Yassir, an African super app platform that offers on-demand services such as ride-hailing, food and grocery delivery, and payments, has raised $150 million in Series B funding, five times what it raised in its previous priced round last November.
Franq, an open banking startup based in Florianópolis, Brazil, raised US$12 million in a round led by Quona Capital, a fund focused on emerging market fintechs. Created in 2019, Franq operates by matching personal bankers with up to 50 financial institutions—banks such as Itaú, Bradesco, and Santander, and fintechs, to sell their products to individuals and SMEs. They have around 7,000 of these personal bankers and 70% of Franq’s clients are individuals, while companies represent 30% of the clients.
Egyptian fintech startup Paymob, the leading omnichannel payments facilitator in MENAP, has embarked on the next phase of its regional expansion with a launch in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Disney has agreed to license more than 200 characters, costumes, and environments (but not voices or talent likenesses) to OpenAI for Sora, its gen AI video platform. This is highly unusual for Disney, which generally sues AI models for copyright infringement; in fact, it sued Google for that a day before announcing the OpenAI deal. Disney will also invest $1 billion in OpenAI, nicely illustrating how very eager they are to join the AI party.