Kenya

Umba acquires 66.6% stake in Kenyan microfinance lender Daraja

The Central Bank of Kenya says the deal will “support the stability of Kenya’s microfinance banking sector”.

4G Capital

African neobank 4G Capital goes live on Mambu’s cloud banking platform

The micro and small business-focused bank is looking to scale across East Africa.

SendSprint Flutterwave

Remittance start-up SendSprint launches in UK in partnership with Flutterwave

Flutterwave will provide the infrastructure to enable SendSprint to process cross-border transactions.

4G Capital

African neobank 4G Capital completes Series C round

Global private equity fund Lightrock is investing $18.5 million in the financial inclusion player.

Paytech Dash lands $32.8m seed round to unify Africa’s mobile money wallets

Dash is a unified payment network for the 1.3 billion Africans currently transacting digitally.

African asset financing platform M-Kopa raises $75m in funding

M-Kopa will use the new cash to grow its team and expand into additional countries.

Kenyan start-up MarketForce lands $40m Series A funding

The oversubscribed round was led by Africa-focused investment vehicle V8 Capital Partners.

South African BaaS platform Jumo raises $120m in funding

The company will use the cash to expand into more emerging markets.

Chipper Cash lands unicorn status with $150m Series C extension

The extension brings Chipper Cash’s total funding to date to over $305 million.

Ghana International Bank selects Backbase to drive digital transformation

The Dutch fintech will act as the core strategic partner for the bank’s digital operations.

Safaricom mulls M-Pesa partnership with Amazon

A wider partnership with Amazon “is important”, says CEO.

Airtel Africa sells 25% stake in mobile money arm to Mastercard for $100m

Airtel Africa hopes to list the mobile money business as a separate entity.

Kenyan start-up Powered by People raises $1.5m seed funding

The round was led by Matt Kalish of DraftKings and TBD Angels.

South African paytech Nomanini obtains debt funding

It raised a convertible loan from the MASSIF fund, which is run by FMO.

ImaliPay raises undisclosed amount in pre-seed funding

The undisclosed amount in pre-seed funding came from Australian venture capital firm TEN13.

Kenyan paytech Popote raises funding from GreenHouse Capital

The undisclosed amount of funding will help the paytech scale.

Kenyan agri-insurtech Pula raises $6m Series A

The funding round was led by Pan-African early-stage venture capital firm, TLcom Capital.

Prospa sets out to serve global diaspora of African entrepreneurs

The start-up’s sweet-spot customers are entrepreneurs and micro-SMEs.

Kenyan loans via mobile phones drop 50%, says KCB

Defaults have more than tripled, according to KCB’s CEO.

Standard Chartered and Airtel Africa sign financial inclusion partnership

The two firms plan to boost services in “key” African markets.

Kenyan central bank plans digital lender clampdown

New legislation the latest attempt to stop unregulated lending.

Kenyan lender I&M to become majority owner of Uganda’s Orient Bank

Last year, Orient Bank reported a net loss equivalent to $284,374.

Ingressive doubles African tech start-up fund to $10m

Ingressive averages $200,000 to $400,000 in individual investments.

P2P payments app Chipper Cash lands $13.8m

The San Francisco-based start-up operates across seven African countries.

Standard Chartered to launch new savings product, calls for help from fintechs

The bank has set a ‘challenge’ for start-ups on its ‘Fintech Bridge’ network.

Safaricom and Visa sign M-Pesa partnership

The two firms will work on developing new products for the African payments platform.

Vodacom and Safaricom finalise M-Pesa acquisition

Joint venture takes control of popular mobile money brand from Vodafone.

Jumia steps in to assist Africa amid rising coronavirus numbers

Jumia will help various African governments distribute masks to hospitals.

Inclusion, innovation, and mobile money in Sub-Saharan Africa

“If our systems fail, a big part of the economy would fail,” says exec.

Kenya’s Standard Investment Bank plans $100m FX-focused fund

Mansa X as the fund is known, returned an average 24% and closed at $3 million.

Catalyst Fund raises $15m from JP Morgan and UK Aid for emerging market fintechs

Thirty fintech start-ups from South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, India and Mexico will get funding.

Four fintech & financial inclusion trends for 2020

A gap remains for women, rural residents, & other underserved communities.

Mobile technology enabling financial access to millions

Zenka is challenging its competitors and courageously conquering the Kenyan lending industry.

Equity Group reviews its fintech unit as executives quit

The Kenyan bank is considering running Finserve Africa as a division.

DPO Group acquires PayFast

A major deal for the African paytech sector.

DPO Group launches Africa’s first B2B virtual and prepaid payment card

DumaCard gives businesses in Africa access to new markets by enabling cross-border online payments.

Kenya keen on regulatory fintech sandbox

Capital Markets Authority outlines its plans for innovation.

Standard Chartered launches African digital banking phase two

Bringing its new service to four countries.