Hi Fintech friends 👋,

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

• Three funding deals were announced.
• Nigeria’s Fintech grew revenue to $76 Million.
• Venture capital funding for African startups shrank again last year.
• One of East Africa’s countries proposed a bill to regulate Stablecoins.
• Nigeria’s Fintech startup valuation climbed to $2.75B despite slowdown in venture funding.

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This Week in FintechSabrina Baxter

💸Fundraise and Exits

• PayTic raised $4.4 million to scale SaaS platform for payment operations.
• South Africa’s Stitch secured $55 Million in a new funding round.

• Nairobi-based digital banking startup Umba raised $5 Million in debt financing from Star Strong Capital.

💰 Venture Funds

• Venture capital funding for African startups shrank again last year, though the share of home-grown investors advanced.

🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

• Kenya proposed the first crypto bill to regulate Stablecoins.

👔 Leadership Lineup

• The updated list of Africa’s billionaire club.

📰 News of the Week

• FairMoney grew revenue by 62% to $76 Million.

FairMoney, the Nigerian consumer-focused Lending, grew its gross revenue by 62% to ₦121.9 billion in 2024, as it relied on customer deposits for lending operations, according to its unaudited financial report. The company’s profit after tax rose to ₦7.9 billion from ₦780 million in 2023.

This growth came as fintech relied on customer deposits to fund 56% of its loan book, driven by a sharp 1,467% increase in deposits from ₦2.9 billion in 2021 to ₦72.9 billion in 2024. This shift allowed Fairmoney to significantly reduce its dependence on costly borrowings, which dropped from over 80% in 2020 to less than 5%.

👀 Eye Openers

• In 2024, customers spend more than $100bn buying from merchants with mobile money.

📑 Read of the week

• Is fintech becoming a slur? (Notadeepdive)

📖 Other News, Reads, and Media

• OPay’s valuation climbed to $2.75B despite slowdown in venture funding.
• “Zap is not a remittance app,” Paystack explained.

🎥 VIDEO INTERVIEWS/DISCUSSIONS

• Interview with Karim Jouini is the founder of Expensya, an expense management platform sold to Medius Group for $100 Million on how he made it.

🦉 Tweet of the Week

🎯 Fintech Opportunities

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

Made in Tanzania 🇹🇿 with 💚

Which global or African fintechs do you know that are transacting in dollars or stablecoins and need to make payouts in Tanzanian currency (TZS)? I had love to speak with them! Reach out john@thisweekinfintech.com , Twitter or LinkedIn .