Kenya’s MarketForce closes $40m Series A. 1 other thing and a trivia

This line-up of stories will help you discover the latest happenings around the tech world, today.

1. Kenya’s MarketForce closes $40m Series A

MarketForce, a Kenya-based B2B platform, has announced closing a US$40 million Series A round.

The round is intended to see the startup scale its merchant super app, RejaReja, across the continent.

The startup operates as a B2B platform for retail distribution of consumer goods and digital financial services.

The startup was co-founded in 2018 by Tesh Mbaabu and Mesongo Sibuti.

According to local media, MarketForce is a B2B retail marketplace that empowers informal merchants in Africa to source, order and pay for inventory digitally.

In addition, the startup also enables users access financing, collect digital payments and make extra money by reselling digital financial services such as airtime, electricity tokens and bill payments.

The round was led by V8 Capital Partners, a London and Lagos-based African-focused investment vehicle, with participation from Ten13 VC, SOSV Select Fund, Vu Ventures and Vastly Valuable Ventures.

Tech Trivia: What is the primary function of an ISP?

A To host websites
B To provide Internet security services
C To provide Internet access
D To deliver software updates
Answer: See end of post

READ ALSO: Vehicle maintenance startup, Mecho Autotech, closes $2.15m seed funding. 2 other things and a trivia

2. Kenya’s Credrails secures seed funding to accelerate venture

Credrails, a Kenyan open finance infrastructure startup, has secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding to accelerate its venture.

The funding comes as the startup works towards connecting the whole of Africa to its API.

Credrails was launched in 2020 as a startup building the open finance rails for Africa, connecting bank, mobile money and offline data into a single API.

Credrails, through its API technology, has connected every African country, allowing developers to build for Africa with ease and quickly.

After 2 years in business, the startup now has physical operations in Nigeria, and has access to 250 million accounts in 33 countries.

Trivia Answer: ISP

Stands for “Internet Service Provider.” An ISP provides access to the Internet. Whether you’re at home or work, each time you connect to the Internet, your connection is routed through an ISP.

Early ISPs provided Internet access through dial-up modems. This type of connection took place over regular phone lines and was limited to 56 Kbps. In the late 1990s, ISPs began offering faster broadband Internet access via DSL and cable modems.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now