Thursday, April 23, 2026Global tech, startups & capital — covered for Africans.
The African startup ecosystem had a lull in its funding activities going into the first week of March. There were only three startup funding rounds recorded throughout the week, while LoftyInc took the headlines for securing its largest capital funding ever. Find the details of all the funding activities in the African tech startup ecosystem […]
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The African startup ecosystem had a lull in its funding activities going into the first week of March. There were only three startup funding rounds recorded throughout the week, while LoftyInc took the headlines for securing its largest capital funding ever. Find the details of all the funding activities in the African tech startup ecosystem in the following sections.
Funding Round: Series A ($6.7 million)
Investors: Absa Bank, AECI, E Squared, PepsiCo’s Kgodiso Fund
Founders: Karidas Tshintsholo
Founded: 2016, South Africa
About the Company: Khula is a South African agri-tech startup that connects farmers directly with suppliers and buyers through its digital marketplace. The platform also provides access to inputs, logistics, and financial services, helping farmers scale their operations and improve efficiency. The company also works with financial institutions to help small and semi-commercial farmers gain easy access to credit facilities.
What’s Next? The newly secured Series A funding will help Khula strengthen its presence in South Africa, expand its digital ecosystem, enhance its technology infrastructure, and support more farmers in accessing agricultural markets.
Funding Round: Pre-Series A ($3M)
Investors: Keheilan Asset Management II, Enza Capital, DisrupTech Ventures, LoftyInc Capital, Den VC, SparkLabs Ventures
Founders: Mohamed Mostafa
Founded: 2020, Egypt
About the Company: WideBot is an Egyptian AI startup that specializes in building AI-powered chatbots and natural language processing solutions, particularly for the Arabic language. The company is developing AQL Mind, an Arabic large language model (LLM) hosted on Saudi-based cloud infrastructure.
What’s Next? With the fresh funding, WideBot aims to accelerate the development of AQL Mind, strengthen its AI research team, and broaden the use of its AI solutions across the MENA region.
Funding Round: Bridge Funding
Investors: A Ventures
Founders: Mohamed Shalabi, Ahmed Mamdouh, Ahmed Amir
Founded: 2022, Egypt
About the Company: Mrkoon is an Egyptian waste management startup operating a pioneering digital marketplace for scrap and surplus materials. The company leverages technology to offer efficient waste management services to businesses and retailers, helping them unlock hidden value in their surplus materials.
What’s Next? The bridge funding will support Mrkoon’s expansion plans, enabling the company to scale its operations and enhance its reach.
Prominent venture capital firm, LoftyInc Capital, has announced the first close of its third fund. The $43 million Alpha fund, which happens to be the VC’s largest fund ever, came off the backing of major development finance institutions, including International Finance Corporation (IFC), Proparco, Dutch development bank FMO, AfricaGrow, and First Close Partners. Other limited partners that participated in the funding include Anava Funds of Funds, Egypt’s MSMEDA, European family offices, and many other African high-net-worth individuals.
The intention of the VC is to invest the new fund primarily into late seed and Series A stage startups across Africa, in line with their commitment to nurturing the continent’s tech ecosystem. As such, the fund will take a pan-African approach, with at least 30% allocated to East Africa, North Africa, and Francophone Africa. But the company will remain sector agnostic, keeping a wide net for attracting companies in the health tech, retail, deep tech, and artificial intelligence industries.
Stay tuned for more updates in the next edition!
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