Browsing: Tech

In the East African powerhouse, agriculture insurance startup Pula Advisors was featured on the list for its innovation and impact in using technology to provide agriculture insurance to millions of smallholder farmers in emerging markets.

The firm which was founded in 2014 has used technology products through agriculture insurance and digital agronomy to advise and ensure many farmers adapt to an increasingly unpredictable climate.

“Farmers in emerging markets are the most hardworking citizens of the world yet the most likely to already feel the impact of climate change. The future is in farmers’ hands; they only need the appropriate technology and tools and then they can feed the world,” The firm’s CEO Thomas Njeru said.…

• The firm’s CEO Olugbenga Agboola has now come forward to address claims levelled against him in an email to employees
• This is the first time the CEO has spoken in regards to the claims reported by West Africa Weekly, a Substack newsletter written by journalist David Hundeyin
• The report highlighted several allegations against the startup and Agboola including fraud and perjury to insider trading as well as sexual harassment

Over the past two weeks, Nigerian fintech startup Flutterwave has been under fire after the firm’s Chief Executive Officer was accused of allegedly committing fraud, perjury to insider trading and sexual harassment.

The firm’s CEO Olugbenga Agboola has now come forward to address these claims levelled against him. 

In an email to employees, Agboola termed the allegations as false, condemning the impact these claims had had on the firm. 

“I’m writing today because I want you to know how concerned I …

• Africa’s fashion and textile industry is the second-largest sector after agriculture with an estimated market value of US$31 billion
• The use of tech in fashion has been brought to a much broader scale including the use of apps and the creation of smart textiles
• As the majority of Africans were forced to stay home, there emerged countless online clothing stores, most of which were using social media (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) as marketing tools

Like many other sectors across the continent, the fashion industry is also taking to embracing technology to improve operations.

Africa’s fashion and textile industry is the second-largest sector after agriculture with an estimated market value of US$31 billion in 2020 and growing annually.

While combining tech with fashion may seem farfetched, technology has always been an essential factor in the production of clothes and the different styles in fashion since the beginning of time.

It is …

• Majority of private equity investment in Sub-Saharan Africa is from outside the continent and represents only a fraction of the capital required
• African startups surpassed the US$ 1 billion mark in capital raised over the first seven weeks of 2022
• The bulk of the funding (76%) and of the deals (78%) have been claimed by startups headquartered in one of the ‘Big Four’ (Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Egypt)

Africa continues to show strong growth prospects, with an expectation of a significant rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic that has spanned over two years, which has also affected African growth less than in developed markets. 

International investment plans and programmes to promote investment in Africa support growth potential given the correlation between Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Currently, the majority of private equity investment in Sub-Saharan Africa is from outside the continent and represents only a fraction …

• M-KOPA enables underbanked customers in select African markets to access a broad range of products and services without collateral or a guarantor.
• M-KOPA has raised $190 million over the past decade
• M-KOPA is known majorly for its pay-as-you-go (PAYG) financing model that allows customers to build ownership of appliances over time by paying an initial deposit followed by flexible micro-payments
• M-KOPA is looking to expand its flexible daily and weekly payments model by scaling financial services products such as health insurance, cash loans and BNPL merchant partnerships

M-KOPA began commercial sales in Kenya in October 2012 following 2 years of piloting and development.

The young startup expanded to Uganda a year later and commenced operations in Tanzania in late 2014. 

The company, led by co-founder and CEO Jesse Moore started with solar-power home systems targeted at lower-income and rural customers without electricity in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Known majorly for …

Norrsken22 plans on capitalizing on its general partners’ years of experience and investment philosophies to back startups in fintech, MedTech, Edtech, and market-enabling solutions such as B2B marketplaces and inventory management businesses.

Kolbe, whose previous firm Actis backed Egyptian fintech giant Fawry in 2019 as it prepared to go public, said Norrsken would look at Egypt ‘opportunistically.’ 

Deals from the country that may be of interest to the firm will be those planning an expansion into the four markets Norrsken22 is currently keen on, including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.…

The company, founded in 2012, launched its online food ordering platform in 2013. In 2015, it launched its on-demand fast-food delivery app, becoming the first in South Africa to offer this service.

However, in 2020, Orderin officially shut down its consumer business. The brand relaunched last year as a B2B service, following successful projects helping other businesses develop their own delivery services.

The firm has provided delivery services for the likes of McDonalds and Pick n Pay.…

In the developed world corporates have big IT budgets so software is built, bought, integrated into existing systems because skilled developers and software packages tailored to meet the needs of businesses are abundant as corporate spend on IT.  

Throughout East Africa there are incredible inefficiencies in the SME business section all the way up to large corporates who struggle with limited budgets and limited skilled people to develop IT solutions and no-code platforms and tools mitigate these challenges by being both, affordable and easy for non-technical people to learn and use.…