Annie Njanja

The global spend management sector is experiencing a tailwind of sorts. North America is arguably the biggest market in this space, but spend management companies have seen demand rise across the world, thanks to increasing internet penetration, tech advancements and businesses’ increasing focus on making sure they spend wisely. Indeed, the space is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.3% by 2030, per Grand View Research, and adoption in other regions

Maad, a B2B e-commerce startup based in Senegal, has secured $3.2 million debt-equity funding to bolster its growth in the western Africa country and to explore fresh opportunities in the wider Francophone region. The seed round was led by Ventures Platform, with participation from Seedstars International Ventures, Reflect Ventures, Oui Capital, Launch Africa, Voltron Capital and Alumni Ventures. It raised the $900,000 debt financing from French DFI Proparco and local banks. Maad’s end-to-end distribution platform

Productive Use of Renewable Energy (PURE) technologies, especially those in the solar irrigation and cold chain segment, saw increased investor interest last year, despite a 43% funding slump recorded in the global off-grid solar sector. The global association for the off-grid solar energy industry, GOGLA, says PURE technologies raised $65 million in 2023, double the previous year, owing to growing investor interest in the segment. Among the startups that raised funding in the sector last

Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV) plans to back up to 21 growth-stage companies across the continent after closing its first fund at $60 million. The pan-African VC hit the milestone following fresh backing from new investors including Nigeria’s SCM Capital (formerly Sterling Capital Markets Limited), Taiyo Holdings and C2C Global Education Japan. The latest capital injection follows the fund’s first and second close in 2022 and last year, respectively, backed by several investors, among them Japanese

Payments company Nala pivoted to offer remittance service in 2021, tapping the growing money transfer market in Africa, and demand for reliable and affordable services. Nala founder, Benjamin Fernandes, said they intended to build their products on this premise right from the outset. Over the last two years, the Tanzanian fintech, through its consumer fintech app, has enabled users in the diaspora including the EU, UK and US to send money to their loved ones