Hi Fintech friends 👋,

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

• Two Fintech deals worth over $7 Million were announced, along with the announcement of two African VC funds valued at over $54 million .
• Nigeria fined the largest Crypto exchange $10 Billion.
• Africa’s most valued payment startup appointed its first independent, non-executive board member.
• Africa’s youngest billionaire shared lessons on building billion-dollar businesses in small African markets.
• Mastercard partnered with two big African financial institutions to boost digital payments in the continent. 

💸Fundraise and Exits

• Egyptian fintech startup MoneyHash raised $4.5 Million to expand its payments technology across the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region. MoneyHash has built APIs that allow merchants or companies to integrate pay-in and pay-out rails, a fully customisable checkout process, transaction routing capabilities, and a transaction reporting center.

• Nigerian debt recovery startup Bfree secured $2.95 million funding.The company's current loan portfolio stands at over $400 million, out of which it has managed to collect 12.5%. The startup also plans to create a secondary debt market, to allow third-party investors like hedge funds, looking to diversify their investments, to buy non-performing loans (NLPs) from banks in Africa.

💰 Venture Funds

• COTU Ventures announced securing $54 million for its maiden fund to back MENA startups in their pre-seed to seed stages.

• African venture capital firm Renew Capital launched a new pan-African tech fund to back innovative founders building world-class companies on the continent.

🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

• MTN partnered with Mastercard to launch Mobile Money virtual cards for Africa. The agreement will affect MTN’s 60 million active monthly wallets across its 13 African markets: Nigeria, South Africa, Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Eswatini, Ghana, Liberia, Republic of Congo, Republic of Guinea, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia. MTN's current overall subscribers stand at 290 million.

• American payment platform Strike expanded to Nigeria amid clampdown on crypto platforms.The company announced its plans to expand its full range of Bitcoin services to Gabon, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia, with additional African markets to follow.

• Mastercard and Awash Bank partnered to launch enhanced payment options in Ethiopia.

• Propel launched Embedded Finance,  the first service being a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) feature that will provide tech talent with accessible financing options for essential work tools and resources.

• OjirehPrime rebranded as Pryme, plans expansion to Europe, Central Asia.
• The Central Bank Of Ghana released a Fintech Sector report for the 2023 year.

• Tanzania Fintech ecosystem launched ’Tanzania Fintech Association’ .

👔 Leadership Lineup

• Flutterwave appointed Olajumoke Adenowo, a Nigerian architect, as a member of its global board of directors. Adenowo joined the company with over 35 years of experience in her architecture career and a robust portfolio of local and international projects at the architectural firm AD Consulting. She has previously received the 2020 Forbes Woman African Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

📰 News of the Week

• Nigeria fined Binance $10 Billion amidst investigation of crypto exchange. The Financial Times confirmed the arrest of two Binance executives in Nigeria this week.

The fine came barely 48 hours after news broke that security agencies detained two executives of the global crypto exchange. Both executives flew to Nigeria last week following a ban on their website and were arrested by the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA).

While the NSA initially denied reports of any arrests, it later confirmed that it was investigating Binance but did not share any details of the investigation.

On Tuesday, Olayemi Cardoso, The Central bank governor, claimed “$26 billion has passed through Binance Nigeria from sources and users who we cannot identify.” There have been reports that the government has asked Binance for user data and details. It is unclear if the company has handed over the requested data.

📑 Read of the week

• “A large volume of P2P takes place on WhatsApp and not even Binance.” - Adebayo Juwon, ex-FTX employee (Techpoint)
• “Navigating the Current Fundraising Landscape: Insights and Strategies” by Tomi Davies, African Angel Investor (Medium)
• “Inside the failed Y Combinator-backed startups in Africa” (Benjamindada)

📖 Other News, Reads, and Media

• The Central Bank Of Nigeria revoked 4,173  Bureau De Change operators (BDCs) licenses one week after new guidelines.The revocation of the licenses came just four days after the Central Bank reversed its three-year stance on selling dollars to eligible BDCs.
• MTN Nigeria reported a ~ $89 Million) loss in FY 2023 compared to profits of ~ $227 Million in 2022 as Naira devaluation shrinks margins.
• Binance and other crypto platforms suspended USDT, USDC purchases after The Central Bank Of Nigeria scrutiny.
• Zoho maintained local currency payments over dollars in Kenya and Nigeria as inflation rises. Zoho launched a local office in Kenya in May 2023, its partner network jumped by 212% because customers continue to use its products since they pay in Kenyan shillings.

🎥 VIDEO INTERVIEWS/DISCUSSIONS

• Interview with Africa’s youngest dollar billionaire, Mohamed Dewji, where he shares his journey of building a ~$3 billion annual revenue company in Africa, lessons of building a business in small markets like Africa, and his lifestyle.

🦉 Tweet of the Week

🎯 Fintech Opportunities

• LemFi is hiring for Talent Acquisition Manager.
• Binance is hiring for Affiliate and Community Manager - Africa.

Made in Tanzania 🇹🇿 with 💚

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