Issue 156: Credit Recovery and AI Innovation Drive African Fintech Forward as BFREE, ORA, and PALM Secure Strategic Funding

The African startup ecosystem continues to demonstrate remarkable resilience and innovation, with this week ’ s funding rounds spanning diverse sectors from credit recovery to AI-powered legal tech. Egyptian and Nigerian startups are leading the charge once again. Morocco ’ s ORA Technology secured a notable $7.5 million Series A round, and BFREE raised $ 3 million in seed funding. Meanwhile, Tactful AI ’ s founders chart a new course after reacquiring their company from European acquirer Dstny. Get the details below. Funding BFREE Funding Round: Seed ($3 Million) Investors: Verdant Capital Hybrid Founders: Julian Flosbach, Chukwudi Enyi, Moses Nmor Founded: 2020, Nigeria About Company BFREE is a credit recovery company helping financiers deal with non-performing debt and making lenders become debt-free. The startup partners with digital lenders, banks, and microfinance organisations to offset their non-performing loans using proprietary behavioural models and ethical engagement methods to help borrowers liquidate their facilities and repair their credit. What ’ s Next? The new funding will allow BFREE to purchase more written-off loans, thereby helping more financial institutions offset bad debts while enabling clients to rebuild their credit status. ORA Technology Funding Round: Series A ($7.5 Million) Investors: Azur Innovation Management Founders: Omar Alami Founded: 2023, Morocco About Company ORA Technologies operates a comprehensive digital app that facilitates seamless ecommerce services for users. The platform offers multiple features, including P2P transactions, an e-commerce marketplace, on-demand services, chat functionality, social networking, and a digital wallet. The company has essentially positioned itself as a super app for Moroccan consumers. What ’ s Next? The fresh capital will fuel technology upgrades, regional expansion, and customer acquisition. The company is also exploring microcredit integrations to deepen its fintech capabilities and compete in North Africa ’ s growing digital commerce space. PALM Funding Round: Pre-Seed (Amount Undisclosed) Investors: 4DX Ventures, Plus VC Founders: Mazen El Kerdany, Ahmed Ashour Founded: 2024, Egypt About Company PALM combines automated investing in fixed income, equities, and gold with behavioural nudges to make saving rewarding. The company offers a goal-based savings app that helps Egyptians save for life milestones, including anything from education and healthcare to travel and electronics. It also offers users smart investment options and exclusive merchant deals. What ’ s Next? The funds will boost user growth, product innovation, and strategic partnerships, aligning with Egypt ’ s Vision 2030 financial inclusion goals as the country pushes toward greater financial literacy and investment participation. PocketLawyers Funding Round: Undisclosed Investors: Nubia Capital Founders: Ngozi Nwabueze Founded: 2023, Nigeria About Company The company offers AI-powered legal tools designed to streamline time-consuming legal processes that hinder businesses across the continent. PocketLawyers ‘ flagship product, PocketAI, automates processes like legal research, document drafting, invoicing, and case management, reducing tasks that typically take weeks to just minutes. What ’ s Next? The funding will help PocketLawyers scale its reach across Africa, reinforcing the continent ’ s growing legal tech space and democratizing access to legal services for small and medium enterprises. MoneyBadger Funding Round: Pre-Seed ($400,000) Investors: P1 Ventures Founders: Carel van Wyk and Carl Kritzinger Founded: 2022, South Africa About Company MoneyBadger enables consumers to pay for groceries, airtime, electricity, and more using Bitcoin, thanks to its integration with Lightning Network and local wallets like Luno, VALR, and Binance. The platform bridges the gap between cryptocurrency adoption and everyday commerce in South Africa. What ’ s Next? MoneyBadger plans to expand into new retail categories and regions through key payment provider partnerships, capitalising on South Africa ’ s growing cryptocurrency adoption and payment innovation trends. Acquisitions Tactful AI Founders Reacquire Company from Dstny In a notable reverse acquisition move, Tactful AI ‘ s founders, Mohamed El-Masry and Mohammed Hassan, have reacquired full ownership of their Egypt-born startup from European acquirer Dstny. The AI-powered customer experience solutions company, originally founded in 2016, was acquired by Dstny in 2022 as part of the European communication tools provider ’ s strategy to expand into AI-powered customer experience. The reacquisition marks a new growth phase for Tactful AI, which enables enterprises to manage 100% of digital customer interactions in real time and has demonstrated the ability to boost digital revenues by 15–35% within months of deployment. With renewed independence, the company is positioning itself for aggressive regional and international exp