Hello 2025 🌟🎉🚀

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Good Morning! 😊✨

Welcome to 2025 🎉🎉🎉

As we embrace a new year, the African startup ecosystem stands at the cusp of a resurgence. Signs of recovery in funding and exciting innovation hint at transformative growth ahead.

Your resilience and creativity continue to inspire brighter possibilities. Keep pushing boundaries and breaking barriers! 💪🌍

This week’s Startups Chronicle, brought to you by Startup Hub Africa, 🚀 —your go-to resource for all things African startups.

Let’s start the year by diving into the momentum propelling 2025 forward. 🚀📈

Bright Beginnings 🌱🚀

• VunaPay’s Agri-Fintech Impact: Supporting over 20,000 farmers with $550,000+ in instant payouts, addressing key cash flow challenges.

• s Ventures Fund Opens: MIC’s $16.5M fund empowers black-owned businesses to scale innovative solutions.

• Nigeria’s Payment Evolution: Transfers dominate the fintech landscape, while POS usage continues exponential growth.

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Reflecting on Resilience 🌟📉

The African tech ecosystem has endured funding challenges but shows signs of a promising rebound. With new funds and growing optimism, 2025 could mark a new era of innovation and opportunity.

Stay tuned as we track the trajectory! 🚀

Exciting Announcements 📊🏆

We’re thrilled to announce the upcoming release of Startup Hub Africa's 2024 Startup Rankings. These rankings will spotlight top startups across industries, countries, and regions, culminating in the Top 100 Startups in Africa for 2024.

Looking ahead, we’ll also unveil our Top 50 Startups to Watch in 2025, highlighting innovative ventures poised for transformative growth across Africa. Stay tuned for these exclusive insights! 🌟

Upcoming Reports & Analyses 📝📊

This month, we’ll deliver in-depth reports analyzing Africa's VC and funding landscape, a comprehensive review of 2024, and an exploration of challenges such as startup shutdowns and other systemic issues affecting the ecosystem.

By releasing these insights early, we aim to provide timely and actionable perspectives for the year ahead.

⟹ 🚀 STARTUPS WATCH 🚀 ⟸

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

Pylon is a transformative utility management platform revolutionizing water and electricity management in emerging markets. With its smart solutions, it optimizes energy and water distribution networks, tackles challenges like energy waste, theft, and CO2 emissions, and offers real-time oversight for utilities. Pylon’s platform powers millions of smart meters in projects across Egypt, Colombia, and more, making utilities efficient, interoperable, and data-driven.

Backed by investors like BII, Y Combinator, and Khawarizmi Ventures, Pylon is paving the way toward sustainable infrastructure solutions globally. 🌍💡

Ubenwa Health is a forward-thinking MedTech startup that uses artificial intelligence to detect neurological conditions in infants through their cry sounds. By analyzing the sound patterns in a baby’s cry, Ubenwa’s AI technology offers a groundbreaking, non-invasive solution for early diagnosis of health issues.

Their platform is designed to work on any mic-enabled device, empowering parents, healthcare workers, and researchers with clinical-grade monitoring tools. With a focus on accessibility and early detection, Ubenwa is transforming pediatric care, potentially saving lives by identifying health concerns early in infants' development.

Treepz (formerly UgaBus) is Africa’s leading shared mobility platform, offering reliable corporate transportation solutions across the continent. Specializing in employee shuttle services, car rentals, school transportation, and event logistics, Treepz has helped over 4 million people travel efficiently to conferences, conventions, and airports.

Trusted by numerous top businesses, Treepz ensures a smooth, data-driven experience with a fleet of modern vehicles and professional drivers. Whether it's corporate or personal transport, Treepz is your go-to solution for seamless travel across Africa.

⟹ 💼 💰️ VENTURE CAPITAL WATCH 💼 💰️ ⟸

The African tech ecosystem is emerging from its funding trough. Despite 2024’s challenges, signs of recovery are evident.

Notable investments in NALA, Moniepoint, and Yellow Card have sparked optimism, while Africa-based investors have taken the lead, showcasing a maturing VC ecosystem. Contributions from seasoned African founders further bolster the sector's resilience.

With new funds emerging and international participation shifting, expert insights suggest 2025 will bring renewed growth and stability.

Stay tuned to The Startups Chronicle for updates on this promising evolution! 🌍🚀

The Khulisani Ventures Fund, launched by South Africa's Mineworkers Investment Company (MIC), is now accepting applications for its $16.5 million fund. This early-stage investment vehicle targets innovative, high-growth black-owned businesses in South Africa, excluding primary agriculture and extractive industries.

MIC seeks scalable, innovative companies that address market inefficiencies or problems. Applications are open until January 2025, with funding expected to begin by March.

👀 This Week’s Featured Investor is CDG Invest 👀

CDG Invest is the investment branch of Morocco’s public institution, CDG, committed to the economic transformation of the Kingdom.

With a focus on high-potential, high-impact sectors, CDG Invest has made 18 Seed investments and 2 Series A investments, driving the growth of Morocco’s startup ecosystem. They also recently marked a milestone with the first sale of a Moroccan startup.

The 212 Founders platform lists a variety of startups across its different programs, with a focus on innovative companies in various sectors. Some featured investments include companies like MYCophyto (agri-tech), CleanMob (mobility), UPFUND (fintech), VELYVELO (transportation), PAYTIC (payments), ESTALY (e-commerce), and PAYLIK (payment solutions).

You can view the full list of these startups and more detailed information on their website here.

CDG Invest seeks to promote innovation and sustainability, fueling startups that align with Morocco's development challenges. 🌍🚀

⟹ 📺️ MEDIA WATCH 📺️  ⟸

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

1. How Kenya’s VunaPay is addressing the issue of delayed payments for smallholder farmers - Disrupt Africa

2. 10 African fintechs to watch in 2025 - Techcabal

3. Applications open for $16.5m Khulisani Ventures fund - Disrupt Africa

4. African tech has had its funding trough – 2025 should be better - Disrupt Africa

5. The most popular payment methods in Nigeria 2024: Everyone does transfers - Techcabal

And that’s your weekly dosage of the African startup ecosystem! If you have any comments or feedback, just respond to this email. We are always looking to hear from our community.

Thanks for reading. See you next week.

Gitonga, the Stoic Founder at StartupHub.Africa 🚀

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