Catching up with African Tech: 04/25
This week: Fashion entrepreneurs who are members of Lhaude Africa can now get discounts from Fashion tech platform Stylebitt. Ghana is delivering free drugs to its citizens.
👋🏾 Hello people!
It is the weekly digest with Vizible. Let’s go through a roundup of all the important events that occurred through the week in the tech ecosystem.
Ready?
Let's go!
Product Launches and Updates
Global banking tech giant Velmie has joined forces with Metro Cable to launch Vult, Sierra Leone’s first-ever digital banking super app. Vult is on a mission to drive financial inclusion by putting a full suite of financial services into one sleek, easy-to-use app. Velmie says it only took its team six months to go from idea to launch, thanks to its flexible, API-first tech infrastructure. Impressive feat, I must say, I am looking forward to seeing iterations and developments on Vult in the near future. They have literally hit the ground running and wasted no time on too many iterations.
HR Tech is expanding increasingly in Africa. Sage Africa, a new HR tech software product designed to aid financial and human resource management, has been launched in Luanda, Angola. This is after its launch in South Africa and Mozambique. Sage Africa expands on to further revolutionize enterprise resource planning and will serve as a strong competitor for management software on the scene.
Stylebitt partners with Lhaude Africa. Stylebitt empowers fashion entrepreneurs with a robust business management app that enhances several business operations of fashion entrepreneurs, from tracking orders to saving customer measurements to generating professional invoice. Lhaude Africa is a community of savvy fashion enthusiasts and professionals. The partnership will enable members of Lhaude Africa get discounts on subscription to the fashion enterprise management tool, Stylebitt.
This week in fundraising:
Lori Systems, the Google-backed Kenyan startup, has raised $2 million in a bridge funding round after sharply reduced $5 million valuation in 2024, down from its former $120 million peak. The round was led by Delta40, with backing from Future Africa, FP Capital, and other investors, pushing Lori’s total funding so far to a total of $46 million.
The dramatic valuation drop underscores a tough fundraising climate for African startups, and likely signals that Lori missed key growth milestones it had promised investors, although Lori has not divulged any specific details about this claim to any media outlet.
Crossfin, the VC arm of South African fintech powerhouse Crossfin , has made a strategic investment in DigiSquad, a Johannesburg-based payments advisory and platform provider targeting underserved African markets. While the specific amount of money invested remains under wraps, the funding will fuel DigiSquad’s ambitious push to deliver financial inclusion across both public and private sectors.
Its flagship platform, DigiEngine, took 18 months to build and recently landed a major win, becoming one of Eskom’s five national vending agents. Backed by Crossfin and powered by deep local expertise, DigiSquad is proving it can go toe-to-toe with already established industry contemporaries.
In a country plagued by rolling blackouts, South African EV charging startup Zimi turns parked electric vehicles (EV) into mobile power banks, offering a bold new way to boost grid resilience and accelerate the shift to clean energy.
Zimi’s innovation has landed $320,000 (R6 million) in grant funding from the EEP Africa Trust Fund to pilot its cutting-edge vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology. The system allows electric vehicles to feed energy back into homes, businesses, or even the national grid.
What’s happening in the ecosystem:
Kenya’s Apexloads, becomes verified by the EAC. Founded in 2019 by Charles Thuo, Apexloads is tackling one of Africa’s biggest logistics headaches: empty return trips. The platform connects shippers and truckers via its smart load board, helping transporters find and claim nearby loads, thereby boosting efficiency and keeping trucks fully occupied , both ways. The interesting thing is, Apexloads goes beyond simple load matching. Apexloads offers built-in transport management tools, CRM features, and invoice factoring, it gives logistics businesses real-time shipment tracking, smoother operations, stronger customer ties, and quicker access to cash.
Flutterwave has joined with Circle Payment Networks, by Circle Internet Group, the issuers of the USDC stable coin, to unlock faster and even more efficient cross border payments powered by stable coins. CPN connects banks, neobanks, payment service providers, digital wallets and virtual asset firms and aids real time settlement of cross borders payments with the use of regulated stable coins. The unicorn now stands alongside Yellow Card and 25+ global payment platforms on CPN, as it sets its sights on reshaping international transactions from Africa to the rest of the world.
Following hiccups with USAID-funded supply chains, Ghana’s government has partnered with drone logistics startup Zipline to make sure that the delivery of medical supplies continues nationwide, in order to bridge critical gaps. The partnership is prioritizing the delivery of malaria test kits, treatments, common medications, and nutrition supplements. Initial operations will begin in the Northeast, Northern, and Eastern Regions, with plans to expand as discussions progress. Ghana's partnership with Zipline, shows that the existence of home grown innovative solutions is necessary and that governments should support and nurture them, to accelerate development.
Liquid Intelligent Solutions Technologies providers of cloud and cybersecurity solutions in Uganda has achieved an impressive milestone, by earning four ISO certifications recognized internationally; ISO 14001 (Environmental Stewardship), ISO 45001 (Occupational Health & Safety), ISO 9001, (Quality Management), ISO/IEC 27001 ( Information Security). Liquid Intelligence Solutions taking this step further, is a quest to boost credibility and establish operations in Uganda and the rest of the world.
Ghana is set to introduce cryptocurrency regulations by September 2025, marking a significant shift in its approach to digital assets, pending the passage of the Virtual Asset Providers Act. Governor Dr. Johnson Asiama of the Bank of Ghana, announced the initiative during the African Leaders and Partners Forum in Washington, D.C. , in his speech, he emphasized the need for regulation to enhance stringent scrutiny of digital platforms and assets. To this end, the BoG is establishing a dedicated unit focused on digital assets.
Opportunities
Get journals and notes ready! Techpoint Africa partners with Lagos Startup Expo to bring an informative and insightful masterclass with Kennedy Douglas founder and CEO of Selar Africa, on how to bootstrap more rationally and strategically. The Masterclass will be held at Landmark Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos on June 18th and 19th.
Google’s Flagship Accelerator Program is targeting startups that are using AI to solve complex programs from Agriculture, to Health to Fashion to Fintech and other sectors. Selected Startups stand a chance to get up to $ 350,000 in Google Cloud Credits and access to equity free support. You can find out more about this accelerator program here.
On an unrelated note:
Recession indicators are everywhere; from flash mobs becoming a trend once again to food becoming fashionable. Tech entrepreneurs are panicky, amid the tariff raise by USA president, Donald Trump and an expected recession. But private equity founder, Micheal Green, at Lead Edge Capital says that fortunes can be made during recession, as long as there is capital. He believes it is the time to “stock up on stocks”. Read more about Micheal Green’s strategy.
I read an insightful and informative article on how to build a SaaS tech startup from scratch. It might be incredibly simple, but Shayan, who wrote the article, mentioned picking a boring niche that already has a demand. I agree with this opinion, sometimes disruptive tech may not always scale, if there is no high demand for it. Founders need to realise that Tech Startups are essentially a business, and its bottomline is to generate revenue, and the general rule of profitable businesses is to give supply to a demand, no matter how absurd or mundane it might seem. You can read more about how Shayan would build a SaaS Startup from scratch in 2025
Lara Nuguyen writes all about personal SEO and building an impressive online presence to help build trust with colleagues, investors, recruiters and clients , from; mapping existing profiles, to personal branding to help audit your digital footprint. I found this piece really helpful and I think it can be especially useful for growing founders and professionals alike. You can read the piece by Lara Nguyen here.
Signing Out:
Alright, fellow Vizibodies! This is where I head out!
We have come to the end of this issue. Do you have any big news or insight to share? Let us know in the comments!
I’m wishing you the best week yet.
See you next week ✌🏾