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AgroCenta will use the funding to further develop its smallholder farmer inclusion programmes and procure crops at transparent and fair market prices to service offtake contracts. The startup’s chief executive officer (CEO) Francis Obirikorang and co-founder Michael Ocansey said the investment was vitally important.

Fortunately, Egypt’s first Covid wave was milder than those in other countries. The country managed to get by without going into full lockdown and the country is now one of the few in the world with a positive gross domestic product (GDP) growth outlook for 2020. Despite the mild top-line hit, most startups still felt the impact of Covid-19, with a whopping 83.9 per cent indicating, in May, that they had been negatively impacted by the crisis. The same survey highlighted that 29 per cent of Egyptian startups had suspended operations – an alarming proportion that would have increased with the recent resurgence of the virus. It remains to be seen what the full impact of the second wave is.  

If we look back on 2020, the largest funding rounds for Egyptian startups were not in fintech but healthcare and transport, with Vezeeta raising more than $40 million and Swvl more than $20 million. Yet, fintech still managed to make headlines on several occasions, including new regulations, high profile investment rounds and exciting launches. It was an eventful and exhilarating year for the fintech ecosystem in Egypt.

Fawry’s success story has undoubtedly encouraged investments in other e-payments venture that will help dynamise this space in coming years. The industry is still massively underpenetrated as cash remains king but will remain as one of the more active areas within fintech in coming years.

African remittance provider Mukuru has launched a grocery service that will give foreign national workers living in South Africa, as well as any South Africa-based customer, the ability to send groceries to families and communities in Zimbabwe.

As one of the largest money transfer operators on the continent, the grocery service represents an extension of the company’s existing offering. At a time when many Zimbabweans are struggling to obtain basic commodities, Mukuru Groceries aims to help ensure that families are provided for and given the best chance to remain healthy throughout the crisis period.

“In addition to price fluctuations for basic goods, people also face the uncertainty of whether certain goods will be available - as many Zimbabwean retailers have struggled to replenish stock,” adds Jury. “By enabling South Africa-based workers to pay for a pre-agreed basket of goods for families in Zimbabwe, we are removing these uncertainties and providing families with peace of mind during this immensely tough period.”

The staggering thing about Monzo’s raise – and it speaks volumes about where crowdfunding and fintech have reached – is that it did not need to raise the £20m from any of us on the street. In October – i.e. just two months shy of the raise – the bank had closed an £85m round led by VC firm Accel. Raising £20m is no walk in the park. You need to build a prospectus, which is a lengthy and expensive process. Monzo’s crowdfunding raise capped all investments at £2,000, meaning the team chose to have more investors to look after. 

So far, 3,000 farmers have registered with FarmDrive, borrowing over $130k in loans. That’s a tiny portion of what’s needed across Africa where 65% of the workforce is involved in agriculture, but less than 1% of bank loans go to the industry. And globally there’s a $450 billion funding gap in agriculture, according to FarmDrive.

investment brokerage (german: Anlagenvermittlung),investment advice (Anlagenberatung),acquisition brokerage (Abschlussvermittlung), as well asfinancial portfolio management (Finanzportfolioverwaltung), also known as asset management.

Robo-advisors can follow an active or passive investment approach not only in terms of their product range, but also in the composition of the individual products. In active management, for example, the market is constantly monitored and, on the basis of this, the securities that appear to be most advantageous at a given time are included in the portfolio. This targeted approach is described as so-called “stock picking” (see [Müller/Pester 2019, 229f]). Due to market fluctuations, there are thus regular purchases and sales of securities with the aim of achieving a higher return than the passive market. In the course of this, the percentage distribution of the asset classes in the portfolio can also be continuously adjusted and regular risk assessments carried out. As a result, the portfolio may be subject to constant change. The passive management approach is based on the strategy of maintaining the portfolio created at the beginning, including the asset allocation and the defined securities, unchanged and independent of market fluctuations. If a change in asset allocation should occur due to market fluctuations, the original state can be restored through various adjustment methods, also called “rebalancing”. In contrast to active management, this adjustment is not carried out on an ongoing basis, but at predetermined times or according to specific rules. In so-called “periodic rebalancing”, a restoration of the asset allocation is carried out as needed at the time of a previously defined temporal interval change. Another variant of rebalancing provides for an adjustment only if the portfolio value exceeds or falls below a previously defined mark, the threshold