The technology industry in Africa is still a growing one, seeing as tech startups have gone from raising $2 billion in investment in 2019 to raising over $3.1 billion by the end of the second quarter of 2022.
Considering startups on the continent are growing in fundings six times faster than the global average, analysts have projected Africa’s tech market to grow from $115 billion to $712 billion by 2050.
Furthermore, to stay apprised of the happenings in the sector, here is a recap of five major stories in Africa from the month of August.
- Startups in Africa raised a total of $218,000,000 in August.
38 African startups raised a total of $218,000,000 in the eight months of the year. This figure is a 9.06% decrease from the $239,706,000 raised in July. In terms of sector for the month of August, FinTech, e-commerce/retail, and logistics were the top sectors. A further breakdown of the figures shows that FinTech startups raised $91,000,000 (41.7%), e-commerce/retail startups raised $79,500,000 (36.5%), and logistics startups raised $21,600,000 (9.9%).
Some of the disclosed fundings for the month of August and exclusive of estimated grants include
- Nigerian FinTech TeamApt’s $50 million pre-Series C raise.
- Egyptian adtech ArabAds $30 million pre-Series B raise.
- Egyptian FinTech Homzmart’s $23 million pre-Series B raise.
- Egyptian mobility startup Swvl’s $20 million raise.
- Nigerian retail startup Omnibiz’s $15 million pre-Series A raise.
- Kenya Introduced Coding into Schools Syllabus
The East African country, Kenya, became the first country on the continent to introduce coding into the country’s syllabus for primary and secondary schools. Kenya’s outgoing President, Uhuru Kenyatta, also announced the launch of the nation’s National Cybersecurity Strategy 2022 to tackle rising cyber security concerns in the country. This is a huge milestone for the country, seeing as in 2017 Kenya lost about Sh21.2 billion to cybersecurity, and has suffered other attacks since then. All of this is part of the country’s National Digital Master Plan.
- Flutterwave Charged with Fraud in Kenya while Receiving License from CBN
Flutterwave, a FinTech company in Africa with a valuation of $3 billion, was charged with card fraud and money laundering by Kenya authorities. A court in Kenya granted an application from the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) to prevent Flutterwave from withdrawing or transferring its funds, amounting to $3.3 million or Ksh400.6 million.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) certified Flutterwave with a Switching and Processing Licence. The highly rated licence would enable the FinTech company to offer transactional services to other payment gateway providers, customers, and stakeholders of the sector without a third party.
- MTN Nigeria Launched 5G Technology
MTN Nigeria became the first telecommunication operator in the country to roll out the 5G mobile network in 190 sites. The network is currently available in different cities, including Lagos, Abuja, Enugu, Port Harcourt, and Kano.
- Google Launches Wallet In South Africa
South Africa became the first African country to support Google wallet. Google wallet is a service that allows users to store information about their credit or debit cards, loyalty cards, boarding passes, and much more in their assigned wallets.