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BD Insider, Letter 86: Africa's seventh unicorn

This is a blog copy of the 86th version of our weekly newsletter, BD Insider. Subscribers get to read it first and can take action based on it.

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Last week, Chipper Cash became the seventh unicorn in Africa after it raised a $150 million seed extension led by FTX - a Bahamian-based cryptocurrency exchange platform that allows users to trade cryptocurrencies. With over $2 billion valuation, Chipper Cash has joined the league of Nigeria’s Interswitch, Flutterwave and Opay, Egypt’s Fawry, Pan-African Andela, and Senegal’s Wave.

FTX’s first investment in Africa comes a few weeks after Chainalysis said the continent’s crypto ecosystem is valued at $105.6 billion. With this partnership, FTX and Chipper Cash will “make money transfer as simple as a text message and accelerate the adoption of crypto within Africa and beyond.”

Aside from Andela, which provides engineering-team-as-a-service, the other unicorns are fintech companies. The fintech sector has continued to attract local and foreign investors to the continent. Benjamindada.com will continue to watch the space keenly to bring you impressive reports.

Letter 86 covers:

The $250 million Virunga Africa Fund I
Moove’s partnership with Lori Systems
Tech Word of the Week: Fundraising

And fundraise announcements within the past week, opportunities and other things that will interest you. Let’s dive right into it:

60% of new graduates earn below ₦50,000 ($139) as monthly salary, Please fill the Nigerian Graduate Survey

💰Inside the $250 million Virunga Africa Fund I

The Kigali International Financial Centre has launched a multi-million dollar pan-African fund to drive economic and social transformation across the continent.

With investments from Qatar Investment Authority and Rwanda Social Security Board, the $250 million Virunga Africa Fund I will be managed by Admaius, an independent investment firm comprising one of the most experienced pan-African investment teams working on the ground.

How will this benefit Rwanda and the rest of Africa? Read this report.

🚚Vehicle financing: Moove’s partners with Lori Systems

Moove, an African mobility fintech has partnered with Lori Systems to enable access to affordable vehicle financing within Africa’s trucking and logistics industry where penetration for truck financing is lower than one per cent.

With this partnership, loans will be allocated to a pool of highly rated and vetted transporters on Lori Systems’ platform, allowing them to expand their fleet. What to know more? Get more details here.

✎Tech Word of the Week: Fundraising

Just below this section, you will find fundraising announcements from last week. What is the word about and how does it impact the ecosystem? Fundraising is a process through which startups receive a series of investments or capital raisings.

To help you understand this concept, Dara explained what fundraising is and how it works here.

Events

November 26th: Reserve a seat at Lagos Digital Summit
November 24th: Attend the Launch of Women in Tech Global in Nigeria (Virtual)

💰Fundraising

Here are some of the recent startup fundraises across Africa that you should be aware of:

Nigeria’s Semicolon closed a $1.2M in seed funding
Egyptian e-health startup Bypa-ss raised $1m pre-seed
Payhippo secured a $3 million seed funding to improve access to finance for SMEs in Nigeria
Lemonade Finance raised $725k pre-seed financing to change cross-border financial services for Africans abroad.

Tip: If you're looking to improve your take-home (salary) by moving jobs, companies that have just raised are a great place to apply. Companies almost always hire after a significant raise.