Tage Kene-Okafor

Tage Kene-Okafor covers startups and investment activities in Nigeria and Africa for TechCrunch. Before this, Tage reported on the same beat for Techpoint Africa.

You can hit him up at tage.techcrunch@gmail.com

The Latest from Tage Kene-Okafor

Stitch raises $25M Series A extension led by Ribbit Capital, increasing the round’s total to $46M

Open banking, in which traditional banks release their data via application programming interfaces (APIs) to enable the development of new financial services for their consumers, has been one of the m

African VC firm Enza Capital launches founder partner program as it closes $58M across funds

Enza Capital, a venture capital firm that backs startups “organizing the offline online” and “digitizing key African industries,” has closed $58 million across two funds. In 2019, the company

QED and Partech back South African payment orchestration platform Revio in $5.2M seed

The payment landscape in Africa is still fragmented, with several payment operators providing different payment options to customers as well as businesses. Due to this fragmentation, payment failures

Pan-African contrarian investor P1 Ventures reaches $25M first close for its second fund

P1 Ventures has reached the first close of its second fund at $25 million. It expects to reach a final close early next year.

7 global investors discuss African tech post-Kauffman Fellows’ first summit on the continent

In 2020, Kauffman Fellows (KF), a prominent venture education program renowned for its extensive and well-established network of VCs, made a concerted effort to enhance the diversity within its board.

Ghana’s Complete Farmer, which connects farmers to global food buyers, raises $10.4M

Africa’s agricultural sector has a significant social and economic impact, per McKinsey. The percentage of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa exceeds 60%, while agriculture accounts for appro

IFC leads $5M extension round in Ivorian SaaS e-commerce platform ANKA

ANKA, an Ivorian SaaS e-commerce platform for African businesses, has raised $5 million. The pre-Series A extension round is a mix of equity and debt; last January, ANKA, formerly Afrikrea, raised $6.

Mecho Autotech raises $2.4M, ventures into wholesale spare parts distribution

Mecho Autotech, a startup offering automotive spare parts, vehicle repairs and maintenance services, has raised a $2.4 million pre-Series A round. The firm targets the Nigerian market, where 90% of th

Base Ecosystem Fund, Hashed Emergent invest $1.9M in Nestcoin to scale its Onboard product

Nestcoin, a development company housing modern finance project Onboard, has secured $1.9 million in a strategic funding round. Hashed Emergent, a Web2.5 fund for builders from emerging markets, led th

LocalGlobe and Pronomos Capital back Itana to pave the way for Africa’s first digital free zone

In early 2022, ex-Andela and Flutterwave co-founder Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, in an interview with TechCrunch, discussed a moonshot project he was working on: Talent City, explicitly designed for local and g

Nigerian embedded finance platform Anchor raises $2.4M to expand product offerings

Anchor, a Nigerian banking-as-a-service (BaaS) provider, has raised $2.4 million in seed investment. Justin Kan’s Goat Capital led the financing round, which also welcomed participation from Founder

Founders Factory Africa to deploy $114M using learnings from past programs

This week, South African early-stage accelerator and investor Founders Factory Africa (FFA) raised $114 million. The firm plans to use the impact capital from Mastercard Foundation and Johnson & J

Jumia expects losses not to exceed $100M this year, per Q3 financials

In the first quarter of 2023, we reported that Jumia recorded its lowest losses in four years. Its adjusted EBITDA and operating losses dropped to $27 million and $30.9 million, respectively. Those nu

Mastercard to purchase a minority stake in MTN’s $5.2B fintech business

Mastercard has agreed to purchase a minority stake in the fintech division of MTN Group, Africa’s largest cell phone provider, which it values at $5.2 billion. The signing of the formal investment a

Moove takes in $76M equity, debt from Mubadala and BlackRock at a $550M valuation

Moove, an African mobility fintech that provides vehicle financing to drivers of ride-hailing platforms like Uber and other gig networks, has raised $76 million in new funding. It includes $28 million

South African VC Knife Capital closes $50M Series B fund for startups with high exit potential

South African growth-stage investor Knife Capital has reached the final close of its $50 million fund. The third fund addresses a critical funding gap in growth stages where local investors have histo

Kenyan logistics startup Sendy shuts down, embarks on asset sale

Sendy, a Kenyan logistics startup that enabled retailers to purchase FMCGs directly from manufacturers, among other services, is shutting down its operations and exploring a sale of its assets, TechCr

Emtech to advance its regtech and CBDC stack solutions with $4M led by Matrix Partners India

Emtech, an African provider of central banking infrastructure, introduced its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Innovation kit last month. The kit caters to fintechs and financial service providers

Traction raises $6M seed as Nigeria’s merchant acquiring space continues to heat up

Micro, small, and medium-sized firms (MSMEs) constitute the backbone of the Nigerian economy, accounting for more than 60% of GDP growth and playing a crucial role in job creation. According to the Na

Terragon’s $9M raise gives credence to the market maturity in Africa’s cloud and martech space

As one of the well-known data and cloud martech companies in Africa, Terragon, via several products, gives its clients (primarily telecommunications and financial services companies) data on the conti
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