A decade ago, SumUp was one of the army of fintechs that made names for themselves with dongles that turned basic smartphones into card payment terminals. Today, the London-based company has expanded into a wider range of business services that are used by some 4 million small and medium businesses…
Alibaba extends logistics arm to Pakistan for e-commerce unit Daraz
Cainiao, the logistics service operated by Alibaba, is launching two automated distribution centers in Karachi and Lahore as its first entry into Pakistan, it announced on Friday. Alibaba’s overseas expansion has manifested in a mix of investment and integration over the past decade. In 2018,…
Project A Ventures closes its fourth fund, hitting $375M, the largest to date
Project A Ventures launched 10 years ago in Berlin when a handful of a ex-Rocket Internet players decided they’d try their own hand at this startup stuff. Since then they’ve done pretty well, investing early in some of the biggest European tech companies, such as Trade Republic, Kry, sennder, World…
The e-commerce boom is still afoot in Africa, Jumia’s earnings indicate
Jumia, the pan-African e-commerce company and sole tech company based on the continent listed on the NYSE, released its first-quarter financial performance today. The company’s results included consistent growth but lapses in some areas compared with Jumia’s previous quarter. As always…
Selina raises $150M to dish out flexible loans that leverage home equity
For many of us, our home is by far our biggest asset, and in the world of fintech, that’s led to a logical extension: when you need money, borrow against that biggest asset. Today, a London fintech called Selina, which provides flexible capital to consumers on five-year terms against up to 85…
Sunday competitor Qlub emerges with $17M seed round from Cherry and Point Nine
Our behavior at restaurants and venues has changed massively in the last two years because of the pandemic, but many of us have realized the huge advantages of being able to order via phones from the table, or even pay, instead of the usual “credit card dance”. French startup Sunday, wh…
Morocco’s Chari valued at $100M in bridge round as it looks to pilot BNPL services
Moroccan B2B e-commerce and retail startup Chari confirmed to TechCrunch that it has secured a bridge round at a $100 million valuation. The bridge round welcomed new investors Khwarizmi Ventures, Air Angels and Afri Mobility, the venture capital arm of AKWA Group. They join existing investors (Y C…
Arive raises $20M for an instant delivery service beyond groceries and essentials
Instant purchase and delivery of food and other essentials was one of the big bubbles of opportunity in the world of e-commerce in the last year, with dozens of startups big and small emerging and scooping up funding to build out businesses to bring items like groceries, toilet paper and Tylenol to…
Two years ago, the African tech ecosystem saw newfound attention from global players that translated to the continent’s best year of receiving venture capital. From varying sources, it is estimated up to $2 billion went into African tech startups in 2019. With high-profile visits from the most famo…
As the NFT boom fades, major gaming companies slow their crypto plans
When there’s money to be made, feedback can, and often does, go unheard. Still, a few major gaming companies did backtrack on their plans to add NFTs to games. So what happened?