This Week in African Tech ?? [September 22nd]

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Welcome to Tech Safari Weekly - where we round up everything that happened this week in African Tech.

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Tech roundup

• Bob van Dijk resigns as the CEO and board member of Dutch-listed tech investment company Prosus and its South African parent firm, Naspers. Bob, who served as CEO for nine years, has now been replaced by Ervin Tu, who will serve as interim CEO.
• Nigerian fintech PayDay is looking to sell six months after raising $3 million. They’re in talks with potential buyers and hope to close a deal soon. Payday allows African remote workers to receive various currencies and offers virtual dollar and naira cards, currency swaps, payment links, bill payments, and peer-to-peer transfers.
• Kenya's consumer credit startup, Lipa Later, gets approval to raise funds from the general public in the US. Lipa Later intends to raise on Republic, a global fintech that allows anyone to invest in early startups.

• Elon Musk’s Starlink applies for operating license in Zimbabwe. If granted, Zimbabwe will become one of the African countries connected to Starlink’s internet, joining Nigeria, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Mauritius.
• ESKOM, South Africa’s electric power distributor, predicts that power outages (load shedding) will only get worse in 2024. This year alone, load shedding could cost South Africa $13 billion.
• Telecom giant Safaricom is partnering with Apple Inc. to connect MPESA with PayPal to expand MPESA's global reach. President William Ruto made the announcement during a US-African Business roundtable. While MPESA already connects to PayPal, the details of this new partnership are still unclear.

Deal Roundup

• Zambian neobank Lupiya has raised $8.25 million in Series A funding led by Alitheia IDF Fund. They want to make financial services accessible to more Zambians and expand across Southern and Eastern Africa.

• Nigerian automotive startup Fixit45 has raised $1.9 million in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Launch Africa Ventures and big investors like Soumobroto Ganguly and Dave Delucia.
• Kenyan insure-tech company Turaco has acquired MicroEnsure Ghana, a micro-insurance broker serving low-income customers. This move welcomes Turaco into West Africa, making Ghana its fourth market.
• Egyptian home and décor e-commerce ariika has raised an undisclosed Series A round from Beltone Venture Capital. This gives Beltone a 20% stake in the company.

• Ivory Coast's e-commerce platform, ANKA, has raised $5 million, building on the $6.2 million pre-series A funding they got last year. ANKA is an online shop for African artists, helping them sell clothes, jewelry, and accessories while simplifying sales, shipping, and payment processing.
• Ghanaian agritech startup Complete Farmer has raised $10.4 million in a pre-Series A round. The Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF) and Alitheia Capital co-led the equity portion of the round.
• South Africa’s e-commerce startup, Live Copper, which specializes in building fixtures, has raised an undisclosed amount from Moa Holdings. This gives Moa a 20% state in Live Copper.

Events and Opportunities

In this week’s newsletter, we have a bunch of events and opportunities in African Tech. From exciting conferences to funding programs.

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