Nigeria’s Curacel raises $3m to expand venture. 2 other stories and a trivia

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

1. Nigeria’s Curacel raises $3m to expand venture

A Nigerian-based insurtech platform, Curacel, has announced raising a $3 million in seed funding to expand into North Africa.

This was contained in a press statement forwarded to Ripples Nigeria on Tuesday.

Launched in 2019, and founded by Henry Mascot, the Nigeria-based platform claims it aims to drive insurance penetration in emerging markets via APIs enabling insurers to connect with digital distribution channels.

“We’ve got claims and distribution, which are our go-to products. Down the line, we want to deal with underwriting, payments, and so on,” Mascot said.

“We want to build that platform that, down the line, allows insurance companies to run some of their business or run all their businesses across our ecosystem.”

Investors in the seed round include Tencent, Blue Point Capital Partners, Pioneer Fund, Olive Tree Capital, Y Combinator and AAF Management, and Elefund.

Tech Trivia: Which process smoothes out digital graphics and audio?
A. Encoding
B. Buffering
C. Tracking
D. Dithering
Answer: see end of post

2. FoodLabs leads $1.5M investment in Morocco’s foodtech, Terraa

A Moroccan B2B tech-enabled food distribution platform, Terraa, has raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding led by FoodLabs.

Read also:Kenya-based smartphone startup, Badili, secures $2.1m pre-seed. 2 other stories and a trivia

FoodLabs, which is a European early-stage VC investor and venture studio for food, sustainability, and health, led other investors including UM6P Ventures, Outlierz Ventures, Musha Ventures, and Africa-centric DFS Lab.

Youssef Benkirane, founder and CEO of Terraa, confirmed the funding in a media statement on Tuesday.

Youssef cofounded the startup with Benoit De Vigne in 2022.

According to the CEO, Terraa plans to use the funding to strengthen its logistics infrastructure and expand across Morocco’s cities, before exploring new markets within the region in a year.

“In the next few months, we will build some collection centers in all the major agricultural cities of Morocco.

“We will use them to store the produce we have collected from the farmers for distribution to the end customers,” Benkirane said.

3. Power Financial Wellness secures $3M seed funding to scale in Kenya

Power Financial Wellness, shortened Power, has secured $3 million in seed funding to scale in Kenya and mark its entry in Zambia.

Brian Dempsey disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday.

The round was led by DOB Equity with participation from QED Investors, Quona Capital, Zephyr Acorn, and Norrsken Impact Accelerator.

Power claims it offers its employees long-term loans based on their profits and the chance to access a percentage of their future earnings in advance.

“In southern Africa, we have a bank partnership in Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. We’re starting in Zambia,” Dempsey explained.

He added that the plan was to continue to partner with banks while leveraging the technology to allow them to offer a new range of services to workers.

Trivia Answer: Dithering

Dithering is a process that uses digital noise to smooth out colors in digital graphics and sounds in digital audio.

By Kayode Hamsat

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