Annie Njanja, Author at TechCrunch

Intelmatix raises $20M Series A to enable MENA businesses to tap AI for decision-making

Annie Njanja — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:33:12 +0000

Intelmatix, a deep tech B2B startup that’s targeting businesses in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region wanting help to tap into the power of AI for decision-making, has closed a $20 million Series A funding round — one of the largest such rounds for a regional company of this type. The startup, which […]

Intron Health gets backing for its speech-recognition tool that recognizes African accents

Annie Njanja — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 11:04:51 +0000

Voice recognition is getting integrated in nearly all facets of modern living, but there remains a big gap: Speakers of minority languages and those with thick accents or speech disorders like stuttering are typically less able to use speech-recognition tools that control applications, transcribe or automate tasks, among other functions. Tobi Olatunji, founder and CEO […]

TikTok Lite exposes users to harmful content, say Mozilla researchers

Annie Njanja — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 15:19:21 +0000

TikTok Lite, a low-bandwidth version of the video platform popular across Africa, Asia and Latin America, is exposing users to harmful content because of its lack of safety features compared to the flagship version of the app, according to a new report from Mozilla. The researchers said that TikTok Lite Save Data lacked “proactive user […]

Pesa unlocks new markets to keep remittances flowing to emerging economies

Annie Njanja — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 07:33:24 +0000

Founders of Pesa, a remittance fintech, know too well how costly, inaccessible and unreliable remittance services drive people to opt for risky informal channels — like WhatsApp groups — to transfer money. Their firsthand experience using informal channels and realizing how prevalent their use was among Africans living in the diaspora after settling in Canada […]

Nala to use $40M Series A to build B2B payments platform, scale remittance services

Annie Njanja — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 08:04:22 +0000

Nala, a remittance startup that is now widening its portfolio through a new B2B payments platform, has raised $40 million equity in a rare deal that becomes one of the largest Series A transactions in Africa. The oversubscribed round was led by San Francisco-based VC firm Acrew Capital, with participation from DST Global Partners, Norrsken22, HOF […]

Internet goes dark in Kenya in the wake of major protests over finance bill

Annie Njanja — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 15:33:33 +0000

Update: Internet was restored on Wednesday morning, hours after the interruption. London-based internet rights monitoring group NetBlocks has reported a major internet disruption in Kenya following a wave of demonstrations across the country, as police violently cracked down on citizens taking to the streets to protest a government bill to hike taxes despite tough economic […]

Connect Money scores $8M to enable non-bank businesses to offer embedded finance services

Annie Njanja — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platforms have become instrumental in driving access to digital financial services by introducing fintech capabilities to non-bank businesses. Multiple businesses are tapping these platforms to circumvent the need to build their own tech infrastructure and the bureaucratic processes of acquiring the requisite regulatory approvals to offer financial services including card payments and lending. […]

Kenya closes its probe of Worldcoin, opening the door to a relaunch of its orbs after a year-long suspension

Annie Njanja, Natasha Lomas — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 11:00:55 +0000

Worldcoin — the crypto “proof of personhood” startup co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman — has been given the green light to resume iris-scanning and other operations in Kenya after a year-long government probe over privacy concerns was dropped. Kenya was one of Worldcoin’s launch countries for its iris-scanning scheme — which the startup was building […]

Spend management startup SiFi raises $10M to grow further in Saudi Arabia

Annie Njanja — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 13:03:35 +0000

The global spend management sector is experiencing a tailwind of sorts. North America is arguably the biggest market in this space, but spend management companies have seen demand rise across the world, thanks to increasing internet penetration, tech advancements and businesses’ increasing focus on making sure they spend wisely. Indeed, the space is expected to […]

Maad raises $3.2M seed amid B2B e-commerce sector turbulence in Africa

Annie Njanja — Tue, 14 May 2024 03:44:27 +0000

Maad, a B2B e-commerce startup based in Senegal, has secured $3.2 million debt-equity funding to bolster its growth in the western Africa country and to explore fresh opportunities in the wider Francophone region. The seed round was led by Ventures Platform, with participation from Seedstars International Ventures, Reflect Ventures, Oui Capital, Launch Africa, Voltron Capital […]

Axmed raises $2M from Founderful to streamline drug supply chains in underserved markets

Annie Njanja — Wed, 08 May 2024 11:12:00 +0000

It is estimated that about 2 billion people, especially those in lower- and middle-income countries, lack access to quality and affordable essential medicines. The situation is exacerbated by low-quality or even killer counterfeit drugs that fill the gap. This shortfall means diseases that are otherwise treatable or preventable end up causing distress and even death. This is the […]

Productive solar technologies draw investors as global off-grid solar sector funding slumps

Annie Njanja — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 15:49:41 +0000

Productive Use of Renewable Energy (PURE) technologies, especially those in the solar irrigation and cold chain segment, saw increased investor interest last year, despite a 43% funding slump recorded in the global off-grid solar sector. The global association for the off-grid solar energy industry, GOGLA, says PURE technologies raised $65 million in 2023, double the […]

Ethiopian plastic upcycling startup Kubik gets fresh funding, plans to license out its tech

Annie Njanja — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 06:00:18 +0000

Kubik, a plastic upcycling startup, has raised a $1.9 million seed extension, months after announcing initial equity investment. The startup’s latest investment is from African Renaissance Partners, an East African venture capital firm; Endgame Capital, an investor with a bias for technologies around climate change; and King Philanthropies, a climate and extreme poverty investor. The […]

Madica, a program by Flourish Ventures, steps up pre-seed investing in Africa

Annie Njanja — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 08:00:13 +0000

Madica, an investment program launched by U.S.-based investor Flourish Ventures to back pre-seed startups in Africa, plans to invest in up to 10 ventures by the end of the year, ramping up its funding efforts after closing three initial deals. Madica disclosed the plans to TechCrunch, indicating accelerated investing in the coming year as it […]

MarketForce winds down its B2B e-commerce arm

Annie Njanja — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 18:50:17 +0000

Kenyan B2B e-commerce company MarketForce is winding down its B2B e-commerce business that served informal merchants (mom-and-pop stores) after a turbulent two-year period that saw it scale down operations severely. The shutdown of the B2B e-commerce arm dubbed RejaReja comes months after MarketForce withdrew the service from all its markets, including Nigeria and Kenya, save […]

B2B marketplace The Folklore bags $3.4M seed to get brands into global stores

Annie Njanja — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 13:00:14 +0000

Amira Rasool founded The Folklore in 2018 to help fashion brands from emerging markets like Africa, Asia and The Caribbean tap into the international market. In 2022, the startup introduced The Folklore Connect, a B2B marketplace and wholesale management software for brands to sell to partner global retailers like Nordstrom, after it shifted from sourcing […]

Pula raises $20M Series B to provide agricultural insurance to farmers in Africa, Asia and LatAm

Annie Njanja — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 06:05:05 +0000

Since 2015, Pula, an insurtech based in Kenya, has been keen on enhancing the access to agricultural insurance by small-holder farmers across emerging markets, shielding them against losses from pests, diseases and/or extreme weather events like floods and droughts. So far, the insurtech has supported 15.4 million farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America to […]

Pan-African VC Verod-Kepple closes its first fund at $60M

Annie Njanja — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 13:54:27 +0000

Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV) plans to back up to 21 growth-stage companies across the continent after closing its first fund at $60 million. The pan-African VC hit the milestone following fresh backing from new investors including Nigeria’s SCM Capital (formerly Sterling Capital Markets Limited), Taiyo Holdings and C2C Global Education Japan. The latest capital injection […]

Climate tech VC Satgana closes first fund that targets early-stage startups in Africa, Europe

Annie Njanja — Thu, 28 Mar 2024 08:00:06 +0000

Climate tech VC Satgana has reached a final close of its first fund, which aims to back up to 30 early-stage startups in Africa and Europe. The VC firm reached a final close of €8 million ($8.6 million) following commitments from family offices and high-net-worth individuals, including Maurice Lévy of the Publicis Groupe, and Back […]

Swiss fintech nsave gets $4M to enable people from unstable economies to open offshore accounts

Annie Njanja — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 08:00:16 +0000

Swiss fintech nsave, which is making banking in Switzerland accessible to people in countries with unstable banking sectors or facing high inflation, has raised $4 million seed funding. The round was co-led by Sequoia Capital and TQ Ventures with participation from Y Combinator, ACE Ventures, SV Angel and FONGIT, the state of Geneva organization that […]