CDP Institute

South African payments orchestration platform, Revio, has raised US$5.2 million in seed funding to strengthen its efforts in tackling these failed payments that cost digital businesses billions in recurring revenue yearly. The two-year-old startup assists companies in streamlining their order-to-cash lifecycles while handling issues brought on by employing various payment options via its APIs.

Pan-African venture capital firm P1 Ventures has reached the first close of its second fund at US$25 million. The venture capital firm secured this capital from some of Africa’s largest industrial conglomerates and private companies, several fund of funds and general partners of global funds based in the U.S. and Europe.

Kenya-based impact investment firm Kua Ventures has invested more than US$1 million into the growth of 20 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country. Formed in 2020, Kua Ventures started out providing much-needed capital, coaching and community support for SMEs to survive the economic downturn prompted by COVID-19 and the resultant lockdowns.

Super and Suncorp are among the first Australian companies Microsoft has chosen to access its M365 Copilot program, which provides the latest generative technology to expand productivity across its apps, including Microsoft Teams, Word, PowerPoint and Excel. The intent is for the early adopter companies to work closely with Microsoft to use the technology, which combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with organisational data from Microsoft 365 and test it with their teams to help improve the product.

Palo Alto Networks has become the first dedicated cyber security company to have a technology alliance with Telstra.  The two will deliver an enhanced suite of security products and services for Australian and global business customers. The move comes at a time when cybersecurity is a top concern for global businesses and following a series of extremely high-profile breaches in Australia.

Airasia Digital, the digital arm of Capital A, has rebranded and will now be known as MOVE Digital (MOVE) in a bid to emphasise its commitment towards travel. MOVE’s travel platform business, airasia Superapp, will also undergo a brand refresh and will see its name change to “airasia move” as part of the ongoing transformation.

Malaysia’s e-government services provider MY E.G. Services Berhad (MYEG) has teamed up with China’s state-owned entity Guangxi Beitou IT Innovation Technology Investment Group Co., Ltd. (Beitou IT Innovation), to spearhead international digital identity credentials service on Zetrix blockchain.

Mexico City-based Kolors connects intercity bus users with independent bus drivers.  Kolors, which had raised $20 million in pre-Series B, has now spent US$12M to acquire Urbvan, a shared van service.

With a pre-seed round of USD $600,000, Databits aims to strengthen its presence in Mexico by increasing the range of courses and programs it offers on data science and AI. Databits, born in Ecuador in 2019, has focused on revolutionizing how professionals in Latin America use their knowledge of Data and Artificial Intelligence to become more efficient, productive and innovative.

Ghanaian agritech Complete Farmer has raised a recently concluded US$10.4 million pre-Series A funding round (US$7 million equity and US$3.4 million debt) to consolidate its efforts in transforming farming practices in Africa by developing critical technical and physical infrastructure to enhance efficiency in the agricultural value chain.

ANKA, an Ivorian SaaS e-commerce platform for African businesses, has raised US$5 million. The pre-Series A extension round is a mix of equity and debt; last January, ANKA, formerly Afrikrea, raised US$6.2 million. The seven-year-old startup has secured US$13.5 million from investors since its inception. In a statement, ANKA said it will use the fresh investment to strengthen product development and expand services, particularly in its key markets: Nigeria, Kenya and the U.S.

FlexPay Technologies is a Kenyan fintech out to enable consumers to afford products that would have otherwise been out of reach for them. The startup allows customers to shop at partner merchants, reserve products and pay over a period of time at no added cost. It initially partnered with a Kenyan retailer during launch but scaled in 2020 and has to date grown its merchant network to 600.