Tuesday, April 21, 2026Global tech, startups & capital — covered for Africans.
May is turning out to be a strong month for startup companies operating in North Africa. Following significant funding rounds involving Nawy, Konnect and MNT Halan last week, Egyptian startups Thndr, Sylndr, and El Gameya dominated the headlines this week, raising substantial capital to further bolster their operations. Elsewhere, MaxAB-Wasoko has begun taking giant steps, […]
By AU-Startups
May is turning out to be a strong month for startup companies operating in North Africa. Following significant funding rounds involving Nawy, Konnect and MNT Halan last week, Egyptian startups Thndr, Sylndr, and El Gameya dominated the headlines this week, raising substantial capital to further bolster their operations. Elsewhere, MaxAB-Wasoko has begun taking giant steps, starting with the acquisition of Fatura. Get the details below.
Funding Round: Series B ($15 Million)
Investors: Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund (CAIF) and Partech,
Founders: Warren Myers, Ryan Green, and Adam Pantanowitz
Founded: 2017, South Africa
About Company
AURA is a digital service provider using technology to save lives and properties in Africa. It operates a smart auto-dispatch platform designed to enable users to quickly access emergency services regardless of their location. The platform connects people in emergency situations with the nearest certified medical responders, as well as private security services, depending on their needs.
What Next?
The company is currently working on expanding its services into the US market and simultaneously developing a global ‘clearing house’ which will enable cross-border emergency dispatch and further improve access to life-saving services for everyone.
Funding Round: $15.7 Million
Investors: Prosus Ventures, BECO Capital, Y Combinator, Abdul Latif Jameel, and Onsi Sawiris.
Founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr,
Founded: 2020, Egypt
About Company
Heavily regarded as MENA’s version of Robinhood, Thndr is a fintech company that operates a digital investment platform designed to democratise and simplify access to stock investments. Through the platform, African investors can easily set up investor profiles and access tools/resources that will empower them to make the right investments.
What Next?
Thndr plans to expand into the GCC and also begin operations in the US. Hence, it will focus the bulk of its resources on achieving those goals rapidly.
Funding Round: Series A ($15.7 Million)
Investors: DPI Venture Capital, Algebra Ventures, Nuwa Capital, Raed Ventures, and Beltone Venture Capital.
Founders: Omar El Defrawy
Founded:
About Company
Sylndr is a vehicle recommerce company operating an automotive-focused e-commerce marketplace. Through its digital platform, the vehicle is bringing innovation to the used-cars market, where customers can reliably and transparently sell and buy used cars.
What Next?
The company wants to tighten its grip on and own a significant market share of Egypt’s $10 billion used care economy. Hence, it’s likely to invest the new funding into achieving that.
Funding Round: Undisclosed
Investors: AYADY, Jedar Capital, Cubit Ventures, Ventures Notes, P-Maestro
Founders: Ahmed Abdeen
Founded: 2020, Egypt
About Company
El Gameya is a fintech company that’s digitising traditional money savings practices in Egypt. The company operates a digital infrastructure that mimics the ROSCA model known as Gameya. Through it, users can easily start or join savings circles and access the benefits of the groups tailored to modern financial needs.
What Next?
With the new funding, El Gameya can now begin to explore regional expansion and spread its reach outside of Egypt.
Funding Round: Seed ($ 4.2 million)
Investors: MaC Venture Capital, Partech Africa and Authentic Ventures
Founders: Bolu Aiki-Raji
Founded: 2023, Nigeria
About Company
Carrot Credit is a fintech company providing credit options backed by digital investment assets. The company operates a digital lending platform where retail investors can secure loans using assets like stocks, bonds, ETFs or Cryptocurrency as collateral without the need for traditional credit checks.
What Next?
Fuelled by the new investment, Carrot Credit is poised to deepen integration with digital brokerages and scale its lending platform to operate across other African markets.
The battle for supremacy continues to drag on in the African ecommerce industry, where the strong are leveraging their strength to add to their already powerful arsenals. The latest move by MaxAB-Wasoko is one of such moves. The company, which is one of the largest retail and supply chain services providers in Africa, has acquired Fatura, another Egyptian B2B ecommerce platform from EFG Finance.
Recall that the MaxAb-Wasoko’s landmark merger happened just a few months ago, towards the end of 2024, and now the giant created from that union is taking giant steps with this new acquisition.
In exchange for absorbing Fatura, MaxAB-Wasoko will concede a significant equity stake and board seat to EFG Finance. But in return, it now has complete access to a broader product assortment and deeper supplier networks thanks to the significant reach that Fatura had as a platform connecting 626 wholesalers across 16 Egyptian cities.
