CDP Institute

South African fintech Stitch, which has built an “end-to-end payments solution designed to meet the complex and evolving payments needs for its enterprise clients,” has raised US$25 million in an extension round of funding led by global fintech investor Ribbit Capital, bringing Stitch’s total Series A to US$46 million.

Enza Capital, a venture capital firm that backs startups “organizing the offline online” and “digitizing key African industries,” has closed US$58 million across two funds. In 2019, the company launched an early-stage fund to “find, back, and help build category-defining startups” in the pre-seed and seed stages. The fund is still active and has invested in fintech, logistics, health, human capital and climate tech companies.

Kenya’s Lipa Later, a fintech platform founded to empower African businesses to do more by enabling e-commerce, financial inclusion, and shopping on a centralised and fully integrated platform, has raised KES500 million (US$3.4 million) from a privately-placed debt issuance to help it expand its offerings.

Conversational engagement platform Gupshup has introduced UPI payments for people using feature phones via a native app called GSPay. The app, developed along with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), will use SMS or even IVR based payments system, and do away with the need of data or internet connectivity.

As part of its significant growth strategy in India, Hakuhodo INC, Japan’s second largest advertising company has acquired AdGlobal360(AGL) for an undisclosed sum. Adglobal360 was ranked as the fastest growing MarTech Company in 2019 by Deloitte. AdGlobal360 is Hakuhodo’s first acquisition in India as it seeks to enhance its technology and digital footprint.

Australian Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) Katonic.ai raised AU$1.6M (~US$1,015,825) in pre-Series A. The funding will be used to expand the staff and to expand products and services.

Antitrust approval will be the largest hurdle for Southeast Asia-based super app Grab as the ride-hailing and food delivery firm flagged as a potential suitor for Foodpanda’s business in selected markets, analysts said.

SoftBank Corp. announced it will launch a full-fledged expansion of its global IoT business in the Asia-Pacific region. In this sales expansion that spans 19 countries and regions, including Japan, SoftBank will focus on marketing IoT services, mainly the “1NCE IoT Flat Rate,” an affordable global IoT connectivity service from German company 1NCE GmbH, to enterprise customers. SoftBank aims to acquire a total 2 million 1NCE IoT Flat Rate connections in APAC and other regions within the 2025 fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2026.

With this investment, Gringo will strengthen its credit and insurance products. It will also add new features and plans to increase its user base to over 20 million in the coming years. Currently, Gringo has 10 million drivers, 80% of whom use the app at least once every four months. Founded in 2019, Gringo’s mission is to centralize all essential services and documentation required by drivers, providing a one-stop solution.

Kenjo, the startup for comprehensive human resources (HR) software designed for small and medium-sized enterprises, achieved a successful Series A funding round, securing an investment of USD$9.4 million, led by the Hi Inov fund. With these funds, Kenjo aims to consolidate its position as a leader in the Latin American market for HR software. Their platform focuses on optimizing key processes such as attendance control, vacation and absence management, payroll, scheduling, data analysis, and performance evaluations, among others.