Author: Elan
Speedinvest, the Vienna VC firm, opened its first dedicated MEA fund last week, anchored by EIB Global, Mubadala and Qatar Investment Authority EIB Global committed €40 million to a vehicle targeting €200 million, designed to back Series A and B startups across Africa and the Middle East The fund routes Gulf and European capital into African tech at a time when global MEA venture fundraising has slowed for two consecutive years Speedinvest GmbH, the Vienna-based venture-capital firm with about €1.4 billion in assets under management, launched its first flagship fund dedicated to the Middle East and…
Nigerian crypto startups built their businesses on facilitating the buying and selling of digital currencies for retail customers. Now, that may no longer be enough. The country is one of Africa’s largest crypto markets. Yet, at least two operators say competition is compressing margins. Costs do not fall with volume, and the customers driving the most revenue are hard to retain. Peer-to-peer (P2P) trading became a lifeline for Nigerian crypto users after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) barred banks from servicing crypto transactions in 2021. It forced local startups to find workarounds as global platforms like Paxful, a P2P…
Governments across Africa are beginning to adopt AI systems into public services without clear answers to a basic question: who controls these systems once they are in use? The risk is not theoretical. It is operational. A system may meet procurement requirements. It may come with documentation, assurances, and technical safeguards. But once it is deployed into a government workflow, the harder question is no longer whether it is compliant on paper. The question is whether the government can actually see it, control it, or stop it if conditions change. That is where AI governance starts to matter in practice.…
In a rush to embrace AI, the industry is redefining what it means to be a UX designer, blurring the line between design and engineering. Carrie Webster explores what’s gained, what’s lost, and why designers need to remain the guardians of the user experience.In early 2026, I noticed that the UX designer’s toolkit seemed to shift overnight. The industry standard “Should designers code?” debate was abruptly settled by the market, not through a consensus of our craft, but through the brute force of job requirements. If you browse LinkedIn today, you’ll notice a stark change: UX roles increasingly demand AI-augmented…
Johannesburg, South Africa** For the best experience, download the free Africa Private Equity News app Android | iOS **A MESSAGE FROM OUR SUPPORTERSStandard Bank backs Mulilo’s Mercury battery storage projectStandard Bank was appointed as co-mandated lead arranger, lender, co-hedging bank and account bank. Read moreHere are summaries of the five most widely read stories over the past week on Africa Private Equity News.1. South Africa: Investor consortium backs Vertice MedTechAmethis, Proparco, ccap.ai and management have completed their investment in Vertice MedTech Holdings. Founded in 2018 by a management group led by Hendri Pretorius, in partnership with Ethos Private Equity, Vertice…
“That we shall work towards fielding one Presidential Candidate for the 2027 elections, which shall be agreed and supported by all participating opposition parties to rescue our nation and her long suffering masses,” the communiqué states Nigeria’s major opposition parties agreed on Saturday to field a single candidate against President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election. The parties stated this in a communique released at the end of their conference in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn “That we shall work towards fielding one Presidential Candidate for the 2027 elections,…
Diana Orembe For Diana Orembe, co-founder and chief executive of NovFeed – a Tanzanian fish feed and organic fertiliser company – one of the core lessons of entrepreneurship is that all businesses are hard. “If you talk to a woman selling vegetables on the markets, she will tell you how hard it is to run her business. If you talk to a person running a conglomerate, he will just say the same [about] how difficult it is to run that very huge, big business. If you talk to a medium-scale business person who is even running just a store, they…
The deal between Nigeria and Meta, details of which have not been previously disclosed, is replete with concessions by Nigeria, including writing off the $32.8 million fine and softening the obligations it earlier imposed on Meta. In February 2025, Nigeria announced a $32.8 million fine for data privacy violations against Meta Platform Inc., the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. But the government went quiet when it reversed course by writing off the fine after striking a deal with the tech giant in October last year. Under the settlement agreement, Nigeria consented to freeing Meta of all liabilities regarding the…
In brief Bitcoin’s funding rate turned negative to -1.8%, its lowest since 2023—a historically bullish signal according to VanEck analysts. Hash rate recovery after three recent decline episodes suggests favorable conditions ahead, the analysis shows. Bitcoin’s price rose above $79,000 this week for the first time since January. After Bitcoin popped to its highest price since January earlier this week, VanEck analysts said Friday that they continue to see bullish on-chain signals around the leading cryptocurrency, with historically profitable conditions emerging across key metrics.Bitcoin’s hash rate currently sits at a 30-day moving average of 985.5 EH/s, down 7.5% from its…
It starts in an elevator in Paris, France. On Saturday, April 4, 2026, Amara Uyanna was trying to catch a 10 a.m. flight, mentally checking off her usual work-travel list. Her suitcase in hand, she made her way to the lowest floor of a Parisian hotel where she had lodged; the elevator doors slid open, and she walked in. There, a stranger stepped in, whispering, almost to himself, “Bismillah.” Without thinking, she answered, “Bismillah,” too, their first connection in a foreign land. When they got out of the elevator, they realised they were both headed to the airport. The man…