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    Nine Key Trends That Shaped African Tech Funding in January

    Staff Writer
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    Nine Key Trends That Shaped African Tech Funding in January

    African startups raised at least $146.75m in January across 22 disclosed deals, a modest start to 2026 that reveals both resilience and structural challenges facing the continent’s venture ecosystem.

    The opening month of the year provides a snapshot of how capital is flowing — and where it isn’t. While certain sectors and geographies attracted significant investment, the data exposes persistent gaps that could shape fundraising dynamics throughout 2026.

    For founders, the January figures offer practical insight into which strategies work in the current environment. For investors, the deals highlight where competition for quality assets has intensified and where opportunities may be overlooked.

    Here are the nine key trends from the January data: 

    1. The Capital Stack is Getting Complex (and Less Dilutive)

    The most significant figure in January wasn’t an equity round, but a $37.3m debt issuance by Egyptian fintech Mylo. Founded in 2024 as an internal innovation venture and led by industry veteran Mohamed Khattab, who previously headed innovation at its parent company, Mylo represents a new wave of structured financing in the sector. Last year, Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) approved the company to operate in the country’s fast-growing buy now, pay later (BNPL) market.

    Alongside Nigeria’s mobility giant MAX — which closed a $24m mixed equity and debt round — this trend highlights a maturing fintech and mobility sector. Startups with predictable cash flows are increasingly opting for leverage over dilution.

    • The Insight: High interest rates globally haven’t deterred African startups from seeking debt. Instead, debt is becoming the primary tool for funding “real economy” operations — lending books (fintech) and fleet acquisition (mobility) — while equity is reserved for product development and hiring.

    2. North Africa: The Strategic Gateway

    While West Africa typically leads in deal volume (Nigeria saw seven deals this month), North Africa commanded the deal value, largely due to strategic capital flows from the Gulf.

    NowPay’s $20m round from Saudi Arabia’s United International Holding Company (UIHC) is the prime example. This is not just a financial transaction; it is a market-entry play. By taking capital from a Saudi strategic partner, NowPay effectively secures a soft landing into the GCC market.

    Meanwhile, Morocco is solidifying its reputation for high-value Series A rounds. Yakeey, a proptech marketplace, raised $15m from a consortium including the IFC and CDG Invest.

    • The Takeaway: The Egypt-Saudi corridor is the most important capital axis to watch in 2026. For North African founders, Riyadh is becoming as important a destination for roadshows as London or San Francisco.

    3. Infrastructure over Software

    The “asset-light” thesis is taking a backseat. January’s data shows heavy investment in companies that move physical atoms, not just digital bits.

    • Logistics & Climate: Kenya’s Cold Solutions raised $19m from Mirova to build temperature-controlled infrastructure. This is climate adaptation in practice — building the physical rails required to secure food and medical supply chains.
    • Terra Industries, a Nigeria-based defence technology startup, has raised $11.75 million in a funding round led by Silicon Valley venture firm 8VC, as it looks to scale autonomous systems and software designed to help African governments and businesses protect critical infrastructure from growing security threats.
    • Mobility: Enakl (Morocco) and MAX (Nigeria) both secured funds to optimize transport.

    Investors are increasingly deploying capital into “defensive” sectors — logistics, energy, and climate infrastructure — where barriers to entry are high, but long-term value is tangible.

    4. Egypt has both the startups and the capital

    Nigeria and Egypt have firmly established themselves as the primary operational hubs with Nigeria leading by volume (7 startups) followed closely by Egypt (5 startups). While these nations provide the innovation pipeline, the capital supporting them is remarkably global. The United States and Japan emerge as the most active international investor bases, with the US participating in five deals and Japan in four. Interestingly, Egypt stands out as a unique dual-threat ecosystem; it is the only country in the list that serves as both a top-tier destination for startup operations and a top-tier source of local investment capital.

    5. Which stage attracted most local vs international investors?

    A clear divergence exists between local and international investors depending on the investment stage. International investors dominated the “growth” phases of funding in January, accounting for the vast majority of participation in Seed, Series A, and Equity & Debt rounds. For instance, the Seed stage alone saw six international investors compared to just one local backer. This indicates that as startups mature and funding requirements scale into the millions (e.g., Terra Industries’ $11.75m Seed round or Yakeey’s $15m Series A), they almost exclusively turn to foreign capital pools like those in the USA, France, and Japan to fill the gap.

    Conversely, local investors are most active in the earlier and more strategic phases of the startup lifecycle. The data shows that Pre-Seed, Strategic, and Debt rounds rely significantly more on domestic capital. Egyptian investors, for example, were key players in early financing for companies like Knot Technologies. This suggests a functional division of labor in the ecosystem: local investors are effectively de-risking early-stage ventures and providing strategic debt, while international funds step in to drive substantial capital injection once the business model is proven.

    6. Japan’s Deepening Footprint

    European and American VCs often dominate the headlines, but Japanese capital was ubiquitous in January. Japanese funds — including Daiwa House Group, UNERI, and Ikemori Venture Support — participated in four separate deals across diverse geographies (Nigeria, Kenya, Japan/Africa).

    Unlike Western VCs, who often favour pure software plays, Japanese investors in Africa have shown a consistent appetite for deep tech, hardware (drones/robotics), and retail solutions.

    7. Series A crunch persists

    Only two clear growth-stage rounds appeared in January: Yakeey’s $15m Series A and MAX’s $24m equity-debt package. The scarcity of Series A+ deals continues a pattern documented throughout 2024–2025.

    Companies approaching Series A in 2026 face heightened scrutiny. From general trends and hype around profitability we have been following recently, investors seem to expect clear unit economics, proven customer acquisition channels and credible paths to profitability within 18–24 months. The Series A gap creates opportunity for funds willing to lead rounds.

    8. Mobility and infrastructure attract large tickets

    Transport and logistics companies secured three of the month’s largest deals: MAX’s $24m, Cold Solutions’ $19m infrastructure financing for cold chain logistics, and Nigeria’s Terra Industries’ $11.75m seed round.

    Moroccan proptech Yakeey’s $15m Series A from Enza Capital and IFC adds another data point — physical-world businesses solving infrastructure gaps continue attracting significant capital despite technology sector headwinds.

    While software maintains advantages in gross margin and scalability, investors are backing capital-intensive models where defensibility comes from physical assets, regulatory moats or operational complexity.

    The size of the rounds suggests investors are taking a longer-term view and targeting higher absolute returns to offset the capital intensity.

    9. Sector Watch: Fintech Resilience

    Despite the diversification into infrastructure, Fintech remains the volume leader (8 deals). However, the nature of these deals is changing.

    • Pre-Seed Valuations: OneDosh (Nigeria) raising $3m at Pre-Seed is an outlier that warrants attention. In a generally tight market, this suggests that investors are still willing to pay a premium for exceptional teams or proprietary tech stacks in the payment space.
    • Web3 & Crypto: Smaller deals like Paycrest (Nigeria) suggest a quiet accumulation of blockchain infrastructure bets, driven by specialist funds like Hashed Emergent.

    The Bottom Line

    The African tech funding data for January doesn’t predict the full year. Barring major macro shocks, 2026 likely continues the trends visible in these 22 deals: selective capital deployment, sector concentration, geographic clustering, and a bifurcated market where connected founders in hot sectors raise easily while others bootstrap longer.

    The question isn’t whether African startups will raise capital in 2026 — January proves they will. The question is which founders and which investors will navigate the current environment effectively.

    Further Reading: 

    • Every African Tech Investment Tracked in 2025 — All in One Place. Download
    • The Most Up-to-Date List of Funds, Angel Investors and Active VCs African Startups Can Pitch to in 2026 (1000+)— Before Everyone Else. Download
    • New VC Firms and Funds Backing African Startups in 2026 . Download

    Koko Networks’ Lenders in Limbo as World Bank-Backed Clean Cooking Giant Collapses

    Staff Writer
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    Koko Networks’ Lenders in Limbo as World Bank-Backed Clean Cooking Giant Collapses

    The era of carbon-subsidised clean cooking has hit a wall. Koko Networks, the climate tech darling that once promised to transition millions of African households from charcoal to bioethanol, has officially shut down its operations today.

    Co-founded in 2014 by Greg Murray (CEO) and Sagun Saxena (CIO), along with Nick Stokes and Mel, the Nairobi-based company informed its 700 employees on Friday that they were being laid off immediately following two days of emergency board meetings. The company expressed “deep sadness” that its subsidies and family health improvements would no longer reach the Kenyan public, marking the end of a network that had invested over $300 million in regional infrastructure. The closure leaves approximately 1.5 million Kenyan households without a reliable fuel source and marks a catastrophic failure for one of the most heavily insured green investments in Africa.

    A $60m legal fortress under pressure

    While the collapse appears sudden, legal filings show that Koko’s lenders have been preparing for a worst-case scenario for over a year.

    In December 2024, as the company navigated the early stages of its dispute with the Kenyan government, its primary lenders moved to tighten their grip on the company’s remaining assets. According to UK Companies House filings, Koko Networks Carbon Finance (UK) Limited registered two major security charges on December 23, 2024:

    • A Borrower Security Agreement granting FirstRand Bank (RMB) a “qualifying floating charge” over all of the company’s assets, including intellectual property, bank accounts, and investments.
    • A Cession in Security A Cession in Security specifically targeting the company’s Debt Service Reserve Account (DSRA) in Johannesburg. This agreement listed FirstRand Bank, the AfricaGoGreen Fund, and the Mirova Gigaton Fund as secured parties.

    These instruments were designed to protect a $60 million facility agreement. However, with the company now in administration, these lenders are finding their security potentially worthless if the underlying business model — selling carbon credits — cannot be revived.

    The Article 6 standoff

    The terminal blow came from a regulatory deadlock with the Kenyan government. Koko’s business model relied on selling high-value carbon credits under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement to compliance markets, such as the aviation industry. These credits were used to subsidize the cost of stoves and bioethanol for low-income families.

    The government’s refusal to issue a Letter of Authorisation (LOA) for these credits meant Koko could no longer bridge the gap between its low retail prices and high operating costs. Without the LOA, the “carbon-financed utility” model effectively became a house of cards.

    The MIGA insurance: A final safety net?

    The lenders’ last hope likely lies in a $179.6 million guarantee from the World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), secured in March 2025.

    This policy — the first of its kind for the carbon market — was specifically intended to protect Koko and its investors against “breach of contract” and political risk. If the lenders can prove that the Kenyan government’s withholding of the LOA constitutes a breach of the investment framework agreement signed in 2024, the MIGA insurance could trigger a payout.

    However, “limbo” is the operative word. Payouts from political risk insurance can take years of arbitration to settle. In the meantime, the 3,000 automated fuel dispensers (KokoPoints) scattered across Kenya stand as silent monuments to a failed energy transition.

    Why this matters for 2026 climate tech

    The Koko collapse is a sobering moment for the “climate-as-a-service” sector. It highlights the extreme fragility of startups that rely on government-certified carbon revenue to sustain their bottom line.

    For the Mirova Gigaton Fund, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, and Rand Merchant Bank, the focus now shifts from “expanding to 5 million customers” to a complex legal recovery process. For the broader ecosystem, the question is whether any clean cooking company can survive without a government that is fully aligned with the accounting complexities of the Paris Agreement.

    The Furniture Fight That Broke South African M&A: Why Rivals Now Have Front-Row Seats at the Deal Table

    Staff Writer
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    The Furniture Fight That Broke South African M&A: Why Rivals Now Have Front-Row Seats at the Deal Table

    In the world of retail, furniture isn’t just about where you sit; it’s about how much credit you can squeeze out of a low-to-middle-income consumer. But a recent brawl over sofas and sideboards has just landed a heavy blow on the South African M&A scene.

    On 30 January 2026, South Africa’s Constitutional Court handed down a judgment in Lewis Stores v Pepkor Holdings that effectively told corporate giants: If you want to merge, expect your rivals to have a very loud seat at the table.

    By overturning a previous “gatekeeper” ruling, the court has lowered the bar for third parties to intervene in mergers. For dealmakers in Africa’s most industrialised economy, the “quick and quiet” acquisition just became a relic of the past.

    The Players: A Three-Way Fight for the Living Room

    The drama began when Pepkor (the market heavyweight behind Bradlows and Russells) decided it wanted to buy the furniture divisions of Shoprite (OK Furniture and House & Home).

    • The Vision: Pepkor and Shoprite painted a picture of a seamless transition that would keep the market competitive.
    • The Reality: Lewis Stores, the only other major national chain left standing, did the math and panicked. By their count, the merged entity would control 59% of the market with over 1,100 stores.

    Naturally, Lewis didn’t want to just send a polite letter of complaint. They wanted “full participatory rights” — the legal equivalent of being allowed to rummage through your rival’s diary (confidential documents), cross-examine their witnesses, and bring their own experts to tell the judge why the deal is a terrible idea.

    The Regulatory “Oops” Moment

    The Competition Commission, which is supposed to be the adult in the room, initially recommended the deal be approved with a few conditions. They figured that between online shops and niche boutiques, consumers had plenty of choices.

    Lewis, acting as the self-appointed whistle-blower, pointed out a few minor details the Commission apparently missed:

    • The Homework Gap: The Commission hadn’t actually conducted consumer surveys.
    • The Geography Problem: In many rural towns, a Pepkor-Shoprite merger wouldn’t just be a “consolidation”; it would be the only game in town.
    • The Credit Factor: In SA, you don’t buy a fridge with cash; you buy it with a 36-month credit plan. Lewis argued the Commission didn’t understand how these credit “ecosystems” actually trap — er, serve — consumers.

    The merging parties dismissively called Lewis’s evidence a ‘desktop Google Maps exercise.’ As it turns out, the Constitutional Court quite likes Google Maps when the alternative is no map at all.

    The Legal Seesaw

    BodyDecisionLegal Logic Applied
    Competition TribunalYes (Intervention Allowed)The Tribunal adopted a utility-based approach. The central consideration was whether Lewis possessed market knowledge or industry insight that could assist the Tribunal in reaching a more informed decision. Uniqueness of evidence was not treated as a strict requirement; usefulness and relevance to the issues before the Tribunal were sufficient.
    Competition Appeal Court (CAC)No (Intervention Refused)The CAC applied a restrictive necessity test. It held that intervention requires more than general industry knowledge. If the Competition Commission or existing parties could obtain the same information through other sources, Lewis’ participation was deemed unnecessary. In effect, the CAC elevated uniqueness and irreplaceability of evidence into a decisive threshold.
    Constitutional CourtYes (Intervention Strongly Affirmed)The Court rejected the CAC’s standard as overly stringent and inconsistent with participatory fairness. It ruled that requiring proof of “unique” or otherwise unobtainable evidence sets a barrier that is practically unattainable (“well-nigh impossible”). The correct test is whether the proposed intervener can make a meaningful, relevant, and helpful contribution to the proceedings. Intervention serves to enhance decision-making, not to prove evidentiary exclusivity.

    Justice Rammaka Mathopo, writing for a unanimous court, essentially told the Appeal Court they were overthinking it. You don’t need “exclusive” information to intervene. If you have a “reasonable prospect of assisting” the court with credible evidence, you’re in.

    Launch Base Africa Takeaway: Why This Matters for More Than Just Chairs

    While this case is about furniture, the ripples will be felt by every tech unicorn, telco, and bank looking to consolidate in South Africa.

    1. Weaponised Intervention: Expect “nuisance” interventions to become a standard strategic play. If a competitor can’t beat you in the market, they can now more easily bleed your legal budget and delay your closing date by months.
    2. The “Public’s Dime” Argument: Pepkor complained that Lewis was conducting a “quasi-investigation” on the public’s dime. The Court’s response? We’d rather have a slow, noisy process than a fast, quiet monopoly.
    3. End of the “Rubber Stamp”: The ruling is a direct snub to the Competition Commission’s occasionally “lite” investigations. If the regulator misses a spot, the Court has now empowered rivals to point at it with a giant neon sign.

    What’s Next?

    The Lewis-Pepkor-Shoprite saga now heads back to the Tribunal. Lewis gets its documents, its experts, and its cross-examinations. For Pepkor and Shoprite, the “conditional approval” they once held is looking increasingly fragile.

    For everyone else: If you’re planning a merger in South Africa this year, make sure your data is bulletproof. Your competitors are no longer just watching from the sidelines — they’ve just been handed a microphone and a front-row seat.

    Keeping Deals Secret in South Africa Just Got Harder—Competition Commission Rolls Out New Rules

    Egyptian Logistics Startup Bosta Eyes $170M IPO on Local Exchange

    Staff Writer
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    Egyptian Logistics Startup Bosta Eyes $170M IPO on Local Exchange

    Bosta, the Cairo-based logistics startup that has become ubiquitous on Egyptian streets, may soon be delivering its own shares to the public market. The startup has announced it is preparing to list on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX), according to sources close to the matter. The move would make it the first “pure-play” parcel delivery company to go public in Cairo, signaling a potential shift in how the region’s tech-enabled infrastructure is valued.

    The company is reportedly looking to float 20–30% of its equity capital by the end of 2026 in an offering valued at approximately EGP 8bn ($160m–$170m). EFG Hermes is tipped to manage the IPO.

    The Lowdown: Why this matters

    • A thawing IPO market: Egypt’s public markets are warming up after a quiet period. Bosta follows on the heels of Gourmet and Valu, as well as a government pipeline of 13 state-backed companies.
    • Logistics as a tech-play: Unlike traditional couriers, Bosta is pitching itself as a high-margin technology ecosystem, recently investing $5m in an automated sorting facility.
    • Dual-track funding: The IPO preparation is running concurrently with a $32m private funding round, suggesting Bosta is securing a liquidity cushion regardless of market volatility.

    Automation as the moat

    Bosta’s valuation is heavily tied to its operational efficiency. Last week, the company inaugurated a $5m automated sorting machine in Cairo — a facility it claims is the largest of its kind in the Middle East.

    Developed by Egyptian manufacturer Simplex, the machine can process 11,000 shipments per hour (roughly 250k daily). This automation is critical to Bosta’s 2026 target: delivering 80m parcels annually, more than double the 37m it handled in 2025.

    “Automation is not optional; it’s essential,” says CEO Mohamed Ezzat. “This investment reflects the scale required to enable the next wave of Egyptian e-commerce.”

    Shifting from “Last-Mile” to “Everything-Transport”

    Bosta is no longer just delivering small parcels to consumers. Operations Manager Karim El-Deeb recently confirmed a strategic expansion into heavy transport and B2B logistics.

    This new business line will move oversized goods between factories and retailers using large-scale trucks and semi-trailers. By diversifying into the industrial supply chain, Bosta aims to mitigate the seasonal volatility of consumer e-commerce — such as the “Black Friday” peaks where the company already handles over 200,000 shipments in a single day.

    The “Valu” Blueprint

    The EGX was once viewed as a difficult venue for tech startups after the poor public performance of SWVL on the NASDAQ via a SPAC. However, the mood changed in 2025 when fintech Valu successfully listed through an in-kind share distribution by its parent, EFG Holding.

    Valu’s share price surged 852% in its first minutes of trading, proving that local retail and institutional investors have an appetite for high-growth tech platforms, provided they show a clear path to profitability.

    Bosta by the numbers

    MetricCurrent stats
    Estimated market share~20% of Egypt’s domestic parcel delivery market
    Infrastructure50 warehouses; 8,000+ riders/couriers
    Funding to date~$27m raised prior to reported IPO plans
    Technology focusWhatsApp-based shipment confirmation; AI-enabled address detection; automated sorting
    Geographic reachNationwide coverage across all Egyptian governorates, including New Valley and Sharm El Sheikh

    What’s next?

    The success of Bosta’s float will depend on investor confidence in the Egyptian Pound and the company’s ability to maintain margins while expanding into the low-margin, high-volume heavy transport sector. If successful, Bosta will provide a blueprint for other Middle Eastern “last-mile” players, like Saudi’s Nana or UAE’s iMile, to look closer at their domestic exchanges rather than chasing elusive Western listings.

    African Startup Deal Tracker — Newest Deals

    Staff Writer
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    African Startup Deal Tracker — Newest Deals

    While the spotlight often shines on headline-grabbing mega-rounds, the bedrock of Africa’s rapidly growing startup ecosystem lies in the consistent flow of smaller (or missed bigger rounds), yet equally vital, investments. This month’s edition of the African Startup Deal Tracker delves into these under-the-radar transactions, encompassing pre-seed funding, angel investments, and strategic acquisitions that collectively paint a picture of sustained growth and investor confidence across the continent. These deals, spanning diverse sectors from agri-tech to legal tech, highlight the ingenuity of African startup founders and the breadth of opportunities being seized.

    Here’s a closer look at the notable under-the-radar investment activity we’re tracking this month:

    FitXpert

    • Investment: Seven-figure USD (at least $1,000,000+).
    • Investor(s): Foras Investment (led by Mohamed Abouelnaga Negaty) under the 0107 Invest initiative.
    • Sector/Focus: Healthtech / Vertical SaaS. An end-to-end software platform for fitness trainers, nutrition centers, and clinics that centralizes client management, program design, and progress tracking.
    • Country of Operation: Egypt.
    • Purpose: To enhance the technology stack, strengthen operational capabilities, and accelerate expansion into regional markets, specifically targeting the Gulf (GCC) region.

    Mylo (B-TECH Subsidiary)

    • Investment: $37,263,030 (EGP 1.76 Billion) via a second securitization bond issuance.
    • Investor(s): Public debt market (with EG Bank acting as custodian).
    • Sector/Focus: Fintech / Consumer Finance. A Shari’a-compliant digital finance platform offering flexible installment solutions across more than 5,000 brands.
    • Country of Operation: Egypt.
    • Purpose: To diversify funding sources, scale digital finance solutions, grow the user base, expand the merchant partnership network, and invest in the platform’s technological infrastructure.

    Mamy Eyewear

    • Investment: Undisclosed strategic funding.
    • Investor(s): Ikemori Venture Support (IVS) (Japanese family office).
    • Sector/Focus: Optical Retail / Healthtech. A vertically integrated optical retailer offering stylish prescription glasses starting at $15. The platform uses AI-powered eye tests and a direct-to-consumer model to deliver glasses in as little as two hours.
    • Country of Operation: Kenya (HQ) with plans for East African expansion.
    • Purpose: To scale operations efficiently across East Africa, strengthen the startup’s operational foundation, and build a reference optical retail brand in the region.

    ReparTrust

    • Investment: $750,000 (approx. MAD 7.5 million) Pre-seed round.
    • Investor(s): Business angels and private investors.
    • Sector/Focus: Auto Repairtech / Insurtech. A digital platform that industrializes post-accident automotive repairs through real-time tracking, AI-assisted pre-inspections, and a proprietary ReparTrust Scoring system for garages. It is integrated with Piyes.com for sustainable parts sourcing.
    • Country of Operation: Morocco.
    • Purpose: To digitize the fragmented automotive repair ecosystem in Morocco, optimize costs for insurers and fleet operators, and prepare for a subsequent seed round to fuel regional expansion.

    Paycrest

    • Investment: $404,000 Pre-seed round.
    • Investor(s): Hashed Emergent, StarkWare, LAVA, Microtraction, and Sunny Side Venture Partners, alongside various angel investors.
    • Sector/Focus: Fintech / Web3 Infrastructure. A decentralized stablecoin-fiat settlement infrastructure that acts as a routing layer, matching B2B stablecoin demand with verified local liquidity providers to ensure predictable, fast conversions to local currency (Naira).
    • Country of Operation: Nigeria.
    • Purpose: To refine the core product, strengthen compliance frameworks, and establish strategic partnerships to bridge the gap between digital dollars and usable local currency for businesses and marketplaces.

    Pil (by Cardtonic)

    • Investment: $2.1 million Seed round.
    • Investor(s): Undisclosed (noted as the first outside capital for the previously bootstrapped company).
    • Sector/Focus: Fintech / Business Spend Management. A purpose-built platform designed to give businesses total control over their finances. It features a multi-card management system for teams, real-time transaction tracking, and support for funding in local currencies (Naira, Cedis) or stablecoins (USDC, USDT).
    • Country of Operation: Nigeria and Ghana (Headquartered in Nigeria).
    • Purpose: To build Pil as a standalone “operating system for business spend,” launch the product in January 2026, and solve corporate challenges regarding unreliable payment methods, high fees, and lack of real-time expense accountability.

    Metro Africa Xpress (MAX)

    • Investment: $24 million (Mixed Equity and Debt).
    • Investor(s): Equity: Equitane DMCC, Novastar, and Endeavor Catalyst. Debt: Energy Entrepreneurs Growth Fund (EEGF) and other development finance partners.
    • Sector/Focus: Mobility Fintech / Electric Vehicles (EV). An integrated electric mobility platform that provides financing for electric two- and three-wheelers, local vehicle assembly (capacity of 3,600 units/month), and battery-swapping infrastructure.
    • Country of Operation: Nigeria (currently profitable), expanding into West and Central Africa.
    • Purpose: To scale its EV fleet and clean energy infrastructure, deepen proprietary fleet management and IoT systems, and support the company’s goal of reaching 250,000 drivers by 2027 while expanding its pan-African footprint.

    Cold Solutions Kiambu

    • Investment: $19 million.
    • Investor(s): Mirova (an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers) through the Mirova Gigaton Fund.
    • Sector/Focus: Cold Chain Logistics / Climate Infrastructure. Specializes in temperature-controlled storage for the agricultural and pharmaceutical sectors. The facility uses high-efficiency ammonia-based refrigeration and rooftop solar panels to reduce climate impact.
    • Country of Operation: Kenya (Tatu City, Kiambu).
    • Purpose: To scale up low-carbon cold chain infrastructure in East Africa, aiming to reduce post-harvest food losses (which affect over 38% of production in sub-Saharan Africa) and strengthen regional health systems.

    MyCredit

    • Investment: $3 million in senior debt (Total debt raised to date: $13.6 million).
    • Investor(s): An undisclosed international microfinance lender (Advised by Noblestride Capital).
    • Sector/Focus: Fintech / Digital Lending. A non-deposit-taking microfinance institution providing fast, flexible credit to segments often excluded from traditional banking.
    • Country of Operation: Kenya.
    • Purpose: To strengthen the balance sheet and expand lending capacity for MSMEs, private schools, salaried individuals, and entrepreneurs, supporting responsible growth after a decade of operations.

    OneDosh

    • Investment: $3 million Pre-seed round.
    • Investor(s): Undisclosed (Founded by Jackson Ukuevo, Godwin Okoye, and Babatunde Osinowo).
    • Sector/Focus: Fintech / Stablecoin Infrastructure. Building global payment rails that use stablecoins for cross-border transfers and global spending via cards compatible with Apple Pay and Google Pay.
    • Country of Operation: United States and Nigeria (Initial corridors).
    • Purpose: To accelerate expansion into new corridors, deepen liquidity partnerships, and enable senior hires to build foundational infrastructure that connects wallets and cards globally.

    Beacon Power Services (BPS)

    • Investment: Undisclosed debt facility.
    • Investor(s): Symbiotics (Market access platform for impact investing).
    • Sector/Focus: Energy-tech / Grid Management. Provides data-driven and AI-powered solutions for electricity utilities, including a GIS-enabled mapping platform, real-time grid visibility, and revenue protection tools.
    • Country of Operation: Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, Tanzania, and Togo.
    • Purpose: To modernize electricity distribution and improve grid reliability. Specifically, the funds will be used to purchase and deploy smart meters for grid assets (substations and transformers), helping utilities reduce grid losses, increase revenue recovery, and preemptively detect outages.

    Tuteria

    • Investment: $2.6 million.
    • Investor(s): Enza Capital and Chui Ventures.
    • Sector/Focus: Edtech / B2C Tutoring Marketplace. An online platform that connects students with verified home tutors. The marketplace covers a wide range of subjects, including pure sciences, exam preparation, language learning, and lifestyle skills like photography.
    • Country of Operation: Nigeria.
    • Purpose: To scale its online marketplace, strengthen its tutor verification processes, and expand the reach of its one-on-one lesson bookings to more students across the region.

    Hurupay

    • Investment: Undisclosed (Early Stage VC).
    • Investor(s): Founders, Inc. and Base Ecosystem Fund (with additional grant support from Prezenti/Celo Foundation).
    • Sector/Focus: Fintech / Stablecoin Payments. A mobile platform providing stablecoin-backed virtual accounts (USD, EUR, GBP) that allow users to receive international payments via ACH, Wire, and SEPA. The app features “Earn” (high-yield savings up to 10% APY) and “Invest” (US stock trading powered by stablecoins).
    • Country of Operation: Headquartered in San Francisco and Nairobi, with primary operations in Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria. It is currently accessible in over 100 countries including the Philippines and Brazil.
    • Purpose: To build out global stablecoin payment infrastructure, expand its US stock trading features for underserved markets, and provide a hedge against local currency volatility for freelancers, remote workers, and SMEs.

    Aya Data

    • Investment: $900,000 (Latest seed tranche, bringing total seed funding to approximately $1.8 million).
    • Investor(s): Led by 54Collective (formerly Founders Factory Africa) with participation from several angel investors.
    • Sector/Focus: AI Consultancy / Data Annotation / Agritech. The startup provides high-quality data labeling (images, video, text) for training Large Language Models (LLMs) and develops custom AI solutions.
    • Country of Operation: Ghana.
    • Purpose: To scale its two flagship products: AyaGrow (an AI-powered crop and field monitoring tool for precision agriculture) and AyaSpeech (an end-to-end speech-to-speech solution for local African languages). The funds will also support the recruitment and upskilling of local talent into advanced data engineering and data science roles.

    Business For Teens

    • Investment: Six-figure USD (at least $100,000+) Pre-seed round.
    • Investor(s): Led by Salah Abou Elmagd (training and sales expert) and a group of angel investors.
    • Sector/Focus: Edtech / Financial Literacy. An educational platform teaching entrepreneurship and financial literacy to teenagers (ages 10–16) through project-based learning and startup simulations.
    • Country of Operation: Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
    • Purpose: To expand operations, enhance program offerings, and deepen partnerships with schools across Egypt and the GCC, with a target of training over 6,000 students by the end of 2026.

    From Burn to Build: Glamera Acquires Bookr After Outlasting Egypt’s Fashion-Tech Bust

    Staff Writer
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    From Burn to Build: Glamera Acquires Bookr After Outlasting Egypt’s Fashion-Tech Bust

    In a move that signals a deepening consolidation within the Middle East’s fragmented lifestyle technology sector, Glamera Holding has signed a memorandum of understanding to acquire Kuwait’s Bookr Group. The deal, announced on Wednesday, marks a significant strategic pivot for Glamera — a company that has managed to survive the aggressive “burn-and-burst” cycle that decimated many of its North African peers between 2022 and 2025.

    The acquisition allows Glamera, a Riyadh-headquartered firm founded by Egyptian entrepreneurs Mohamed Hassan Hegazy and Omar Fathy, to absorb Bookr’s established footprint in Kuwait and Bahrain. Bookr Group operates a multi-market service-provider management platform and a consumer booking application with over 300,000 users.

    The Survivor’s Strategy

    The venture capital “gold rush” that flooded North African fashion-tech in the early 2020s soured into a cautionary tale. Once-celebrated Egyptian ventures like The Fashion Kingdom (TFK), La Reina, and Brantu — startups that collectively commanded millions in seed capital — have since vanished, victims of a “funding winter” that exposed the fragility of high-burn, inventory-heavy models.

    Glamera’s survival, by contrast, is a masterclass in defensive positioning. While its peers chased the fickle whims of direct-to-consumer (D2C) retail, Glamera pivoted to a “boring but beautiful” B2B SaaS and fintech ecosystem. By digitizing the back-office operations of clinics, salons, and spas, the company traded the high customer acquisition costs of e-commerce for the high-margin, recurring revenue of the wellness sector.

    Crucially, Glamera’s longevity was secured by a timely “Saudi-fication” strategy. After a modest $250,000 launch in Riyadh in 2020, the company systematically shifted its gravity toward the Kingdom. This transition culminated in October 2022 with a $1.3 million funding round that saw Glamera re-domicile as a Saudi-based entity — escaping the macroeconomic volatility of the Egyptian market just as it began to peak.

    The move paid off: Glamera has now processed over SAR 4 billion ($1.07 billion) in transactions, a figure that anchors its position as a regional heavyweight with more than 4,500 service providers under its wing.

    Strategic Logic: Beyond Booking

    The integration of Bookr Group is not merely a land grab for market share. According to Glamera’s CEO, Mohamed Hassan Hegazy, the move is a prerequisite for the company’s “next phase of growth,” which includes a planned stock market listing.

    “This acquisition marks our transition from a rapidly growing startup into a mature regional platform,” Hegazy stated. “It paves the way for a unified, AI-based ecosystem that will serve both service providers and users across the Gulf.”

    The acquisition is expected to yield several operational synergies:

    • AI Integration: Glamera plans to deploy specialized AI models to optimize salon operations and user booking experiences.
    • Fintech Expansion: Leveraging its existing licensing (including a SoftPOS MSP certificate from Saudi Payments), Glamera intends to roll out integrated digital payment solutions across Bookr’s Kuwaiti and Bahraini networks.
    • Market Penetration: The deal provides an immediate “plug-and-play” entry into the Kuwaiti market, which has recently seen robust double-digit growth in digital retail and services.

    A New Regional Playbook

    For Zeina Al-Badr, CEO of Bookr Group, the deal reflects a “strategic alignment” necessary to survive in a market increasingly dominated by capital-efficient giants. “This partnership positions us on a clear path to rapidly scale revenues and build the largest unified platform in the GCC,” she said.

    The broader MENA startup landscape in 2026 is vastly different from the speculative boom of 2021. Investors have shifted their “flight to quality,” favoring companies like Glamera that demonstrate a path to profitability and possess the infrastructure to survive macroeconomic headwinds like currency depreciation and inflation.

    By acquiring Bookr, Glamera is effectively building a “super-app” for the regional beauty industry — incorporating everything from supply chain management and point-of-sale systems to AI-driven analytics. It is a playbook that suggests the future of Middle Eastern tech lies not in imitating Western giants, but in consolidating specialized regional niches into defensible, high-margin ecosystems.

    “Harder to Build, but More Defensible”: Enakl Co-Founder on Tackling Morocco’s Commuter Chaos

    Udoh Charles
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    “Harder to Build, but More Defensible”: Enakl Co-Founder on Tackling Morocco’s Commuter Chaos

    The North African mobility landscape is undergoing a fundamental shift. The era of high-burn ride-hailing wars is giving way to a new frontier: efficiency-first logistics. At the forefront of this movement is Enakl, a Moroccan startup that recently signaled its market dominance by closing a $2.3 million Seed funding round in late 2025.

    With total funding now reaching $3.7 million — backed by a powerhouse consortium including Azur Innovation Fund, Witamax, MFounders, and returning investors Catalyst Fund and Digital Africa — Enakl is no longer just a “startup to watch.” It is a structural player in the region’s economic infrastructure.

    Founded in 2022 by Samir Bennani and Charles Pommarede, Enakl has deliberately avoided the “Uber-clone” trap. Instead, they are dismantling the structural inefficiencies of the daily home-to-work commute in Morocco’s dense urban centers. By transforming the traditional “private car” model into a data-driven, shared network, they are solving a problem that is as much about social mobility as it is about transportation.

    Launch Base Africa sat down with Co-Founder Charles Pommarede to discuss the “pragmatic scaling” philosophy that won over investors, the 15-year partnership behind the brand, and why the hardest models to build are often the most durable.

    How did you meet the investors, and what excited them about investing in Enakl?

    Our three new investors came through long-standing relationships and warm introductions. These were not one-off pitch meetings. In several cases, such as with Azur Innovation and Witamax, they had been following Enakl’s progress for months.

    What ultimately convinced them was straightforward: we are solving a real, operational problem — helping commuters move daily in fast-growing cities. They saw clear early traction, paying clients, recurring revenue, and a team with prior entrepreneurial experience and deep market knowledge.

    Importantly, they also recognised that shared mobility in Morocco and across Africa is not just a sustainability issue. It is a structural economic and social challenge, driven by strong and growing demand.

    What does Enakl do, and what is the inspiration behind it?

    Enakl designs and operates shared transport networks for companies and public-sector actors. We manage routing, optimisation, day-to-day operations, and reporting, allowing our clients to avoid the complexity of running transport systems themselves.

    The inspiration came from everyday realities: long commutes, unsafe or informal transport options, empty seats, traffic congestion, and lost productivity. We built Enakl to make commuting simpler, safer, and more efficient, using data and real operational control. 

    How did you assemble the co-founders?

    Samir Bennani and I have known each other for more than fifteen years.

    We were first introduced while each of us was launching our own companies — Samir with Manavette, which is still operating, and me with Maroc Integration, which I later sold to the Anywr Group, where it also remains active. Over the years, we followed each other’s entrepreneurial journeys, advised one another, and built a strong personal and professional relationship. Enakl is the result of that long-term trust and shared experience.

    We met our CTO, Ahmed Omrane, about six months after starting the project and invited him to join the team to lead the development of our technology.

    What does competition look like?

    Competition is highly fragmented.

    On one side, there are traditional public transport operators, who often have limited technology and lack flexibility. On the other, ride-hailing companies offer an alternative, but they are expensive and not sustainable at large scale for structured commuting needs.

    There is also a vast informal transport market. While widespread, it is often unsafe, uncomfortable, and unreliable — a major pain point for companies and public institutions.

    Enakl sits between these options. We combine technology, data, and tightly controlled operations. That makes the model harder to build, but also more robust and defensible.

    What challenges are currently facing startups like yours in Morocco, and what solutions do you propose?

    Sales cycles with large corporates and public-sector actors can be long. Access to long-term capital is also a challenge, particularly for startups with operational components, not just pure software.

    Our response is discipline: build real, recurring revenue early and maintain tight control over execution.

    At a broader ecosystem level, stronger collaboration between corporates, public institutions, and local investment funds would significantly accelerate impact and make it easier for operational startups to scale.

    What advice can you offer other founders based on your experience so far?

    Focus on recurring revenue from the beginning. 

    Build relationships with investors before you need funding by sharing regular, transparent updates — this builds trust over time.

    Above all, build something people are willing to pay for, even if it is not perfect at first.

    What lies ahead for Enakl? 

    Enakl is focused on pragmatic scaling. We are expanding with existing clients, launching pilots with public-sector partners, and strengthening our technology and data layer.

    Our objective is not growth at all costs. It is to build a durable company that improves daily mobility at scale in emerging urban environments.

    Udoh Charles

    Charles has carved a niche at the forefront of Africa’s booming tech scene. With years of experience, Udoh has become a go-to expert for multi-million dollar deals in venture capital, private equity, and intellectual property across a vast landscape — from Delaware and New York to Singapore and South Africa. But his expertise extends beyond just the legalese. Udoh is also a corporate governance, data privacy, and tax whiz. An award-winning writer and researcher, he’s passionate about chronicling Africa’s startup story, cementing his position as a true pioneer in the field.

    Inside the 2025 Playbook of Africa’s Most Active Tech Investors

    Staff Writer
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    Inside the 2025 Playbook of Africa’s Most Active Tech Investors

    When British International Investment wrote its ninth cheque of 2025, the pattern was unmistakable. Like eight of its previous investments that year, the deal went to a cleantech company. It wasn’t an accident.

    Across Africa’s venture capital ecosystem in 2025, a fundamental recalibration took place. While total disclosed funding reached $3.1 billion — excluding grants — the distribution revealed something more significant than the headline number: a collective pivot by the continent’s most sophisticated investors toward foundational infrastructure.

    This isn’t a story about who invested the most. It’s about what the continent’s sharpest institutional minds concluded was actually worth backing — and what that reveals about Africa’s tech trajectory over the next decade.

    Tier 1: Infrastructure Architects

    Two development finance institutions dominated the top tier of activity: British International Investment with nine-plus deals and Norway’s Norfund with nine. But calling them the most active investors misses the point. They’re not simply writing cheques — they’re placing calculated bets on the economic architecture that will underpin everything else.

    BII’s thesis is brutally clear: 73% of its portfolio went to cleantech and energy companies. Six of nine deals. The remaining investments? Agritech. The message: basic amenities such as electricity are key to industrialisation and digitization.

    The geographic concentration reinforces this conviction. Nigeria and Kenya anchor the portfolio, with strategic positions in Senegal, Rwanda, and Ghana. These aren’t randomly selected markets. They’re countries where energy deficits create acute economic drag and where regulatory frameworks have achieved sufficient stability to support infrastructure investment.

    Norfund mirrors the strategy with even greater concentration: 67% in cleantech and energy. When you identify a company solving energy access at scale in Africa, their approach suggests, you don’t diversify away from the thesis. You double down.

    The returns timeline tells you everything about their strategic patience. These aren’t bets on quick exits through acquisition. They’re equity positions in the solar panels, battery systems, and mini-grids that will underpin the next thirty years of economic expansion.

    The Scale Players: Talent Arbitrage and Underserved Markets

    Y Combinator deployed capital in eight deals, Digital Africa in fourteen-plus. But these two institutions are running a different playbook entirely: talent arbitrage in markets where technical capability has reached critical mass.

    YC’s geographic distribution is revealing: three investments in Nigeria, two in Egypt, plus strategic positions in Ethiopia and South Africa. The sectors span fintech, artificial intelligence, e-commerce, and developer tools. The common thread isn’t vertical focus. It’s founder quality in specific ecosystems.

    YC’s strategy has largely been to back the strongest technical founders in markets exceeding 100 million people, regardless of what they’re building.

    Digital Africa operates with broader geographic ambition. Investments span Tunisia, Ghana, Cameroon, Tanzania, Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda, and Morocco. While commercial venture firms increasingly retreat from frontier markets, Digital Africa explicitly backs capable founders in capital-scarce environments before larger investors arrive.

    The portfolio covers AI/IoT, fintech, agritech, and logistics. The bet: find execution capability in underserved markets and provide patient capital ahead of the market.

    Tier 2: The Specialists

    The clean energy cartel

    Three firms demonstrate what genuine sector specialization looks like:

    • All On: Six deals, every one in Nigeria, every one in cleantech

    • CEI Africa: Six deals in cleantech across five countries

    • E3 Capital: Five deals, three in clean energy

    These portfolios reflect a fundamental understanding: in Africa, energy isn’t a sector competing with others for capital allocation. It’s the foundational layer enabling every other sector.

    But their geographic strategies diverge significantly. All On pursues market depth in Nigeria exclusively, betting that regulatory clarity and market scale justify concentration. CEI Africa spreads across Kenya, Nigeria, Benin, and the Democratic Republic of Congo — a portfolio suggesting they’ve identified a repeatable deployment model that works across regulatory environments.

    E3 Capital concentrates in South Africa with three of five investments, expanding into Nigeria and Ghana. They’re following established capital flows rather than chasing the greatest energy access need.

    The competitive advantage these firms have built isn’t replicable. They understand solar panel degradation curves, battery cycle economics, and power purchase agreement structures. Generalist investors can’t match this technical diligence capability. The specialization creates deal flow — founders actively seek them out — and execution speed.

    The Egypt Focus Group

    Three venture firms have made Egypt market domination their explicit strategy:

    • Beltone Venture Capital: Five deals, all in Egypt

    • 4DX Ventures: Four deals, three in Egypt, one in Kenya

    • A15: Three deals, all in Egypt

    The concentration reflects calculated market assessment. Egypt offers a 105 million person Arabic-speaking market, high mobile penetration with persistent low financial inclusion, regulatory frameworks that have improved materially, and valuations that remain below those in Nigeria or Kenya.

    But examine the sectoral differences. Beltone backs consumer behavior change: quick commerce, e-commerce, healthtech, HR-tech. 4DX focuses on transaction volume growth through e-commerce and fintech. A15 builds B2B infrastructure — healthtech, renewable energy, HR-tech, and enterprise AI.

    They’re not making identical bets. They’re betting on different layers of the same economic stack. Beltone believes consumer habits are shifting. 4DX believes transaction volumes will grow. A15 believes enterprise infrastructure needs upgrading. This is ecosystem depth, not herd behavior.

    The Strategic Fintech Investors

    Visa’s investment strategy illuminates how corporate venture capital operates differently from traditional VCs. Over five disclosed deals in 2025, every one in fintech, spanning Tunisia, Morocco, Nigeria, and Ghana.

    The thesis is transparent: invest in companies that will drive transaction volume through Visa’s payment rails. These aren’t financial return optimization exercises. They’re strategic moat building.

    The geographic spread across four separate regulatory jurisdictions reveals Visa’s strategic conclusion: African fintech won’t consolidate continentally. Instead, market-by-market winners will emerge, connected through global payment infrastructure. Visa is taking equity positions in each market’s probable champion.

    AfricInvest deployed capital in four deals — two in fintech, two split between healthtech and agritech — across Morocco, Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa. The portfolio represents classical multi-sector venture construction with geographic risk distribution.

    Agtech-focused capital

    Catalyst Fund (5 deals, several in agritech) and DOB Equity (3 agribusiness deals) concentrated in East Africa, where smallholder farming, climate exposure and mobile financial infrastructure create demand for supply-chain platforms, financing models and climate resilience tools. The investments are less about frontier robotics than about market access, risk management and working capital.

    Deep tech in South Africa

    Funds such as E Squared Investments and Fireball Capital leaned into biotech, medtech and advanced technology ventures in South Africa. The country’s research base and university infrastructure support longer-cycle, IP-heavy businesses that differ from high-velocity fintech models elsewhere on the continent.

    Tier 3: The Diversified Strategists

    Investors making deals without complete sector specialization represent a different strategic approach: geographic diversification with concentrated sector expertise.

    Partech Africa made at least five investments: two in Nigeria, two in Egypt, one in South Africa. Sectors span fintech, emergency response, proptech, and e-commerce. Renew Capital’s five deals spread across Ghana, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Morocco, covering reselling, social media, fintech, and AI.

    Launch Africa Ventures invested in four companies across Morocco, Cameroon, South Africa, and Tunisia, with three of four in fintech. The pattern: geographic risk distribution while maintaining sector concentration of 40% to 60%, typically in fintech plus one adjacent vertical.

    This portfolio construction strategy hedges against single-market regulatory changes, currency volatility, and political instability while building sufficient domain expertise to maintain competitive advantage in deal selection and value creation.

    Nairobi-based Enza Capital, founded in 2019, deployed capital in at least seven deals during 2025, placing it among Africa’s most active venture firms. The portfolio reveals a strategic focus distinct from the infrastructure and cleantech emphasis dominating the top tier.

    The firm’s investments span fintech, logistics, health, human capital management, education, and climate solutions across Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria, Cote D’Ivoire, and Ghana. 

    The contrarian developer tools bet

    One investment pattern stands apart as genuinely contrarian: P1 Ventures’ focus on developer infrastructure and tooling.

    Five investments across Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt target developer tools, DevOps, and AI infrastructure. Companies like Better Auth, Stakpak, and Salus Cloud aren’t building consumer applications. They’re building the infrastructure other developers will use to build applications.

    The thesis represents a second-order bet: as Africa’s software ecosystem matures, demand for specialized developer productivity tools will emerge and grow.

    It’s a meta-layer wager on ecosystem growth. Developer tools offer attractive unit economics — low customer acquisition costs, high gross margins typical of SaaS, significant customer stickiness, and global addressable markets that extend beyond Africa.

    Key Strategic Insights for 2025

    Analyzing the investment behavior of Africa’s most active investors in 2025 reveals strategic patterns that distinguish sophisticated institutional thinking from opportunistic capital deployment.

    1. Market depth beats market breadth

    Egypt specialists — Beltone, 4DX, A15 — and South Africa specialists like E Squared and Fireball Capital chose market dominance over geographic diversification. The strategic advantage is clear: deeper local networks enable faster movement, better deal access, superior value creation capability, and improved bargaining position.

    Concentrated portfolios in high-quality markets systematically outperform thinly spread portfolios across many countries where the investor has limited operational capacity.

    2. Sector specialization as competitive moat

    Cleantech and agritech specialists have built technical diligence capabilities that generalist investors cannot replicate. All On, having evaluated six Nigerian solar companies, understands mini-grid economics better than any generalist ever will.

    This specialization creates compounding advantages: founders seek specialist investors for their expertise, enabling deal flow superiority. Technical knowledge enables faster diligence. Domain expertise allows material value creation post-investment. The network effect strengthens with each deployment.

    3. Strategic versus financial optimization

    Corporate venture arms like Google, Visa, and Standard Bank optimize for different outcomes than traditional VCs. Google backs companies that increase African digital penetration — expanding the addressable market for Google’s core products. Visa invests in payment infrastructure that drives transaction volume through its rails. Standard Bank seeks partnership opportunities to modernize its service delivery.

    For founders, this creates opportunity: corporate VCs may accept lower headline ownership percentages but impose stricter strategic requirements around technical integration, data access, or partnership exclusivity.

    The Bottom Line: Patience as Strategy

    A unifying trait across all tiers of top investors is a long-term horizon. Whether it’s DFIs funding 30-year energy transitions, Egypt-focused firms building multi-fund franchises, or deep-tech investors navigating decade-long R&D cycles, the prevailing mindset is one of patience. The investment patterns of 2025 suggest that winning in Africa’s venture landscape is less about spotting fleeting trends and more about committing to specialised, structural theses with conviction.

    Methodology: This analysis incorporates disclosed transactions publicly reported through December 2025. Funding figures exclude grants. Sector classifications reflect primary business focus as reported by portfolio companies. Geographic allocations represent company headquarters locations. Investment counts reflect deals where terms were publicly disclosed. Angel investors and individual limited partners are excluded from this analysis.

    Further Reading: 

    • Every African Tech Investment Tracked in 2025 — All in One Place. Download Now.
    • The Most Up-to-Date List of Funds, Angel Investors and Active VCs African Startups Can Pitch to in 2026 (1000+)— Before Everyone Else. Download Now.
    • New VC Firms and Funds Backing African Startups in 2026 . Download Now.

    From Payments to Credit: Nigerian Fintech Moniepoint Deploys $720M to Corner Shops and Supermarkets

    Staff Writer
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    From Payments to Credit: Nigerian Fintech Moniepoint Deploys $720M to Corner Shops and Supermarkets

    Moniepoint Group, the Nigerian-born financial services titan, has effectively transitioned from a dominant payment processor into a high-volume credit engine. According to the company’s 2025 performance data, the group’s banking subsidiary disbursed over ₦1 trillion ($720.14 million) in credit to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) over the past year.

    The milestone signals a strategic pivot for the unicorn, which now leverages its massive transaction data to underwrite loans in a market where traditional commercial banks have historically been hesitant to lend.

    From Payments to Pillars of Credit

    A decade after its inception, Moniepoint has integrated itself into the fabric of the Nigerian economy. The group reports that it now serves over 6 million businesses and 16 million individual customers.

    Perhaps the most significant metric in its latest review is the market penetration of its point-of-sale (POS) infrastructure. The company claims that 8 out of 10 in-person payments in Nigeria are now processed through a Moniepoint terminal. This dominance provided the data runway necessary to launch its aggressive credit expansion.

    Loan Distribution by Sector

    The ₦1 trillion in credit was not concentrated in tech or high finance, but rather distributed across the “real economy.”

    Business CategoryShare of Credit
    Provision Stores15%
    Building Materials8%
    Raw Foods7%
    Drinks & Water Wholesales7%
    Supermarkets5%

    Moniepoint asserts that businesses accessing this credit saw an average growth rate of 36%, suggesting that the liquidity is being utilized for inventory expansion and operational scaling rather than mere debt servicing.

    Scaling the “Economic Engine”

    The scale of capital moving through the platform highlights the sheer volume of Nigeria’s informal and semi-formal trade. In 2025, Moniepoint processed over ₦30 trillion ($21.6 billion) in total transactions, averaging 1 billion transactions per month.

    To support this volume and diversify its revenue streams, the group secured a National Microfinance Bank License. This regulatory upgrade allows the firm to expand its deposit-taking capabilities and lending limits nationwide. Furthermore, its parent entity, TeamApt, has transitioned into a global processor and acquirer, securing licenses from Mastercard and Visa to facilitate international card payments.

    “2025 has evolved from just enabling transactions to steadily becoming a banking institution that powers Nigeria’s economic engine,” the company stated in its annual review.

    Global Ambitions and Diversification

    While Nigeria remains its primary theatre, Moniepoint has begun looking toward the diaspora. The launch of MonieWorld, a payment solution for Nigerians in the United Kingdom, marks its first major foray into the European market.

    Closer to home, the group has expanded its software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings with Moniebook, an all-in-one bookkeeping and payment platform. This move seeks to lock in SME users by providing the digital tools necessary for formalizing their financial records — data which, in turn, fuels Moniepoint’s lending algorithms.

    2025 Consumer Spend Highlights

    The data also provides a rare window into Nigerian consumer behavior during a period of significant macroeconomic shifts:

    • Food Security: Nigerians spent over ₦2 billion ($1.44 million) daily on food through the platform.
    • Staples: Over ₦1.7 trillion ($1.22 billion) was processed at bakeries nationwide.
    • Savings: Since relaunching its savings product in October 2025, 60% of users now save daily, with the most common target amounts ranging between ₦200,000 and ₦500,000 ($144 to $360).

    The Institutional Outlook

    Despite the volatile Nigerian Naira, Moniepoint’s growth trajectory has garnered international recognition, appearing on the Financial Times list of Africa’s fastest-growing companies and the Time 100 most influential companies of 2025.

    The challenge moving forward will be managing the risk associated with a ₦1 trillion loan book in an inflationary environment. However, with 3,300 employees across 19 countries and a firm grip on the country’s retail payment flow, Moniepoint appears positioned to act as a private-sector proxy for the Nigerian central bank’s financial inclusion goals.

    Moroccan Mobility Startup Enakl Secures $2.3M Seed Round to Tackle Commuter Gridlock  

    Staff Writer
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    Moroccan Mobility Startup Enakl Secures $2.3M Seed Round to Tackle Commuter Gridlock  

    The North African mobility landscape is shifting from ride-hailing wars to efficiency-first logistics. Moroccan startup Enakl has announced the closing of a $2.3m Seed funding round, finalized in late 2025. This follows a $1.4m pre-seed round in 2024, bringing the company’s total funding to $3.7m.

    The round was led by a consortium of Moroccan and international backers. New investors include Azur Innovation Fund, Witamax, and MFounders, while existing shareholders Catalyst Fund and Digital Africa doubled down on their initial investments.

    Moving beyond the “private car” model

    Founded in 2022 by Samir Bennani and Charles Pommarède, Enakl isn’t trying to be the next Uber. Instead, it is targeting the structural inefficiency of home-to-work commutes in Morocco’s densely populated urban centers.

    The company’s core value proposition lies in its proprietary technology — developed over 18 months of R&D — which designs and operates flexible, shared transport networks. By using algorithms to optimize routes and vehicle occupancy in real-time, Enakl aims to provide a middle ground between expensive private taxis and the often rigid, over-capacity public bus lines.

    Bridging the gap to the public sector

    While many mobility startups struggle to find a seat at the table with government authorities, Enakl has managed to breach the public-sector barrier. In 2025, the startup secured a pilot contract with the Casablanca–Settat Region, a move that signals a growing appetite from Moroccan regulators for tech-driven infrastructure solutions.

    “Enakl addresses a structural challenge in mobility and fleet optimization,” says Adnane Filali, Managing Partner at Azur Innovation Fund. For investors, the appeal lies in the startup’s dual-track approach: serving private corporations looking to transport employees and partnering with public actors to enhance municipal transit.

    The pivot to SaaS

    The fresh capital is earmarked for a strategic shift in Enakl’s business model. While the company currently operates as a service provider, it is preparing to launch a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering.

    This product will allow large corporations and third-party transport operators to license Enakl’s optimization software to manage their own fleets. This transition toward a high-margin software model is a classic move for mobility startups looking to scale without the heavy capital expenditure of owning or leasing thousands of vehicles.

    The $2.3m will be deployed across three key areas:

    • Commercial Expansion: Scaling the sales team to capture more B2B corporate accounts.
    • SaaS Launch: Finalizing the software platform for external operators.
    • New Fleet Models: Testing varied ride-pooling configurations to improve vehicle density.

    What’s Next? 

    Enakl is operating in a high-stakes environment where decarbonization and urban congestion are no longer just “nice-to-have” metrics but economic imperatives. By focusing on shared mobility rather than individual transit, the startup aligns itself with the ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) goals of large Moroccan firms and the regional government.

    The main hurdle will be the pace of adoption. While the software-led model is more scalable, the traditional transport sector in North Africa is notoriously slow to digitize. However, with the backing of both institutional investors and regional authorities, Enakl is well-positioned to turn its pilot projects into a national standard.

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