Welcome to the Ghana Innovation Journal newsletter, your guide to Ghana’s innovation ecosystem. Blitz through what happened in week 47 in the innovation landscape.
MILESTONES
KudiGo hit a milestone in Nigeria. Kingsley Abrokwah, the CEO, shared that its e-commerce storefront hit 100 million naira (~$125,000) in daily cash transactions value. Although the transaction value does not represent the company’s net revenues, it signals a positive trajectory. The milestone suggests that KudiGo is gaining traction and successfully penetrating the market, showcasing the potential for revenue growth. KudiGo’s Storefront is an all-in-one technology solution for informal and micro-retail businesses. It enables them to manage and run their business by offering a mobile-based integrated retail, accounting, payments and analytics engine.
Grow for Me, the tech-enabled crowdfunding and commodities aggregator, has been listed on Founder Institute’s top 50 Fastest-Growing Companies in Africa. The Fastest-Growing Companies list comprises the accelerator’s most successful portfolio startups in raising funds, building significant partnerships, team expansion, local and international recognition, and new markets.
FUNDING
Two mobility startups, Wahu Mobility and Feenix Technology, tapped into Untapped Global‘s smart asset financing vehicle. As the funding drought continues unabated, innovative financing from Untaped Global is bridging the funding gap. Untapped is an embedded finance platform that finances revenue-generating assets for entrepreneurs and SMEs in emerging markets. The company leverages IoT devices, which generate data on asset usage and shares in the revenue generated. Untapped partnered with Feenix to finance its fleet and Wahu to finance its e-bikes.
After nine months of competing for the title of Africa’s Business Heroes, Zeepay and Sommalife made it to the top 10 from a pool of 27,000 participants. Although they didn’t make it into the final 3, they will each receive $100,000. The CEO of Zeepay, Andrew Takyi-Appiah, wasn’t present for the grand final, so another startup took the stage in his stead. Hopefully, his winning cash is still intact.
REGULATION
The regulator has been very busy over the last two weeks. The Bank of Ghana fined Zeepay for breaching the inward remittance law. The company failed to “use the average interbank exchange rate to convert settlement funds into local currency”. The regulator also suspended their forex license from 27 November 2023 to 8 December 2023. This might be why the company’s CEO wasn’t at the Africa Business Heroes finals. Fintech executives are regularly firefighting at work.
This sanction came after the regulator barred eight money transfer companies, such as Lemfi, Aza Finance and Wise, from operating in the market without a license.
ACCELERATOR
Two Ghana-based clean cooking companies, Jacgk Trust and Nasam Brand Enterprise, have been selected for the inaugural Clean Cooking Alliance Venture Accelerator programme. The accelerator implemented by Innohub and Mirepa Capital aims to nurture early-stage ventures poised to tackle the most pressing challenges preventing clean cooking solutions from scaling.
Founded by Bismark Asamoah Asante in 2015, NASAM Brand Enterprise designs and manufactures clean wood stoves, gas stoves and charcoal-powered cookstoves for urban and rural households. Jacgk Trust Enterprise also manufactures environmentally friendly alternatives to traditional cookstoves with a thermal efficiency of 36% and reduces fuel consumption by up to 50%.
PARTNERSHIPS
Brolly, the insuretech startup, has joined forces with Bolt, the ride-sharing platform, to enable Bolt drivers in Ghana to get flexible auto insurance coverage within the Bolt app. The model is a novelty as it departs from the “cash upfront or no coverage” market standard. Hopefully, Brolly’s flexible insurance payment will help 10x insurance penetration in Africa, as insurance costs significantly hinder insurance penetration.
Bluespace Financial Cloud, a leading provider of innovative financial technology solutions, has partnered with Onix Data Centre to redefine the financial technology landscape. The BlueSPACE and Onix Data Centre partnership leverages the scalability of Onix Data Centre’s infrastructure, ensuring seamless scaling of BlueSPACE’s fintech solutions, with an added emphasis on unparalleled security, global reach, and optimized performance.
ACADEMIA
University of Ghana’s Prof. Eric Yirenkyi Danquah, the Founding Director of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement, has been appointed as a member of the Science & Impact Advisory Group of the newly established UK-CGIAR Centre. The advisory group will provide strategic guidance and independent assessment of project proposals for the Centre.
From the team
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