Nigerian digital bank, FairMoney, closes $42m Series B round. 2 other things and a trivia

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

1. Nigerian digital bank, FairMoney, closes $42m Series B round

FairMoney, a Nigeria-based credit-led digital bank, has raised US$42 million in Series B funding as it begins to expand into other emerging markets.

FairMoney is a startup with the vision to give underbanked people access to digital financial services.

The startup was founded in 2017 by Laurin Hainy, Nico Berthozat and Matthieu Gendreau, using loans as a launching pad for its future bank accounts.

FairMoney uses artificial intelligence (AI) to disburse loans to users in seconds, without any human intervention.

The new US$42 million Series B round was led by Tiger Global Management and also featuring existing investors DST, Flourish Ventures, Newfund, and Speedinvest.

Tech Trivia: The first photo shot by a camera took how many hours to shoot?

A. 2 minutes
B. 2 hours
C. 8 minutes
D. 8 hours

Answer: See end of post.

2. Moroccan fintech startup Yalla Xash secures $675k to scale

Yalla Xash, a Moroccan fintech startup, has announced securing a MAD6 million (US$675,000) in funding from the Maroc Numeric Fund II to extend its services to other countries.

Yalla Xash is a money transfer platform operating in North America and Africa, allowing Moroccans abroad to transfer money back home using its app.

The new raiser comes from Maroc Numeric Fund II, and is expected to fund the startup’s expansion beyond the North America – Morocco corridor.

Dounia Boumehdi, managing director of MITC Capital, the management company of Maroc Numeric Fund II, applauded the startup for thriving as a Fintech bridging two continents.

He said: “We were impressed by the quality of Yalla Xash’s service, its proximity to its customers, as well as by the perspectives offered by this fintech which has been able to establish a reputation in a very short time in a global market of remittances estimated at more than US$700 billion per year.”

3. South Africa’s digital academy EduPower opens campus in Cape Town

EduPower Skills Academy, a Durban-based startup, has opened a state-of-the-art campus in Athlone, Cape Town.

According to local media, the launch was welcomed by the company’s Western Cape (WC) clients as the campus was established to meet the demand for high-quality skills development in the area.

READ ALSO: Ghanaian startup Jetstream raises $3m to expand venture. 2 other things and a trivia

The startup was founded in 2016, and has helped changed the lives of hundreds of unemployed youth at its campuses in Durban and Joburg.

Speaking on the development, Rajan Naidoo, Managing Director of EduPower, noted that the startup operated on a refined model.

He said: “Through our academies in Durban and Johannesburg, we have refined a training model that not only benefits our clients by facilitating high-quality learnerships, we also deliver life-changing skills development for SA’s unemployed youth, from which they can build sustainable careers.

“We chose the Athlone location as it is a central hub in the Western Cape and easily accessible for our learners. It is also large enough so that both the training and work experience required for our learnerships sit under one roof.”

Tech Trivia Answer: 8 hours

If you were to have your picture taken by the very first camera, you’d need to sit still for 8 hours.

The photo, taken by French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 or 1827, captures the view outside his window in Burgundy. He snapped the shot with a camera obscura by focusing it onto a pewter plate, with the whole process taking him about eight hours.

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