Farewell 2024 🌟🎉✨🚀

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Good Morning! 😄🎉

I hope you had a joyful and restful Christmas (if you celebrate) and are recharging for a prosperous New Year ahead!

As founders across Africa, your resilience and drive have been inspiring. Keep building 💪💪 —2025 holds immense opportunities for your ventures. 🚀

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Startups Chronicle, brought to you by Startup Hub Africa 🚀, the premier resource for African startup news and insights.

Let’s dive into the last week of 2024 in the African startup ecosystem.

Innovation and Expansion: A Strong Close to the Year 🚀📈

• Juicyway secures $3M 💰: Nigerian fintech Juicyway emerges from stealth mode, securing $3 million to fuel its stablecoin-based cross-border payment platform.

• Talaty Funded 💡: Moroccan fintech Talaty raises funding to advance its AI-driven lending platform, supporting SMBs and reducing credit defaults.

• Roadrims Tackles Logistics Gaps 🚚: Kenyan e-logistics platform Roadrims continues to bridge inefficiencies in cargo and delivery services, leveraging robust tech solutions.

• Ajé Surpasses 7,500 Users 🎉: Nigerian blockchain-powered social commerce startup Ajé hits a major milestone with 7,500+ users.

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Facing Challenges with Resilience 💪📉

• Mecho Autotech restructures: Nigerian automotive startup Mecho Autotech announced layoffs and a shift to contract roles, citing economic challenges and FX volatility.

⟹ 🚀 STARTUPS WATCH 🚀 ⟸

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

Talabeyah is a B2B e-commerce platform in Egypt that connects suppliers with small groceries and supermarkets. The platform enables businesses to place orders 24/7 via the Talabeyah app, ensuring next-day delivery.

With its streamlined ordering process, Talabeyah offers competitive pricing and supports a variety of consumer goods brands. It aims to transform traditional trade and help businesses manage their inventory efficiently while ensuring fast and reliable supply chain solutions across Egypt.

Zofi Cash is transforming wage access by offering instant salary advances, allowing employees to receive wages anytime, bypassing the traditional 30-day pay cycle. By partnering with employers, it provides a fully digital platform for employees to request up to 50% of their monthly salary in emergencies.

The service is available 24/7, ensuring financial flexibility and security, with no paperwork or long forms involved. Zofi Cash helps employees manage unexpected expenses quickly and securely through its mobile app or website.

HealthLeap is a South African HealthTech startup offering an AI-powered mobile app that helps hospitals and dietitians prevent and treat malnutrition. The platform screens patients for malnutrition using real-time data, enabling earlier detection and better care.

By identifying at-risk patients faster, HealthLeap reduces hospital stays, and readmissions, and saves time for clinicians, ultimately improving patient outcomes and hospital efficiency. The app ensures daily screening and identifies conditions that might otherwise be missed.

⟹ 💼 💰️ VENTURE CAPITAL WATCH 💼 💰️ ⟸

2024 saw significant M&A activity across Africa’s startup landscape, highlighting resilience in a challenging market, especially post-COVID and international recessions.

Notable deals include South African fintech Adumo's acquisition by Lesaka for $85.9M, PaySpace’s acquisition by Deel, and Kenyan startup BuuPass acquiring QuickBus to expand into Nigeria and South Africa.

Other key transactions include Santam’s acquisition of Kandua, Yassir’s acquisition of Tunisian startup KooL, and Ghanaian e-health startup Rivia acquiring Waffle. These strategic moves show increasing consolidation across sectors like fintech, mobility, energy, and healthcare, driving innovation in Africa’s tech ecosystem.

JuicyWay, a Nigerian fintech startup focused on transforming cross-border payments using stablecoin technology, has launched from stealth with a $3M pre-seed round. Founded by Ife Johnson and Justin Ziegler in 2021, the platform supports fiat and crypto payments, facilitating global remittances and foreign exchange. With over 25,000 transactions processed, JuicyWay has garnered trust from major brands. The funding, led by P1 Ventures, will fuel expansion into new markets, enhance technology, and increase team size, aiming to address liquidity challenges and improve cross-border payment infrastructure in Africa.

Moroccan fintech startup Talaty has secured funding to accelerate its expansion both domestically and internationally. Founded in 2022, Talaty uses AI-driven solutions to provide instant lending for small and medium-sized businesses. The platform integrates behavioral finance insights to streamline credit assessments, reducing operational costs and default rates. The funding, from Witamax and Renew Capital, will help Talaty deepen its presence in Morocco and explore opportunities in Francophone Africa, to drive financial inclusion and improve access to credit for underserved businesses.

👀 This Week’s Featured Investor is GOODsoil VC 👀

GOODsoil VC is a forward-thinking early-stage venture capital firm based in London, with a clear focus on supporting diverse, passionate teams across Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. They invest between £50k and £250k in innovative startups within the fintech, mobile, and software industries.

Their portfolio includes companies like Livoh (virtual events), BetPawa (sports betting), and Zeepay (mobile payments), all of which are reshaping industries across multiple continents. 🌍💡

GOODsoil is committed to funding sustainable tech solutions in sectors such as Agri-tech, fintech, and Green Energy. With extensive experience in both African and European markets, GOODsoil VC is on a mission to fuel businesses with the potential to make a global impact.

By focusing on pre-seed and seed-stage investments, they’re helping visionary founders create market-defying companies that push the boundaries of innovation. 🚀

⟹ 📺️ MEDIA WATCH 📺️  ⟸

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

1. The top 10 African tech startup M&A deals of 2024 - Disrupt Africa

2. YC-backed Mecho Autotech restructures amid macroeconomic challenges and FX volatility - Techcabal

3. Moroccan fintech startup Talaty secures funding to further expansion plans - Disrupt Africa

4. Nigerian fintech Juicyway emerges from stealth with $3m pre-seed funding round - Disrupt Africa

5. Top 5 e-commerce platforms in Nigeria to start selling in 2025 - Techcabal

As we bid farewell to 2024, remember that every challenge is an opportunity in disguise.

Here’s to another year of innovation, growth, and impactful ventures. Let’s continue shaping Africa’s future, one startup at a time. 💪 💪 

Cheers to you, the builders of our tomorrow! 🥂

Gitonga, the Stoic Founder at StartupHub.Africa 🚀

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