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TGIF 🎉
We’re five days away from The Moonshot Conference where Africa’s most audacious thinkers and builders will share insights and celebrate innovation on the continent from October 11–12.
Here are five of the Moonshot events I’m personally looking forward to:
- The Welcome Mixer on October 10 where we’ll get to network with 200 industry leaders.
- TC Battlefield on October 11 where African startups will pitch for $3,200.
- The future of content panel with Jola Ayeye, FK Abudu, and Koromone Asabe-Yobaere.
- How to build and monetise as a content Creator with Fisayo Fosudo, Adetutu Laditan, and Eniola Olanrewaju.
- The Keynote Speech by Nigeria’s minister of communications, innovation, and digital economy Bosun Tijani.
Don’t miss out. Buy your tickets for Moonshot Conference here, and get a 25% discount with our Independence flash sales.
Funding
Africa’s wealthiest man and US billionaire investors back $500 million Africa-focused fund
Aliko Dangote, Africas richest man, has teamed up with US billionaire investors to back a $500 million Africa-focused fund.
The investors, Alterra Capital Partners, an Africa-focused private equity firm, has ambitious plans to raise up to $500 million in the coming months and has already secured $140 million in its initial closing.
Other investors: Alterra’s fund has also attracted investment from notable institutions including Standard Bank Group Ltd., International Finance Corp., Norfund AS, Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft GmbH, and Allianz SE’s AfricaGrow fund.
The firm’s investment strategy is centred around critical sectors, including telecommunications, technology, logistics, healthcare, consumer services, and retail.
Alterra Capital Partners, which assumed responsibility for Carlyle’s assets related to sub-Saharan Africa during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in mid-2020, is spearheaded by a team of seasoned investors who have achieved six successful company exits, returning $600 million to investors. Per Bloomberg, the firm has invested approximately $1 billion across 23 companies in Africa, indicating a significant track record in the region.
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Fintech
Opay deny claims of opening account for people without consent
Chinese-backed fintech Opay has denied claims that it opened accounts for customers without their consent. The Nigerian fintech, on Tuesday, started an internal investigation on the matter.
Zoom in: The allegation of these accounts began earlier this week when a user shared on X that he and other members of his family had Opay accounts without ever opening one. The tweet quickly went viral with more people claiming they also had already existing Opay accounts without their knowledge.
Opay has, however, denied such allegations claiming that the complaints via social media have been checked and resolved. “It is also important to note that OPay has never created nor does it operate any account on behalf of any individual,” OPay said in its statement to TechCabal.
One theory is that users might have had these accounts through OPay former superapp offerings—ORide, OFood or OKash—which were powered by the Opay wallet. However, several users insist they never used any of those services.
Zoom out: The Nigerian consumer protection body is currently investigating the case of these phantom accounts and requires Opay to provide explanations for the phantom accounts
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Innovation
Google unveils startups for its Africa AI First accelerator programme
Google has introduced its inaugural Africa AI First accelerator programme.
According to Google, eleven startups were selected to address Africa’s challenges and broader global issues. These startups will undergo a 10-week accelerator journey, gaining access to Google’s AI expertise, receiving $350,000 in Google Cloud Credits, benefiting from mentorship, technical guidance, and extensive networking opportunities.
The selected startups are; Avalon Health (South Africa), Chatbots Africa (Ghana), Dial Afrika Inc (Kenya), Famasi Africa (Nigeria), Fastagger Inc (Kenya), Garri Logistics (Ethiopia), Izifin (Nigeria), Lengo AI (Senegal), Logistify AI (Uganda), Telliscope (Ethiopia) and Vzy (Nigeria).
Zoom out: Google’s support for African startups dates back to 2017, and the company has collectively helped raise $263 million and create over 2,800 job opportunities.
Internet
Starlink is live in Zambia
Zambia has become the latest to join a growing queue of countries with access to Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite-based internet service. Starlink got its operating licence for Zambia in June. Paratus Zambia, a telecom operator, will handle its distribution in the country.
Per Starlink’s website, it costs 10,744 Zambian kwacha ($505) for Starlink’s hardware, and 507 Zambian kwacha ($24) for the monthly subscription. Zambians will enjoy download speeds of up to 120mb/s on the internet service.
Since its launch on the continent in January, Starlink has expanded to 6 African countries—Mozambique, Rwanda, Mauritius, Sierra Leone and Nigeria—with Zambia being the latest addition. However, Africa’s largest internet-consuming nation, South Africa is yet to join this list.
ICYMI: Starlink’s launch in South Africa has been stalled due to the internet provider’s refusal to give up a 30% stake of its equity to the country. In a bid to a get the licence required to run in the country, Starlink requires a IECS and IECNS licence which requires that it gives up 30% of its equity to a “historically disadvantaged group”.
Zoom out: Starlink’s launch in Zambia scores a win for the service adoption on the continent as it has faced several regulatory hurdles. The service is set to launch in 19 more African countries in 2023, and another 16 in the coming year.
Apply for the Female Founders Growth Programme
Final call for female tech-founders to apply for the Female Founders Growth Programme, an Investment Readiness Accelerator programme by FSDH Merchant Bank in partnership with IFC (of the World Bank) and WEAV Capital.
Application closes on 8th October. Don’t miss out, click here to apply now!
TC Insights
Funding Tracker
This week, South African payments solutions provider Stitch announced a $25 million Series A extension round. Ribbit Capital led the funding round with involvement from investors, including PayPal Ventures, The Raba Partnership, CRE Venture Capital, and 9 Yards Capital.
Here are other deals for the week:
- Kenya’s Lipa Later, a fintech platform raised $3.4 million from a privately-placed debt issuance to help it expand its offerings. The debt capital raise was supported by Rubicon Landing and KN Law.
- Egyptian fintech startup MoneyHash closed an undisclosed seed funding from GitHub founder Tom Preston-Werner.
That’s it for this week!
Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more funding announcements. You can also visit DealFlow, our real-time funding tracker.
Attend the KB4-CON Virtual Summit
KB4-CON EMEA is a free virtual event that focuses on cybersecurity and is designed for CISOs, security awareness, and cybersecurity professionals in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. You can find the full agenda for the event here.
Crypto Tracker
The World Wide Web3
Source:
|
Coin Name |
Current Value |
Day |
Month |
|---|---|---|---|
 Bitcoin |
$27,489 |
– 0.62% |
+ 7.10% |
| Ether |
$1,618 |
– 1.68% |
– 0.88% |
 BNB |
$211 |
– 1.00% |
– 1.67% |
| Cardano |
$0.2618 |
+1.94% |
+ 2.07% |
* Data as of 9:20 PM WAT, October 5, 2023.
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Job opportuinities
- NGX Group – Team lead- Technology Listings – Lagos, Nigeria (On-site)
- RAD Resources – Project Manager – Cape Town, South Africa (Unspecified)
- HyperionDev – Global Head of Marketing – Cape Town, South Africa (On-site)
- Electrum – Project Manager – Cape Town, South Africa (On-site)
- Jumia – Senior Engineering Manager – Nairobi, Kenya (On-site)
- Sun King– Senior Graphics Designer – Lagos, Nigeria (Unspecified)
- Media Trust Group – Digital Marketer – Abuja, Nigeria (Unspecified)
- Gomoney– Software Engineer- Backend – Remote
There are more jobs on TechCabal’s job board. If you have job opportunities to share, please submit them at bit.ly/tcxjobs.
What else we are reading
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