Investors update: Zanifu raises $11.2m in Kenya

Zanifu raises $11.2m to provide SME financing in Kenya

Highlights

• Zanifu, a Kenyan fintech providing inventory financing to micro, small, and medium-sized businesses, has raised $11.2 million in hybrid (debt and equity) funding in a pre-Series A round led by Beyond Capital Ventures and Variant Investments. 
• Founders Factory Africa, AAIC Investment, Google Black Founders Fund, and existing investor Launch Africa also participated in the round. 
• This brings the total debt-equity funding raised by the startup to $12.7 million. The fintech provides inventory credit to retailers, and the new funding will enable it to expand the solution to distributors too.

Source: TechCrunch

Our Takeaway

Access to capital remains a significant barrier to the growth of many small businesses in Africa—available data shows a $330 billion financing deficit for the small enterprises that make up 90% of businesses on the continent—and it’s a problem several startups and foreign investors are particularly keen to address as it promises attractive returns. Following the new funding, Zanifu plans to scale its operations in Kenya, shelving its previous plan to expand to Ghana, and Uganda – some of the markets where small businesses also find it hard to raise capital for their operations and growth

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Saudi Arabia is Egypt’s largest foreign direct investor

Highlights

• Saudi Arabia topped the ten highest investing countries in Egypt during the first half of the fiscal year (FY) 2022/2023, with investments valued at $2.10 billion.
• The Kingdom was followed by the UAE with $1.50 billion, while Italy and the UK injected $1.20 billion investments in the Arab Republic, each.
• Egypt’s net foreign direct investment (FDI) reached $5.70 billion in H1-22/23,  a 75.40% year-on-year growth compared to $3.30 billion, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

Source: Zawya

Our Takeaway

Encouraged by economic reforms and streamlined business legislation and with a huge market of more than 90 million consumers — almost half aged 20 or under — investors are racing to gain lucrative footholds in all sectors in Egypt, including energy, banking and financial services. As such, Egypt’s FDI flows show no signs of slowing down anytime soon. With the streamlining of business rules and the introduction of laws that provide greater protection to investors, they are far more engaged than in previous years.

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Africa’s data center market to top $5bn in investments

Highlights

• Africa is being called the next frontier of the data center industry as large numbers of data centers along with large power capacities are coming up. 
• The data center demand in the region is fuelled by the rise in the adoption of 5G, artificial intelligence, government incentives, and smart city initiatives. More than $5 billion are expected to be invested in the market, per available forecasts.
• The region is also witnessing cloud investments leading to data center growth and acquisitions, with South Africa being one of the major markets having attracted the likes of Google, Oracle, and AWS.

Source: Pulse54

Our Takeaway

Currently, Africa has 17% of the global population but only about 2% of all colocation data centers globally. As more African households and businesses come online, the African data center market is witnessing increased demand across industries. And acquisitions & joint ventures are enabling new players—including some of the largest tech companies in the world—to enter the market, attract customers, and capture a higher market share. Oracle, Microsoft, Amazon, Equinix, and Huawei are some big names building or buying data centers across Africa.