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Nigerian bike hailing startup, Max.ng has raised $7 million funding through equity and grants as it announces new growth tactics. Kenya’s Novastar Ventures, a $75 million fund, led the financing round, with Japanese manufacturer, Yamaha also participating. With the new funds, Max wants to launch a boat transport service soon, and also disclosed it is working to introduce electric motorbikes for riders.
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Naspers Foundry has invested $2 million in SweepSouth, an online platform for cleaning services in South Africa. The platform connects cleaners to customers who require their services, in a secure and reliable manner. SweepSouth is the first investment made by Naspers Foundry, a $100 million startup fund, since it was created months ago. The fund is committed to backing South African innovators and will make more investments over the next three years.
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| On the 11th of July, Techcabal is convening African governments, regulators, investors, development agencies, multinationals and entrepreneurs at TC Townhall: Renewable Energy to discuss “The Future of Africa’s Energy”. We will be attempting to answer the question “How do we quickly build a modern energy infrastructure, that is affordable and provides last-mile access, using abundant renewable energy resources, in a friendly policy environment?” Register here to attend. |
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Multichoice’s ShowMax will allow users watch the 2019 African Cup of Nations (Afcon) on its live TV streaming service. The platform will feature matches from Africa’s footballing showpiece which starts today June 21. However, Showmax’s live streaming service is still in beta and is presently only available to a restricted number of South African users. No timeline has been issued for a global rollout yet.
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| Nigerian digital lending platform, Kudimoney has secured a microfinance banking license from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). With the new license, the three-year-old startup wants to transform itself into a complete digital bank. It has also announced a major re-branding, changing its name from Kudimoney to Kuda. |
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| Applications are open for the Outlier Venture Lab clean-tech accelerator programme. The six weeks programme provides $50,000 equity finance, business development training and mentoring, opportunity to pitch in front of seasoned investors, and access to a network of partners for go-to-market. Apply before June 29. |
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| PayNas, an Egyptian fintech, has won the 2019 Seamless North Africa pitch competition, a popular fintech contest in region. The startup which provides human resource and payroll management tools for small businesses, beat five other startups to get the win. It was awarded $50,000 cash prize as winner. |
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| SureStart, a South African Insurance distributor, has acquired CompareGuru an insurance comparison platform for an undisclosed fee. CompareGuru’s CEO believes the acquisition it will help to deep the digitization of South Africa’s insurance market. |
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| Ghana’s Trans-Sahara Industries and EightD&Co have created a joint venture to operate a new bike hailing service in Ghana. Called Bluebird, the new service will work solely with licensed motorcycle riders on its platform. Bluebird will not own any motorcycles; but it will provide riders with protective clothing and regulatory cover. |
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| Nigerian health tech startup, MDaaS has officially announced a $1 million funding round. News about the funding first broke a few months back, but there was no official confirmation. MDaaS has now revealed that Nigerian VC, Consonance Investment Management led the round. Other investors in the round include Techstars and FINCA Ventures. |
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| Eksab, an Egypt-based daily fantasy sports platform has raised seed funding from 500 Startups. The new funding will be pivotal to Eksab’s growth current growth plans. Beginning with the 2019 African Cup of Nations, the company wants to process over 100 million fantasy game predictions by next year, up from 8 million presently. |
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| Egyptian bus hailing company, Swvl has raised $42 million as it prepares to expand to other African countries. Swvl raised the money from investors such as Sweden’s Vostok, Dubai-based BECO Capital, China’s MSA and US-based Endeavor Catalyst. The company wants to expand to African markets such as Nigeria and Kenya by the end of the year. |
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Great, you’re now up to speed,
We’ll see you tomorrow
– Abubakar
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