Hi Fintech friends 👋

A lot has happened this week in Fintech Africa , but before we delve into that, I would love to remind you that we are coming back to Nairobi 🇰🇪 for our 3rd Annual Nairobi Fintech Meetup! Come meet the Opareta team building mobile money agents, as well as our partners Asilimia, Turaco, Peach Payments, Onafriq, HoneyCoin, and DCG.

TWIF Nairobi Fintech Happy Hour Feb 2024 · Luma

Get ready to mix, mingle, and raise your glasses at the most electrifying fintech gathering in Nairobi! This Week in Fintech is thrilled to invite you to the TWIF Nairobi Fintech Happy Hour,…

This Week in Fintech

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

• Three Fintech deals worth over $200 Million were announced including one acquisition.
• Co-Founder Of Nigeria’s Largest Bank Killed In California Helicopter Crash.
• A Fintech VC launched a $5 Million Climate Fund.
• Africa’s Unicorn received a court order to recover $24 million lost to unauthorized POS transactions.
• One of the largest Telecom and Financial services providers in Africa appealed $1 Billion ruling in favor of a former employee.

💸 Fundraise and Exits

• South Africa’s Fintech Lesaka acquired Heineken’s data analytics company.

• Mosmos Secured €60K from Catalytic Africa for its ‘Save Now Buy Later(SNBL)’ platform.

💰 Venture Funds

• Rally Cap VC, a fintech investor for emerging markets launched a $5 Million climate fund.

• Africa’s youngest billionaire backed an Indian startup in a $1.1 Million funding round. Signaling Growing Interest of African Billionaires in Startup Ventures.

• Microtraction backed 12 companies in 2023, it’s portfolio grew to 67 companies with a combined valuation of $813 Million.

• Why  African tech startup funding declined so badly, and what happens now?

• Africa-focused funds found their feet amid a downturn.

🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

• Absa Bank introduced a new wallet for WhatsApp banking in South Africa.

• Ghana's Boost partnered with Mastercard to provide digital payment wallets.
• Paystack expanded "Pay With Apple Pay" to Cote D'Ivoire and South Africa.
• LemFi was back in Ghana, two months after suspending operations. This time, the company said it is adhering to the Bank of Ghana's regulations and is not messing around with them.

• Branch and Solv by Standard Chartered Collaborated to Extend Loans to Kenyan MSMEs.
• YC backed Coinprofile rebrabded to Parna, evolving to offer more global payments services.

📰 News of the Week

• Mastercard invested $200 million to acquire a minority stake in MTN's fintech division at $5.2 billion valuation.

On August 14, 2023, Ralph Mupita, President and CEO of MTN Group announced the company's plan to sell a 30% stake in the fintech firm. MTN claimed that its MTN mobile money unit has amassed 56.8 million users. MasterCard finalized a definitive agreement with MTN involving a minority investment of up to $200 million in MTN Group Fintech. This investment values MTN Group Fintech at $5.2 billion on a cash and debt-free basis.

MTN Group's new agreement with Mastercard aligns with their shared goal of fostering financial inclusion in Africa through tech advancements. This deal coincides with MTN's aim to grow its fintech arm while enhancing its telecom business.

In 2021, MasterCard also made a significant investment of $100 million in the mobile money business of Airtel Africa, which is a competitor to both MTN and Safaricom. The investment valued Airtel Africa’s mobile money unit at more than US$2.6 billion at that time.

• Herbert Wigwe, Co-Founder Of Nigeria’s Largest Bank, Access Bank, Killed In California Helicopter Crash.

Herbert Wigwe, co-founder of Access Bank, the largest bank in Nigeria, was among six people killed in a helicopter crash in California on Friday, according to multiple reports.

Wigwe's Access Bank became Nigeria's largest in 2018 after acquiring Diamond Bank. Expanding in Africa and beyond, they aimed to launch banking services in Asia this year. Established in 1989, Wigwe also spearheaded Wigwe University, slated for a September launch.

📑 Read of the week

• Africa to become the second region in consumer growth this year; digital commerce to expand 25% per year by 2026. (EBANX)

📖 Other News, Reads, and Media

• Flutterwave got a court order to recover $24 million lost to unauthorized POS transactions. Flutterwave, Africa’s most valuable startup, will contact over 6,000 account holders across 35 banks and financial institutions to recover $24 million illegally transferred by POS merchants after a High Court ruling in February.

• Leatherback CEO, Ibrahim Ibitade wanted  to move on after the EFCC debacle.
• The Nigerian Communications Commission lifted a disconnection notice placed on Globacom after it reached an interest payment agreement with MTN Nigeria. 
• Vodacom appealed ruling to pay $1 billion to an ex-employee for inventing the popular Please Call Me service.The judgment amount is 10% of Vodacom’s market capitalization.

• Wasoko merger fallout: employees claimed startup hid deal for six months
• Nigeria’s telecom industry faced a bleak 2024 with FX shortage, diesel prices surge.
• A Kenyan lobby group took the country’s first-ever crypto bill to parliament.

• Ecobank, Sendwave, Others Instructed to Pay Customers Money Sent From Abroad in Naira only.

🎥 VIDEO INTERVIEWS/DISCUSSIONS

• Interview with James Mwangi, Group MD & CEO of Kenya's Equity Bank, he speaks on the banks Resilience & Support to customers  and strategic focus 2024.

• Interview with Lexi Novitske, a General Partner at Norssken22, who just launched Africa's second-largest $205 Million VC fund.

• Why is only 2% of funding going to female founders? This Flip Africa’s episode is the first of a five-episode series on gender lens investing, co-hosted by Eloho Omame, Founding Partner of First Check Africa, an early-stage fund backing female-led startups, joined by the founders: Yanmo Omarogbe, the Co-founder and COO of the Nigerian investment platform Bamboo, and Sneha Mehta, the Co-founder and CEO of Uncover, a direct-to-consumer skincare brand in Kenya.

🦉 Tweet of the Week

🎯 Fintech Opportunities

• Are you building a pre-seed Fintech startup? The Mint Fintech Accelerator is offering $500K investment plus comprehensive resources to kickstart and scale your company. Apply now.
• Visa is now inviting startups to apply for the second cohort of its Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator program. Apply before 29th February 2024.
• LemFi is hiring for a Compliance Analyst.

Made in Tanzania 🇹🇿 with 💚

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