Investor Updates: TradeDepot acquires Green Lion to drive growth in Ghana.

TradeDepot acquires Green Lion to drive growth in Ghana

Highlights

• TradeDepot, a B2B marketplace that connects micro-retailers with distributors and manufacturers of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs), has acquired Green Lion, its competitor in Ghana, for an undisclosed amount.
• The acquisition involves a full take-over of Green Lion’s assets, relationships in Ghana, and its employees. Green Lion had developed fintech solutions to enable traders to access financing, and a digital ledger Wysr, which retailers use for stock monitoring and bookkeeping.
• Green Lion has so far made 29,854 transactions with 4,404 customers – making it one of the largest B2B e-commerce platforms in Ghana.

Source: TechCrunch

Our Takeaway

The TradeDepot-Green Lion deal is the latest in a spree of acquisition deals the African tech landscape has witnessed since the beginning of this year. This month alone, there have been at least four mergers and acquisitions (M&A) announcements involving African startups.  For TradeDepot the deal paves the way for its growth and the delivery of its services across the West African country.

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Game studios team up to grow the industry in Africa

Highlights

• Ten game development studios in Africa have come together under one umbrella, the Pan Africa Gaming Group (PAGG), to unify the continent’s fragmented gaming sector. 
• The PAGG aims to grow the industry by two times annually, and to put Africa “on the map of the global game industry.” The association is further envisioned to drive the uptake of gaming in the continent, and grow developer talent.
• Studios in the new group are from South Africa, Senegal, Cameroon, Ghana, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda, with more expected to join soon. Collectively, the current members have developed more than 50 games.

Source: TechCrunch

Our Takeaway

Before now, gamers in Africa mostly played games on consoles and personal computers at either cyber cafes or gaming joints. However, smartphones are currently the primary platforms for gaming anywhere, with most characters and even languages adopting African characteristics. Over the past five years, the number of gamers on the continent has also more than doubled and the growth of the gaming industry in all aspects points upward.

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Nigeria-based Voyance gets $500,000 pre-seed

Highlights

• Voyance, a Nigerian startup, has raised $500,000 in a pre-seed round led by Beta Ventures, an early-stage investment firm supporting leading tech entrepreneurs and tech-enabled startups in Nigeria.
• Launched in 2019 by Ebot Tabi, Voyance is a data science startup that builds innovative solutions to help companies extract value from their data and to help B2B businesses become data-driven.
• Aside from the fundraising, the startup also announced the rollout of two flagship products, Manhattan DB and Sigma.

Source: Benjamindada

Our Takeaway

A Deloitte survey states that the advantage of analytics to businesses includes making better decisions, improving relationships with customers and other business partners or stakeholders, and enabling key strategic initiatives. With more organizations and customers compelled to go online on the back of the pandemic-induced shifts in how daily activity is carried out, access to quality data and analytics which Voyance provides through its products is critical to the success of businesses.