Knife Capital secures $50M fund. 2 other stories and a trivia

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

1. Knife Capital secures $50M fund

 

Knife Capital, a Cape Town-based venture capital firm, has secured a fresh $50 million fund as it seeks to focus on pan-African investments. 

This new funding followed its investment in the East African region, highlighting the company’s commitment to driving innovation and growth throughout the continent.

The newly established fund, known as Knife Capital has set its sights on supporting and investing in high-growth technology companies.

The fund seeks innovative companies with intellectual property and tremendous potential for both pan-African and global expansion. 

Ripples Nigeria gathered that the industry sectors of interest include Software, Tech-enabled business services, and FinTech. 

The IFC invested $10 million in Knife Fund III, with the objective of fostering the growth of South Africa’s digital economy and enhancing access to financing for technology entrepreneurs in the country. 

 

Tech Trivia: Which process adapts a software product for a new region and language?

1. Globalization
2. Transliteration
3. Transcription
4. Localization

Answer: see end of post

 

2. Egypt’s Fawry launches “Yellowcard” for cashless transactions

 

Fawry, a banking and electronic payment technology service startup, has announced the launch of the myfawry “yellowcard.”

The new product, according to the startup, comes in collaboration with Banque Misr and the Egyptian Banks Company (EBC).

This partnership, which underscores Fawry’s commitment to developing electronic payment solutions, will help it facilitate financial transactions for individuals and merchants with the goal of building a cashless society. 

The “yellowcard” is a prepaid debit card connected to the myfawry application and operates through the national payment network Meeza. 

Speaking on the use-case of the product, Fawry noted that the card enables usage for all transactions through the application and can be utilized in various places that offer electronic payment services, including shops, malls, restaurants, and online shopping sites. 

The yellowcard facilitates payment of social insurance contributions, school and university expenses, and provides the ability to monitor expenses through monthly limits and transaction tracking.

The yellowcard provides full financial control over payments, allowing users to monitor expenses and easily load funds through the myfawry app, Instapay application, or Fawry POS devices.

Eng. Ashraf Sabry, the CEO of Fawry, expressed his satisfaction with the partnership with Banque Misr and the national payment network Meeza. 

He emphasized Fawry’s continuous efforts to strengthen its collaboration with the Egyptian banking sector, highlighting the pioneering role of Banque Misr in banking services and digital payments.

 

3. Agthia Group launches $54 million CVC fund for foodtech startups

 

A diversified food and beverage company, Agthia Group PJSC, has launched Agthia Ventures, a corporate venture capital fund (“CVC”) designed to expand Agthia’s innovation capabilities and create mutual value with startups as the company continues to drive profitable growth in both new and existing markets.

Funded by Agthia and its parent company ADQ, an Abu Dhabi-based investment and holding company, Agthia Ventures will be managed together with Touchdown Ventures.

Agthia Ventures is expected to build on Agthia’s four decades of experience, creating a program to help the best and brightest entrepreneurs in food and related industries scale their operations and accelerate their product development and market adoption.

Utilizing Touchdown’s extensive network of startups, venture capital relationships, incubators, and accelerators, Agthia Ventures may be well-placed to identify attractive early-stage, seed, and growth investment opportunities, within relevant and target geographies. 

The fund is stage-agnostic and will invest primarily in companies with clear product-market fit that are demonstrating revenue growth. 

Meanwhile, investments will focus on brands, categories, and solutions across Agthia’s portfolio that are both complementary and adjacent to its business model, for example in snacks and beverages, value chain technology, and ingredient technology. 

 

Trivia answer: Localization

Localization is the process of adapting a product for a specific region and language. It may include several steps, but the most common is language translation. In the context of IT, localization typically applies to software and websites.

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