Tech

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

Published

3 years ago

May 29, 2021

So quick, the weekend is here again. This time, the tech space is littered with various developments. Chief amongst them is Nigeria’s fintech startup Mono closing $2m seed funding.

Today, we will also take a look at other noteworthy updates such as opportunity windows for Africans and equity raiser.

From Nigeria to Sweden

During the week, one of the news we tracked was the Sweden-based impact accelerator that announced selecting 11 African startups.
It became a story of interest as 3 of the eleven startups are Nigerian tech startups.

For the startups, this development will facilitate them gaining access to support and potential funding.
The Nigerian startups include health insurance startup cribMD, ed-tech platform Gradely, and e-health startup WellaHealth. We can only be more proud of this new development, and potentials that are expected to come from it.

Opportunity window

Another news of interest during the week was the opportunity commissioned by a France-based association, Bond’innov.
The body looks to support African startups with soft-landing options for European expansion.

While we are hopeful that a sizeable number of Nigerian startups will get in, we are more hopeful that the three-month soft-landing programme will help more African startups scale their ventures.

Mono’s $2m seed funding

Nigerian fintech startup, Mono, has also joined a league of startups that recorded over a million dollar raiser in the month of May.
Mono’s new raiser is expected to help reinforce its current offerings in financial and identity data.
In fact, the new raiser is also expected to go into the launch of new products as the company seeks to expand its portfolio.

Like France like Germany

We also tracked another opportunity window. This time, from Germany.
The news recorded that Impacc seeks to invest $150k in African social businesses where Impacc is a Germany-based non-profit organisation.

Like the France opportunity, this one also seeks to invest in social businesses with sustainable, high impact solutions to social, economic and environmental challenges affecting base of pyramid communities in Africa.

Equity raiser

So much is indeed happening for our tech players. Also during the week, Nigerian home financing startup, Bongalow, secured undisclosed funding from Africa-focused Japanese venture firm, UNCOVERED FUND.
If you don’t know Bongalow, the startup is a mobile-powered home financing marketplace. By business, it enables Africans at home and abroad shop for the best home loan to purchase their desired property.

Since it ventured as a startup, the mobile-powered home financing platform enables aspiring homeowners to save towards a down payment, shop for a home loan, and access Bongalow’s rent-to-own financing facilities.

Lessons from South Africa

Although there are no data and reports to establish startups from Nigeria which have had to throw in the towel, but we cannot deny the fact that the pandemic has largely affected nearly every sector.
For instance, during the week, South African prop-tech startup, HouseME, announced shutting down as a result of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.
Even more saddening is that the root cause is linked to lack of funding.
For the record, the now defunct startup was founded in 2015 but was made available to the public by the end of 2016.
To wrap up, do you know any Nigerian startup that has had to pack up due to the pandemic? Tell us via the comment box.

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

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