Author: Kaluka wanjala

Nairobi-based fintech Umba has secured a $5 million debt facility to help expand its secured lending operations in Kenya. US-based asset management firm, Star Strong Capital, is the only participant in this round. “With the confidence of key financial backers like Star Strong Capital, Umba is poised to leverage this funding to broaden its market influence,” said Tiernan Kennedy, co-founder and CEO of Umba. “Our Kenyan launch has exceeded expectations, with excellent lending performance. As the only pure-play digital bank in the market, we’re delivering a better way to bank for Kenyans through speed, accessibility, and tailored financial solutions.” Spring…

Kenyan startup FaidiHR is on a mission to fix one of the most persistent bottlenecks for businesses across Africa: manual payroll and HR processes. The cloud-based platform is modernising how companies manage employees, payroll, compliance and financial inclusion—and it could be sitting on a $10 billion opportunity. “We’re tackling the outdated, inefficient systems that many African businesses still rely on,” said Peter recently at the Safaricom Spark Accelerator Demo Day. “Manual payroll, compliance issues, and casual worker payments in cash are problems that cost businesses millions and leave workers out of the formal financial ecosystem.” FaidiHR is positioning itself as…

Kenyan startup Chpter is on a mission to reinvent how small businesses across Africa sell and serve customers by turning everyday chat apps like WhatsApp and Instagram into powerful, AI-powered storefronts. Founded by Mark Kiarie, Kuria Kevin, Tesh Mbaabu and Mesongo Sibuti, Chpter is building an AI-first social commerce platform that helps merchants in emerging markets automate customer engagement, take orders, and process payments — all from the apps their customers already use daily. “We’ve moved from the era of Shopify and Amazon to a new era where people are transacting directly on social media,” said co-founder Mark Kiarie, speaking…

Mastercard has partnered with PayTabs to facilitate digital payment solutions for small and medium enterprises in Egypt. Through this collaboration, PayTabs will leverage Mastercard’s global network and digital payments capabilities to provide merchants with a while-labelled digital payments platform. This solution is designed to elevate payment acceptance capabilities for small and medium enterprises, driving the widespread adoption of contactless payments while accelerating the country’s digital transformation agenda. Karim Eyada, General Manager, PayTabs Egypt, said, “We are excited to collaborate with Mastercard to bring PayTabs white labelled payment orchestration solutions to Egypt. By providing acquirers with this state-of-the-art platform, we are…

Last month, Kenya’s State Department for Parliamentary Affairs unveiled its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy for 2025 to 2030. As the global AI race intensifies, this roadmap aims to position Kenya not just as a consumer of AI technology but as a regional leader in innovation, ethical deployment and inclusive digital transformation. “The successful implementation of AI requires a sound legal foundation. As a department, we are committed to ensuring that AI and digital transformation policies are anchored in law to facilitate innovation, efficiency, and economic growth,” said Principal Secretary Dr. Aurelia Rono. The strategy focuses on ways to use AI…

The itel A20 is one of the latest smartphones from the company to launch in Kenya. The phone is available for Ksh 6,300 through Gadgets Leo, among other online and offline retailers. This is one of the cheapest smartphones you can get in Kenya in 2025. The phone is perfect for anyone looking for their first smartphone or those who are looking for an inexpensive second smartphone under 10K. Itel tends to dominate this market segment and at this price, the A20 does not have many competitors from known brands, except some other devices from the same company. If this…

South African AI startup, NOSIBLE, has announced the close of a $1 million in pre-seed funding round led by Atlantica Ventures. The startup plans to use the funding to scale its sales operations and accelerate its go-to-market strategy. “Our discovery changes the AI equation,” said Stuart Reid, Founder and CEO of NOSIBLE. “Our index operates at 1/100th the cost of current methods and uniquely supports real-time hyperparameter tuning, allowing it to dynamically adapt to more complex searches – similar to how OpenAI pioneered the use of test-time compute.” NOSIBLE’s solution is uniquely optimized for disk, supports native pre-filtering, compression, streaming,…

Sumet Technologies, a Tanzanian fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) startup, has raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding. The startup will use the capital injection to improve its technology infrastructure, operational efficiency, and expand into new markets. Sumet uses technology to connect FMCG brands with a network of over 6,500 active retailers spanning all 26 provinces of mainland Tanzania. Some of the angel investors who took part in this round include the African Business Angel Network (ABAN), Catalytic Africa, and an angel syndicate from Egypt. Hazem Afify, Chief Executive of Sumet, said, “At Sumet, we’re tackling one of Africa’s biggest challenges — enabling new…

Jem HR, a South African technology startup providing human resources and employee benefits services via WhatsApp, has raised $3.3 million in a pre-Series A funding round. The funding comprises equity and debt and will be used to develop and expand the company’s platform. Simon Ellis, co-founder and CEO of Jem HR, said, “This funding is a pivotal step in enabling us to achieve our dual mission: to make managing and connecting frontline employees effortless while providing them with money-saving financial benefits.” “The new funding will allow us to expand beyond Southern Africa, grow our team, and enhance our all-in-one platform to tackle…

InfiniLink, a semiconductor startup targeting AI-driven data centers, has announced the successful closure of a $10M funding round. This seed-stage investment was joined by MediaTek and Sukna Ventures, based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with participation from the Egyptian VC firm Egypt Ventures and angel investor M Empire Angels. Since its founding in 2022, InfiniLink developed Silicon Photonics integrated optical transceiver chiplets (iOTC) technology. The funding will enable the company to advance its mission of transforming data center connectivity leveraging its deep expertise in Analog Mixed-Signal and Photonics. “Collaborating with MediaTek will be instrumental in advancing our vision for cutting-edge optical connectivity solutions,” said Ahmed…