A selection of tech news from Nigeria and Africa at large.
Edventures Ed-Tech | Climate-Tech Startup Lab | Cchub Entrepreneurship Programme | Technigeria’s Fastamoni Edupali Fee Payment | Remedial Health, Raises $12 Million
Egypt’s EdVentures, Saudi’s VMS join forces to revolutionise MENA ed-tech industry – Disrupt Africa.
Egypt-based ed-tech corporate VC firm EdVentures has announced a strategic partnership with VMS, a leading venture studio empowering entrepreneurs and startups in the Middle East, to enhance ed-tech in the region. Since its establishment in 2017, EdVentures, the investment arm of Egypt’s Nahdet Misr Group, has been at the forefront of investing in innovative ed-tech startups.
Meanwhile, VMS supports talented startups entering the Saudi Arabian market, helping them overcome challenges and achieve their business goals. By driving innovation and embracing risk, VMS contributes to the growth and success of the Saudi entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The partnership between the two is a significant milestone in the development of the ed-tech industry in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, fostering innovation in a key sector. It will allow both companies to support a greater number of ed-tech startups. EdVentures will provide startups with its specialised incubation, acceleration, and investment programmes while VMS will leverage its network to offer essential guidance, mentorship, and advisory services to enhance the startups’ chances of success. Read more here:
CMA unveils climate-tech startup lab – Punch News
Climate Action Africa has launched CMA Labs, a hub dedicated to supporting the development of the climate-tech startup ecosystem in Africa. According to a co-founder of the initiative, Grace Oluchi, climate change poses significant threats to Africa’s environment and economy, needing urgent and sustainable solutions.
She said that in the face of harsh realities caused by climate change, including severe droughts, flooding, and escalating agricultural challenges, Climate Action Africa had taken steps to address those issues.
She said, “Based on what we have been doing in the last two years, we have been able to discover innovators that are doing things that are practical that can be used. One of the challenges we have is that these innovations are not mainstreamed. They are not commercialised. Read more here:
Applications open for CcHub-led student entrepreneurship programme – Disrupt Africa
Disrupt Africa reported CcHub had launched a new co-funded initiative to support innovation within African universities, in partnership with the Make-IT in Africa project implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
The UNI:NNOVATORS Startups-in-Residence Programme will see CcHub support 30 student-led innovations in Nigeria, Namibia, and Kenya in an effort to strengthen and accelerate the participation of academic institutions in the emerging innovation ecosystem across Africa.
In Nigeria, it is working with the University of Ibadan and the University of Lagos. In Namibia, it has partnered the University of Namibia and Namibia University of Science and Technology, and in Kenya the partners are Riara University and the University of Nairobi.
Eighteen of these student-led teams who scale through after a pitch demonstration will participate in a knowledge exchange with leading researchers in their fields and get the opportunity to travel to Germany for physical sessions to help to strengthen their prototypes. They will then receive funding and advisory services towards building and deploying their MVPs in the marketplace and in partnership with industry where applicable. Read more here:
TECHNigeria’s FastaMoni launches school fee payment platform, EduPali. – Ripples News
Nigerian startup FastaMoni Technologies has unveiled its pioneering online platform, EduPali, to address the pressing challenges of soaring education costs and limited accessibility to quality education in Africa. EduPali, according to the team, serves as a digital payment platform designed to streamline school fee payments while offering other benefits to both educational institutions and students across the continent.
Speaking on the development, Adetola Adele, the co-founder, and CEO of FastaMoni, emphasized that the company is dedicated to optimizing the payment process as well as ensuring affordability and flexibility for parents.
Ripples Nigeria gathered that EduPali offers a range of payment options including split payments tailored to low-income families and one-off payments for those with moderate income levels. Adele said: “Our focus is on optimising the payment process, ensuring affordability and flexibility for parents. Read more here:
Nigerian startup, Remedial Health, raises $12 million in Series A funding – Nairametrics
Health-tech startup, Remedial Health, has raised $12 million in Series A funding comprising $8 million equity and $4 million debt. The company said the fund would be deployed to scale operations in Nigeria and support the delivery of targeted financial services to drive business growth across the country’s pharmaceutical sector.
The startup, which is digitizing pharmacies and bringing efficiency to the pharmaceutical value chain, said it would also prioritize increasing its penetration in the 34 states it currently operates in Nigeria by getting more pharmacies and hospitals signed up, especially in rural areas, where demand is growing. The $8 million Series A equity funding round was led by US-based venture capital firm, QED Investors and co-led by Ventures Platform, who have now invested in Remedial Health at every funding round since the pre-seed stage. Read more here:
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