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27/05/2025

Remittance inflows hit nearly $100 billion in 2023.

Now, OUI Capital projects Africa’s cross-border payments market will reach $1 trillion by 2035.

Its new report explores how digital payments are powering this transformation:

Africa’s cross-border market is set to triple in a decade. From $329B in 2025 to $1T in 2035. That’s a 12% compound annual growth rate across remittances, trade, and B2B flows. Digital payments, not banks, are driving the momentum.

The old system—SWIFT networks, correspondent banks, high fees—is breaking under pressure. It’s slow, costly, and poorly suited to the continent’s low-value, high-frequency transactions. Fintechs and mobile money platforms are moving faster and cheaper.

For example, remittances of $100B flowed into Africa in 2023, accounting for 5.2% of the continent's GDP. Yet up to 75% of Sub-Saharan flows still bypass formal channels. Fees from traditional providers—7% to 10%—remain a major barrier.

Mobile money is changing that.

Over 781 million accounts processed $837B in 2022—two-thirds of global mobile money flows. Their fees are significantly lower, ranging from 1.5% to 3%.M-Pesa, MTN MoMo, and Airtel Money lead the charge. Together, they’ve captured 30% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s remittance volume.

And their networks are still growing at 48% annually.

Meanwhile, neobanks and digital wallets are pushing costs down even further. Platforms like Chipper Cash and Eversend charge just 3.5% on average. And they settle transactions in minutes, not days.

Crypto and blockchain are making the biggest dent in fees. Afriex and Bitnob offer near-zero-cost transfers with lightning-fast settlement. These rails skip banks altogether and are winning on price, speed, and access.

So what happens when the old rails break, new ones emerge, and the money keeps moving?

We sat down with two people building the future of cross-border payments in Africa.

Benjamin Fernandes of NALA and Dan Kleinbaum of GTXN unpack what’s broken—and what comes next.

Want to watch the full conversation?

Comment "OUI" and I'll personally send you the link.

23/05/2025

A new approach to credit is taking shape in Africa.

Carrot Credit recently raised $4.2M to power asset-backed lending across the continent.

Here’s what you need to know about the raise, the model, and their mission:

The seed round was led by MaC Venture Capital, with Partech Africa and Authentic Ventures also participating. Carrot joins a small group of African fintechs rethinking access to credit by building for the continent’s growing base of digital investors.

The Lagos-based startup launched in 2023 with a clear mission to let people borrow against their investments, without selling them or going through old-school credit checks. Stocks, crypto, bonds. If it’s digital and valuable, it’s usable.

Here’s how it works:

Carrot connects to investment platforms via API, verifies your holdings, places a lien on them, and gives you a loan. You keep your assets. You get liquidity. No selling. No paperwork.

Loan amounts depend on the asset type:

- Stocks: up to 40% of value
- Fixed income: up to 70%
- Crypto or volatile stocks: 10% max

Everything’s built to match risk with flexibility. And repayments are just as flexible. You can opt for a 3, 6, or 12-month loan, or repay monthly on your own terms. Carrot also claims to offer below-market interest rates, setting it apart in a crowded digital lending space.

Since launch, Carrot has:

∙ Processed over $2M in loans
∙ Onboarded more than 10,000 users
∙ Built integrations with brokerages and wealth platforms across Africa

All while positioning itself as the go-to credit layer for digital investors. But the model isn't new, Robinhood and BlockFi helped popularize it abroad. But in Africa, Carrot is among the first to make asset-backed credit accessible to retail users and fintech platforms alike.

CEO Bolu Aiki-Raji puts it simply:

“People were investing but didn’t recognise those assets as collateral. That was the insight. Why can’t we unlock credit from what people already have?”

As embedded finance grows in Africa, Carrot is betting big on a future where:

∙ Anyone with digital assets can access credit
∙ Fintechs plug into Carrot to offer seamless loans
∙ Credit isn’t a privilege, but infrastructure

21/05/2025

Thndr ثاندر wants to make investing simple, accessible, and mobile-first.

So the Egyptian startup recently raised $15.7M to expand across MENA.

Here’s how it plans to do that—from Cairo to Riyadh:

Thndr has secured a $15.7M round led by Prosus Ventures. Y Combinator, BECO, JIMCO, Raba, and Onsi Sawiris also joined the round. This brings the startup’s total funding to $37.76M since launching in 2020.

Thndr started with a simple but ambitious mission:

Make investing as easy as using your phone.

No minimums. No commissions. Access to stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and even gold—all in one app. The result? Over $3.4B in trades in 2024 alone. And more than 1M users, most of them first-time investors from outside Egypt’s major cities.

To expand its reach, Thndr launched two new products:

→ Thndr Alpha: A beginner-friendly, guided investing experience
→ ThndrX: A high-performance trading platform for advanced users

Two ends of the market. One app. Next stop: the Gulf.

Thndr recently acquired a Category 3A license from Abu Dhabi Global Market, allowing it to serve retail investors in the UAE. Now it’s setting its sights on Saudi Arabia.

But it's not just expanding geographically. Thndr has also applied for an asset management license in Egypt, aiming to offer local, proprietary investment products for everyday Egyptians.

Why this matters:

Across MENA, investing remains out of reach for most.
Thndr ثاندر ing after the 99%—not the 1%—with tools built for local realities and mobile-first behaviors.

20/05/2025

This Egyptian startup just raised $15.7M to digitize car ownership.

And it’s building a one-stop shop for Egypt’s $10B used car market.

Here’s how Sylndr is becoming the mobility backbone of Egypt:

Sylndr just closed a $15.7M round to scale its digital car platform. Led by Nclude (DPI), the round includes fresh equity and previously unannounced seed capital. It brings Sylndr’s total raised to over $30M since launching in 2021.

Egypt’s used car market is huge—but broken. Sales happen offline. Prices are opaque. Financing is a nightmare. Sylndr is fixing this by building infrastructure for buying, selling, financing, and servicing used cars in one app.

Their model started simple:

Buy used cars → refurbish → resell with warranty and money-back guarantee. But demand and fragmentation led to a much bigger play—digitizing the entire used car value chain.

Today, Sylndr operates three major verticals:

→ Swift: Fast, digital auto financing
→ Plus: Maintenance + inspections
→ Al-Ajans: Dealer marketplace with ownership and payment support

All integrated into one platform. The platform is growing fast too:

Revenue has grown 22x (in local currency) since 2022.
5x growth in USD terms despite the Egyptian pound losing half its value.

And the average car price on the platform? $20K–$25K.

So to keep scaling, Sylndr raised nearly $10M in local bank debt last year. It now serves 1,000+ dealers and splits revenue evenly between direct consumer sales and B2B. But the future lies in servicing and financing—expected to drive 60% of gross profit soon.

Why Egypt, not the Gulf?

With 6M+ cars on the road and a ban on used imports, Egypt’s used car market is massive—and completely local. Unlike others, Sylndr plans to go deep, not wide, betting on dominance at home.

With $15.7M in new funding and over $30M raised to date, Sylndr is rebuilding how Egypt moves.

12/05/2025

Africa’s largest proptech just raised $52M to expand across MENA.

The deal includes $23M in debt—one of the biggest Series As on the continent.

Here’s how Egypt’s Nawy is powering $1.4B in real estate transactions from Cairo:

For years, buying property in Egypt meant chasing brokers, navigating bias, and hoping for the best. In 2019, Mostafa El Beltagy had had enough and launched Nawy to fix it.

Nawy started as a listings site.

Today, it’s a full-stack real estate platform. Users can buy, sell, get financing, and even invest fractionally in property—all in one place.

Partech Africa led this $52M Series A. Other backers include DPI’s Nclude Fund, e& Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, Shorooq Partners, Verod-Kepple, and more. The round also includes $23M in debt from Egypt’s top banks. That’s to back Nawy’s “Move Now, Pay Later” product—embedded finance for property buyers in a market where mortgages barely exist.

Nawy has grown GMV from $38M to $1.4B in four years. Its revenue has scaled 50x in dollar terms—even with the Egyptian pound down 69% over that time.

So how did Nawy scale?

→ Over 1M monthly visitors
→ 3,000+ brokerages onboarded
→ 150 developers using its platform
→ Commission payouts handled instantly to drive broker loyalty

Now, it’s expanding into Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE—regions with fast-growing, high-value property markets. Nawy is also snapping up smaller players, like ROA (now “Nawy Unlocked”), to deepen its offering.

The deal includes $23M in debt, one of the biggest Series As on the continent.hile profitable. With $75M raised to date, Nawy is going after one of MENA’s most valuable asset classes: real estate.

09/05/2025

Most digital lenders burn capital to grow.

MoneyFellows recently raised $13M while lending billions with no debt.

Here’s how this Egyptian fintech cracked one of the oldest financial systems on Earth:

MoneyFellows digitizes “ROSCA”—a group savings system known as esusu in Nigeria or gam’eya in Egypt. Instead of taking deposits or issuing loans, it connects savers and borrowers in rotating circles of trust, at scale.

Now, with $13M in new funding, it’s going regional.

The round was led by Al Mada Ventures and DPI’s Nclude Fund. Partech Africa and CommerzVentures also joined in. This brings MoneyFellows’ total funding to over $60 million.

Unlike BNPLs and lenders that carry full working capital risk, MoneyFellows only steps in when a ROSCA group is missing a participant. This keeps its exposure below 10%. As it scales, it's locking in working capital lines with local banks. The startup says it’s now profitable in Egypt. It has 8.5M+ users, nearly double what it had at its last raise. The average payout per user has also doubled—from $453 to $906.

Its growth is largely organic:

Digitize 2 members of an offline group, they bring the other 8. Add competitive borrowing rates and a growing feature set—like cards, payroll, and insurance—and you’ve got serious stickiness.

And expansion is next. MoneyFellows is heading to Morocco—where ROSCA culture runs deep, regulators are supportive, and digital demand is rising.

But scaling lending in Africa isn't easy. Even for fintechs with product-market fit. Africa has a $330 billion credit gap, according to the IFC.

So why is it so hard to lend, even when demand is massive?

We explored that question with ’s Chijioke Dozie and ’s Mark Straub in this episode of The Flip.

Comment "Fintech" and I'll personally send you the link.

08/05/2025

Another Nigerian startup just raised a pre-seed round.

But this isn’t a fintech—it’s a health-tech building for chronic disease prevention.

Here’s how Platos Health raised $1.4M to reshape preventive healthcare in Africa with medical-grade hardware:

Platos Health is tackling Nigeria’s growing chronic diseases crisis like diabetes, hypertension, and metabolic syndrome. And instead of building clinics, they’re betting on at-home monitoring and AI-driven prevention.

The Platos Body Monitor is their main product.

It's a medical-grade device that tracks 49 health indicators from home. Weight, body fat, hydration, heart rate... all accessible via app or web. The device is already stocked in 300+ pharmacies and costs between ₦80k and ₦120k.

The software works with Apple Health and Google Health Connect, syncing data from other sources.

Google for Startups led the $1.4M pre-seed round. Other backers include Invest International and angels from Google, Tesla, and Unicredit. Platos will use the funds to expand device distribution and scale R&D.

Unlike Fitbit or Omron, which focus on people already diagnosed, Platos targets those at risk—the people with silent fat and undetected conditions. They want to move from reactive care to proactive prevention.

And they’re seeing some traction:

– 33% of users achieved clinically significant weight loss within 3 months
– 59.4% say they’d be disappointed without it

It’s early, but the signals are strong.

Yes, the device costs more than Nigeria’s minimum wage. But Platos is betting that high-income earners will lead adoption, and eventually, the product could shift from premium to essential.

Prevention is one part of the puzzle.

But what happens when you need scale, access, and operational efficiency too?

Conversion franchising may be an answer. Gregory Rockson, CEO of mPharma, explains how it works and why it’s transforming community pharmacies.

Comment "Seed" and I'll personally send you the link so you can watch the full conversation.

06/05/2025

A 29x return in this economy? That’s nearly unheard of.

But LemFi’s $53M Series B in January 2025 enabled Silverbacks Holdings to pull this off.

Here’s how they did it, and what it signals for Africa’s private capital landscape:

Silverbacks isn’t a household name.

But this low-key private equity firm is quietly building a reputation for high-stakes wins across African tech, sports, and media.

LemFi was their latest—and biggest—move.

They got in early, and when LemFi raised its $53M Series B in Jan 2025, Silverbacks exited its stake. The result? A 29x return on their initial investment.

That’s their 8th profitable exit overall. And their 6th from a Nigerian tech-enabled company. Most notably, it’s the 4th time a Nigerian fintech has returned money to Silverbacks’ investors.

This isn’t luck. It’s a strategy.

Silverbacks doesn’t wait for IPOs—they take partial exits to realize value early. And it’s working. They’re also playing a wider game.

Silverbacks has backed startups like Flutterwave, Moove, Carry1st, Shuttlers and Cape Town Tigers (yes, the basketball team)

They’ve even entered the fight game too. Silverbacks recently backed African Warriors Fighting Championship (AWFC), a Dambe boxing league. Because in their eyes, culture is as investable as code.

All this is happening as exits remain rare across Africa.

2023: 43 exits (down 48% from 2022)
2024 (Q3): just 31 exits recorded

But when exits hit, they hit big. Nigeria’s fintech sector is leading the charge.

Recent exits include:

Oui Capital from Moniepoint
Alitheia from Baobab
Now Silverbacks Holdings from LemFi

The question isn’t can it happen again? It’s: who’s next?

And when we talk about exits, big exits, Sendwave’s $500M sale to WorldRemit stands out.

Sid Sridhar was Head of Business at the time—and in this episode of The Flip, he shares M&A lessons every African founder and investor should hear.

Comment "Exit" and I'll personally send you the link to watch the full conversation.

03/05/2025

Arnergy raised $15M to close its $18M Series B.

Then made its employees millionaires by letting them cash out their shares.

Here’s how a Nigerian solar startup pulled off a rare liquidity event:

Two months before raising $15M to top off its Series B, Arnergy sent an unexpected email: employees could sell part of their shares back to the company.

For many, it was the first time stock options actually paid off.

Several employees earned hundreds to thousands of dollars from the offer. In a country with 24% inflation, that kind of surprise payout hit differently and showed equity in African startups doesn’t have to be theoretical.

Stock options were introduced at Arnergy in 2019.

Stay four years? You vest.
Perform exceptionally? You earn more.

It was bold. Especially in Nigeria, where very few startups had ever followed through on equity promises.

“I honestly didn’t expect anything,” said one employee. “I just got a call saying Series B had closed — and here’s your payout.”

No IPO. No acquisition. Just a company keeping its word.

The company's CEO, Femi Adeyemo, fought to make it happen: “When Arnergy makes a promise, we honour it... This was our way of saying your work matters, and so should your reward.” Even former employees got paid.

While others bundle equity as a perk, Arnergy treated it as a promise. They worked with trustees, a labour consultant, and their board to ensure staff understood the offer and got paid when it counted.

The company has now sold 1,800+ solar systems. Its customer base tripled in 2024. And it’s projecting 4x revenue growth in 2025. None of the employees sold all their shares. They’re betting Arnergy is just getting started.

------------------------

Startups like Arnergy show what’s possible.

But equity plans alone won’t transform the continent.

Want to watch Fred Swaniker explain what it really takes to create jobs at scale—and why it matters for Africa’s startup ecosystem?

Check out the link in the comments below ⬇️

30/04/2025

Kofa just raised $8.1M to build out battery swap stations.

The Ghana-based startup is betting on clean energy for motorcycles and microbusinesses across Africa.

Here’s how they’re tackling a $30B petrol problem with a $1 battery swap:

The round is a mix of equity and debt, co-led by:

- E3 Capital
- Injaro Investment Advisors

Shell Foundation and several European angels also backed the deal. The funds will support expansion across Ghana and Kenya, and scale their AI-driven energy platform.

This is how Kofa’s model works:

Motorcyclists and gig workers pay ~$1 to swap a dead battery for a charged one. Each swap takes under two minutes — no downtime, no fuel queues.

They’re already running 10 stations in Accra, and plan to hit 40 soon.

Unlike others in Africa’s clean mobility space, Kofa doesn’t make or sell vehicles. It only delivers energy. Partners handle vehicle distribution. Asset financiers own the batteries. Kofa just powers the network.

That unbundled model lets Kofa scale like MTN or Shell (not Tesla). It’s asset-light, distribution-heavy, and fully optimized by in-house logistics software. Energy is the product. Battery swaps are just the delivery.

Kofa’s not profitable yet. But it’s not pretending to be.

“Profitability at this stage isn’t the goal — scale is,” says CEO Erik Nygard. Instead, they want to grow fast, plug into existing ecosystems, and avoid capital traps.

Kofa’s next bets:

- 40 new swap stations in Ghana
- Expanded rollout in Kenya
- More capital-efficient energy delivery through AI

They’re building the clean energy rails for African mobility — one $1 swap at a time.

______________________________
Clean-tech startups raised over $180 million in Q1 2025.

Investors are paying attention because Africa’s green industries might just help save the planet. In this episode of The Flip, you’ll hear from three climate founders working across the continent, tackling local problems with solutions that could make a global impact.

Comment "Kofa" and i'll personally send you a link to the full discussion.

28/04/2025

OmniRetail just secured a $20 million Series A round.

The B2B platform processed ~$810M last year and is betting big on embedded finance for profitable growth across Africa.

Here’s how they’re building a serious moat in informal retail:

The $20 million round was co-led by Norfund and Timon Capital.

Other backers included Ventures Platform, Aruwa Capital, Goodwell Investments, and Flour Mills of Nigeria. This marks Norfund’s first-ever direct equity investment in an African startup.

OmniRetail has now raised a total of $38 million in equity and debt. Their model: digitize FMCG order management while layering embedded finance on top. They serve 150,000+ retailers across Nigeria, Ghana, and Ivory Coast.

Unlike others who chased hypergrowth, OmniRetail played the long game. They became EBITDA-positive in 2023 and fully profitable in 2024 while scaling their operations.

A rare feat in Africa’s tough B2B commerce market.

Retailers use OmniRetail to order goods, access working capital, and make digital payments. A network of 1,100+ third-party vehicles handles logistics without Omni owning any fleet. An asset-light model has been key to their margins.

Their embedded finance engine is firing:

∙ ₦1.3 trillion (~$810M) in transactions processed last year.
∙ ₦19 billion (~$12M) monthly in inventory credit disbursed via Omnipay.
∙ Near-zero default rates, thanks to strategic timing and scale.

With the fresh $20M, OmniRetail plans to:

+ Grow its retailer base
+ Pursue strategic acquisitions
+ Raise debt for inventory financing
+ Upgrade infrastructure and underwriting tools
+ Expand into personal care, home care, and cold storage categories
_____________________________________________
Want to know how OmniRetail helps retailers grow?

To better understand, we hit the streets of Lagos with Deepankar Rustagi, CEO of OmniRetail.

Comment "Retail" and I'll personally send you the link

25/04/2025

A Nigerian fintech quietly cracked profitability in 2024.

With no new capital, they’ve now processed ₦500 million in debt notes, growing 10% MoM.

Here’s how GetEquity pivoted, survived, and found product-market fit (again):

GetEquity (Techstars ‘23) launched in 2021 to democratize startup investing for retail users.

They made it possible for Nigerians to own equity in early-stage tech companies.

But when VC funding slowed, interest in risky equity plays dried up.

So in 2024, GetEquity did something radical:

They pivoted to offering debt products like commercial papers and corporate notes.

Retail investors wanted safer, shorter-term investments, and this pivot met that demand.

Their very first experiment was Dangote commercial paper. They expected to raise ₦5M, they got ₦27M pledged in just three days.

That was their eureka moment.

From there, growth followed:

+ Partnerships with licensed asset managers like ARM
+ ₦ 500 M+ processed in debt deals
+ 10% monthly growth
+ Profitability

And all of it, without needing new capital.

The pivot wasn’t just product, it was structure.

They laid off 40% of staff and outsourced core investment processes to partners. No more in-house due diligence, audits, or documentation.

GetEquity focused only on distribution.

Their new revenue model is lean:

• Transaction fees from users
• Commissions from asset managers

And soon:

• A secondary market for trading investments
• Credit products backed by users’ portfolios

Next up:

+ $1M in annual recurring revenue
+ Regulatory approval for digital trading infrastructure
+ Business accounts for fintechs to manage fixed-income products

They’re surviving and building something lasting at the same time.
_______________________________________
Thinking about pivoting?

In our episode with Perseus Mlambo, Co-founder & CEO of Union54, he shares hard-won lessons from navigating pivots, pressure, and progress.

Comment "Pivot" and I’ll send you the link.

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Introducing The Flip

My name is Justin Norman — I’m the producer and host of a new editorial-style podcast called The Flip. I’m also an American expat, who’s lived in Johannesburg, South Africa for the past two years.

In my pursuit of entrepreneurial endeavors on the continent, I learned very quickly that my “western” upbringing and experience left me not knowing much about operating in South Africa and beyond. My entrepreneurial education, aided and abetted by Silicon Valley-style thought leadership, was not contextually relevant for this market, its nuances or its complexities.

I needed a new frame of reference, which led me to conversations with practitioners across the continent, and those conversations turned into a podcast — The Flip.

The name The Flip comes from the opportunity to flip the script — to question some of the pervasive narratives on entrepreneurship and champion the entrepreneurs building a future inspired by Africa.