Author: Elan

** For the best experience, download the free Africa Private Equity News app Android | iOS **Impact investor Acumen has announced that its Hardest-to-Reach Initiative (H2R) has secured a total of $250 million in blended capital to expand clean energy access across sub-Saharan Africa.The initiative aims to reach nearly 70 million people across underserved geographies in sub-Saharan Africa, including 50 million first-time energy users in markets where traditional capital has not been able to operate. H2R combines a patient capital, market-building facility, Catalyze, with a debt fund, H2R Amplify. Together, the two vehicles are designed to unlock clean, affordable, distributed…

How Africa is moving towards production sovereignty – African Business How Africa is moving towards production sovereignty – African Business

In brief Analysts frame the altcoin surge as a sentiment-driven “classic rotation pattern,” where capital seeks higher-risk assets like XRP and Solana amid Bitcoin’s consolidation. The rally is fueled by specific narratives, including sustained Solana ETF inflows and speculation about a potential XRP ETF approval in 2026. The sustainability of the move hinges on upcoming U.S. jobs and CPI data, which could catalyze a broader Bitcoin breakout or test key support near $88,000. Bitcoin and Ethereum consolidate after a strong start to 2026, while a select group of altcoins is posting significant weekly gains. Experts highlight this performance as a…

Startups On Our Radar spotlights African startups solving African challenges with innovation. In our previous edition, we featured three game-changing startups pioneering HRTech, e-commerce, and mobility. Expect the next dispatch on January 9, 2026. This week, we explore five African startups in the e-commerce, data management, legal, and artificial intelligence sectors and why they should be on your watchlist. Let’s dive into it:  Yelen is building an e-commerce ecosystem for Francophone Africa (E-commerce, Côte d’Ivoire) Founded by Ibrahima Sylla in June 2025, Yelen is building an e-commerce ecosystem for small and medium-sized businesses across Francophone Africa that are excluded from…

Google has announced a new set of AI features for Gmail that expand the service beyond traditional email. The update introduces AI-assisted writing, conversational inbox search, and automated task suggestions, all powered by Google’s latest Gemini model. The rollout starts in the United States and is limited to English at launch. Google says support for additional languages and regions is planned, but no timeline has been provided. The most widely available feature is an expanded Help Me Write tool. Gmail can now learn from a user’s writing style to offer more personalized suggestions when composing emails. The feature works inline…

Omar Shokry Saqr, founder and CEO Nawah Scientific** For the best experience, download the free Africa Private Equity News app Android | iOS **Nawah Scientific, an Egyptian deep-tech and life sciences group, has secured a $23 million Series A round. The company, which specialises in scientific and industrial testing, raised the funds through a mix of equity and debt.The round was led by Life Ventures Holding, with participation from Den Ventures, Empire M, AfricInvest, and Elsewedy, alongside banks and angel investors. Nawah will use the funds to finance a 10,000 sqm global R&D centre in Rwanda, while doubling capacity in…

Angel investors are playing an increasingly critical role in sustaining startups across emerging markets as early-stage companies continue to face limited access to traditional financing. Briter, a market intelligence firm, and Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF) stated in a report that beyond wealthy individuals, the pool of angel investors is expanding to include young professionals, senior executives, diaspora investors, and former founders. This is a shift described as the ‘democratisation’ of angel investing. This growth has been driven largely by angel networks that organise deal flow, lower entry barriers, and promote investor education through community-led initiatives, it stated. Read also: Investor…

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Dow Jones announced an exclusive partnership to distribute Polymarket prediction data across The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, and MarketWatch on the same day Kalshi claimed it had hit $100 billion in annualized trading volume.The juxtaposition captures where prediction markets sit at the start of 2026: simultaneously legitimized as a financial data product and mired in methodological disputes, oracle controversies, and insider trading optics that would sink most consumer finance products before they reach distribution.The difference is that institutions are not validating the integrity of prediction markets, but their utility as an information layer. ICE, the owner of the New York…

When Ethiopia announced it would ban the import of fuel-powered vehicles, the headlines focused on symbolism. Here was a low-income country, still grappling with development challenges, taking a step more radical than many wealthy economies had dared to attempt. Ethiopia became the first country in the world to enact such a policy, and overnight, it was thrust into the global conversation on electric mobility.  But policy declarations are the easy part. The harder question is execution: how e-mobility actually works in a country where infrastructure is constrained, purchasing power is limited, and electricity access itself remains uneven. Nationally, electricity access…