Investor Updates: South Africa’s edutech startup FoondaMate raises $2m

South Africa’s edutech startup FoondaMate raises $2m

Highlights

• South African edtech startup FoondaMate has secured $2 million seed funding in a round led by LocalGlobe, to drive uptake of its Whatsapp and Facebook-based learning chatbot across the globe.
• Foondamate helps students with their revision by giving them immediate answers to questions and access to revision papers, while also guiding them in responses to questions.
• The startup targets high-school students in emerging markets where Whatsapp is widely used and is a lot cheaper or free to access. Educators also use FoondaMate’s integrated resources to set and post homework and to share other learning materials with students.

Source: TechEconomy

Our Takeaway

Since its launch, FoondaMate has been used by more than 400,000 students using over 10 languages in over 30 countries, including Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, and Indonesia – where it recently launched. The startup is currently working on localizing its learning material to accommodate learners in more countries and fuel the growth of its platform to more than 50 million users. 

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Google launches 2nd cohort of Black Founders Fund for Africa

Highlights

• Google is calling for applications for the second cohort of its Google for Startup Black Founders Fund for Africa. 
• Following the success of the first cohort last year, Google will increase its commitment with an additional $1 million in funding, and support for 10 more founders this year. This will result in a commitment of $4 million to 60 eligible black-founded startups across Africa.
• Selected startups will receive between $50,000 and $100,000 non-dilutive cash awards and up to $200,000 per startup in Google Cloud credits, support in the form of training, and access to a network of mentors.

Source: Disrupt Africa

Our Takeaway

The Black Founders Fund Africa is open to startups that meet the eligibility criteria in Botswana, Cameroun, Côte D’ivoire, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. While these 13 countries are the prime focus due to their active tech and startup ecosystems, strong applications from other African countries will also be considered. Applications will close on 31 May 2022 and the winners will be announced on 29 July 2022.

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MTN finally commences mobile money operations in Nigeria

Highlights

• The MTN Group recently announced MTN Nigeria’s fintech subsidiary, MoMo Payment Service Bank (MoMo PSB), formally commenced operations.
• This comes after the company’s successful pilot test that was initiated on 16 May 2022 in commemoration of the GSM operations on 16 May 2001 and the company’s listing on the Nigerian Exchange Limited on 16 May 2019.
• MoMo PBS currently has an agent network of over 166,000 active agents and digitised partnership infrastructure. The company says that MoMo PSB will continue to scale its agent network in order to reach Nigerians and remove friction from everyday payment by digitising cash payments.

Source: ITNewsAfrica

Our Takeaway

Despite being home to the largest unbanked population in Africa, Nigeria lags behind its peers when it comes to mobile money adoption, compared to countries like Ghana and Kenya, where leading telcos MTN and Safaricom, respectively, have driven exponential growth in penetration over the years. MTN’s MoMo operations in Nigeria is thus expected to spur the adoption of mobile money in the country, and although it poses a significant threat to other fintech players, particularly agency banks, Nigerians stand to benefit from the proliferation of digital financial services.