Hi Fintech friends 👋,  

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

• Two Fintech deals worth ~ $8 Million were announced
• Uber was in talks to back Africa’s Fintech-Mobility Startup in a $100 Million round.
• Nigeria based digital bank was in talks to acquire Kenya based digital bank.
• Largest fund dedicated to African startups closed its second fund at $300 Million.
• Cairo based VC planned to launch a new $150 Million fund to back Egyptian startups.
• African cross-border payments Unicorn launched a B2B payment infrastructure to power collections and disbursements for other businesses.
• The Central Bank Of Nigeria planned to shut down all crypto websites.

💸Fundraise and Exits

• D.light , a startup focused on finance solutions for low-income households raised $7.4 Million to expand in Nigeria.With plans to reach a billion people in developing countries by 2030, the company has sold nearly 30 million products, affecting over 150 million people.

• Nigerian Fintech Mamamoni raised $270K To Scale its women Agent Network.

💰 Venture Funds

• Partech Africa closed its second fund at $300 million,  a year after reaching its first close, solidifying its position as the largest fund dedicated to African startups.with offices in Dakar, Nairobi, and Dubai, has recently expanded to Lagos where one-third of the firm’s portfolio companies are based there. Additionally, the firm clarified that the majority of its second fund will be deployed between Series A and B rounds with initial investments ranging from $1 million to $15 million.

• Safari Ventures, a Cairo-based venture capital firm announced plans to launch a new $150 million investment fund to support Egyptian startups.

• “Build real businesses”, VCs told founders at Techstars Demo Day.

🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

• LemFi received approval from the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to partner with Nsano Limited to deliver money transfer services to Mobile Money Wallets and Bank Account Beneficiaries in Ghana.
• Mastercard signed a 5-Year Strategic Partnership with the KCB Group in Kenya that will see cardholders across the East African Region benefit from enhanced value propositions.

• Chippercash launched payment infrastructure to enable mobile money and bank accounts collections and disbursements  .

📰 News of the Week

• Uber was in talks to back Moove in a $100 Million funding round at $650 Million - $750 Million valuation.

In 2020 Uber named Moove as its official vehicle financing partner to allow drivers access cars without a down payment, paying them off through daily installments from their Uber earnings. In July 2022, the mobility fintech expanded into India via a partnership with Uber, marking its first market outside of Africa.As of this month, Moove reported completing over one million trips in India with over 1500 acquired vehicles, where it operates in three major cities: Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Hyderabad.Having raised over $344 Million since it was launched in 2020, Moove claims to complete over 30 million trips through its all vehicles.

Uber was reported in talks to back Moove, its at least 3 years official vehicle financing partner in a $100 Million round at between $650 Million and $750 Million valuation. The funding round is ongoing and the final figure could fluctuate between $75 million and $100 million.

• FairMoney wanted to acquire Umba, another neobank, in a $20 million all-stock deal.

Umba, founded in 2018 and raised $20 Million, It provides banking services such as loans, current accounts, savings accounts, fixed deposit accounts and bill payments to customers in Nigeria and Kenya. Umba was last valued at $25 Million after securing a $1.55 Million bridge round. Meanwhile, FairMoney, launched in 2017 and raised just over $57 million, according to PitchBook. It was last valued at between $400 million and $500 million following a bridge round last year.

FairMoney’s potential acquisition of Umba may not solely hinge on user numbers or product offerings.FairMoney might be more interested in Umba’s microfinance license, obtained in 2022 through acquiring a majority shareholding in Daraja Microfinance Bank. This license allows Umba to offer banking services in Kenya. 

FairMoney’s previous acquisitions have included PayForce, a sub-brand of YC-backed Nigerian merchant payment service CrowdForce, which it picked up in a cash-and-stock deal worth $15-20 million.

📑 Read of the week

• Cashless ATMs: Nigeria struggles to keep up with growing demand. (Techcabal)
• Why this French investor does not look for unicorns in Africa. (Techpoint)
• The New Playbook Behind Private Equity’s Quiet Boom In Africa. (Weetracker)

📖 Other News, Reads, and Media

• The Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) compensated some customers of 132 microfinance banks including Eyowo Microfinance Bank, backed by the fintech Softcom and Purple Microfinance Bank, whose operating licenses were revoked by Nigeria’s Central Bank in May 2023. 

• Users of Kippa, a bookkeeping app for Nigerian SMEs, demanded access to data as fintech quietly pivoted to Edtech. Since January 2024, the Kippa app has been inaccessible, leaving the business owners who had come to depend on it without access to critical data like inventory, transactions, debtors, income, expenses, payments, and invoices. Kippa claimed to have registered 500,000 SMEs on its bookkeeping app.
• Binance limited USDT/NGN trading as the naira fell to record lows on last Tuesday afternoon.
• Nigeria’s Central Bank planned to shut down all crypto websites in Nigeria.This is coming after crypto platform Binance shutdown peer-to-peer P2P trading on its platform where many consider this move by Binance as a collaboration with the Central Bank Of Nigeria to control their trading, reducing their trust in the platform.

• Opera MiniPay, a self-custodial wallet for dollar stablecoins that offers cUSD, a stablecoin built on the Celo blockchain signed up over one million users in Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana just five months after its launch.
• South Africa targeted stablecoin and blockchain use cases in the 2024 budget review.

• Coinbase-backed Mara paused wallet service since November citing UK regulations. Mara has been inaccessible since November 2023. The company told users to move their deposits to traditional bank accounts pending the completion of the upgrade but did not specify a timeline.

🎥 VIDEO INTERVIEWS/DISCUSSIONS

• Interview with Tiernan Kennedy, Founder & CEO of Umba. From his journey in the startup world, to moving to Kenya, then to Nigeria and back, Tiernan shares invaluable insights in the finance space.

• Interview with Saruni Maina, from being a Tech Blogger to VP of Stablecoins at Africa’s most valuable startup, Flutterwave.

🦉 Tweet of the Week

🎯 Fintech Opportunities

• Visa is hiring for a Fintech Accelerator Architect.
• M-Kopa is hiringhiring for a strategy analyst.

Made in Tanzania 🇹🇿 with 💚

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