| Five years ago while transitioning to a full-time analyst at professional services firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), Eleanya Eke started the blog, Rebel Money, a financial knowledge resource. Today, the blog has grown to become Rise, a technology-enabled micro-investing service for the Nigerian consumer. Rise, a portfolio company of investment firm, Future Africa, promises to plug Nigerians into verified pools of dollar-denominated investment options, from US stocks and real estate to Eurobonds. The platform now has 5,801 active users, about $571,000 assets under management and has paid out $46,000 to date. Alex goes behind the scenes in this TechCabal article. |
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| Solar energy company, Daystar Power has raised $4 million from SunFunder. The company will use the funds to provide solar power and energy efficiency solutions for businesses in the commercial, industrial, and agricultural sectors in Nigeria. The investment is SunFunder’s first in Nigeria. Based in Nairobi, SunFunder provides solar financing; debt capital for emerging markets. In April 2019, Daystar Power raised $10 million led by Verod Capital and Persistent Energy for its West Africa expansion. Rensource, its competitor received $20 million in funding in December 2019.
Olaedo Osoka, CEO, Daystar Power (Ghana) and Daniel Adeoye, Investment Manager, Renewable Energy, Verod Capital spoke at TechCabal’s Renewable Energy Townhall in July 2019. Watch them here and here. Get tickets to our next townhall on AI and Blockchain here. |
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The latest instalment of TechCabal’s abroad tech life series takes us to Kenya, where *Victoria, a Nigerian has been working for six years. “Opening an Mpesa account is the easiest thing. You just take your Safaricom SIM card, go to any of the Safaricom shops and give them your passport details,” Victoria told Muyiwa while talking about opening bank accounts. “Life in Kenya is easier with Mpesa, you can make every payment with it” she added. Read the full story here.
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With over a decade of experience supporting over 13,500 African startups to scale, VC4A has created free courses together with today’s top experts on doing business in Africa. These are learnings that cover setup, finance, legal and beyond that you can’t afford to not grasp. Unlock the skills you need to take your business from an idea to a thriving investment-ready startup, starting today. To start earning your certificates, sign up here.
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| The African Business Angel Network (ABAN) and its partners; Viktoria Business Angel Network (VBAN) and SA-based innovation consultancy, Fraser Consulting, have launched a pilot version of the African Angel Academy (AAA). The academy is aimed at providing aspiring angel investors with an angel investing curriculum, tools, and mentorship from established angels. The program hopes to grow the number of investors and investor groups who provide much-needed seed capital and mentor support to African entrepreneurs. Applications are open until February 14 for aspiring angels and interested organizations. |
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In June 2007, the government of Malawi and UNICEF Malawi opened the world’s first drone testing corridor. Its goal was to help local and international drone companies to test their solutions especially in the international development and humanitarian context. But they soon realized that the qualified personnel needed for drone-based solutions were lacking. They’ve now started the continent’s first drone academy called Africa Drone and Data Academy. CNN’s Charles Pensulo has more here.
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| Nerds Unite, MainOne’s annual flagship event holds on February 21 in Lagos, Nigeria. The event will bring together, IT professionals, influencers, and decision-makers for one full day to connect and facilitate interactive discussions on trending developments in the IT sector to help professionals deliver increased value to Nigerian and West African businesses. To register visit: http://bit.ly/NerdsUnite2020. |
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Last week, an Ethiopian ed-tech startup, Gebeya announced the close of a $2m seed round led by Partech and Orange Digital Ventures with participation from Consonance Investment Managers. Gebeya is a tech talent outsourcing company which allows startups and SMEs to hire IT talents remotely or in-house. The seed fund will help Gebeya scale up its training and accelerate plans to launch an African online marketplace.
Want our 25-page keynote presentation about Edtech in Africa, please fill in the form to get it. |
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TC Insights: While Nigeria’s fintech industry continues to attract investor interest, the story is not exactly the same for other tech sectors including health tech & edtech. In our 2019 report about Nigeria’s Health Tech sector, we surveyed about 75 startups who’ve raised a combined $7.88 million in funding as of 2018. This was about the same amount raised by fintech startup, Paystack in 2018 in just one round.
At the time of publishing our report in April 2019, the largest known funding for any startup was $2.1 million by Helium Health. 54gene has since gone on to raise $4.5 million. Get our Nigerian Health Tech report here. Are you an investor or founder interested in getting access to free and premium TC Insights reports and analysis? Please fill in this form to let us know your interests. |
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