Tage Kene-Okafor
TechCrunch
Contact Tage
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
Recent articles by Tage:
Ghanaian fintech SecondSTAX allows investors to access capital markets outside their countries, raises $1.6M
African capital markets exist in silos, as various exchanges within the continent are often inaccessible to investors outside their home countries. For instance, a South African investor who wants to diversify their portfolio outside the Johannesburg Stock Exchange may find investing in the Nigerian Stock Exchange difficult. Not only does this limit investors’ access to […] → Read More
Ivorian fintech Julaya gets $5M to become banking partner for businesses in Francophone Africa
Small to large enterprises can use the Julaya platform to make bulk payments to other businesses and their unbanked employees through existing mobile money channels. → Read More
Byld Ventures, a $15M fund, backs fintechs in Africa
Two years before Youcef Oudjidane co-founded Sudanese fintech Bloom after failing to find startups tackling currency depreciation in Africa to invest in, he was the managing partner and head of EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) at Class 5 Global, a San Francisco-based venture fund with a keen interest in emerging markets. But Class 5 […] → Read More
What has KOBO360 been up to in the last 2 years?
Before fintechs became the standouts of the African tech ecosystem, it was startups in the online logistics and transport space in Africa linking on-demand apps to move people and goods around the continent that was all the rave. For the online logistics space, it’s not difficult to see why investors were quite curious about the […] → Read More
Nigerian financial management app for merchants Kippa bags $8.4M in new funding
Kippa, the Nigerian startup improving the lifecycle of small businesses across the country with its financial management and payments platform, has raised $8.4 million in an oversubscribed seed round. The startup — launched last June by Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph, Duke Ekezie and Jephthah Uche — received investment from backers such as Goodwater Capital, TEN13 VC, Rocketship VC, Saison Capital, […] → Read More
Pan-African “gender equal investor“ Janngo Capital hits first close of €60M fund
After stints at Jumia as its former managing director at its Nigerian office and founding CEO of its Ivorian office, Fatoumata Bâ, a veteran of the African tech space, announced that her firm Janngo Capital was raising a €60 million fund (~$63 million) in 2019. The firm, looking to “invest 50% of its proceeds in […] → Read More
Founders of well-funded Egyptian B2B startup Capiter fired following fraud allegations
Capiter investors have been searching for potential buyers to absorb the struggling company in the form of an acquisition or merger. → Read More
Nigerian blockchain payments startup Bitmama closes $2M pre-seed as it scales to new markets
Bitmama will use the pre-seed to expand its operational presence, strengthen its team, consolidate its offerings and plot market penetration across Africa. → Read More
YC’s latest batch cuts African startup presence by more than half
While the accelerator reduces batch size in Africa, it isn't straying away from ambitious food delivery bets. → Read More
Where is Y Combinator startup-hunting in 2022?
YC's smaller cohort had us curious about the second-order effects of admitting fewer companies: What would a smaller batch do to the geographic makeup of the companies at the accelerator? → Read More
Online university Nexford will use $8M to plug affordability and relevance gaps in education
Nexford said proceeds will take it into new markets, broaden the company's academic offerings, including career pathway programs, and enhance its technology infrastructure. → Read More
NowNow raises $13M seed, plans to scale its ecosystem of financial products across Africa
In 2011, the Nigerian government launched a financial inclusion initiative and set a target to include 80% of the country’s adult population. Although only a target of 64% was met by the end of the decade, one positive from the exercise is that achieving financial inclusion across the country is still a continuous process that […] → Read More
Metaverse Magna raises $3.2M at a $30M valuation to build Africa’s largest gaming DAO –
This February, Africa and emerging market-focused Nestcoin raised a pre-seed round to build, operate and invest in its web3 applications, including crypto content platform Breach Club and gaming guild Metaverse Magna (MVM). Nine months after its launch last December, the latter has completed a seed sale token round of $3.2 million at a $30M fully […] → Read More
Nigerian digital bank Kuda is the latest African startup to lay off employees
Kuda, the challenger bank based in Nigeria and the U.K., has joined the ranks of tech companies in Africa that are pruning its workforce. → Read More
Duplo digitizes payment flows for African B2B enterprises, gets $4.3M seed funding
Duplo enables African enterprises to collect payments from their clients and partners and make payments to their suppliers and vendors, has raised $4.3 million in seed funding. → Read More
African genomics startup 54gene lays off 95 as COVID testing business struggles –
African genomics startup 54gene has laid off 95 employees, or about 30% of its LinkedIn-sourced 290+ employees. A company’s spokesperson confirmed the news after sources informed TechCrunch of the layoffs last week. Founded in 2019 by Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong, the three-year-old startup seeks to address the gap in the global genomics market where 2% of […] → Read More
Nigeria’s Grey raises $2M for cross-border payments play and regional expansion –
The provision of virtual foreign bank accounts has become a common strategy for fintechs to enable Nigerians and Africans to facilitate international transfers. In the latest development, Grey, a fintech in this category that provides virtual international bank accounts to African freelancers and remote workers, is announcing that it has raised $2 million in seed […] → Read More
Egypt’s SubsBase raises $2.4M for its subscription and recurring revenue management platform
SubsBase describes itself as the first and only subscription and recurring revenue management platform catering to the MENA region. → Read More
Microtraction hits $15M first close on its second fund for pre-seed investment in African startups –
Microtraction, an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in African startups at the pre-seed stage, is announcing that it has reached the first close of its second fund, Microtraction Community Limited. The fund doesn’t have a set target at the moment, the founding partners told TechCrunch, but it achieved the first close at $15 million. […] → Read More
Nigerian B2B e-commerce platform Omnibiz raises millions to gain and retain retail customers
Omnibiz is a Lagos-based B2B e-commerce and retail platform that connects fast-moving consumer goods manufacturers to retailers by digitizing the supply chain stakeholders. → Read More