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

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Google, Spleet, Purple Elephant, Acathia Capital, Swvl, Glamera, KCD, Gourmey, Havaic, Algebra Ventures, CardoO, Talk360 were some of the names that made the headlines in the tech ecosystem this week.

A Nigerian proptech startup, Spleet, has announced securing a $2.6 million seed round led by MaC Venture Capital.

Also, during the week, Google announced plans to boost cloud capabilities for its customers and partners in Africa with the first African cloud region in South Africa.

Let’s get into details.

Another long week has just ended. We had a lot of buzz in the tech ecosystem. Opening our reel is the story of Purple Elephant Ventures after securing $1M pre-seed funding.

CEO Ben Peterson confirmed the new funding in a media release.

What you should know: Investors participating in this round include Klister Credit Corp., The Untours Foundation, and several angel backers including Fede Pirzio-Biroli, Ian McCaig, Anthony Rock, Rich Hoops, Jim Villanueva, and Helena Riese Harstad.

Following up closely is the story BNPL company, Lipa Later Group, announcing a partnership deal with Lami Technologies.

Claudine Gakundi, Country Manager, Lipa Later confirmed the partnership in a media statement seen by Ripples Nigeria on Friday.

Read also:Nigerian proptech startup, Spleet secures $2.6 million seed. 2 other stories and a trivia

What you should know: Lipa Later Group, a buy now, pay later (BNPL) company operating in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Nigeria, has announced a partnership with Lami Technologies.

Up next is German Acathia Capital for completing the acquisition of Swedish life insurer, Futur Pension.

Dr. Thomas Schmitt, the managing partner of Acathia Capital, confirmed the acquisition in a press release on Friday.

What you should know: Futur Pension is the largest life insurer in Sweden with over 11% premium market share.

In Egypt, clean mobility service provider, Swvl, hinted the world on its new milestone of expanding to Switzerland.

Youssef Salem, CFO of Swvl, confirmed the new development in a press statement on Thursday.

What you should know: The expansion followed Swvl expansion into the Turkish market.

Still in Egypt, SaaS startup Glamera was in the news after securing $1.3 million Seed round led by Riyadh Angels Investors, RAI.

Mohamed Hassan, Founder, and CEO confirmed the new raiser in a media release on Thursday.

What you should know: The round also saw participation from Techstars Accelerator, Ithraa Venture Capital, 100 Ventures, Silicon Valley Venture “Lucrative Ventures”, and Super Angel Investors.

In Korea, Seoul-based fintech startup, KCD, secured a $24.7 million Series D extension.

The startup CEO, Hwang Hyeon-sik, confirmed the new funding in a statement on Thursday.

What you should know: Ripples Nigeria gathered that the latest financing values the company at approximately $776 million (1.1 trillion KRW).

Another story we tracked is the story of Google, where it claimed looking to boost cloud capabilities in Africa

Niral Patel, the Director of Google Cloud in Africa disclosed this during the Google for Africa 2022 event on Wednesday.

What you should know: The tech giant is playing catch-up with other top providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, which made inroads into the continent a few years ago.

Back home in Nigeria, proptech startup, Spleet secured a $2.6 million seed to join the list of tech startups that closed funding in the first week of October.

Spleet’s cofounder, Akintola Adesanmi, disclosed the funding in a media release on Tuesday.

What you should know: The round welcomed several investors including, Noemis Ventures, Plug and Play Ventures, Assembly Fund, Ajim Capital, Francis Fund, and other angel investors including Proptech operators; Eduardo Campos and Paulo Buchicher of Yuca, Maajed Chaaaraoui of insurami.

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