As we advance deeper into April, the actions are picking up in the African startups ecosystem. In this week’s funding roundup, we identified five African startup companies that recently secured funding. These include Umba, PayTic, Sumet, InfiniLink, and Stitch. Get the full details of their funding rounds in the following sections.
Funding
Umba
Funding Round: Debt ($5 million)
Investor: Star Strong Capital
Founders: Tiernan Kennedy and Barry O’Mahony
Founded: 2018, Kenya
About the company
Umba is a digital bank offering financial services such as loans, current accounts, bill payments, and money transfers. Although it was founded in Kenya, the company focuses on providing its services for underserved populations in emerging markets in both Kenya and Nigeria.
What next? With this debt funding, Umba intends to deepen its footprint in Africa and edge closer to profitability in Kenya. According to the company’s CEO, the funding will boost the company’s lending capacity and expand its customer base.
PayTic
Funding Round: $4.4 million
Investors: AfricInvest, Axian Venture Lab, Mistral VC, CDG Invest, Build Ventures, Concrete VC, and ICP Ventures
Founder: Imad Boumahdi
Founded: 2020, Morocco
About the company
PayTic is a fintech solutions provider that powers the backend operations for financial service providers. The company provides a no-code, plug-and-play platform through which banks and electronic money institutions can easily automate the back-office operations of their cards and payments programs.
What next?
The new capital will be used to accelerate PayTic’s growth plans, expand its client base across Africa and the MENA region, and further develop its platform.
Sumet
Funding Round: Pre-Seed ($1.5 million)
Investors: ABAN, Catalytic Africa, and an Egyptian angel syndicate
Founders: Hazem Afify (CEO), Abdallah Omar (CCO), and Mahmoud Tawfik (CTO)
Founded: 2022, Tanzania
About the company:
Sumet is an FMCG distribution company focused on tackling market entry and expansion challenges for brands. The company aims to bridge distribution gaps and build a cost-effective ecosystem for scaling. It uses a tech start designed to optimize distribution, improve operational efficiency, and manage its growing portfolio.
What next?
The funding will be used to strengthen Sumet’s operational tech stack, expand its market reach, and invest in team development.
InfiniLink
Funding Round: Seed ($10 million)
Investors: MediaTek, Sukna Ventures, Egypt Ventures, M Empire Angels
Founders: Ahmed F. Aboul-Ella, Botros George
Founded: 2022
About the company:
InfiniLink is an innovative semiconductor startup company. It specialises in the development of advanced optical data chips for data centres. The company is currently building low-latency networking hardware and edge AI infrastructure aimed at improving connectivity across smart cities and IoT ecosystems.
What next?
The seed round will help scale InfiniLink’s manufacturing capabilities, expand R&D, and deepen its presence in the Middle East and North Africa. Essentially, the funding will enable the company to advance its mission of transforming data connectivity for the next generation of AI-driven data centres.
Stitch
Funding Round: $55 million
Investor: Launch Base Africa
Founders: Kiaan Pillay, Natalie Cuthbert, and Priyen Pillay
Founded: 2019, South Africa
About the company:
Stitch is a fintech infrastructure company that enables businesses to develop financial products via APIs for payments, data, and identity. It operates an end-to-end payment solution designed to assist businesses in creating, optimizing, and scaling financial products. Essentially, it provides API gateways for enterprise clients to enhance online payment conversions and streamline payment operations.
What next?
The investment was aimed at supporting Stitch’s expansion efforts; as such, the company will channel the capital into accelerating its expansion into new African markets and enhancing its suite of APIs to support enterprise-grade fintech solutions.
Funding Opportunities
Investor funding isn’t the only way startups can raise capital for their businesses. To assist startup founders who may be seeking alternative funding avenues. Here are some opportunities
FINCA Ventures Prize: $400,000 Up for Grabs
Submit your applications to stand a chance at Finca Ventures’ second annual prize competition. This initiative seeks to reward six early-stage startup companies with outstanding solutions related to Climate-smart agriculture and financial technology.
Application Deadline: April 30, 2025
Village Capital’s Greentech Africa Accelerator
The Greentech Accelerator program, launched by the environment and social impact-focused Village Capital, is aimed at supporting 10-15 early-stage companies across Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, and Senegal.
The accelerator program targets companies offering tech-enabled solutions addressing climate change. The primary eligibility criteria are an MVP and prior capital of less than $1 million
Application Deadline: May 9, 2025
Savant Pre-Seed and Seed Fund (South Africa)
South African incubator, Savant, is accepting applications for its two funding tracks for startups. Eligible startups will receive either a pre-seed funding of up to R800,000 ($43,000) or seed funding of up to R1.2 million ($65,000)
GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize: $160,000 in Awards
The GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize is a competition aimed at identifying and rewarding the top youth-led startups in the agri-food business sector.
The competition offers a $50,000 winning prize each to the top male and female finalists as well as $60,000 in impact awards for excellence in areas like climate resilience, food security, and gender equity.
Application Deadline: June 10, 2025
Techstars Opens Fall 2025 Applications
Techstars has opened applications for its Fall 2025 programs. This accelerator program seeks to support innovative founders and their ventures with pre-seed investment, usually $20,000, targeted mentorship, educational content, and access to Techsters’ alumni network.
Application deadline: June 11, 2025.
