1. NALA Raises $40 Mn Series A, 30 Months After $10 Mn Seed Round
NALA, a Tanzanian fintech startup, has secured $40 million in Series A funding, marking one of the largest such round in African tech history. The investment was led by Acrew Capital, with participation from five other venture capital (VC) firms and angel investors.
Founded in 2018, by then 26-year-old Benjamin “Benji” Fernandes, NALA has evolved from an offline mobile money superapp in Tanzania to a cross-border financial platform operating in the US, EU, and UK. The company now serves nearly 500,000 customers. It facilitates money transfers to 11 African countries through 249 banks and 26 mobile money services.
Key milestones:
10x revenue growth in the past 12 months
34x volume growth over 20 months
Team expansion from 7 to nearly 100 members
Achieved profitability and positive cash flow
According to Benji, the startup's success has been built on pivots and perseverance. Following a ‘cease and desist’ from—I believe—Vodacom Tanzania and a strategic shift during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nala launched its transnational remittance service in 2021. This led to rapid growth and a $10 million seed round in January 2022.
The Series A funding will support NALA's global expansion plans, including:
Extending remittance services to Asian and Latin American markets
Scaling Rafiki, its B2B payments platform launched in March 2024
Rafiki aims to provide a unified API (access point interface) for global businesses to facilitate payments into and out of Africa. Thus, addressing a huge market opportunity.
Why? The African remittance market has more than doubled in the past decade, reaching over $100 billion. However, Africa still faces the highest payment costs globally. That creates a ripe environment for modern fintech solutions.
Therefore, NALA's expansion strategy aligns with the increasing demand for efficient cross-border payment solutions in emerging markets. It aims to build a strong payment infrastructure that can serve the next billion financial service users in underserved regions.
2. MasterCard EdTech Fellows Attend Abuja Conference
The first-ever Mastercard Foundation EdTech Conference connected over 800 founders and 250 investors in Abuja, Nigeria. They discussed the future of Africa’s educational technology. The event featured 48 panelists and 20+ hours of content, according to Abdul-Karim Mohamed. It focused on key themes like infrastructure development, public-private partnerships, and inclusive education.
Several Tanzanian startups attended as part of the Mastercard Foundation’s EdTech Fellowship first cohort. These included:
Fiqra: A learning management system (LMS) that enables independent instructors to create video courses, live classes, and assessments.
Rada 360: Built a mobile planetarium and high-altitude balloon to help create Tanzanian space scientists and technologists.
Silabu: Matches students to tutors in four African countries.
SmartDarasa: Provides offline software for lab simulations and STEM content.
The conference provided these Tanzanian startups an opportunity to connect with other innovators, policymakers, and investors from across Africa.
Key takeaways from the event’s 20 panels and fireside chats include:
Digital infrastructure is a major challenge. African students need reliable internet connectivity and affordable devices.
Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are essential for scaling edtech solutions.
Data-driven decision-making is important. Better student data collection and analysis can improve educational outcomes.
Founders should ensure their companies benefit all students, regardless of gender, location, or socioeconomic status.
According to Statista, Africa's "online education" market is worth $885.7 million this year alone. It expects revenue to grow at a 10.9% annual rate until 2029, when it may reach $1.5 billion. Other ed-tech segments (such as school payments and audio-based offline learning hardware) may present even greater opportunities.
3. VDA Demo Day 2024
Vodacom Tanzania, which owns 30% of the country's telco market, launched the third season of its Digital Accelerator in January 2024. VDA Season 3 was run in collaboration with industry partners MassChallenge and Huawei Tanzania. The 3-month program provided early-stage startups with mentorship and resources.
It selected 20 promising Tanzanian startups for an intensive bootcamp, which included:
Design thinking workshops led by experts like Cesar Salazar.
Growth strategy sessions with Daniel Lacy from Osoji.
Pitching workshops with Jodi Tatiana from LCG Brands Consulting
Lessons on innovation and financial technology from industry leaders and founders like Dawa Mkononi’s Joseph Paul.
Key focus areas included developing minimum viable products (MVPs), making good pitch decks, and optimizing business models for scalability.
As part of the program, Vodacom and Huawei took seven startups on an educational trip to Shenzhen, China. The ventures explored leading tech companies like Huawei, Tencent (owner of WeChat) and ByteDance (developer of TikTok). Founders also engaged with scholars, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists (VCs). This taught them important lessons about Shenzhen's transformation into a global technology hub.
VDA S3 culminated in a Demo Day on July 11th, 2024 at the JINCC in Dar es Salaam. The top 7 startups from the cohort presented their innovations:
Afya Lead (Has developed the ‘Mkanda Salama’ device to prevent postpartum hemorrhage. Was named the overall winner.)
Altitude X (Drone-as-a-Service)
GoGo Tanzania (On-demand roadside assistance mobile app for drivers)
MITz Kits (Design and assembly of science experiments kits)
SAB Biomanufactures (Uses algae to capture carbondioxide 10-15 times more efficiently than plants)
Mnyama Check (Digital livestock keeping apps)
Makonda Renewables (Invented a wave-powered water irrigation pump)
The Demo Day allowed the startups to pitch to investors, industry leaders, and potential partners. It represented the end of months of hard work and growth for the participating entrepreneurs.
This third season of VDA builds on previous years' success, which helped propel Tanzanian startups like Silabu, SmartDarasa, and Twenzao to new heights. Thanks to mentorship, resources, and exposure.
4. Tanzanian Scientists Lead Breakthrough in Malaria Vaccine Development
Ifakara Health Institute (IHI), a leading research organization in Sub-Saharan Africa, has announced promising results from early trials of a new malaria vaccine. Why is this important? On the Mainland alone, 93% of the population is at risk of malaria. It has an estimated 4.5 million clinical cases and thousands of deaths annually.
The new vaccine, called RH5.1/Matrix-M, was tested at Ifakara's Clinical Trials Facility in Bagamoyo. Dr. Ally Olotu, Director of Science at IHI, explained that the vaccine targets the blood stage of the malaria parasite. It combines a protein with an ingredient that improves the body's immune response. This approach differs from earlier vaccines by focusing on the parasite after it enters the bloodstream.
The trial involved 60 participants, including 12 adults and 48 young children aged 5–17 months. Results show the vaccine is safe and well-tolerated, with only mild to moderate side effects in most cases. Importantly, it triggered a strong immune response, especially in children, producing the highest levels of protective antibodies ever seen in a malaria vaccine trial.
These positive results have led to the next phase of testing in Burkina Faso, where the vaccine's real-world effectiveness will be evaluated. This progress builds on recent successes in malaria vaccine research, including the World Health Organization's (WHO) recommendation of another vaccine called R21 last year, which Ifakara also helped develop.
Malaria had 249 million cases and 608,000 deaths worldwide in 2022, according to the WHO. Africa bears the most of this burden, accounting for about 94% of all malaria cases and 95% of deaths. Children under 5 years old are particularly vulnerable, comprising 80% of all malaria deaths in the region.
5. Tech Talent Gap, AI Hype Exposed
Recent guest posts on Atoms & Bits have covered two issues facing the African tech ecosystem. Why? There is a lack of professionalism among local developers and an overenthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI) despite infrastructural challenges.
Grayson Julius, CEO of iPF Softwares, conducted technical audits of over 60 Tanzanian startups, revealing that unprofessional conduct by developers is a tall fence. A poll he ran identified the following as the primary challenges when working with local technical talent:
Poor communication
Missed deadlines
Inferior code quality
Gray advises founders to set clear requirements, avoid overreliance on "full stack" developers, and establish realistic timelines.
Meanwhile, another friend’s opinion cautioned us against AI hype in Africa. Despite growing excitement, major problems remain:
Only 50% of Africans have access to electricity
Internet penetration stands at 43.2% continent-wide
Many top African universities lack fundamental AI research focus
Therefore, we must develop local talent and confront broader infrastructure needs in order to compete globally. You can read both guest posts on anbpost.substack.com.