👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – Gains and losses for Jumia

Jumia commits to a “disciplined approach”

Jumia CEO Francis Dufay says the e-commerce company will take a disciplined approach to continue its search for profitability. Yet, the company isn’t new to talks of discipline. Can it outcut tough regional macros?

Revenue slowed to $36.4 million even as total order value (GMV) also softened to $162.9 million for Q3 2024.

When revenues decline, numbers of orders stay flat and the value of orders don’t rise, it’s tricky to make a profit.

For Q3, Jumia’s operating losses rose to $20.1 million. Yet, many of Jumia’s problems are not of its own making. Devaluation in at least three of its key markets reduced the dollar value of its products (GMV). And when spending is so depressed, it’s difficult to grow.

As reasonable as these problems sound, investors are all about the money. So the market reacted instinctively to Jumia, pushing the stock price to an all-month low of $4.

Tough going. Read more here.

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Safaricom says the viral investigation alleging that it was giving the Kenyan government unfettered real-time access to customer data, including sensitive call data records (CDRs) and location data, is untrue.

During Thursday’s announcement of its 2025 half-year financial results, Safaricom’s CEO, Peter Ndegwa said, “We do not share any customer data unless explicitly required of us via a court order.”

In case you missed it, the October investigation also claimed that Safaricom’s data was misused to facilitate extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances, especially during times of civil unrest.

It also alleged that Safaricom partnered with a British company, Neural Technologies, to develop software granting Kenyan security services real-time access to CDRs.

However, Ndegwa says the claims are inaccurate. He confirmed Safaricom has a contractual relationship with Neural Technologies but says it was to develop an anti-fraud tool.

“We do not share any customer data unless explicitly required of us via a court order.”

Under Kenyan data protection laws, data controllers and processors must obtain consent from data subjects before sharing personal data with third parties. Companies must also comply with these laws by registering with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) and adhering to guidelines for legally processing and sharing personal data.

Visa, the world’s second-largest card payment processor, has invested in four startups from the 23 in the first cohort of the Visa Fintech Accelerator. These startups are Oze, a Ghanaian business banking platform; Orda, a Nigerian restaurant technology startup; WorkPay, a Kenyan HR and payroll management firm; and OkHi, a startup that provides address verification services using AI.

If you are wondering why food-tech and HR companies are in a fintech accelerator, these platforms have embedded payment technology. Restaurants process payment for food on Orda, and companies process salary payments on OkHi.

The most curious part of Visa’s announcement is how much investment these companies are getting. Visa, which says that this is a part of its plans to invest $1 billion in Africa, has termed it a “strategic investment.” 

When big companies use this language, the said investment could involve cash or credits to access Visa’s infrastructure—such as payment gateways, cards, and APIs—at no cost, thereby significantly reducing the startups’ dollar-based expenses.

This latter approach would provide a direct return on investment for the card processor. Ismail Belkhayat, founder and CEO of Chari, who was part of the first cohort of Visa’s Africa accelerator program, previously stated that the accelerator is one of several ways Visa is “helping more startups become issuers delivering cards to end users.”

If this funding is cash-based, it would not be Visa’s first direct investment in African startups. In 2019, Visa acquired a 20% stake in Interswitch, Nigeria’s largest card processor, for $200 million. The company has also previously invested in Paystack, Branch, South African Jumo, and Sudanese startup Bloom.

Visa’s global rival Mastercard is also engaging in similar activities and has made both direct and indirect investments in startups and well-funded financial services providers across the continent.

This week, WellPal, an Egyptian Health and Wellness startup, raised an undisclosed amount of Angel funding from a strategic investor (November 4)

Here are the other deals for the week:

• Beacon Power Services, a Nigerian Energy startup, has raised an undisclosed amount in a Series A funding round led by Partech. (November 6)

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more funding announcements. Before you go, our Future of Commerce: Outlook for 2025 Report is out. Click this link to download it.