Startup News

South African student accommodation marketplace DigsConnect began life as a passion product, but has since grown into a fully-fledged business with more than 50,000 rooms listed on its platform. Co-founder Alexandria Procter was on the Student Representative Council (SRC) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) back in 2015, with all off-campus students falling under …

This student-founded SA startup is solving a big student problem Read More »

South African startup TradeSafe, an online escrow platform that safeguards the buyer’s funds in trust in a transaction involving two or more parties, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Standard Bank in return for a 35 per cent equity stake. Disrupt Africa first reported on TradeSafe back in 2018. The startup’s escrow platform …

SA escrow startup TradeSafe receives funding from Standard Bank Read More »

Senegal has become the second African country after Tunisia to pass a dedicated Startup Act after 90 per cent of parliamentarians voted in favour last week. Disrupt Africa reported in August 2018 more than 60 key players in the Senegalese innovation ecosystem came together to draft a startup act at the i4policy hackathon in Dakar. …

Senegal becomes 2nd African nation to pass Startup Act Read More »

Kenyan retail-tech startup MarketForce is the only Sub-Saharan African company selected for the Y Combinator Summer 2020 batch, securing US$150,000 in funding and the inspiration for a new product. Launched in 2018, MarketForce enables consumer brands to optimise how they deliver essential goods and services to retailers and consumers by bridging the information gap in …

Kenyan retail-tech startup MarketForce selected for Y Combinator, banks $150k Read More »

South African student accommodation marketplace DigsConnect has raised ZAR12 million (US$830,000) in funding to build out its team and its offering. Launched early last year, the DigsConnect platform allows landlords, estate agents and property managers to post their property listings, with students then searching and filtering through these listings to find accommodation that suits their …

SA student accommodation startup DigsConnect raises $830k Read More »

Sometime in November 2018, African tech publication, Techpoint Africa hosted its first African tech talent meetup in Europe in partnership with US-based seed accelerator, Techstars. Majority of the people in attendance were software engineers who worked mostly in Berlin and other parts of Europe. According to Adewale Yusuf, Techpoint Africa CEO, the aim was to …

Adewale Yusuf steps down as publisher of Techpoint Africa to launch tech talent startup, TalentQL in Ile-Ife Read More »

Kenyan ed-tech startup Kidato has been accepted into the Silicon Valley-based accelerator Y Combinator, banking US$125,000 funding and further support. Founded last year, Kidato is an online school for K-12 students that provides a high-quality, affordable education to the growing middle class in Africa, where parents must often choose between either public schools with student-teacher …

Kenyan ed-tech startup Kidato accepted into Y Combinator accelerator Read More »

Following speculations and months long delays, Africa’s largest eCommerce startup, Jumia has  eventually launched its Initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange(NYSE) today, Friday the 12th of March 2019. The African eCommerce giant has sold 13.5 million American Depositary Shares at $14.50 each to raise $196 million and will be trading with …

African eCommerce startup, Jumia rings NYSE opening bell as it finally IPOs Read More »

Merck – Make-IT Africa Startup Program Are you a start-up working towards the SDG’s and are based in Africa? Are you working at the cutting edge of innovation to solve real-life problems? Is your start-up innovation related to Healthcare, Life Sciences, Performance Materials, and Merck’s innovation focus areas? If you have answered yes to any …

Merck – Make-IT Africa Startup Program – VC4A Read More »

Kenyan startup WorkPay, which builds human resources (HR) and payroll solutions for Africa, has raised US$2.1 million in seed funding to fuel its growth. Originally called TozzaPlus until it rebranded in 2019, WorkPay is a cloud-based human resources management and payroll solution for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Africa. The startup’s time tracking and …

Kenyan startup WorkPay raises $2.1m seed funding to fuel its growth Read More »