TechNigeria: A weekly digest of what went down in Nigeria’s tech space

Evidently, the week was a complete departure from last week, with too many headlines leaving the tech space talking.

Andela, during the week, joined Flutterwave as a 10 figure company, attaining the status of a Unicorn.

Also, we saw Gokada enter Nigeria’s largest city, Ibadan, with the intention to commence its food delivery (GFood) and logistics services (GSend).

See details:

Verto closes $10m

In a significant venture milestone, Verto, a Nigerian B2B payment startup, on Friday, closed a US$10 million Series A round to accelerate growth as it seeks to expand its footprint.

The B2B payments platform provides a fast, simple, and reliable way for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to make payments to their suppliers in over 200 countries across 39 currencies.

Today, through the startup’s three main products of payments, exchange and multi-currency account; business owners can send cross-border B2B payments at FX rates up to nine times cheaper than they could through traditional banks.

Edves secures $575k

During the week, edtech startup Edves secured $575k to scale its operations.

Edves, which was founded in 2016, is an academic portal that automates operations in schools and colleges from admission to transcript generation.

Since its launch, the venture has reduced teacher and administrator workload, giving them opportunities to mark attendance and prepare classroom lessons using AI algorithms.

The Andela giant

In what seem to be biggest news for the week, the global network for remote technology talent, Andela, raised $200 million in Series E financing.

The fundraising, which was led by Japanese multinational firm, Softbank, took Andela’s valuation to $1.5 billion, entering the league of African unicorn.

Companies that took part in the exercise included Whale Rock, Generation Investment Management, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Spark Capital, where Whale Rock came as a new portfolio company and others as existing investors.

Yellow Card’s $15m Series A funding

Yellow Card, a Nigerian startup that deals with cryptocurrency exchange, during the week, announced securing a US$15 million in Series A funding.

The fund, according to the startup, is to ramp up hiring and continue its expansion across the continent.

The startup was launched in 2018 as a venture making it easy for anyone, anywhere in Africa, to buy cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT Stablecoin using cash, mobile money, card, or bank transfer.

The Gokada Ibadan romance

Nigeria-based last mile delivery, logistics and transportation startup, Gokada, has expanded into Ibadan as it looks to resume its ride-hailing business.

The startup, which was founded in 2018, is touted to have evolved from a ride-hailing player to become a food delivery, parcel delivery, and last-mile e-commerce fulfilment solution.

READ ALSO: Nigerian edtech startup, Edves, secures $575k to scale venture

With its new entry into Ibadan, the largest city in Nigeria, the company looks to roll out its offerings such as food delivery (GFood) and logistics services (GSend).

NucleusIS’ product launch

Leveraging technology to deliver improved healthcare services, Nigerian startup NucleusIS, has launched a venture aimed to deepen insurance adoption.

The startup, which was founded in 2019, seeks to build a robust enterprise technology base for health insurance companies and care providers.

Speaking on the inspiration behind the launch of the venture, cofounder Kayode Odeyinde noted that the team saw the data-gap across Africa and thought to invest in the process.

Infibranches Technologies and the new $2M raiser

Finally, Infibranches Technologies, a Nigerian startup that helps solar energy providers manage their operations and receive payments, closed US$2 million funding.

The funds, according to the startup, comes from All On, a VC and impact investment company backed by oil major, Shell.

Since its incorporation in 2019, the Lagos-based Infibranches has developed two flagship products: OmniBranches and Green Energy Plug.

Remark:

Thank you for joining us this week. That will be all. Take care and stay here for more updates.

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