MFS Africa $200m Series C, TZ MoMo fee review and Uganda's first satellite

💔 Gloomy news: On Tuesday, June 14, 2022, Tefo Mohapi of iAfrikan died aged 43. But who is Tefo—many of our West African and US readers might ask? In short, Tefo is one of the leading tech media practitioners in Africa. He launched iAfrikan in 2014—a few months after TechCabal, one of the early tech-focused media publications launched.

Over the years, iAfrikan has grown from South Africa to be a leading and reputable tech news platform in Africa. He was laid to rest on Saturday, June 18, 2022. We extend our condolence to our colleagues at iAfrikan Media and the Mohapis.

For Letter 119, we will explore:

• how MFS Africa intends to use its Series C $100 million addition.
• the reduction in mobile money transaction levy in Tanzania
• Uganda's first satellite launch in September

As always, we share opportunities—jobs, events, grants, accelerators, and more—at the end of the letter.

But first, let's interact with the startup deals of last week.

🤑 African Tech startup deals

Quick points:

• Seven African startups raised over $105 million between June 13-19, 2022  
• Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund (CASF) made its debut Nigerian investment into Credpal
• Africa witnessed another mega-deal with MFS Africa's $100 million Series C extension

Other things to note:

• CASF is a micro-venture capital fund that invests between $100,000 and $250,000 in post-seed and pre-series A startups across the Middle East and Africa.
• We might have to rethink whether to continue classifying MFS Africa as an African startup, following the relocation of their HQ to London. More on MFS Africa is below.

On MFS Africa and its $200 million Series C

MFS Africa is on a growth tear, it would seem. According to TechCrunch, they connect 320 million mobile money wallets across 35+ African countries and 700 corridors.

Last week (June 14, 2022), MFS raised a Series C extension round of $100 million comprising both equity and debt financing. This extension round brings its total Series C to $200 million. A new Rwanda-based PE firm, Admaius Capital Partners led MFS Africa's Series C extension round. New investors—Vitruvian Partners, and AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM Alts) joined the round, alongside existing investors—AfricInvest FIVE, and CommerzVentures. Stanbic IBTC Bank Nigeria and Symbiotics financed the debt portion of the round.

In the second week of June (June 6, 2022), MFS Africa acquired Global Technology Partners (GTP), a US-based prepaid card firm with Africa focus.

It was just about six months ago (Nov 10, 2021), when MFS Africa announced their Series C round, which was followed by acquiring Nigerian super-agent, Baxi's parent company, Capricorn Digital Limited. Baxi's acquisition was one of many and a sign of many more to come, for which GTP is an example.

"The fundraising marks another milestone in MFS Africa’s expansion, following a series of acquisitions and investments in other African fintechs, including the recently announced acquisition of Baxi in Nigeria", according to a statement on MFS Africa's website.

Following MFS Africa's Series C and C extension round, we extract five key objectives the company is pushing.

Five objectives that MFS Africa will achieve with this funding:

MFS Series C is aimed at: