Funding has long been a challenge for African startups but the tide has started to turn in the last year as the sector heats up and both investors and entrepreneurs start to see some of their long term efforts come to fruition. In the recent past the biggest issue startups from Lagos to Nairobi or […]
Getaround acquires European car rental platform Drivy for $300M
Getaround, the peer-to-peer car-sharing startup that launched at TC Disrupt back in 2011, is making moves to become a global car rental service. […]
AfricInvest and Cathay Innovation Join Forces to Launch the Leading Pan-African Venture Fund
April 10, 2019 AfricInvest, a leading private equity firm in Africa with $1.5bn in assets under management, and Cathay Innovation, the global venture capital fund, created in affiliation with Cathay Capital Private Equity, are pleased to announce today their association for the fundraising and management of the “Cathay Africinvest Innovation” Fund, the first Pan-African Venture […]
Cathay Innovation and AfricInvest to raise $168M Africa VC fund
Tunisia-based private equity firm Africinvest has teamed up with Cathay Innovation — the venture sub of Paris-based private equity firm Cathay Capital — to launch a new Africa tech fund with a target raise of $168 million. Details are still forthcoming, but the Cathay Africinvest Innovation Fund will focus primarily on Series A to C-stage investments in African technology […]
Connecting African Entrepreneurs to the world with the first Pan-African Venture Capital Fund
Africinvest and Cathay Innovation proudly announced today the launch of Cathay Africinvest Innovation. This new fund is the largest venture capital fund in Africa with nine offices interconnecting the entire African continent. Our aim is simple: contribute to changing the financing and development of startups in this continent of 1.3 Billion of people. How so? By providing the […]
What Type Of Innovator Do You Want To Be?
Today it feels like like every day we learn about an incredible new technology, product or, service that was supposed to be a futuristic concept, but now is, “coming soon.” Nearly 20 years ago, just before the internet bubble in 2000-2001, new online concepts were being introduced at a dizzying pace, and today, during what […]
China and the Bay Area face off over AI
From robot cars to virtual assistants to algorithms for streaming video, advances in artificial intelligence are driving innovation and money. A lot of money. The competition between the world’s two premier hotbeds for artificial intelligence is really a race for who gets to define the future. […]
Owkin Closes A New Venture Round Led By F-Prime Capital And Eight Roads Ventures
Owkin, a company which builds machine learning technologies and infrastructure to enable breakthrough medical research, today announced a funding round led by F-Prime Capital and Eight Roads Ventures. The round was joined by GV, Cathay Innovation and NJF Capital. […]
Pinduoduo sold RMB 65 billion in goods from anti-poverty program in 2018
Chinese social e-commerce platform Pinduoduo said on Tuesday that it earned sales revenue of more than RMB 65 billion (around $9.7 billion) in 2018 from a special program that sells farm produce from poverty-stricken regions. The report on the program is a timely response to announcements made during the central government’s annual Two Sessions meetings, promoting new […]
Online bank Chime now valued at $1.5 billion after new funding round
Digital bank Chime has tripled its valuation, officially passing the $1 billion-mark this week. The San Francisco-based company announced a $200 million Series D financing round that brings its new valuation to $1.5 billion. Investors were led by DST Global, which also participated in earlier fundraising rounds, and new investors Coatue, General Atlantic, Iconiq Capital […]