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Egyptian fintech platform MoneyFellows has secured $4-million in a Series-A investment from venture capital (VC) firms Partech and Sawari Ventures, as it works towards helping millions of new users reach their financial goals.

Zineb Drissi-Kaitouni, CEO and Co-Founder of DabaDoc said, “We are at the inception of a disruption in the way healthcare is delivered. Having AXA as a shareholder adds an important dimension to our mission of democratizing access to healthcare. We are excited about further growth prospects with this partnership and the expertise provided by AXA in our current and future markets."Philippe Rocard, CEO of AXA Insurance Morocco said, "In the midst of a digital revolution in Morocco, customer expectations are rapidly evolving. AXA is therefore committed to transforming its role of indemnity payer into a partner facilitating the lives of its customers thanks to its services. As such, we are happy to contribute to the growth of DabaDoc, an amazing Moroccan startup. DabaDoc offers innovative services in the healthcare space, especially by facilitating patient journeys.”

• Agreement signed on 12 September 2018 introducing Axa as DabaDoc’s first institutional shareholder

• The capital raise will help enhance the company’s footprint in its existing geographies and further develop its offering

Zeepay Ghana has been awarded the Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) license to operate as a mobile financial services company by the Bank of Ghana, the regulator of banking and financial services

For wealth management, Abacus is perhaps the most visible platform. The five-year-old NSE-licensed company offers users the ability to deposit, buy, sell, and trade unit trusts, bonds, and equities on their platform.Another startup is the earlier-mentioned Abojani which is an agent of AIB Capital for the purchase of local stocks. Founded in 2018, Abojani claims to have up to KES 40 Mn (roughly USD 400 K) under management for 150 clients in both stocks and mutual funds, as its CEO revealed to WeeTracker.Other platforms for wealth management in Kenya are Britam Asset Managers for mutual funds and Scope Markets for offshore stocks via Contract for Difference (CFD).

The application of technological innovations to the finance industry (Fintech) has been attracting tens of billions of dollars in venture capital in recent years. Examples of Fintech innovations include digital cash transfer services in Kenya and India, and peer-to-peer lending platforms in China. These services, when developed in tandem with complementary government policies and regulatory frameworks, have the potential to expand financial services to hundreds of millions of people currently lacking access and to break new ground on the way finance is conducted. This is important because sustainable economic growth is strongly linked with financial inclusion. The successful adoption of Fintech to increase financial inclusion is highly dependent on competent regulatory oversight. By examining varying degrees of success in the adoption of Fintech services in Kenya, India and China this paper argues that adopting a responsive regulatory approach, rather than an overly interventionist one, is the most suitable framework for boosting financial inclusion through technological innovation.

This funding was secured from UK charity Shell Foundation, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), AV Ventures and Rabo Foundation. “This is a significant milestone for AgroCenta, having the support of leading institutions, particularly with the COVID-19 backdrop, underlining the strength of AgroCenta and the importance of its mission. The demand for agricultural raw materials from offtakers in the brewery, manufacturing and consumer sector is increasing exponentially because of the easing of the COVID-19 restrictions that were put in place by the government of Ghana, hence this capital injection will help to secure purchases at fair and transparent prices from smallholders — a much needed lifeline for many who are at the proverbial bottom of the pyramid”. Francis Obirikorang, AgroCenta’s CEO and Co-Founder Michael Ocansey said while highlighting the importance and criticality of this investment.

Fawry Microfinance, a subsidiary of the listed Fawry for Banking and Payment Technology Services, intends to borrow at least EGP 300 million from its existing shareholders, Enterprise cited Fawry CEO Ashraf Sabry on December 14th

Fawry’s subsidiary plans to expand its microfinance portfolio to EGP 500 million by the end of 2021, up from EGP 204 million until September 2020, the news portal added.“We have seen solid growth in 2020 and we see the potential of lending to small businesses to finance their working capital and purchases from suppliers,” Enterprise quoted Sabry as saying.

“The demand for agricultural raw materials from offtakers in the brewery, manufacturing and consumer sector is increasing exponentially because of the easing of the COVID-19 restrictions that were put in place by the government of Ghana, hence this capital injection will help to secure purchases at fair and transparent prices from smallholders — a much needed lifeline for many who are at the proverbial bottom of the pyramid.”

This is a significant milestone for AgroCenta, having the support of leading institutions, particularly with the COVID-19 backdrop, underlining the strength of AgroCenta and the importance of its mission,” they said. 

Nephila assists insurtech WorldCover with reinsurance via Lloyd’s syndicate

Emerging markets and climate insurance focused  insurtech start-up WorldCover has partnered with the world's largest ILS fund manager Nephila Capital,

Robos came on the scene about a decade ago, and two early startups were Wealthfront and Betterment. Today, there are dozens of robos in the market, Fisch said. There are pure robo services, as well as those that offer the option of talking to a human advisor, with or without an extra fee. Since they’re automated, robos can more easily avoid conflicts of interest that could beset a human advisor, who might push investments that pay the highest commissions.

Artificial intelligence is changing the world of retirement planning. By using improved datasets and algorithms to efficiently deliver solutions tailored to people’s needs, AI can help them save, invest and retire better. One of the hottest trends to emerge in this area in recent years is the use of robo-advisors. These are software programs that use the data supplied by clients to create and automatically manage their investment portfolios

While refugees need immediate humanitarian aid, of course, they generally struggle to find work or start a business over the long-term. That’s, in part, because financial institutions usually won’t lend to them. The fund also will be the first institutional investment opportunity from Kiva Capital Management, an asset manager slated to launch as a subsidiary later this year. The organization describes it as "impact-first", that is, returns will be concessionary.

Forging another link between Africa and China’s digital economies, the African-focused money transfer startup SimbaPay and Kenya’s Family Bank have launched an instant payment service from East Africa to China.

The company makes its money by charging a small transaction fee to the retailer on each purchase. This fee varies. “We take a small transaction fee, much like the acquiring component to merchant transactions,” Ehlers says. SnapScan has a partnership with Standard Bank, which means it can process transactions at “competitive rates”, he adds. In addition to transaction fees, SnapScan offers its customers the option of accessing analytics or running loyalty programmes, both of which are billed as add-ons.

SnapScan co-founder, 28-year-old Kobus Ehlers, says there are a number of benefits to this approach for retailers. “It takes about 30 seconds to sign up. We issue a QR code, which you print, and you’re done.” Merchants without bank accounts can cash out their takings at the end of the day. “Customers can pay with the app, the retailer can then get a voucher code at the end of the day that they can punch in at a Standard Bank ATM — or hand over at a Spar — and get cash.” If customers don’t have the app installed, scanning the QR code will take them to the relevant app store where they can download it.

If customers don’t have the app installed, scanning the QR code will take them to the relevant app store where they can download it.

“JUMO has started to solve the problem of access to good quality financial services for people in emerging economies”, says Andrew Watkins-Bell, CEO of JUMO. “It’s unacceptable for people to have difficulties making transactions, saving or finding capital to finance their company.”

“PROPARCO’s investment in JUMO – which is also our first investment in a fintech company – is a natural extension of our work to promote financial inclusion via microfinance institutions, loans to small and medium-sized enterprises – and now mobile technology”, explains Grégory Clemente, Chief Executive Officer of PROPARCO. “This project uses mobile phone technology to reach a larger number of people in a much wider area.” 

AgroCenta brings all the stakeholders in Ghana’s agricultural value chain together to facilitate effective trading within its web and mobile platform. They target rural smallholder farmers and farmer-based organizations that have limited access to markets, logistics, or technology. AgroCenta works to improve the livelihoods of farmers by providing an all-in-one SMS based solution to access commodity pricing, offer goods for sale across Ghana, and an on-demand logistics service to ensure timely deliveries.

Business Model

FarmDrive has also partnered with the ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (CTA) to build the capacity of Kenyan young farmers and stakeholders and help them access finance.

Farm Drive has a wide variety of partners including: investors (Engineers without Borders and Mercy Corps); capacity building (Open Capital advisors, ACRE Africa -to create insurance products); and financial institutions (Musoni Kenya).

FarmDrive catalyzes financial institutions to lend more to smallholder farmers by de-risking the process through clear and transparent records. Farmer clients of FarmDrive are benefiting from financial awareness, financial management tools, farming-related recommendations, access to finance and links to profitable markets.

Lagos, Nigeria – Leading digital financial services company, Carbon, has released it’s 2019 financial statements audited by KPMG, detailing its product growth and $17.5mm in revenue.Carbon began operations in 2012 and within the space of six years, it grew revenue steadily, reaching an all-time high of $17.5mm in full-year 2019. In the same year, Carbon expanded its product offerings to the Kenyan market and it’s disbursement volumes have grown from N13bn (2018) to N23bn.Formerly called Paylater, Carbon pioneered instant lending in Nigeria and was the first mobile app to provide access to credit digitally and without requesting individuals to present the documents and collateral traditionally associated with accessing loans. Earlier this year, Carbon introduced its iOS app and USSD (*1303#) service. It also announced its Disrupt Fund, a $100,000 Pan-African fund to address the lack of capital for African tech startups.“The company will continue to share it’s audited financials annually, thus upholding a culture of transparency and accountability,” says Ngozi Dozie, Founder of Carbon.So far this year, Carbon has introduced multiple new features for its customer base including Carbon Express: a keyboard allowing users to make payments from any social app, periodic investments, free bank transfers, monthly wallet interest, and more.Carbon also plans to introduce debit cards, a reward program for loyal customers and SME accounts for entrepreneurs, in the months to come.You can find the full annual report here (https://bit.ly/2YNuvPw).About Carbon: Carbon (https://getCarbon.co) is a pan-African digital financial institution accessible via smartphones and which provides individuals with access to credit, a fee-free/interest-earning wallet, simple payments solutions, high-yield investment opportunities and easy-to-use tools for personal financial management.Our mission is to empower opportunity globally through friction-free finance that empowers individuals and businesses. We are a global company of over 100 employees with operations in Nigeria, England and Kenya.

Carbon began operations in 2012 and within the space of six years, it grew revenue steadily, reaching an all-time high of $17.5mm in full-year 2019. In the same year, Carbon expanded its product offerings to the Kenyan market and it’s disbursement volumes have grown from N13bn (2018) to N23bn.

Leading digital financial services company Carbon from Nigeria posted all-time high growth last year

Our Cropchain and LendIt platforms solve these two problems. Cropchain is our user-friendly integrated agricultural supply chain management platform that allows organizations to manage everything in the agricultural supply chain from outgrower schemes, logistics, traceability to digital trading, quality assurance and data analytics. LendIt, our financial inclusion platform enables farmers access digital services such mobile money payments for commodities sold, micro-lending/input financing, crop insurance and pension scheme for the informal sector.

Our Cropchain and LendIt platforms solve these two problems. Cropchain is our user-friendly integrated agricultural supply chain management platform that allows organizations to manage everything in the agricultural supply chain from outgrower schemes, logistics, traceability to digital trading, quality assurance and data analytics. LendIt, our financial inclusion platform enables farmers access digital services such mobile money payments for commodities sold, micro-lending/input financing, crop insurance and pension scheme for the informal sector.

Onboarding smallholder farmers onto the AgroCenta platform. Agents visit communities where smallholder farmers who deal in sorghum, rice, maize, millet and soybean are registered onto the AgroCenta platform to trade. Agents also work with farmer based organizations (FBOs) to carry out trading activities. 2 Facilitating trade deals on behalf of Smallholder farmers. Agents deal with buyers who wish to purchase directly from smallholder farmers. AgroCenta agents are trained in the field of technology, sales and marketing to effectively help smallholder farmers who have little or no knowledge of technology trade easily. 3 Gathering market information and statistical data. Agents are assigned to major trading markets across the country to collate data on market pricing for various commodities. This information is relayed to smallholder farmers via Voice technologies in languages they read and understand.

BelCash Technology Solution PLC has partnered with two banks to launch HelloCash mobile money services in Ethiopia. Launched in partnership with Lion International Bank and Somali Micro Finance, the service will provide financial services to all Ethiopians

BelCash Technology Solution PLC has partnered with two banks to launch HelloCash mobile money services in Ethiopia. Launched in partnership with Lion International Bank and Somali Micro Finance, the service will provide financial services to all Ethiopians. It will enable existing and potential customers of Lion International Bank and Somali Micro Finance to carry out transactions in four key areas of financial transactions: Deposit, Withdraw, Transfer and make payments.

Key standouts of HelloCash include its interoperability and shared infrastructure features. The system is designed for multiple banks and MFIs to be interconnected and offer mobile money services to their respective customers. This allows partnering financial institutions to share each other’s agent and branch networks to serve each other’s customers.