🚨🔥 Bento in Turmoil 🔥 🚨

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⟹ 🚀 STARTUPS WATCH 🚀 ⟸

Here are the 5 top startups in the African eco-system we think you need to know:

Syarpa is a pioneering fintech dedicated to unlocking Africa’s wealth potential. As the parent company of Bloom and Saturn, Syarpa delivers innovative solutions that simplify money management—enabling users to send and receive money, pay bills, and trade crypto with ease.

By managing specialized funds like The Varied Asset Fund, The Specialised AI Fund, and The Bitcoin Fund, Syarpa empowers Africans to grow their wealth through cutting-edge investment opportunities. Headquartered in Lekki, Lagos, Syarpa is transforming the future of finance across the continent.

LemFi is a Nigerian multi-currency payment solution that makes international transactions simple and accessible for Africans, whether at home or abroad. With seamless on- and off-ramp services, you can open global accounts in USD, CAD, and GBP in minutes, enabling effortless money transfers, competitive currency conversion, and secure payment requests.

Trusted by over 1,000,000 customers and backed by top investors—with an impressive $33 million raised—LemFi bridges local financial ecosystems and global payment networks to ensure financial freedom for everyone. Discover a smarter way to manage money internationally with LemFi! 🚀🌍💸

Mono is an innovative open banking platform that redefines how businesses access financial data. By eliminating screen scraping, Mono delivers blazing-fast and stable API responses, enabling permissioned, secure access to customers' financial and personal data.

Its developer-friendly, well-documented APIs simplify integration, making it easy to collect bank statements, access transaction data for KYC, and process direct payments—all with bank-grade security and around-the-clock support. Already live in Nigeria and expanding into Ghana and Kenya, Mono is rapidly becoming the open banking solution of choice for Africa’s fastest-growing businesses. 🚀🌍

⟹ 💼 💰️ VENTURE CAPITAL WATCH 💼 💰️ ⟸

As we wrap up January, the Venture Capital space in Africa’s startup ecosystem is bustling with bold moves and dramatic shifts.

👉 Cedar Money Raises $9.9M
Cedar Money, a stablecoin-powered cross-border payments platform, secured $9.9M in seed funding led by QED Investors. This round will accelerate the scaling of its infrastructure and address inefficiencies in international payments across emerging markets.

👉 Lemfi Completes European Acquisition
Lemfi acquired the Irish currency exchange Bureau Buttercrane, a strategic move that secures the regulatory framework necessary for seamless operations across the EEA. This acquisition marks a key milestone in Lemfi’s ambitious plan for independent expansion into Europe.

👉 Moove Acquires Brazil’s Kovi
Uber-backed Nigerian mobility fintech Moove completed an all-stock acquisition of Brazil’s top car rental startup, Kovi. This move not only propels Moove’s annual revenue to $275M but also enhances its global AI mobility strategy, cementing its position in the international market.

👉 NjiaPay Secures $1M
South Africa’s NjiaPay closed an oversubscribed $1M pre-seed round to streamline complex payment operations for African businesses. Spun off from the Talk360 app, NjiaPay’s innovative solution simplifies multi-processor integration, positioning it for rapid growth.

👉 Proparco Injects $10.4M
French development finance agency Proparco bolstered AfricInvest’s SME fund with a $10.4M injection. This strategic boost reinforces support for innovative, black-owned ventures across Africa, furthering economic transformation and fostering sustainable growth.

The continent’s tech and investment landscape is on an upward trajectory, promising even greater success ahead. 🚀🌍

👀 This week’s featured investor is Resilience17 👀

Resilience17 is an evergreen venture studio and fund on a mission to accelerate African prosperity through technology entrepreneurship. Launched in 2021 with a fund size exceeding $35M, Resilience17 provides comprehensive support—from early-stage capital to hands-on operational guidance—across 10+ industry verticals.

They back over 50 ventures, fueling innovation with a unique approach that blends funding, AI-powered tech stacks, customer development tools, and rapid growth strategies. Their portfolio includes game-changing startups such as Glouse, CaantinAI, LemFi, Klasha, Caliza, Bamboo Global, Affinity Africa Finance, WorkPay, and Mono.

Led by visionary founder Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola and a team of experienced investors, Resilience17 champions the founder mentality—valuing ambition, humility, integrity, speed, and resilience. With a steadfast commitment to transforming challenges into opportunities, they are redefining Africa’s entrepreneurial landscape one breakthrough at a time.

👉 Discover more about Resilience17 and join their journey in shaping the future of Africa’s tech ecosystem.

⟹ 📺️ MEDIA WATCH 📺️  ⟸

Here are the 5 key things in the news this week that you need to know:

1. Bento CEO resigns, amid EFCC, LIRS probe; gives up equity - Techcabal

2. Proparco invests $10.4m in AfricInvest’s latest SME-focused fund - Disrupt Africa

3. QED seeds $9.9M in Cedar Money, a stablecoin payment platform  - Techcrunch

4. Lemfi completes acquisition of Irish currency exchange Bureau Buttercrane; begins European march - Techcabal

5. Uber-backed Moove acquires Brazil’s Kovi to continue global expansion - Techcabal

And that’s your weekly dosage of the African startup ecosystem!

If you have any comments or feedback, just respond to this email. I’m looking to engage more founders and investors in the ecosystem this year.

Thanks for reading. Have a great week ahead!

Gitonga, the Stoic Founder at StartupHub.Africa 🚀

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