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Zimbabwean payments startup Payitup has secured a US$13 million Series A investment from London’s Thawer Fund Management. According to CEO Aretha Gonyora, the investment will be used to further develop its system, help it to form strategic partnerships to ensure compliance with regulators and provide value to customers in the form of rebates and competitive fees. Established in 2017, Payitup began working mostly in the entertainment space facilitating payments for Pay TV services. The volume of transactions carried out on its web and mobile platforms remain undisclosed but Managing Partner of the fund, Rahim Thawer, says they are delighted to be part of the team as they continue to “superior service to its clientele”.

A recently released report which sampled eggs from Agbogbloshie, a scrap yard near the center of Accra, Ghana has found it contains alarmingly high levels of hazardous chemicals including dioxins, brominated dioxins, PCBs, PBDE, and SCCPs. Egg-laying chickens in the region are said to forage the burning scrap site where electronic waste imports from Europe are disposed in large quantities. Here is the full report.

A new angel investment group has launched in Mali. The Mali Business Angel Network (MABAN) is a network of Mali’s 40 most influential private sector CEOs with technical assistance from the World Bank. MABAN will target tech and tech-enabled startups for early-stage investments and is looking at making around five investments per year. To fill funding gaps in Francophone Africa’s startup ecosystem, angel investor groups are being established across the region under the auspices of the African Business Angel Network (ABAN), with recent launches in Senegal, Togo and Benin.

Applications are open for Season 2 of the FBStart Accelerator programme in partnership with Co-Creation Hub. The 6-month research and mentorship-driven program is for startup building deep tech solutions. Click here to apply.

Apply for the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation which closes July 22, 2019. Learn more and apply here.

The African Development Bank believes Africa is the next renewables powerhouse. Here’s why.

The Riby Cooperative Conference is the first ever conference for the cooperative ecosystem, bringing together all the major players from banks to regulators to credit agencies. Book your space to be part of the conference happening at the Regency Hall, Alausa, Ikeja on May 22 by 10am. Limited seats available.

Nigeria’s digital music and book publishing platform, Publiseer, has been selected out of 423 applications as one of the top 16 finalists competing for 8 spots in Cohort 11 of the Halcyon Incubator’s Fall 2019 Fellowship. Selected fellows will receive five-months rent-free housing in Washington, D.C., a US$10,000 stipend, and access to the incubator’s network of mentors, advisors, investors, and supporters.

From TechCabal

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