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TLcom Capital raises $40m for TIDE Africa Fund to support entrepreneurs
London-based VC TLcom Capital has announced it has committed $40-million to the Technology and Innovation for Developing Economics (TIDE) Africa Fund. The VC fund's announcement, made last Thursday, of the injection of funds will help TIDE focus exclusively on entrepreneurs and startups from Sub-Saharan Africa. The $40-million was raised with the help of the African Development Bank and the European Investment Bank, which both committed $10-million each. Among other investors involved in raising the capital was Silicon Valley based Bob King, the founder of the Stanford SEED Institute. The fund will provide both capital and business support to startups leveraging mobile in markets such as financial services,...
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Nigerian startup Tizeti announces $2.1m Y Combinator funding round
Tizeti, a Nigerian startup which develops solar powered WiFi towers with its Wifi.com.ng service, today announced it had secured $2.1-million in funding through US-based Y Combinator from several investors. "Today’s seed announcement allows us to grow aggressively in the Nigerian market, and we will continue to invest in building out our own solar-powered infrastructure, as well as refine and expand our consumer-focused product," said Kendall Ananyi, the CEO of Tizeti, in a press release. The round's investors include Western Technology Investment, Social Capital, Vy Capital, Picus Capital, Ace & Company, Lynett Capital Partners, Zeno Ventures. The round also consists of a handful of angel investors including Y Combinator’s Michael...
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Market your business the Yoco way: inspiration for African entrepreneurs
If you want to scale your business across Africa and beyond, one thing that you will need to get right is your digital marketing strategy. With a lousy strategy scaling your business will be though. But when it comes down to actually crafting your digital marketing strategy you'll realise that it can be a complex and difficult task. That’s why it can be helpful to get some inspiration from other companies that do their digital marketing really, really well. One such company is South African fintech startup Yoco. Besides revolutionising the fintech space, the company is also teaching African businesses a thing...
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Three startups secure wildcard spot for Seedstars World South Africa event
Global entrepreneurial competition Seedstars World announced the winners of the wildcard draw to compete at the Seedstars World South Africa regional final this Thursday (29 June) at the Standard Bank Auditorium. The three startups from the Western Cape, Gauteng and Johannesburg will go on to compete against those startups chosen at a Johannesburg pitching event on 26 May (EMG Technologies, GreenFingers Mobile, and mbora) and those selected at a Cape Town pitching event on 8 June (CommuScore, Empty Trips Pty Ltd, Muzi and Invoiceworx) for their chance to represent SA at the finals in Switzerland next year. The winning startup will compete against startups from 79 other countries for a chance at winning...
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Top startup events in South Africa, Africa you should know about this week [26/06/2017]
Looking to get into the South African startup scene or catch up on some of your skills? Well, you've come to the right place. There are loads of competitions, networking sessions and workshops happening around South Africa and the rest of the continent (namely Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana) that we've rounded them up to make your life a bit easier. This article is part of a weekly series that highlights all the top startup competitions, networking sessions, workshops and conferences around South Africa, and the greater region. If you have any event recommendations for us to add to the list,...
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Time to reimagine education system to tackle SA’s Industry 4.0 challenges
Unemployment in SA is at a 14-year high with youth unemployment (15-34 years) reaching 38.6% in the first quarter of this year. Most concerning is that unemployment among the youth is disproportionately high even among those with tertiary education. Coupled with this South Africa is one of the few countries in the world in a technical recession. In addition we are seeing a skills shortage in critical areas of the economy, particularly for those positions which support new growth areas of the economy, such as technology and innovation. South Africa currently spends a higher proportion of its budget on education than the US,...
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Drive Revenue gets multi-million rand funding injection from HAVAÍC
Cape Town tech startup Drive Revenue has landed an undisclosed amount from HAVAÍC, the venture capital (VC) fund announced yesterday. HAVAÍC executive director Grant Rock said in a press release that the funding will be used to help Drive Revenue to roll out its cloud-enabled financial management system for legal practices. Speaking to Ventureburn, Rock said he could not disclose the amount in funding invested in Drive Revenue, saying only that it was "several million" rands and that it was made available from individual investors offshore. Rock said the idea is to help Drive Revenue to secure a round of equity investment later this year. 'We have resellers coming...
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Techpreneur Africa joins Abu Dhabi Global Market to promote fintech across Africa
Social-entrepreneurial impact firm Techpreneur Africa has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), an international finance centre. The MOU, signed earlier this week between the two parties, seeks to grow and support fintech initiatives in the Middle East and Africa. "The new partnership with Techpreneur Africa marks another achievement towards strengthening the connections between fintech communities and harnessing synergies in innovations and capabilities through global collaboration," said Richard Teng, the CEO of ADGM on Monday in a press release. ADGM's regulatory labs is a fintech sandbox which provides participants with a safe place to test their products and services, while...
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Cape Town startup WhereIsMyTransport in $1.5m in funding round
Public transport data and technology startup WhereIsMyTransport has received a collective investment of £1.2-million ($1.5-million) from the Global Innovation Fund (GIF), Goodwell Investments and Bombardier. The investment has been secured as the Cape Town and London based company completes the digital mapping of informally run public transport in South Africa’s major metropolitan areas, the company said in a press release on Monday. In recognition of these achievements, WhereIsMyTransport earlier this month received the International Transport Forum “Promising Transport Innovation Award” and a place in the prestigious NewCities “Global Urban Innovators” initiative. 'We are delighted to welcome Global Innovation Fund, Goodwell Investments, Bombardier to...
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SA angel investment sector has to grow, black or white, says Simodisa head
South Africa needs more angel investors who can help startups and small businesses to grow. Yet there are still too few black Africans involved in angel investing. In a bid to create more debate around the issue Ventureburn asked Simodisa managing director Matsi Modise what the country can do to address this. Ventureburn: When you hear stories of angel investors you see mainly white faces, and perhaps just a smattering of Indian angels - most of them being male. Where are the black angel investors then? Matsi Modise: The angel investment space in South Africa is still in its infancy and is...
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