ICYMI: Lagosians can now seamlessly book a ride via WhatsApp by sending a text to LincRide on WhatsApp at 0705 179 7935. Kr.One universal eSIM offers data coverage across more than 200 destinations, cutting international roaming costs by up to 75% compared to traditional telcos. Healthleap expanded its hospital screening platform beyond malnutrition. Sequoia Capital, First Round Capital, and Hummingbird Ventures backed the round to help grow Healthleap's engineering, sales, and product teams.

Pan-African fintech giant Onafriq is shutting down its Nigerian agent banking unit, Baxi, effective from October 16. The rising inflation, naira devaluation, and the surge of instant bank transfers reduced reliance on POS cash points, making offline agent banking unsustainable.  Baxi agents are being moved to alternative principal banks with a 30-day window to migrate their funds safely with full transition support.  Onafriq is not leaving Nigeria- it is refocusing on its high-margin cross-border payments network, Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) license, and card issuing infrastructure.

US climate fintech Nithio backed Nigerian EV company MAX, extending its Series B3 funding round to $29 million. Nithio’s fresh investment builds on MAX’s earlier $24 million raise, marking Nithio’s second major African e-mobility deal after backing Spiro. MAX drivers pay a flexible daily fee with zero money down- covering the electric vehicle, battery swaps, insurance, and maintenance.  MAX’s electric fleet and solar-powered battery swap stations cut daily energy, maintenance bills for drivers and with big plans to empower 250,000 drivers by 2027.

Africa growth-stage Venture Capital- Cascador and Sterling Bank launched a $200 million SME Credit Backstop Fund to help Nigerian startups and small businesses access bank loans. Traditional banks usually refuse startup loans because they seem too risky and demand heavy collateral. This fund steps in as a safety net to cover potential losses, giving banks the confidence to issue larger, longer-term credit. The program is built to support up to $1 billion in total lending capacity across participating partners, starting with up to $250,000 The fund uses AI checks and recommendations from trusted venture capital firms/studios to approve businesses for debt.

Nigerian contactless payment infrastructure provider, CashAfrica partnered with Chicken Republic to roll out tap-to-pay across all 350 outlets in Nigeria The tap-to-pay feature starts across 54 Chicken Republic locations in Lagos before expanding to all 296 remaining branches in 25 states.  Customers’ payments are completed under a minute on NFU-enabled POS terminals and pay absolutely nothing extra, while store owners cover a small transaction fee between 0.3% and 1.5%. CashAfrica is targeting high-frequency food purchases to push contactless payments mainstream in Nigeria within 8 months.

South African B2B lending startup Kuunda completed a $5 million secondary share sale led by venture firm E4E Africa. The $5M secondary sale provides an exit and returns capital to early backers, while allowing E4E Africa and existing investors like Seedstars Africa Ventures to increase their stakes.  Kuunda embeds credit tools into mobile money and POS platforms, disbursing over 870 million loans worth $4.4 billion to 14.6M merchants and consumers.  The B2B liquidity provider is currently active in 5 countries and preparing to launch in 7 more countries.

AI chatbot platform Character.ai officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware to execute an asset sale as a result of heavy legal, regulatory, and operational headwinds. Disney agreed to pay $20 million for a non-exclusive perpetual license to Character.ai’s IP and will provide transition services using former employees it hired.  Character.ai plans to keep its platform running with minimal disruption during the court process, but if no buyer agrees to keep running it long-term, the platform will be wound down completely by late 2026

Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC (NIBSS) launched Nigeria’s new National Payment Stack (NPS), partnering with US-based Transactility to power the country's next-gen instant payment infrastructure. NIBSS is using Transactility's flexible technology to build the system. This means Nigeria gets the keys to the source code, allowing local teams to upgrade and modify directly without total vendor reliance. The new system brings upgraded features, making it easier to send money bank-to-bank instantly, pay merchants using QR codes, use phone numbers instead of long account numbers, and handle bulk payments smoothly.  NIBSS aims to take charge of Nigeria's massive transaction volume, while building a faster and more independent financial future for the country.

Microsoft is shutting down its Africa Development Centre (ADC) in Nairobi. According to CIO reports, staff were notified to discuss exit and severance terms, with fewer than 10 non-engineering employees expected to remain. This closure comes after 7years the company pledged $100M+ investment in African tech talent and follows Microsoft shutting its sister engineering hub in Lagos in May 2024. Although, Microsoft hasn’t confirmed if the whole ADC is shutting down, but the decision comes amidst Microsoft's global workforce cuts, heavy AI capital investments, and power capacity delays surrounding its proposed $1B Olkaria data centre project in Kenya.

Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, Founder and CEO of flutterwave has been named a member of the Silicon Valley & The World Advisory Board’s Founders Council alongside 50+ global tech leaders. Semafor launched a first-of-its-kind multi-year initiative- Silicon Valley & The World to connect the leaders building transformative technologies with the policymakers shaping their deployment. This initiative is co-chaired by prominent figures in the tech industry, including Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI; Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of NVIDIA; Divesh Makan, Partner at ICONIQ Capital; Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft; Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer of Alphabet and Google; and Lisa Su, Chair and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices. GB Agboola aims to bring an African perspective to Silicon Valley & The World and shaping the conversations driving the next generation of global technology.

ICYMI: The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is moving beyond SIM registration to track every mobile device connected to Nigerian networks and broad warning notices have already hit users of iPhones, Google Pixels, Tecno, Infinix, and Oukitel devices. South African travel tech giant LekkeSlaap currently lists 40,000 properties and served over 9million travelers, as it prepares to expand across Southern Africa. YoLa Fresh shuts down despite its strong traction and an 85% retention rate.

Google DeepMind opened its SynthID Detector tool to the public, allowing anyone check if an image, video, or audio file contains invisible AI watermarks. The detector identifies watermarked content from Google AI models as well as key partners like OpenAI, NVIDIA, Kakao, and soon Apple. The release timing couldn’t be more critical for Nigeria as fake AI-generated videos depicting military attacks and banditry circulate across Nigerian social media, triggering public fear and misinformation and would further help curb social slanders as election period is approaching .

Lagos Life launched on October 1, Nigeria’s Independence Day, and passed 3 million players in under six days. Shalom built the first version alone in under 12 hours using AI tools. The game has already generated over $170,000 in revenue from in-game billboards, plots and music promotions. The proof is in the pudding! 🎉💰

🚨Moove is officially shutting down its Nigerian operations after 6 years- shortly after Uber, one of its investors, suddenly ceased all operations in the country. Founded in Lagos in 2020 with just 76 cars, Moove used Nigeria as the proving ground for a global model that now spans 42,000 vehicles across 29 cities.  Rather than repossessing cars, Moove is transferring full ownership of eligible vehicles worth ₦35 billion directly to current drivers- with zero further payments required.  Every Nigerian employee of Moove is also being gifted a free car as a parting gesture of appreciation.

Kenyan smartphone financing startup M-KOPA acquired Finnish device-locking software company KilpiTek Oy for $8 million. M-KOPA paid a total of $2.67M in cash and $5.33M in equity/stock to acquire 100% of KilpiTek's voting shares. KilpiTek's software allows M-KOPA to remotely lock or shut down financed smartphones if customers fall behind on pay-as-you-go installments.  Owning the underlying security software reduces reliance on third-party vendors, cuts costs, and streamlines phones sourcing directly from manufacturers.

Cross-border payments startup Kredete acquired a regulated South Africa crypto entity to scale its stablecoin infrastructure. Kredete completed an all-share acquisition of an entity holding a Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) license from South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA). The acquisition will power faster, cheaper remittances and cross-border payments between South Africa, diaspora communities, and global markets.  This adds to Kredete’s existing regulatory coverage, including VASP/PSP authorizations in Argentina and an IMTO license in Ghana.

🚀Kenyan fintech Cloud9 secured $500K from crypto accelerator Alliance, bringing its pre-seed funding to $1M. The platform combines banking, global payments, and business tools into a single app built for informal businesses and retailers across Africa.  Since Cloud9 Money’s launch, they’ve opened over 25,000 accounts, won Gold for Best Fintech Innovation at the Kenya-8th Awards, joined Cohort 6 of the Visa Africa FinTech Accelerator, acquired social-commerce startup Chpter and ticketing app M-Tickets.

Apple recently dropped its latest lineups- from the iPhone 18 Pro and foldable iPhone Duo to upgraded Watch models and AirPods 5, with new Apple TV available in more than 40 African countries and an OLED iPad mini right on the horizon! Which drop earned a spot on your wishlist?