Twiga halts Operations ⚠️

Twiga halts Operations ⚠️ | 💳 PalmPay in talks to raise $100M Series B | Salpha Energy raises $1.3M 💰 | MoniePoint Enters Kenya |

Author

Gitonga Mwaura
June 09, 2025

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Good morning and happy new week!

Welcome to the latest edition of The Startups Chronicle, proudly brought to you by Startup Hub Africa 🚀—your go-to source for funding moves, strategic shifts, and market signals across the continent’s startup frontier.

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To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

- Socrates

Here’s what’s happened in Africa’s tech scene in the first week of June:

  • ⚠️ Twiga Foods suspends Nairobi ops amid full business overhaul

    Once a Kenyan scale-up darling, Twiga pauses operations for 60 days as it exits capital-heavy logistics.

    The pivot: centralised tech-powered distribution—leaner, data-first, and investor-pressured.

  • 💳 PalmPay in talks to raise $100M Series B

    Already profitable with 35M+ users, PalmPay plans to expand into SA, Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda, and Tanzania—scaling its playbook beyond Nigeria and Ghana.

  • 🌍 AZA Finance to be acquired by dLocal in ~$150M deal

    The BitPesa pioneer exits to global payments giant dLocal, cementing its place as Africa’s most successful FX desk—15M+ transactions, $9B+ in volume.

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  • 🔋 Salpha Energy raises $1.3M to expand female-led solar manufacturing

    Shell-backed All On invests in Nigeria’s Salpha to scale local solar assembly. Impact: 2M+ lives already powered, more to come.

  • 💳 Kredete launches Africa’s first stablecoin-backed credit card

    With Visa, Stellar & Rain, this US-Nigerian fintech enables Africans to spend USDC across 100+ countries—bridging crypto, credit, and cross-border finance.

  • 🌍 Moniepoint expands into Kenya via microfinance acquisition

    Nigeria’s POS giant (and newest unicorn) is buying Sumac MFB to enter Kenya’s regulated banking market. It processes $17B+ monthly and now has serious pan-African ambitions.

  • 💡 Nigerian founders push back on dollarisation

    Rising FX costs are forcing a reset: open-source tools > Slack, local hires > imported execs. Deji Olowe (Lendsqr) leads the charge for leaner, local-first ops.

🔥 From debt pivots to fintech expansions, AI credit cards to ESOP crackdowns—Africa’s startup scene isn’t slowing down.

It’s adapting—faster, leaner, smarter.

⟹ 🚀 STARTUPS WATCH 🚀 ⟸

Here are the 3 top startups in the African ecosystem I think you need to know:

🌟  Name  ➜ Tulaa

🏭️  Industry ➜ Lending

📆  Founded  ➜ 2016

📍 Location  ➜ Nairobi, Kenya 🇰🇪

💰️ Funding Raised  ➜ $672K

🧑‍🤝‍🧑  No. Of Employees  ➜ 11-50

👥  Founders

  • 👤 Hillary Miller-Wise

Tulaa is a mobile commerce platform transforming agriculture by connecting farmers to inputs, credit, agronomic advice, and markets via mobile technology. Launched in Ghana in 2016 and now headquartered in Kenya, the startup helps farmers save and borrow for inputs, get crop advice, and sell produce more efficiently—all through their phones.

Led by Hillary Miller-Wise, Tulaa is focused on scaling in Ghana and Kenya, with broader regional ambitions. By bridging the gap between farmers and essential services, it’s driving productivity, market access, and sustainable growth in African agriculture.

🌟  Name  ➜ InvestSure

🏭️  Industry  ➜ FinTech

📆  Founded  ➜ 2017

📍 Location  ➜ Cairo, Egypt 🇪🇬 

💰️ Funding Raised  ➜ $647K

🧑‍🤝‍🧑  No. Of Employees  ➜ 2-10

👥  Founders

  • 👤 Shane Curran

  • 👤 Mbulelo Mpofana

  • 👤 Ignatious Nkwinika

InvestSure is an insurtech startup offering a unique insurance product that protects shareholders from losses caused by management fraud or dishonesty. By covering share price drops triggered by actual or perceived corporate misconduct, it tackles one of the hardest risks for investors to evaluate—executive integrity.

Recognized globally as a Top 100 InsurTech firm by FinTech Global, InvestSure’s low-cost coverage provides peace of mind for investors, cushioning downside risk without eroding returns when no fraud occurs.

🌟  Name  ➜ Naqla

🏭️  Industry  ➜ Logistics

📆  Founded  ➜ 2016

📍 Location  ➜ Cairo, Egypt 🇪🇬 

💰️ Funding Raised  ➜ $11M

🧑‍🤝‍🧑  No. Of Employees  ➜ 51 - 200

👥  Founders

  • 👤 Sherif Taher

  • 👤 Yahya El Sherif

Naqla is Egypt’s leading digital trucking platform, streamlining goods transport through a mobile app that connects shippers with a trusted network of carriers. Launched in 2016, the platform handles everything—from pricing and pickup to delivery, payment, and documentation—eliminating manual friction in logistics.

Using AI, Naqla matches loads with the right trucks instantly and provides near real-time shipment tracking. With services like FTL, intermodal, and transloading, it optimizes routes, cuts costs, and offers shippers full visibility and control over their supply chains.

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⟹ 💼 💰️ VENTURE CAPITAL WATCH 💼 💰️ ⟸

🚀 Here’s what happened this past week in the VC Space:

3️⃣ PalmPay targets $100M Series B — and it’s already profitable

PalmPay is reportedly raising between $50M and $100M in a new round to expand across South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda, and Tanzania, building on its 15M+ daily transactions and 35M+ users.

The company is already profitable—a rare feat among African fintechs—and backed by Transsion (Tecno/Infinix) and MediaTek.

This move signals a shift in investor appetite toward fintechs that have scaled efficiently, with real revenue and cross-border infrastructure, not just user acquisition.

2️⃣ AZA Finance exits to dLocal in ~$150M deal

In one of the biggest African fintech exits in years, AZA Finance (formerly BitPesa) will be acquired by dLocal, the global cross-border payments giant.

AZA brings $9B+ in lifetime transaction volume, a strong FX trading desk, stablecoin rails, and deep local market compliance.

The deal gives dLocal a strategic beachhead in Africa while validating AZA’s B2B infrastructure-first model. Expect more acquisitions like this as global platforms look for compliant, embedded players in growth markets.

1️⃣ COREangels MEA deploys $10M to fund 5 early-stage fintechs

COREangels MEA has begun deploying its $10M fund, selecting 5 startups (eMaisha Pay, Reeple, Aqua Offers, RentBeta, Monak) from over 1,000 applications. Their thesis blends capital with operating support, via a hybrid model combining local angels, global networks, and a hands-on innovation studio.

This is part of a broader evolution: early-stage capital is becoming more thesis-driven, operator-led, and ecosystem-integrated—a welcome shift from passive check-writing.

👀 Investor Spotlight: Ingressive Capital 👀

Nigeria-based Ingressive Capital is a $10M venture fund backing pre-seed and seed-stage startups across Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Egypt, and beyond. Since 2017, the firm has positioned itself as a founder-first connector and a gateway to global capital for African tech companies.

🧠 Thesis:

Back post-launch founders building high-impact tech products in underserved African markets—with a bias for scalable, locally-rooted solutions.

🌍 Geographic Focus:

Nigeria 🇳🇬 | Kenya 🇰🇪 | Ghana 🇬🇭 | Egypt 🇪🇬 | Morocco 🇲🇦

💸 Check Size & Stage:

Up to $500K per investment

Target: 10% ownership at Pre-Seed to Seed

🔗 Approach:

• Connects startups to top-tier follow-on investors

• Acts as a super-connector for hiring, BD, and strategic partnerships

• Provides tactical support across GTM, capital access, and growth strategy

💡 Vibe:

Quiet operators. Sharp connectors. Rooted in Africa, plugged into the global VC scene.

⟹ 📺️ MEDIA WATCH 📺️  ⟸

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

And that’s your weekly dosage of the African startup ecosystem; thanks for reading.

Do have yourself a great week ahead!

Gitonga, the Stoic Founder at StartupHub.Africa 🚀

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