Author: Insider Editor

Paying a supplier in China can be a frustrating part of doing business for African companies, even when the money is already sitting in a foreign-currency account. Grey wants to make that process simpler. The Y Combinator-backed cross-border fintech has launched Chinese yuan payouts, allowing customers to convert their US dollar, euro, British pound or stablecoin balances into yuan and send the money directly to bank accounts in China. For Grey, the move is about more than adding another currency. It is an attempt to build a smoother payment route between African businesses and one of their biggest trading partners.…

Cascador has selected 10 Nigerian businesses for its 2026 ScaleUp Program, a 12-week accelerator designed to help growth-stage companies strengthen their operations and prepare for their next phase of expansion. The businesses were selected from more than 1,000 applications and operate across sectors including clean energy, healthcare, agriculture, proptech, beauty, tourism, food production and critical minerals. The latest cohort is part of Cascador’s efforts to support Nigerian companies that have moved beyond the early stages of building a business but still need capital, strategic guidance and stronger leadership structures to scale. “The next chapter of Nigeria’s entrepreneurial story will be…

For a country where cash remains a major part of everyday spending, South Africa could become one of MTN’s biggest tests for MoMo. MTN’s mobile-money and digital financial services platform is looking to expand beyond the markets where mobile money has traditionally thrived. The company now sees an opportunity to use South Africa’s changing payments infrastructure to bring more consumers and businesses into digital finance. MTN wants MoMo to evolve from a mobile wallet into a broader financial platform, connecting consumers and merchants to payments, credit, remittances and other digital services across its African markets. South Africa presents a different…

A Senegalese healthtech startup is getting a new owner as European health insurer Alan looks to establish a foothold in Africa. Alan has acquired Tanel, a Dakar-based digital health and insurance company operating in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, in a deal whose value has not been disclosed. The transaction, which closed in June, marks Alan’s first acquisition on the continent. For Tanel, the deal brings a full exit for investors including Ventures Platform, AAIC Investment and a group of angel investors, while giving the startup access to Alan’s capital, technology and international reinsurance network. The acquisition also comes at an…

Nigerian fintech Nomba and renewable energy financing company Synafare are putting ₦2 billion ($1.4 million) into solar financing for small and medium-sized businesses across Nigeria. The funding will be deployed over the next 24 months and is expected to help about 300 businesses purchase solar panels, inverters and batteries. The partnership comes as many Nigerian businesses continue to struggle with two major challenges: limited access to affordable credit and unreliable electricity. Nigeria has about 40 million micro, small and medium-sized businesses, which contribute nearly half of the country’s GDP. Yet, more than 80% of these businesses do not have access…

For many speech recognition systems, that switch creates a problem. The English gets transcribed, while the Swahili disappears. For businesses relying on those transcripts, that can mean losing an important part of the conversation. Lagos-based voice technology startup Intron is trying to solve that problem with its latest AI models, Sahara v2.5. The new release adds code-switching support to 12 African languages, including Zulu, Hausa, Swahili and Luganda. Code-switching refers to moving between languages within the same conversation or even the same sentence. An AI that can handle three languages Sahara v2.5 also includes what Intron describes as the first…

Moniepoint is winding down the remittance business as it shifts its focus back to its core African markets. The Nigerian fintech unicorn said it made the decision after reviewing its portfolio and long-term priorities. “Moniepoint Inc., Africa’s all-in-one financial platform, today announced that MonieWorld, its UK-based remittance business, is undergoing a strategic transition as the Group refocuses its resources on building and scaling its core platform for African businesses,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday. The move marks a change in Moniepoint’s international expansion strategy. Instead of continuing to invest heavily in the UK, the company plans to…

Ventures Platform has closed its second institutional fund at $84 million, nearly twice the size of its first fund, as the African venture capital firm prepares to write bigger cheques into early-stage startups. The new fund, VP Pan-African Fund II, is just $23 million short of the total raised by all six African venture funds that closed in 2025. The fund has attracted four new institutional investors: the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Norway’s development finance institution Norfund, Dutch family office Alphatron, and the Ashesi University Foundation. A group of new family offices has also joined the fund.…

Cascador, a Nigeria-focused platform for growth-stage founders, has partnered with the Federal Ministry of Youth Development through the Nigerian Youth Academy (NiYA) to support young entrepreneurs with business training, mentorship and access to funding. The partnership will run as the NiYA × Cascador Founders Programme, starting with a pilot cohort of 20 early-stage Nigerian founders. The four-week programme will focus on business fundamentals, investment readiness, pitch preparation and one-on-one mentorship. At the end of the programme, the eight top-performing founders will be eligible to receive up to ₦5 million each in non-dilutive funding from Cascador. They will also receive an…

The entertainment, media, technology, gaming and intellectual property company founded by Nigerian musician Mr Eazi, Choplife, has moved its operations to Itana, Nigeria’s first digital special economic zone. Choplife’s corporate and regulatory base changed due to this move. With the company pointing to Itana’s business-friendly regulatory environment and its potential to make cross-border operations easier as key reasons for the decision. Choplife is the latest company to join Itana, which now hosts about 50 businesses. The digital free zone has attracted companies looking to build from Nigeria while serving customers and markets around the world. Itana offers businesses access to…