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ARC Financial Services Targets the Fintech Ecosystem With R1.5 Billion Transaction

Boluwatife Aponmade
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ARC Financial Services Targets the Fintech Ecosystem With R1.5 Billion Transaction

ARC Financial Services, a sister company of billionaire Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital, has gone into agreements to acquire Crossfin Technology Holdings, as part of a combination of associations of businesses led by Ethos Mid-Market Find I, in a R1.5 billion transaction. With R1.5 billion transactions, African Rainbow Capital aims to strengthen the Fintech industry. 

ARC FSH is going to acquire 37.33% of Crossfin Technology Holdings via the association, for a consideration of R600 million which is going to assume a combination of acquisitive capital from the already existing growth capital and shareholders for identified transactions.

The group is said to commit to providing acquisition and growth capital in a R1.5 billion business transaction. “The transaction includes the provision of acquisition and growth capital to enable Crossfin to deliver on its vision of investing in fintech solutions in selected markets on the African continent.”, the group said.

Crossfin said it supports companies that focus on solving particular everyday pain points that are not well covered by existing products in the market. It works in industries that are set to grain from the growing trend towards the usage of digital payments over cash.

“Crossfin’s portfolio and healthy partner ecosystem create exciting opportunities to integrate a broad suite of financial products and services to support local merchants and consumers on multiple levels”, Crossfin said.

Presently, Crossfin’s portfolio processes more than 134 million cards and 20 million mobile-enabled payment transactions annually, with an aggregate value of more than R79 billion.

African Rainbow Financial Services had said, “The transaction strongly positions Crossfin to leverage new technologies as they emerge”, Adding that the deal is in sync with Arc Investments’ goals so as to establish an ecosystem of financial technology-related businesses.

Drive Conference 3.0

Ahmadu Sulaiman
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Drive Conference 3.0

The Drive conference 3.0 is a free global conference created with the purpose of driving relevant and impactful conversations on the latest global trends, insights, and new learnings in the Creative and Tech ecosystems. The aim of the conference is to educate and inspire participants in these ecosystems to strive for phenomenal results.

Drive Conference 3.0

The Drive Conference 2021 is slated to be held as follows:

Theme: “Evolve: the Future of Creativity and Tech.”

Date: Sat, November 27, 2021

Time: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM WAT

Location: Ozone Cinemas Sabo Yaba Lagos, 1-11 Commercial Avenue, Lagos, LA 023401

There is becoming a thin line between the Creative and Tech Ecosystem, and it is expedient we start having conversations to bridge this gap. The Drive Conference is that bridge.

The conference will be honored by different speakers around the world, to share their experience on the theme of the event, “Evolve the future of creative and tech”

The Drive Conference is a yearly event powered by Ace Creative Academy and its Partners. The first edition of the Conference was held on November 30th, 2019 with the theme: 2020 – Think | Create | Innovate. The conference was impactful with over 400 participants attending both physically and online.

However, in 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the event was virtual with speakers from various parts of the world. The Theme of that year’s event was: The Disrupt – Leveraging on Emerging Global Opportunities.

This year promises to be revolutionary as the event will be both physical and virtual with the theme – Evolve – The Future of creative and tech. Ensure you register today. You cannot afford to miss this.

For more information and registration, click on the link: https://driveconference.drivehub.ng/

OnePipe Raises $3.5 Million in Nigeria to Expand Its Embedded Finance Offering

Boluwatife Aponmade
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OnePipe Raises $3.5 Million in Nigeria to Expand Its Embedded Finance Offering

OnePipe, a Nigerian Fintech company, has raised $3.5 million to expand its embedded financing product.

Fintech API infrastructure players came into the African technology scene last year, whereby they ushered in Plaid-like services to businesses and developers. The attention on these new companies, especially from venture capitalists moved into this year, each player raised large seed to Series A rounds.

OnePipe, a Fintech API company with a different agenda from the others joins the list today, they raised $3.5 million seed in order to double down on their embedded finance offering.

Co-lead investor in OnePipe’s $950,000 pre-seed round last year, African impact-focused VC Atlantica Ventures, also co-led this current seed round, along with Tribe Capital and V&R Associates.

New investors like Saison Capital, Norrsken (the fund of Klarna founder Niklas Adalberth), The Fund, and Two Culture Cap also participated. Already existing investors such as Chris Adelsbach, Techstars, Acquity, P1, Ingressive, DFS Lab, and Raba followed with new checks, as well as other angelic investors.

OnePipe’s fore plan was to create an API gateway that will connect banks and financial technologies under a uniform standard, an initiative that would allow the company to perform core open banking, but Ope Adeoye, Founder and CEO that describes himself as the company’s chief plumber, on a call with TechCrunch, said that upon continuous integration with financial institutions, it has become clear that the company needs to pivot, since it wasn’t generating a lot of demand cycles.

Having already struck partnerships with a few banks, OnePipe decided to take a step back before plunging into the world of embedded finance.

OnePipe is currently in partnership with six banks due to the fact that, unlike open banking and data aggregation plays, where a company needs to collaborate with almost all the banks in the country they operate, it is not necessarily the same with companies that offer embedded financing.

The CEO had said, “The caveat goes like this, the moment you make a positioning play for banking as a service, all you really need is one partner bank that lets you go deep because the embedded finance (offering) is about the depth and not breadth.”

“If you go for data aggregation or open banking in general, then you are going for breadth, not depth. So, on our side, we said we’d rather go with tier two and tier three bands, where once you describe the concept to them, they get it. It powers their growth and is more valuable to them, unlike other larger financial institutions”, Ope Adeoye said.

Running API infrastructure on behalf of these partner banks and assisting them in getting them monetized, OnePipe works with non-financial institutions to launch and double-sell a lot of financial services such as credit, accounts, and payments within their offerings.

As such, an FMCG startup, for example, can plug into a bank’s API being managed by OnePipe and begin to issue accounts to customers, this will allow them to make payments through those accounts and access credits when they need them.

Nigeria-Based Busha Secures $4.2m Seed Funding to Scale its Crypto Exchange

Abidemi Ogunyemi-Aderibigbe
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Nigeria-Based Busha Secures $4.2m Seed Funding to Scale its Crypto Exchange

Nigeria-based digital platform Busha secures $4.2m seed funding to scale its crypto exchange. Busha app which helps with the purchase, sales, and storage of cryptocurrency  via its mobile app has raised a seed funding of $4.2M in a recent round led by Jump Capital

The Nigeria-based digital platform Busha was founded in 2018 by Michael Adeyeri (CEO) and Chief Product Officer (CPO) Moyo Sodipo. The platform which currently holds about 2-10 employees claims to have over 200,000 users and looking to onboard one million Africans into the cryptocurrency economy.

“Our mission is to onboard the next one million Africans into the cryptocurrency economy. We have seen the significant difference in the financial freedom that Cryptocurrency can make in the lives of our over 200,000 users, and we are strongly motivated to expand across the continent,” said Michael Adeyeri, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) at Busha. 

The startup having scaled across Nigeria and its recently secured $4.2m seed funding will aid to deepen its market positioning across West Africa and the Globe. The round also featured Cadenza Ventures, Blockwall Capital, CMT Digital, Greenhouse Capital, Raba Capital, and other investors.

Busha recently launched a revamped version of its app which has features such as minimum purchases for as low as 50 cents for a more inclusive offering, one-click limit orders, and automated recurring buys. 

The Nigeria-based digital platform Busha intends to launch a savings feature that allows users to earn interest on their cryptocurrency from next month and early next year. Also, it will allow users to spend cryptocurrencies at selected online and offline retail outlets. The latter is under development in partnership with SureGifts, a gift card company.

With the rapid adoption of Cryptocurrency in Africa, the inclusive offering from Busha is right in line with the company’s stated mission which is to make crypto accessible to a broader population and reduce entry barriers. 

“We take pride in being the first in the market to introduce laudable and tangible innovations such as instant payouts and 24/7 human customer service,” said co-founder and chief product officer Moyo Sodipo.

“This funding will go a long way in empowering us to do more, improve on our security, and take a definitive leadership position in our target markets.” 

What the Nigeria-based digital platform Busha seeks to offer with its platform will surely appeal to young Nigerians who are increasingly trading crypto in a bid to have better financial mobility and create wealth opportunities amid the harsh economic realities. 

For the records, there are over a million registered accounts from Nigeria on Paxful, an international peer-to-peer P2P bitcoin marketplace. That accounts for more than 25% of the platform’s customer base, with Nigeria being the second to the US by the volume of bitcoin which is being traded.

Peter Johnson, partner at Jump Capital also stated that “We believe Nigeria and the African continent are one of the most promising places for cryptocurrency in other to create room for significant impact in the financial freedom to millions of individuals”

With more Africans getting involved in the crypto realm, Busha plans to leverage on the resources from its new investors to offer “market-beating prices and returning more value to its customers while maintaining proactive compliance and regulation,” the company said.

“We are happy to partner with the Busha team to continue to enhance their market-leading product offering.”

South Africa’s Mobiz Nabs $4m to Expand Personalized SMS Marketing Into the US

Hassan Barakat
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South Africa’s Mobiz Nabs $4m to Expand Personalized SMS Marketing Into the US

South Africa’s Mobiz nabs $4m to expand personalized SMS marketing into the US. In 2014 two passionate digital marketers with a wealth of mobile experience founded Mobiz and introduced an innovative way of thinking about mobile marketing.

Mobiz has taken mobile communication and engagement to the next level by building a new technology that effortlessly incorporates hyper-personalization into dynamic landing pages.

HAVAC, Futuregrowth, Launch Africa, Allan Gray E-Squared Ventures, CapaciTech, and Endeavor’s Harvest Fund have all invested in its pre-Series A round of $ 4 million.

South Africa’s Mobiz Nabs $4m to Expand Personalized SMS Marketing Into the US
South Africa’s Mobiz Nabs $4m to Expand Personalized SMS Marketing Into the US

The funding comes as the company prepares to grow into the United States and increase its marketing, sales, and account management activities. A portion of the funds will be utilized to hire new employees in South Africa and to support the company’s commercial expansion into the US.

After seven years, the company has over 100 clients, including MultiChoice, Experian, HomeChoice, and New Balance.

According to Mobiz’s website, 98 percent of SMS messages provided by the company are read within three minutes.

The company said that these messages range from offers and specials and loyalty programs to crisis communication and ticket sales.

Mobiz is focusing on offering its service to small and medium businesses after gaining a considerable market share in the South African SMS marketing industry. The intended market, however, is the United States, not the African country where the company started. The company sees potential in the small and medium business sector in the United States, according to Chen, because “its solution is easy to use and fit for the enormous market opportunity in the United States.

We see an opportunity in the way we’ve disrupted our space in South Africa. As a result, we’d like to assist a large number of SMBs in quickly creating stunning client encounters that are tailored at scale and clickable on their platforms. That is our premise, and we are very optimistic that it will be realized.”

According to a survey by Grandview Research, the SMB market in the United States is estimated to reach $12.5 billion by 2025, with a CAGR of 20.3 percent.

Part of this rise, according to Chen, is due to the ineffectiveness of email marketing in the United States (similar to SMS marketing in Africa), where clients are bombarded and spammed.

In the US, however, SMS marketing has more value because users must give permission to receive regular SMS messages from marketers and businesses. Customers who give them access genuinely want to engage, which is good news for these businesses.

“This has changed the way marketers think about things now that they no longer believe that more is better.” Now it’s about connecting to the individuals who truly want to buy from you, investing more money to acquire them in a consent-based manner, and then engaging with a very high return investment in the most direct channel, which is SMS,” stated the CEO.

Because of the information obtained from templates used on the platform, small and medium enterprises, such as a coffee shop, can quickly learn which type of coffee 100+ clients prefer. These firms’ conversions, results, sales, and engagement rates all improve as a result of this dynamic and rapid personalization.

The startup is launching this month, with more than 200 beta users in the United States presently using the platform.

Partner at HAVAC Grant Rock, an early backer of the startup, said his firm has been very impressed with Mobiz’s performance in South Africa. However, as the company expands beyond borders, it will have to consider pricing as it competes with incumbents such as Textedly and TextMagic. Its subscription fee starts at $29 per month and increases depending on the number of SMS businesses and marketers want to send.

Chen also mentions that now that the company is fully focused on the US market, plans are in the works to raise a new Series A round in the coming months.

100 Bitcoin African Startups To Benefit Under New Initiative By Binance

Abidemi Ogunyemi-Aderibigbe
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100 Bitcoin African Startups To Benefit Under New Initiative By Binance

As a result of the partnership between Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and CV Labs Global Incubation Program on November 23, in Nairobi Kenya, 100 Bitcoin African startups will benefit under the new initiative by Binance.

The program, which aims to drive the adoption of blockchain in Africa and also investment in greater blockchain applicability so as to solve problems and new market creation.

The partnership is looking to invest in 100 Bitcoin African startups over the next four (4) years. It will focus on startups that will be working across fintech, supply chain, healthcare, government sectors, and more as long as it is built on blockchain.

Binance Smart Chain (BSC) is a community-driven effort of community developers and investors and recently achieved a Billion dollars ($1B) growth fund to aid the drive of blockchain and the adoption of cryptocurrency.

Till now, BSC’s generated investment funds have seed-funded more than 55 projects with up to $1M, a round-up of 60 projects have been incubated under the Most Valuable Builder program with more than 200 startups receiving a boost in terms of funds, hackathons, and grants.

CV Labs, the incubator arm of CV VC on the other hand, has already incubated 22 successful global technology teams aiding their success pathway.

The partnership between BSC and CV labs is looking to do greater than they have individually done before in driving the adoption of blockchain in Africa. As Brenton Naicker, head of Business Development & Partnerships for Africa at Binance has rightfully said;

“The show of interest from African startups has been immense, outpacing their global counterparts in terms of applications received for funding. This just reiterates the need for accelerators, incubators, and other support structures for the budding African blockchain ecosystem,” 

Obaseki Inaugurates Science, Technology Development Committee

Hassan Barakat
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Obaseki Inaugurates Science, Technology Development Committee

Obaseki inaugurates science, technology development committee, Prof. Kessington Obahiagbon as the chairman.

Godwin Obaseki, the governor of Edo state, recently inaugurated Obahiagbon as the chairman of the Edo State Scientific, Technology, and Innovation Committee, which is responsible for designing a strategy to make the state science, technology, and innovation hub.

While inaugurating the committee at Government House in Benin City, Obaseki stated that the initiative is part of the government’s attempts to leverage technology to foster growth in many sectors of the state.

“As you are all aware, today’s world is all about technology, and any state or government that fails to capitalize on scientific advancement and knowledge will be left in the dark. The COVID-19 era has demonstrated that technology is critical for any state that wants to endure the pandemic’s dislocations.” Obaseki stated.

We are fortunate to be associated with specialists and pioneers in the field of rapidly advancing science and technology.” We felt these individuals should be brought together as a group to assist us in articulating the direction we should go in terms of constructing a new scientific and technological society.” He added.

Some of the committee’s areas of reference, according to Obaseki, include assisting the state in developing a science, technology, and innovation policy in accordance with the National Policy of Science, Technology, and Innovation.

“The group should also aid the state in formulating a strategy to increase grassroots understanding of science, technology, and innovation.”

“They should help establish a strategy that would make Edo State the national and international hub for science, technology, and innovation.” We can now spread technology across Nigeria if we become a tech hub. The committee should also assist in the development of a plan for the deployment of science, technology, and innovation through public-private partnership collaborations,” he said.

Prof. Obahiagbon responded by thanking Obaseki for the privilege given to the committee to serve the state.

“I assure you that the committee will do everything possible to place the state on the map in terms of science, technology, and innovation,” he stated.

FSD Africa Expands Insurtech Accelerator Program to Ghana and Nigeria

Abidemi Ogunyemi-Aderibigbe
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FSD Africa Expands Insurtech Accelerator Program to Ghana and Nigeria

FSD Africa is set to launch Insurtech accelerator programs in Ghana and Nigeria by 2022 to promote innovative products which run on micropayment or pay-per-use frameworks emerging under the support of the FSD institution in Africa which will aid the uprise of insurance in the two African markets and beyond.

The launch of Insurtech accelerator programs in West African countries was encouraged due to the introduction of the same program in Kenya earlier this year. The program was in partnership with the Insurance Regulatory Authority, the country’s regulator, and cloud solution provider Tellistic Technology Services.

“At FSD Africa, commitment to the growth of the insurance sector and involvement in grooming the next generation of insurance innovators is of major concern. The insurance industry has not been forthcoming at innovations compared to the rest of the financial sector, still, Africa is experiencing a huge protection gap,” FSD Africa’s director of risk, Kelvin Massingham stated.

He also stated that there are plans to launch the BimaLab Insurtech Accelerator Program in Ghana and Nigeria. FSD Africa also has plans to grant access to capital through venture funds and grants to early-stage Insurtech startups as well as set up an online platform where founders can brainstorm, share experiences and ideas, create partnerships, and gain technical support from different professionals in the industry.

The FSD Africa is currently working with eight (8) insurance regulators including regulators of Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Tanzania in building an environment that strengthens Insurtech innovation across the African continent.

“It is a peer learning and engagement platform primarily for regulators around the regulation of innovations and things like creating Insurtech and startup ecosystems, but also on wider issues such ESG (environmental, social and governance). And we’re excited to support the development of similar programs across the region,” Massingham stated.

These new plans came to fruition after the graduation of the Kenya program’s second cohort last Friday. During the 10-week program, participants were granted and exposed to solid knowledge and resources to develop and get their solutions ready for the market. Twelve (12) startups in total were in the cohort, with Karopay and Motisure earning recognition for their innovations.

Motisure targets motorcycle (boda-boda) taxi commuters and riders with personal accident coverage for as low as 10 Kenyan shillings (about 9 U.S. cents) a day. Boda-bodas are a popular means of transport in East Africa, with up to 22 million rides served alone in Kenya every day.

Karopay’s Edutech insurance product Bimashule ensures that all students in rural Kenya areas have premium access to basic medical and personal accident insurance coverage, with premiums starting from less than $1 a month. It also comes with a guarantee on school fees in the event of loss of guardian.

Nigeria Startup Identitypass Raises $360K Pre-seed Funding

Abidemi Ogunyemi-Aderibigbe
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Nigeria Startup Identitypass Raises $360K Pre-seed Funding

The Nigeria startup Identitypass and digital compliance and security company is looking to expand its team, serve and get more customers as well as delve into research and development.

The Nigeria startup, Identitypass was launched in January 2021 by Mr. Lanre Ogungbe, Mr. Niyi Adegboye, and Mr. David Obi and it has since delivered seamless identity verification solutions to various businesses.

The Identitypass platform provides easy-to-use compliance and data security platform that helps with identity verification solutions to online businesses to easily authenticate and validate the genuineness of a transacting party to avoid being scammed.

This is achieved through existing forms of identification ranging from personal traits to government-issued identity cards up to every bit of data that can uniquely help to identify individuals and businesses while dealing with people, money, and data in an easy, secure and faster way.

With a variety of products offered such as identity checker, Identity graph, Identity form, and biometrics technologies, Identitypass currently powers the verification engines or solutions for over 170 businesses with plans to power more businesses in the coming quarter with product verification.

This funding round by Nigeria startup, Identitypass attracted various participation from CCHub, Midlothian Angel Network, D Global Ventures Fund, and other Angel Investors. The Nigeria startup is on a mission to build world-class compliance and security infrastructure for Africa which is free from identity theft and other security compliance-related bottlenecks.

The startup has also secured some strategic partnerships that will aid its product usage kick off in multiple continents, such as America and Asia.

Just as stated earlier that the funds generated will be channeled into customer acquisition, research and development, and team expansion as the company aim at achieving more with modern products that would not only keep businesses secured but also secure every internet user in the region.

ThankUcash and Interswitch Are Launching a Reward and Loyalty Platform

Abdulquadri Ayilara
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ThankUcash and Interswitch Are Launching a Reward and Loyalty Platform

Interswitch Group, Africa’s premier technology-driven firm focused on payments digitization, has announced the launch of Interswitch rewards in collaboration with ThankUCash, Nigeria’s first and largest rewards, and discounts platform.

Interswitch will be able to keep its promise to empower businesses of all sizes by improving the relationship between merchants and customers, resulting in increased customer loyalty and retention.

Furthermore, the agreement has the ability to integrate ThankUCash Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) into other Interswitch solutions, such as cards and loyalty, POS terminals, and card loyalty processing.

Following the launch, merchants on Quickteller Business will be able to build up loyalty points for their clients, who will be able to redeem their points for items ranging from groceries to fuel, among other things.

Simeon Ononobi, co-founder and CEO of Connected Analytics Inc., which owns the ThankUCash brand, commented on the cooperation, saying, “Our goal as a company is to develop relationships that will stimulate growth for businesses and customers alike.”

ThankUCash was created out of a desire to assist merchants in reaching as many customers as possible, allowing customers to get the most out of their buying experience.

He went on to say that partnering with Interswitch is a dream come true for most entrepreneurs. “We’re thrilled to be working with Interswitch, and we’re looking forward to providing the greatest solutions for her consumers and merchants.” Merchants and customers stand to gain the most from a relationship like this.”

“Imagine a network where a customer buys a product from an airline online, earns cash back on the transaction, and then uses the points obtained to view a movie,” he said.

He noted that the reward system is the first of its kind and a true loyalty infrastructure that will help businesses thrive and people get enthusiastic to spend money on things they need.

“This relationship with ThankUCash is aligned with our business and merchant empowerment objective,” Muyiwa Asagba, managing director, digital commerce and merchant acquiring Paymate at Interswitch Group, stated.

“We will continue to use our experience to create creative solutions that assist businesses in growing, keeping in mind the critical role that SMEs play in boosting socioeconomic progress across the country.”

ThankUCash is on a mission to build additional partnerships, according to Madonna Ononobi, the company’s co-founder and chief operations officer, as it strives to expand its reach by delivering cutting-edge consumer purchasing capabilities to aid businesses and merchants alike.

“By the end of 2023, we will have connected 10,000 enterprises to over 10 million clients across Africa.”

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