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Welcome to another edition of 🔍 Startup Researcher - Africa, your essential digest delivering the latest news and premium insights on startups and venture capital across the region 🌏️
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📰 Important News
- NVIDIA-backed Cassava Technologies launched its AI-powered Cassava Autonomous Network to automate and self-optimize telecom networks.
- Nomba partnered with Volume to enable merchants to receive direct GBP payments from UK bank accounts via Open Banking.
- Smile ID published its 2026 report,revealing that AI is escalating digital identity fraud, with attackers using deepfakes and injection attacks to target authentication.
- Intron launched Sahara v2, its upgraded speech recognition platform supporting 57 languages and more than 500 African accents.
- Moroccan logistics startup Colis opened its first international agency in Brussels to boost Africa–Europe cross-border deliveries.
💸 Top Funding Rounds
- Zeno secured $25 million in Series A equity and debt financing to expand its EV charging network and Emara motorcycle production across East Africa.
- Platinum Credit Uganda landed $4 million from Symbiotics to expand financial services for underserved MSMEs and households.
- Moroccan–Senegalese mobility startup Weego raised $1.1 million from Azur Innovation Fund to expand its transport platform in Morocco.
- Acumen backed Ghanaian agribusiness Vitara in a pre-Series A round to expand its platform linking smallholder farmers to international buyers.
🏦 About Investors
- Hlayisani Capital launched its second South African tech fund, Hlayisani Venture Fund II, securing $30 million to invest in Series A startups in AI, fintech, and digital infrastructure.
- African Development Bank invested $7.6 million in Saviu II to support early-stage tech startups in francophone West and Central Africa.
📋️ Call for Contributions | Morocco Startup Ecosystem Report 2025
UM6P is calling on Moroccan startup founders to contribute to the Morocco Startup Ecosystem Report 2025, a reference publication developed with Startup Researcher to provide a clear, data-driven view of the ecosystem’s current state, key dynamics, challenges, and growth opportunities. Built through consultations with founders, investors, ecosystem builders, and institutional stakeholders, the report aims to surface on-the-ground insights and practical recommendations to better support startups in Morocco. Founders can contribute by completing the survey here.
🚀 Startup of the Week
Introducing our Startup of the Week 🏆
Zeno
Founded in 2022, Zeno is a San Francisco-born electric mobility and distributed energy startup built by former Tesla executive Michael Spencer and a team with roots at Tesla, Apple, Ola, and Ather. The company offers East African riders an integrated EV ecosystem: its Emara motorcycle, battery platform, battery-swap stations, public fast chargers, home charging, and cloud-based software. This week, Zeno landed $25 million in Series A equity and debt, led on the equity side by Congruent Ventures, with debt financing from Trifecta Capital and Camber Road. Now scaling Emara production and a charging network spanning more than 150 sites across East Africa, Zeno is positioning itself as a provider of critical infrastructure for cleaner mobility and distributed energy in emerging markets.
💼 Investor of the Week
Introducing our Investor of the Week 🏆
Hlayisani Capital
Hlayisani Capital is a South African venture investor with roots in a 2016 alliance between Angelhub Ventures and Dzana Investments, the Khoza family vehicle, giving it both entrepreneurial DNA and heavyweight networks. Focused on Series A and growth-stage, tech-enabled businesses, it is now leaning hard into AI, fintech, healthtech, edtech, and digital infrastructure through its newly launched Hlayisani Venture Fund II, which reached a $30 million first close backed by the PIC and SA SME Fund. Led by figures including chair Dr. Reuel Khoza, Michael Jordaan, and partner Brett Commaille, Hlayisani stands out as a black-owned manager bridging local founders to strategic capital, follow-on funding, and global expansion—helping close South Africa’s scale-up funding gap.
🤑 Opportunities Expiring Soon
UNICEF Innovation Fund 2026 for Blockchain Solutions
- 📢 Organizer: UNICEF Venture Fund
- 🗂️ Category: Funding
- 🪜 Target Stages: Pre-seed, Seed
- 🏭 Focus Sectors: Web3 & Blockchain, Social & Governance, Finance & Insurance
- 📅 Application Deadline: March 10, 2026
IDRIS Open Hackathon 2026
- 📢 Organizer: NVIDIA
- 🗂️ Category: Hackathon, Event
- 🪜 Target Stages: Ideation
- 🏭 Focus Sectors: AI & Data, DeepTech
- 📅 Application Deadline: March 10, 2026
Athar Green Tech Accelerator 2026
- 📢 Organizer: Athar Accelerator
- 🗂️ Category: Accelerator, Award/Prize, Competition/Challenge, Funding, Training & Learning
- 🪜 Target Stages: Revenue-generating
- 🏭 Focus Sectors: Agriculture & Food, Infrastructure & Smart Cities, Energy & Environment
- 📅 Application Deadline: March 11, 2026
FoundersBoost 2026 SoCal B2B Accelerator
- 📢 Organizer: FoundersBoost
- 🗂️ Category: Accelerator, Training & Learning
- 🪜 Target Stages: Pre-seed, Seed
- 🏭 Focus Sectors: Sector Agnostic
- 📅 Application Deadline: March 11, 2026
Social Innovation Awards 2026
- 📢 Organizer: SAB Foundation
- 🗂️ Category: Award/Prize, Funding
- 🪜 Target Stages: Ideation, Pre-seed, Seed
- 🏭 Focus Sectors: Social & Governance, Health & Life Sciences, Infrastructure & Smart Cities, Energy & Environment, Finance & Insurance
- 📅 Application Deadline: March 16, 2026
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