Funding

VC Trends Watch: July 24–28, 2023

It’s Friday, and the eighth month of the year has rolled in. Is 2023 speeding along or what? Anyway, here’s what happened in the African VC scene between July 24 and 28, 2023.

Bitmama’s Cross-border Payment Platform Changera Integrated with MoneyGram

Last week, Changera, a cross-border payments startup, partnered with MoneyGram, a worldwide pioneer in digital peer-to-peer payments, and the open-source Stellar network to allow customers to make cash-to-crypto deposits and withdrawals worldwide.

Changera is now offering cash-in services in Canada, Senegal, Uganda, and Kenya, as well as cash-out services using USDC, Circle’s stablecoin, through the Stellar blockchain network. These services are available at participating MoneyGram locations in over 180 countries.

According to Changera, individuals in Canada, Senegal, Uganda, and Kenya will experience cost savings and faster transactions when they deposit cash into their Changera Wallets at MoneyGram agents closest to their locations.


20 Ghanaian Start-ups Graduated from UNICEF StartUp Lab Accelerator

After an intensive six-month accelerator program focused on business and product development, 20 of Ghana’s innovative entrepreneurs graduated from the UNICEF StartUp Lab last week.

Throughout the program, each selected start-up was provided with up to GHS 25,000 in prototyping funding, besides immersive and hands-on business acceleration support.

The startups also gained valuable access to a network of experts from UNICEF, KOICA, and MEST, offering significant guidance and fostering networking and investment opportunities.  


Rwanda’s Eden Care Selected for YC Accelerator S23 Batch

Rwandan insurtech start-up, Eden Care, is so far the only African company confirmed as a participant in the S23 batch of the renowned Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator accelerator.

The start-up will receive $500k as per YC’s new standard deal.

Last year, the start-up secured pre-seed funding from DOB Equity, Seedstars International, and other investors and has recently received additional financial support as the first Rwandan company to join the prestigious Y Combinator program. The investment provides them with the opportunity to enhance their growth trajectory and explore new avenues with increased resources.


Nigeria’s Terragon Raised $9M Series B Funding Round to Expand

Terragon, a Nigerian cloud analytics and marketing platform which converts telco channels into mobile advertising inventory, recorded the highest funding round last week. The start-up raised a $9m Series B round led by Orange Ventures to expand its focus on offering mobile B2C messaging backed by deep consumer insights from big data.

Terragon provides a consumer insight and activation platform that collects, organizes, and enriches customer data from various sources to help marketers better understand African consumers.

The investment will enable the business to enhance its platform’s cloud-native capabilities and accelerate the development of localized ML and AI.


Deal Street Wrap-Up

  • FarmWorks, a Kenyan agritech providing farmers with access to farm inputs and a market for their produce, raised $4.1m in a pre-Series A round led by Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund.
  • Clafiya, a Nigerian health-tech startup that offers end-to-end healthcare solutions including online consultations, medicine delivery and partnerships with HMOs, raised $610k in a pre-seed round.
  • Kenyan start-up, Zuri Health, secured additional funding from Five35 Ventures to help it scale its innovative healthcare platform to benefit more people.

More updates on Friday next week.  

Source: weetracker.com


About GetFundedAfrica

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