15 Sept 2025
Startup Researcher - Africa: Week 37, 2025
This week in African startups and venture capital, we track a wave of policy, product, and capital moves shaping the continent’s tech markets.
Morocco signed an agreement with Mistral AI to build local talent, support startups, and embed responsible adoption across public and private sectors. In West Africa, Djamo became the first fintech licensed by the Central Bank of West African States to offer regulated savings and loans, a milestone for compliant digital finance at scale. Flutterwave partnered with Clear Junction to speed up and secure cross-border payments between Africa, the UK, and the EU. In Nigeria, Luno launched tokenized U.S. stocks, giving naira users access to more than sixty equities and ETFs with low entry points and near-continuous trading. At POESAM 2025, DeepLeaf in Morocco and ProVerdy in Tunisia took first-place honors, spotlighting climate, sustainability, and women-led innovation.
Funding momentum remained steady. SunCulture raised five million dollars to expand solar irrigation for smallholder farmers. Nucleon Security secured three and a half million to scale its AI cybersecurity platform. Float in South Africa collected two point six million to grow its installment payments solution. Jobzyn closed pre-seed funding from Janngo Capital for its AI recruitment platform, and PowerLabs received backing from Catalyst Fund for Pai, an energy optimization tool.
On the deals front, South Africa’s TaxTim was acquired by a consortium led by Twofold Capital with Octoco, aiming to modernize and expand AI-driven tax services while co-founder Evan Robinson continues as Head of Product.
Investor activity included Acumen’s ninety million dollar KawiSafi Fund II for clean energy and Accion’s sixty-one million dollar vehicle for inclusive fintech. In Tunisia, 216 Capital launched an accelerator with Plug and Play. Launch Africa Ventures appointed Natnael Asmerom in Dubai to deepen Middle East partnerships, and First Circle Capital added Samantha Ghiotti and Andi Dervishi to strengthen portfolio strategy.
Spotlights this week feature Moniepoint and 216 Capital Ventures. Moniepoint, founded in Lagos in 2015 by Tosin Eniolorunda and Felix Ike and now headquartered in London, serves over ten million users and processes around seventeen billion dollars monthly across payments, loans, and remittances, with backing from Google, Visa, and Development Partners International.
216 Capital Ventures, founded in 2021 in Tunis and led by Dhekra Khelifi and Hassen Arfaoui, manages a nine point six million dollar fund with one to two hundred fifty thousand dollar tickets in HRTech, LegalTech, TravelTech, and more, backing companies such as Addvocate, Talenteo, Juridoc, and Arcube.
Finally, the Sustainable Aero Lab Accelerator is open until September 18 for zero-emission aviation technologies, including sustainable fuels, hydrogen, electrification, aircraft design, and efficient propulsion, with mentorship and investor access for selected startups.
