Author: Elan

Tope Lawani, co-founder and managing partner of Helios Investment Partners.For a breakdown of Helios Investment Partners’ deals and exits, visit our Dealmaker’s Log.Helios Investment Partners, an Africa-focused private equity firm, has agreed to acquire a significant minority stake in Mozambican flour milling company Merec Industries from Invictus Investment, a holding company specialised in agro-food commodities across the Middle East and Africa. The investment is being made through Helios Fund V, which has agreed to acquire up to a 49% interest in Stratton Africa Holdings Limited, the Mauritius-incorporated holding company of Merec.The transaction is expected to close by the end of…

Nigerian startups attracted $635 million in the first nine months of 2026, more than 2.5 times the $247 million raised in the corresponding period of 2025, reclaiming the continental lead as fundraising weakened sharply in Kenya and South Africa. Data from Africa: The Big Deal, an African startup funding tracker, showed that four Nigerian companies including Moove, Flutterwave, Jumia and Yellow Card, raised a combined $440 million during the nine-month period, accounting for about 69 percent of the country’s total. Moove, the mobility financing company, raised $250 million, while fintech firm Flutterwave secured $100 million. E-commerce company Jumia attracted $50…

A major Google Cloud outage earlier today disrupted banking apps, delivery services and other online platforms, leaving some customers unable to access services or complete transactions. The outage affected several major UK services, including Revolut, Lloyds Bank, HSBC, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Royal Mail, DPD and Rightmove. NHS England and the UK courts’ remote hearing service also experienced disruption, according to international media reports. The incident highlights how a technical failure at a major cloud provider can affect businesses across different sectors that depend on its infrastructure. Power disruption at Google Cloud’s London zone Google Cloud traced the incident to…

Eva Ngigi Sarwari, managing director of Finserve Africa and Equity Group’s director of payments and international banking, has died aged 45 while on a business trip to China, according to a statement from her colleagues. Her death cuts short a career that spanned over two decades in banking and payments, from introducing customers to electronic banking at Co-operative Bank of Kenya to leading Visa’s business across three East African markets. “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our dear friend and colleague, Eva Ngigi Sarwari,” her colleagues said in the statement on Tuesday. They described the…

There’s a lot of talk about the length of software and security support for Android phones, with brands like Samsung and Google upping this to seven years for their last few generations of devices. But we rarely hear about the longevity of iPhone and the length of support Apple offers for these devices. It definitely seems as if iPhones last a pretty long time. I know people who are still using their iPhone XRs to this day, and that phone launched eight years ago in 2018 and was discontinued in 2021. Apple offers software support for anywhere from five to…

For a breakdown of African renewable energy transactions, visit our Dealmaker’s Log.Fortis Green Renewables Investment Management and Zeitinger Invest have made a growth equity investment in GRIPS Energy Group, a developer, owner and operator of commercial and industrial (C&I) solar and battery energy storage projects across sub-Saharan Africa.The investment finances the acquisition of operational renewable energy assets in Senegal, Botswana, Zambia and Uganda. It also provides growth capital to support GRIPS’ expansion of distributed solar and solar-plus-storage projects serving C&I customers.Fortis Green Renewables is a renewable energy investment firm focused on expanding access to clean, reliable and affordable electricity across…

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has criticised President Bola Tinubu over his defence of the removal of the petrol subsidy, describing the president as the source of the economic hardship Nigerians are struggling to escape. Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), said Tinubu’s comparison of calls for fuel subsidy relief to asking Moses to return to Egypt showed “how little he understands the suffering of Nigerians”. In a statement issued on his behalf by Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communication of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council, Atiku accused Tinubu of celebrating the removal of petrol subsidy without…

Brooks WashingtonRoha Group, founded by American-born Brooks Washington, started out in Africa with a beer bottle factory in Ethiopia. It has since launched a pan-African data centre business and an equipment financing company, and is now developing a hospital in Addis Ababa.In a recent interview with How we made it in Africa, Washington shared four lessons he has learnt as an entrepreneur.Keep going: Persistence and resilience count for more than any upfront plan, he says. “Apparently my grandfather used to say that the key to success in life is to just survive long enough to receive your blessing. And I…

In a RootsToFoods Capital Series interview, Alexia Latortue, Head of Secretariat of the Future of Development Cooperation Coalition and former U.S. Treasury Assistant Secretary, explains why a system designed after the Second World War must be redesigned around countries’ own visions, and why she is not in the camp that says aid is dead. Ovidiu Bujorean, chief executive officer of OviBees Ventures, spoke with Alexia Latortue, Head of Secretariat of the Future of Development Cooperation Coalition, for the fourth conversation of Wave 2 of the RootsToFoods Capital Series. Latortue has worked inside CGAP at the World Bank, the European Bank…

In brief Strive bought 4,045 BTC between October 12 and 16 at about $82,803 each, raising its holdings to 36,818 BTC. Warrant exercises on October 12 and 13 raised about $369.2 million and added 13,674,703 Class A shares, and no traditional warrants remain. Strive priced a $630 million offering of 15% SATS preferred stock on October 15, set to settle October 20. Strive, a Nasdaq-listed company that holds Bitcoin as a treasury asset, bought 4,045 BTC between October 12 and 16, according to a regulatory filing published Monday.The average price was about $82,803 per coin, meaning the stash was worth…