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MaxAB raises largest series A round by Egyptian startup

There has been a ton of money coming into the African tech ecosystem this year and MaxAB is proof of that.

The Egyptian eCommerce platform that serves food and grocery retailers, has raised an additional $15M from existing investors bringing its total Series A funding to $55M, the largest ever by an Egyptian startup.

In addition, it announced its acquisition of WaystoCap, a Morocco-based e-commerce and distribution platform that connects retailers with suppliers across Africa. 

Meet WaystoCap: Founded in 2015 by Niama El Bassunie, Mehdi Daoui, Anis Abdeddine, and Aziz Jaouhari Tissafi, WaystoCap was originally a cross-border trade platform for transacting business goods in Africa. Two years later, the company got into Y Combinator’s 2017 Winter batch, making it the first company accepted from Morocco. It subsequently raised a $3 million seed round. 

Zoom out: WaystoCap is the second African YC-backed company to exit over the past year after Paystack got acquired by Stripe for more than $200 million last October. This acquisition will see MaxAB accelerate its expansion into the Maghreb market – Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia – empowered by WaystoCap’s expertise in the region. 

Read more: MaxAB extends Series A to $55M, largest ever by an Egyptian startup

Nigerian fintech app users confident despite regulatory crackdown

Last week was a pretty rough week for Nigerian tech startups as they were dealt with a combo of regulatory punches. 

First, the Nigerian Information and Technology Development Agency (NITDA) proposed amendments to its regulatory Act came with fines; then came the Central bank freezing the bank account of four wealth-tech platforms.

While the suspension affected four retail trading apps — Trove, Risevest, Bamboo, and Chaka, there is a tendency that such clampdown can result in contagion; a situation where a crisis affecting some companies spreads to other players in the industry.

So we reached out to customers of Nigerian fintech platforms to hear from them.

We found out that while some users took to social media to express their shock and others made moves to withdraw their funds, the majority of them held on.

“To be honest, I considered withdrawing my money. I remember logging into the app and checking when my next due date for withdrawal was. But then I just told myself that they would figure it out. I mean Nigerian startups almost always have a way of figuring things out,” Stephanie Osaji, a Cowrywise Customer said.

In this article Michael looks at how these customers are responding and why the majority of them have held on in the face of a regulatory crackdown.

OPPORTUNITIES

Arab Bank has launched its fintech-focused corporate accelerator program “AB Accelerator” in Egypt. 

What’s in it for Startups? They are able to receive funding of up to $500,000 and a host of unique benefits as part of their collaboration with Arab Bank.

Egyptian entrepreneurs who wish to join Arab Bank’s “AB Accelerator” portfolio of companies may apply online here.

Facebook wants to support NFTs

Xiaomi is killing Mi Softly

Chinese electronics manufacturer Xiaomi is dropping the name of its most recognizable product series, “Mi”.

From the third quarter of 2021, new additions to the “Mi” product range will feature the name Xiaomi.

Why? Xiaomi is now confident that their products are relevant and identifiable enough not to need additional branding.

As per Verge, “The Mi brand was largely used in Western markets, presumably for readability and pronunciation reasons — phones like the Mi 11 are already called the Xiaomi 11 in China, for example. But Xiaomi evidently believes its company name is now recognizable enough and better represents its products.”

How’s Xiaomi doing?

Things are going really well for Xiaomi as it overtook Apple as the world’s second-largest phone maker during the second quarter of 2021. Xiaomi’s smartphones accounted for 17% of the world’s shipments in Q2 2021, an astounding 83% increase over its sales during Q2 2020.

What drove this growth? Overseas sales. Its shipments increased more than 300% in Latin America, 150% in Africa, and 50% in Western Europe.

Big picture: Over the years Xiaomi has been criticized for copying the design of Apple products but that strategy seems to have worked for it. Coupled with the fact that Xiaomi’s phones are still largely skewed toward the mass market and when compared with Samsung and Apple, its average selling price is around 40% and 75% cheaper respectively.

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