The funding will help the Kenyan startup build a community of blockchain stakeholders for knowledge sharing and best practice guidelines.

Irene Kiwia, founder of the African Blockchain Centre, told the media, “We understand the potential that blockchain has in solving some of the challenges that are facing Africa and we believe that we can use our disruptive nature as a continent to create value for ourselves through the adoption of the technology.

“However, there is a massive capacity gap that we must fill to accelerate this. We aim to train 10,000 blockchain programmers, 5000 business leaders and executives on blockchain readiness, incubate 50 blockchain startups and launch robust solutions for the market in the next 2 years.”

Earlier this month, African blockchain startup Bitmama raised $350,000 in a pre-seed funding round. According to Bitmama, the funds raised will help the startup grow its operational presence and at the same time, expand its team as well as penetrate new markets in Africa.

The funding round for Bitmama was led by Flori Ventures, with participation from Emergence Capital, Fedha Capital, and a host of VCs and angel investors.

Ruth Iselema, chief executive at Bitmama told the media, “The rate of crypto adoption in Africa has been surprisingly fast but anticipated. All over Africa, more than 3 million users now perform crypto transactions on the day-to-day.”

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LoftyInc Capital recently completed its first $5.5 million closure. It operates all three of its funds simultaneously, and so far, it has invested in nearly 20 startups across Africa. It has invested in the logistics, finance, e-commerce, healthcare, and media sector. It is noteworthy that LoftyInc Capital’s first formal venture capital fund and the second fund are primarily focused on Nigeria.

According to a report titled ‘African tech startups funding report 2020 and full startup list’, technology startups in Africa have raised $1.6 billion so far in 2021 so far. This is significantly higher when compared to the $701.5 million raised in 2020.

The report, which was published in August, reveals that a total of 303 African tech startups had raised a total of $1.18 billion during the period, an increase of 69 percent when compared to the 2020’s figure.

The report further reveals that the number of tech startups in Africa has grown significantly over the years. In 2015, around 125 tech startups in Africa secured investments, however, in 2016, it grew to 146; 159 in 2017; and 210 in 2018.

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DataSixth founder Michael Anyanwu told the media, “We are excited about the prospect of joining in partnership with Galaxy Backbone at this critical stage of our growth journey. In our opinion, Galaxy Backbone has an enormous potential to set new standards in cybersecurity including providing managed detection and response services, security analytics, and data protection across the country and Africa at large.”

According to media reports, the partnership will cover additional services like threat intelligence, darkweb monitoring, and security assessment, VAPT & forensic, Endpoint detection and response, Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR), and White label services.

The partnership between the two companies will help private sector organisations to fight cyber threats and overcome cybersecurity challenges so that the security teams can focus on important business initiatives.

Datasixth tracks, identifies, and responds to cyber events in real-time and it is supported by security analysts who perform threat detection, analysis and remediation. The company also offers cyber intelligence and forensic capabilities by using a time alerting process that eliminates false positive alerts. The primary aim of this partnership is to strengthen the national cybersecurity community and increasing the efficiency and quality of public administrative service.

To reach the vision of cybersecurity the nation aims to, Galaxy Backbone believes that by expanding its services, it will be able to deliver value, answers, and actionable security intelligence. Needless to say, this partnership will definitely help Nigeria to monitor network traffic and malicious activity, thereby reducing the chances of cyberattacks.

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The portal will have two primary tools; tender management solutions and secure technology requests. These two tools will make collaboration between future suppliers and corporations possible. Absa’s primary goal is to create a dialogue that will close gaps in communication around products, services, tenders, and RFPs so that all relevant businesses get an equal opportunity to apply.

Vusi Fele, Chief Procurement Officer at Absa Group Ltd told the media, “Absa’s Procurement Market portal not only demonstrates Absa’s strategy of promoting responsible and inclusive procurement practices but also ensures that all suppliers are aware of the bank’s service requirements – information that was not previously widely available. What’s more, it will help us build mutually beneficial, thriving, inclusive, and healthy supplier relationships.”

Suppliers who will use Absa’s portal can enter their details in the company’s database which will help them to quickly identify necessary procurement categories and services like construction, ICT, marketing, and cash management.

Fele added the not only the portal will identify suppliers that comply with B-BBEE requirements, but it will also be able to award and extend contracts to currently Exempted Micro Enterprises (EME) and Qualifying Small Enterprises (QSEs). The company looks forward to using this portal as leverage to drive meaningful entrepreneurship development and bring change in the local economic and social reform.

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The deal with Ripple will enable Egypt to receive remittances from Egyptians staying abroad in a faster and much cheaper way, by using RippleNet.

RippleNet is a global network with more than 300 international banks and financial institutions. By leveraging RippleNet’s network, the National Bank of Egypt will also access new markets and boost its remittances business.

The partnership with Ripple will also enable faster cross-border payments between Egypt and other countries.

Chief executive at Ripple Brad Garlinghouse told the media, “We are in a strong financial position to execute against our visions. As others in the blockchain space slowed their growth or even shut down, we have accelerated our momentum and industry leadership throughout 2019.”

It is noteworthy that Egypt is one of the highest remittance-receiving countries in the world. Reportedly, Egypt received remittances worth $26.4 billion in 2019.

According to the World Bank, the global remittance market will reach $597 billion in 2020.

The National Bank of Egypt chairman Hisham Okasha has revealed that the partnership with Ripple has come at the right time for the bank. The bank’s main focus as of late has been providing better solutions in terms of inward remittance payments and RippleNet will be implemented in this field.

He also pointed out that the National Bank of Egypt will be the first Egyptian bank to offer such a product.

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2019 turned out to be a significant year for African tech startups as funding grew by 47 percent when compared to 2018. Also, the number of startups has increased by 50 percent during the same period.

The African Tech Startups Funding Report 2019 revealed that a total of 311 startups amassed $491.6 million last year.

2019 also witnessed a 61 percent increase in the number of investors in Africa. As of 2019, there were 261 different investors in Africa funding different tech startups across Africa.

Kenya has emerged as a leading market when it comes to attracting investments. Tech startups in Kenya alone secured $149 million in funding last year. Kenya is followed by Nigeria which secured $122 million last year.

In recent years, the technology space in Egypt has substantially grown. In 2019, around 88 tech startups have raised funds from investors in the continent.

Surprisingly, South Africa is ranked at fourth when it comes to funds secured and also the number of tech startups.
This indicates that investors are looking beyond South Africa and searching for investment opportunities in emerging markets.

The fintech sector continued to attract most of the African investors. According to the African Tech Startups Funding Report 2019, 77 fintech startups raised around $107 million in funding in 2019.

Last year, Nigeria established itself as the African capital for fintech investment and digital finance startups. Nigeria seemed to have toppled Kenya which earlier held the top spot due to its mobile money revolution which was led by M-Pesa.

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