| Nigeria | Paymob expands into the UAE. Egypt’s Paymob which provides merchant payment solutions has expanded its services to the UAE. This follows a $50 million Series B round raised in April. Disrupt Africa |
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| Nigeria | Kuda Bank launches in the UK with cross-border payments. Kuda, a leading Nigerian digital bank, has launched in the United Kingdom. With this launch, Nigerians in the UK can send money back to Nigeria for a flat fee of £3. TechCrunch |
| | EDITOR'S NOTE | Migration (and remittance inflows) from the UK to Nigeria has rapidly increased in the last few years. If these trends continue, we might see a drop in the number of mostly young and middle-class Nigerian residents, which is a core demographic target for fintechs like Kuda. It’s therefore not surprising to Kuda, which likely already has some brand equity with recently migrated Nigerians, to try to leverage that to provide financial services.
That said, this is becoming an increasingly crowded market with players like WorldRemit and Lemonade Finance competing on both price, experience and speed. Another point to note is that the CBN imposed strict restrictions on FX money movements in the last year, which affected the operations of many IMTOs. Kuda will have to demonstrate that it can provide these services cheaper and better than the competition while also complying with extant FX regulations. |
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| Global | The state of Neobanks in 2022. SEON published a report exploring the adoption, opportunities, and challenges faced by neobanks in 2022. SEON |
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| Global | On the FTX collapse. FTX, a global cryptocurrency exchange that was recently valued at $32 billion, closed operations and filed for bankruptcy last week. There have been a few well-written essays and threads on the timeline, the underlying cause, and the overarching impact on the crypto ecosystem. These are a few I found insightful. Satpost. Bloomberg. Net Interest. Twitter. |
| | EDITOR'S NOTE | Given their position in the market, the shutdown of FTX operations was a rather unfortunate (and very avoidable) event. It stresses the importance of sound risk foundations especially when it comes to managing customers’ funds, especially in low-trust environments. |
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| Global | Quona Capital raises a $322 million venture fund. Quona Capital, a VC firm focused on fintech investing in Africa and other emerging markets, has closed its $322 million in capital commitments for its third fund. This exceeds the $250 million target and brings the total funds raised by the fintech VC to about $745 million. TechCabal |
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| Egypt | Blnk raises $32 million in new funding. Egypt’s Blnk which enables merchants to provide point-of-sale credit to consumers has completed a $32 million fundraising round. The round, which was a mix of $23.7 million in equity and debt funding and $8.3 million in securitised bond issuance, will be used to develop the fintech’s technology and issue more loans. Tech Nova |
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