from a peak of 25.08% in 2023.The number of Nigerians with multiple income sources also dropped by 10% compared to Piggyvest’s 2023 report. You can read the full report here.

📑 Read of the week

• Why It's Hard to Digitize B2B Transactions Using M-pesa & Airtel Mobile Money(Co-founders Notebook).
  

📖 Other News, Reads, and Media

• Nigeria’s Central Bank (CBN) directed commercial banks to get regulatory approval before changing their core banking software.
• Kuda Bank, Moniepoint, OPay, and Palmpay expanded their compliance and fraud monitoring teams aftet central bank’s April ban.

🎥 VIDEO INTERVIEWS/DISCUSSIONS

This week in Fintech Africa, Moniepoint became a unicorn.Three years ago, when it was processing $3 billion per month, some people doubted these figures but the founder publicly and confidently addressed these doubts.

Today, Moniepoint processes over 800 million transactions, with a monthly total value exceeding $17 billion. Below is a throwback interview of Afridigest with Tosin Eniolorunda, CEO and Founder of Moniepoint, discussing how they built Nigeria’s largest business payments platform.

🦉 Tweet of the Week

🎯 Fintech Opportunities

An opportunity to be a part of the largest special fintech event in Africa, taking place soon in South Africa. Reach out to wiza@thisweekinfintech.com .

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