CDP Institute

This February, Africa and emerging market-focused Nestcoin raised a pre-seed round to build, operate and invest in its web3 applications, including crypto content platform Breach Club and gaming guild Metaverse Magna (MVM). Nine months after its launch last December, the latter has completed a seed sale token round of $3.2 million at a $30 million fully diluted valuation.

Egyptian startup Sharwa has raised a US$2 million seed funding round as it launches its mobile application, which it claims is the first social commerce app in the Middle East.

Nigeria’s Anchor, a banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform making it possible to seamlessly build financial products in Africa, has raised over US$1 million in pre-seed funding and announced its public beta launch.

India is on the cusp of a data centre (DC) revolution. Once a small, fragmented industry, colocation DCs are fast transitioning into a large, potentially consolidated industry. Buoyed by the growing demand, plans have been drawn up for over 45 DCs spanning 13 mn sq ft and 1,015 Mw of IT capacity that will come up in India by end-2025.

The All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has signed a partnership agreement with Adobe to accelerate digital creativity skills across the country. Under the agreement, Adobe will offer courses and expertise for upskilling educators, and integrate digital creativity into the curriculum, to prepare students with the essential creative and digital literacy skills.

Triton Digital, the global technology and services provider to the digital audio and podcast industry, released the results of their Podcast Advertising Effectiveness Study commissioned with VTION Digital Analytics, a leading digital consumer behavior intelligence platform. The survey results highlight strong growth of podcast listening in India and the effectiveness of podcast advertising to drive brand and product recall.

Marking its fifth acquisition in four years, Smartsheet has closed an acquisition deal to buy the brand management and creative automation platform, Outfit. Plans are to use Outfit to bolster the company’s Brandfolder by Smartsheet DAM platform.

A belief that bank customers would support a program committed to supporting the financial well-being of their community, one of the big four Australian banks initiated a program using Shout for Good Pty Ltd, a platform that allows people to access more than 150 charities worldwide. Shout provides a simple, relevant, and transparent way to donate via mobile using the digital donation platform.

A blend of fintech and proptech, Capitalizarme is a real estate marketplace that has just raised US$6 million in a round led by Angel Ventures. The financing will be used to grow in Mexico, where they see a tremendous opportunity. Capitalizarme, launched in Chile in 2014, and is today one of the top startups there.

Alloy Capital announced that it has invested around US$14.5 million in Auronix, a Mexican company that provides conversational messaging solutions. Auronix provides SaaS that keeps companies communicating with their customers through the platforms they use the most, such as WhatsApp, Messenger, or SMS.  Auronix is headquartered in Mexico City and has offices in Bogota and Buenos Aires. Its clients include banks, telecommunications, retail, and logistics companies in Mexico and LatAm, such as Chedraui, Banorte, Izzi, Estafeta, and Netflix.

In a bid to bridge the gap of access to finance for small businesses in Nigeria, Rwanda and Francophone Africa, Kenya’s embedded finance fintech Pezesha has announced the close of an $11 million pre-Series A equity-debt round led by Women’s World Banking Capital Partners II.

Google Wallet is now available in South Africa, the first market for this product in Africa, to make it easy for users to save and easily and securely access their payment cards, loyalty cards and boarding passes. Cardholders of partner banks in South Africa can now add their details on the wallet and make contactless payments using their Android phones and Wear OS devices.