For your sake, here’s an update on some of the major tech news that happened in 2021. Don’t say I didn’t do anything for you ooo.
December: ( Edtech for the lead)
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Mainone Acquisition for $320M.
- Flutterwave launched Send, and signed Wizkid as a global brand ambassador.
- Edtechs, Teesas and Edukoya raised $1.6m and $3.5m respectively in pre-seed.
- Onepipe raised $3.5 million in their latest seed round.
- Max, the MaaS provider, landed $31m funding.
- Tradedepot, a player in the B2B e-commerce space capped the month with $110million.
November ( Crypto X Transport)
- Busha raised a $4.2m seed round.
- Davido and Omegoat(a Bitsika outfit) launched $ECHOKE social token.
- Flutterwave rush buy Disha sharp sharp.
- Chippercash closed its first series C of $100M, and barely 6 months after, raised an additional $150M in an extended deal.. Omoooo money dey flow for street.
- Lemonade finance got into YC and shortly after graduation bagged $725,000 in pre-seed.
- Treepz (formerly Plentywaka) closed a $2.8m seed round during the year split into $1.2m in August and $1.5m in November.
- Shuttlers raised $1.6m.
- Sabi announced a $6m raise to service the e-business space.
- Kippa got $3.2 in pre-seed.
- Drugstoc did $4.4m funding round.
- Aboki Africa raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-seed round.
- Wicrypt has closed a $1.5 million funding.
October
- MFS Africa acquired Capricorn Digital in an undisclosed deal
- Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, Messenger experienced a first-of-a-kind downtime that lasted 6hours. The outage, according to Facebook, is not a result of a hack but mere configuration changes.
- Nigeria launched E-Naira but we don’t know what’s up ooo. we no still see the Naira.
- Neo-banks Sparkle and Brass picked $3.1m and $1.7m cheques respectively in October.
- Autochek lands $13.1M.
- Vendease secured $3.2m
- Klasha raised $2.4 million
- Eden Life got $1.4m
- Stitch $2m
- Sendbox did $1.8m.
September
- Andela became a Unicorn after raising $200m( Meaning they’re now worth $1B or more)
- Releaf secured $4.2M divided into $2.7 million in seed and $1.5m as a grant.
- Prospa bagged $3.8m in a funding round.
- OurPass raised $1M.
- Bumpa first preseed cheque of $200k.
August ( the era of blood money)
- Opay’s $400M funding.
- Omnibiz’s $3M and Alerzo’s $10.5M will help them grow as B2B e-commerce drivers.
- Moove raised $23M.
July
- In an undisclosed deal, Piggvest bought over Savi.ng. Until the acquisition, Savi.ng offered savings and wealth management to its users. The deal will migrate existing Savi.ng users to Piggyvest.
- Cowrywise secured a major license from SEC to operate as a full-fledged fund management company.
- Lidya and Fairmoney are two companies making loans accessible to Nigerians; they both secured $8.3M and $42m respectively.
- Payhippo also raised $1m in pre-seed. The startup would later announce its acceptance into YC in August and another $3m raise in November.
- Chaka bagged $1.5m in funding and the first to be awarded a SEC license to operate as a digital sub-broker.
June ( Twitter was banned )
The suspension comes shortly after Twitter deleted a tweet posted on PMB handle on the grounds of violation. It is not quite clear when the suspension would be called off although many users have bypassed the ban with the use of VPN.
- Nexford University lands $10.8M funding.
- Jiji acquired Cars45 in an undisclosed deal.
May
- CBN announced new license requirements for the Payments System https://t.co/rwwBMzcNdM.
- Mono raised a $2m seed round. The startup would later confirm an additional raise of $15m.
April
For the first half of 2021, both locals and foreign residents in Nigeria could not get a new sim and lost sim could not be replaced. This frustrated communication for many people to say the least. However, the ban on sim registration and issuance became suspended in April. NCC through the Ministers of Information and digital economy Isa Pantami directed Telcos to resume sim registration again after months of suspension.
- Twitter sly 9ja for Ghana to launch its first regional office amidst concern around internet access and freedom of speech.
- Okra raised $3.5m.
March
- Flutterwave was in the news alot this year and it’s for all the right reasons. Few days into the third month, the news broke that Flutterwave raised $170m in funding. And that’s how they entered the Unicorn league.
- Kudabank; first a $25M cheque in March and another $55M series B funding in August.
- Bankly raised a $2 million seed round.
February (Crypto became a sin)
CBN declared crypto-related activities prohibited. In a communique, the apex bank directed regulated financial institutions to identify and discontinue new and existing crypto relationships in their books. The CBN demands that this directive should be carried out immediately or risk sanctions. This caused a great deal of panic as crypto exchanges rushed to reassure traders of the safety of their money.
January
- Sim Shagaya ed-tech startup uLesson raised $7.5m in Series A round. 11 months later, the company did $15 million in Series B round.
