Tech Tides Africa

Startup Graveyard Africa

The Tech Tides Africa Podcast brings you the week’s most important stories on startups, technology, and innovation in Africa. Listen in every Thursday by 10 AM (WAT). You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Substack, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

  1. 3 set

    #52 LPs are doubling down on Ventures Platform with $84M Fund

    While early-stage venture funding has been tight across emerging markets, Ventures Platform has pulled off a major milestone, closing its Pan-African Fund II at $84 million. Backed by heavyweight development finance institutions including the IFC, Norfund, EBRD, and British International Investment, the fund will write checks ranging from $1.5 million to $3 million. With an explicit investment discipline focused on entry ownership (10–12%) and realistic liquidity through secondary sales and M&A, this close signals that institutional LPs are consolidating around proven, disciplined African fund managers. We unpack what this $84 million war chest means for pre-seed and seed-stage founders navigating today's fundraising climate. Other interesting stories in this episode: Voice AI Built for How Africans Speak 🎙️: Intron unveiled Sahara v2.5, introducing bilingual and trilingual speech recognition that effortlessly handles code-switching (e.g., fluidly mixing Yoruba, English, and Nigerian Pidgin or Swahili and English). Expanding coverage to 31 African languages, Intron's benchmarks outperform global models on local accent fidelity and clinical documentation. Morocco’s EV Battery Crown 🔋: While many African nations remain raw mineral exporters, Morocco is cementing itself as a global battery manufacturing hub. With the African Development Bank approving a $114 million loan for Gotion High-Tech's gigafactory alongside cathode and anode investments from BTR and Falcon Energy Materials, Morocco is setting the continental blueprint for value-add industrial policy. Feeding Enterprise Data to AI Agents 🤖: Verascient closed a $1.2 million pre-seed round to build the foundational data layer that allows autonomous AI agents to safely read, index, and act on proprietary company knowledge bases without hallucinations or data leaks.

  2. 28 ago

    #51 Africa’s largest seed round goes to autonomous defense

    Africa’s hardware and defence ecosystem just hit an unprecedented milestone. Terra Industries, founded in 2024 by Nathan Nwachuku and Maxwell Maduka, has closed a historic $52 million seed round backed by elite deep-tech and defence investors including 8VC and Lux Capital. The startup builds autonomous surveillance, interception drones, sentry towers, and unmanned ground vehicles coordinated by its proprietary ArtemisOS software—systems that already protect over $11 billion in critical infrastructure, power grids, and mines across Africa. With its new Pax-2 manufacturing plant in Accra, Ghana, boasting an annual capacity of 50,000 units, Terra is proving that Africa can build sovereign, world-class defence hardware rather than solely importing Western or Asian systems. Other interesting stories in this episode: The AI Hardware Tax on Africa 📱: Global demand for AI data centres is hoarding memory chips and silicon wafers, pushing up average African smartphone prices by $41 to $202. We examine how this "AI infrastructure tax" caused sub-$100 smartphone shipments to drop 34%, threatening digital inclusion across the continent. Jem’s $8.4M WhatsApp Play 🇿🇦: South African scale-up Jem raises an $8.4 million Series A led by Quona Capital. By offering a full HR suite completely free to employers and monetising via embedded financial services (like earned wage access and data deals) over WhatsApp, Jem flips the traditional enterprise SaaS model on its head. SunCulture’s "RainDrops" Equity 🇰🇪: Kenyan solar-irrigation pioneer SunCulture launches RainDrops, a company-wide profit-sharing and equity program ensuring every full-time employee—from field technicians to managers—participates in future company liquidity events. Connect with us! Twitter/X: https://x.com/techtidesafrica LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tech-tides-africa Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/techtidesafrica/

  3. 20 ago

    #50 Why developers are snubbing Silicon Valley for Chinese AI

    The geopolitical landscape of artificial intelligence is shifting structurally across the continent. African engineers and startup founders are bypassing closed US large language models (LLMs) in favour of Chinese open-source architectures like Alibaba's Qwen and DeepSeek. The reasons are economic and operational: Western models are closed-source, cost-prohibitive, and API-restricted, whereas Chinese models offer open-weight access that cuts total compute costs by up to 90%. Crucially, these models can be fine-tuned locally on modest hardware and handle African languages and low-resource data environments far better than Western general-purpose alternatives. We discuss what this developer exodus means for AI sovereignty and the global technology stack. Other interesting stories in this episode: Africa's First Direct-to-Cell Satellite Service 🇨🇩: Airtel Africa and SpaceX have commercially switched on Africa’s first satellite-to-mobile service in the DRC. Using Starlink’s direct-to-cell satellites as "cell towers in space," eligible users can send SMS and use WhatsApp in remote dead zones using standard LTE Android phones without a dish. Jumia's $50M Lifeline 🛍️: The IFC and pan-African conglomerate Axian led a $50 million equity injection into NYSE-listed Jumia. The fresh capital replenishes cash reserves to support 60,000 active sellers and improve logistics efficiency as the company targets operational break-even. Absa Automates Debt Reviews with AI 🇿🇦: South African banking giant Absa has integrated an OCR and AI gateway into its consumer debt review pipeline. The system drove a 41% boost in document-indexing efficiency, cutting turnaround times to 24 hours for over-indebted consumers undergoing debt restructuring. Connect with us! Twitter/X: https://x.com/techtidesafrica LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tech-tides-africa Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/techtidesafrica/

  4. 13 ago

    #49 Why Moove is betting on Robotaxis over drivers

    The vehicle-financing pioneer Moove made its mark by putting tens of thousands of human drivers on the road for platforms like Uber. However, managing gig drivers in emerging and frontier markets has proven increasingly complex—from fuel price spikes and offline payment diversions to default risks and labour disputes. To insulate its long-term unit economics, Moove is placing a strategic bet on autonomous vehicles and robotaxi fleet management, signalling a future where the platform finances and manages self-driving fleets rather than human operators. We unpack what this pivot means for gig economy workers and the evolution of ride-hailing infrastructure. Other interesting stories in this episode: The 17,000-Bike Divide: Spiro has scaled 22,000 electric bikes in Rwanda compared to only 5,000 in Nigeria. We break down how Rwanda’s aggressive national green policies and concentrated swap-station density outpaced Nigeria's fragmented state regulations and grid challenges. Ditching the Credit Bureau: With over 60% of Africans lacking formal credit histories, traditional lenders are abandoning rigid legacy scoring. Banks are partnering with fintechs to analyse airtime top-ups, mobile money flows, and utility payments to underwrite underserved consumers. Article referenced: https://startupgraveyard.africa/blog/addressing-burnout-culture-in-startup-life  Connect with us! Twitter/X: https://x.com/techtidesafrica LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tech-tides-africa Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/techtidesafrica/

  5. 7 ago

    #48 Why ₦2 Billion in sales couldn’t save GoLemon

    The "full-stack cost trap" claims another high-profile victim. GoLemon, the Lagos grocery delivery platform launched in 2024 by four former senior managers at Paystack, has officially stopped accepting orders and begun winding down. Despite moving over ₦2 billion ($1.4 million) in groceries, serving 40,000 registered users, and achieving profitable individual basket economics, the startup simply could not generate the high volume required to cover massive fixed overheads—warehouses, direct farmer sourcing, engineering, and fulfilment logistics. Following closures and pauses by Jumia Food, Bolt Food, FoodCourt, and Eden Life's consumer arm, GoLemon’s exit highlights a fundamental ecosystem shift: venture investors are fleeing capital-intensive, full-stack logistics models in favour of asset-light aggregators. Other interesting stories in this episode: Rentoza Enters Business Rescue 🇿🇦: South African tech-subscription platform Rentoza files for voluntary business rescue after burning through $7.3 million in funding, bogged down by unpaid customer balances, delayed audits, and an inability to secure fresh capital. Kenyan Court Strips Unlicensed Lenders 🇰🇪: A Nairobi court dismisses 139 debt recovery suits filed by unlicensed digital loan apps, ruling that non-compliant lenders operating without a Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) license cannot dignify illegal operations by using state courts to collect debts. MTN's 72% Fintech Slump 🇳🇬: MTN Nigeria’s Q2 2026 fintech revenue plummeted 72.4% (from ₦47.1 billion in Q1 to ₦13 billion in Q2) following the regulatory suspension of its XtraTime airtime lending service, while expected credit losses jumped 5x to ₦15.97 billion. Zap’s Super-App Evolution ⚡: Paystack’s consumer app, Zap, initially debuted with a minimalist "anti-super-app" stance focused strictly on fast bank transfers without bloat. Now, with the addition of bill payments, electricity, DSTV, and gaming top-ups, it is morphing into the multi-service experience it once contrasted itself against.

  6. 30 lug

    #47 Morocco’s ORA scores $10 million without foreign VCs

    Cybersecurity risks reached the highest halls of power in Kenya when the official presidential portal was defaced by hackers who demanded a ransom of 5 Bitcoins under threat of leaking sensitive personal data. While the Ministry of Information, Communications, and the Digital Economy swiftly contained the incident and confirmed no government data was exfiltrated or lost, the high-profile breach highlights the urgent cyber vulnerabilities facing national digital infrastructure across the continent. We unpack how the breach unfolded and discuss what it takes to defend sovereign systems against extortion tactics. Other interesting stories in this episode: 100% Local Capital in Morocco: Super-app ORA Technologies expanded its Series A funding to $10 million, funded entirely by Moroccan investors, signalling growing domestic confidence in North Africa's tech ecosystem. FMO Backs M-KOPA Mobility: M-KOPA Kenya Mobility secured a $30 million green debt facility from Dutch development bank FMO to expand its pay-as-you-go e-motorbike financing model across East Africa. Venture Capital Flight to Quality: Startup funding across Africa holds steady entering H2 2026, but the data reveals a clear shift: investors are backing fewer, later-stage, and more established startups rather than spreading early-stage seed bets. Stablecoin Diaspora Rails: LemFi partners with BVNK to integrate stablecoin settlement infrastructure into its cross-border money transfer network, speeding up transaction times and cutting foreign exchange overhead for diaspora payments. Connect with us! Twitter/X: https://x.com/techtidesafrica LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tech-tides-africa Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/techtidesafrica/

  7. 17 lug

    #46 Why Kenya denied copyrights to AI creators

    The legal definition of creativity in East Africa has changed forever. In a high-stakes dispute involving an author who used AI tools to produce a series of commissioned books, Kenya’s Copyright Tribunal ruled that authorship is solely reserved for human beings. While the judgment doesn’t ban creators from using tools like ChatGPT or Midjourney, it establishes a strict legal precedent: purely machine-generated outputs lack legal personality, and anyone hoping to protect or commercialise AI-assisted content must now prove "sufficient human intervention" and keep meticulous records of their own input. We unpack what this means for publishers, musicians, and agencies across the continent. Other interesting stories in this episode: Nigeria's Responsible AI Leap: Overtaking regional giants like Kenya and Egypt, Nigeria has claimed the top spot in Africa on the Global Index on Responsible AI (GIRAI). The index singled out Nigeria as a global "Bright Spot" for combining massive technical talent programs (such as the 3MTT) with concrete child data protections. The Crypto Hack Paradox: H1 2026 saw a record 207 crypto hacks, yet total stolen funds dropped by 57% to $972 million. We look at the data to analyse whether smart contract auditing is improving or whether hackers are simply shifting to lower-value protocols. Rebuilding the Vaults: The rise of sophisticated, AI-driven phishing and automated exploits is forcing traditional African banks to abandon their old security playbooks and rebuild their cyber architecture from scratch to keep pace with algorithmic threats. Connect with us! Twitter/X: https://x.com/techtidesafrica LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tech-tides-africa Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/techtidesafrica/

  8. 10 lug

    #45 This startup is cutting Lagos power bills by 70%

    The race to build the ultimate financial "super-app" for the diaspora just got real. Following its acquisition of credit specialist Pillar last year, LemFi has received FCA approval to fully acquire UK-based investment platform Wealth8. By integrating cross-border wealth management alongside high-frequency remittances and savings, LemFi is moving to capture a massive market segment and address ethnic wealth inequalities head-on—allowing users to invest in portfolios for as low as £8. We dive into the brilliant unit economics of capturing migrant users at the border and gradually graduating them into high-margin wealth products. Other interesting stories in this episode: DRC Stablecoin Trial: Onafriq is moving cross-border settlements for M-Pesa, Airtel, and Orange wallets onto USDC rails via the US platform Conduit, setting up a live, high-stakes test for digital-dollar payments in a highly dollarized economy. The Generator War: South African startup bPOWERd expands to Lagos in partnership with Mobil stations, offering an alternative to loud, costly fossil-fuel generators with solar battery rentals that can slash small-appliance power costs from ₦10,000 to ₦3,000 a day. AI-Powered Harvests: Tunisia’s agritech startup RoboCare secures a six-figure investment from 216 Capital to scale its precision farming models across the Middle East and Africa, targeting regional staples like olive trees and cereals. The Compliance Lock: Raenest’s CEO speaks out following an internet uproar over a $9,700 account restriction, admitting to frustrating support delays but reinforcing that strict compliance reviews are the non-negotiable reality of global fintech operations today.

Elenco completo (52)

Descrizione

The Tech Tides Africa Podcast brings you the week’s most important stories on startups, technology, and innovation in Africa. Listen in every Thursday by 10 AM (WAT). You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Substack, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Informazioni

  • Creatore
    Startup Graveyard Africa
  • Anni di attività
    2025 - 2026
  • Puntate
    52
  • Classificazione
    Contenuti adatti a tutti
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Sito web del podcast
    Tech Tides Africa