Last week, August 4–10, 2025, the African startup ecosystem recorded modest but meaningful activity, driven by fresh capital inflows and infrastructure investments.
Key themes included targeted infrastructure plays—particularly in payments and merchant tooling—and sustained investor interest in pragmatic, revenue-focused startups.
In this edition of Today Africa Weekly, we round up the most important headlines, disclosed funding rounds, the emerging trends, and what founders and investors should keep an eye on next.
Tech News Highlights
22 startups join Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator
Visa has selected 22 African startups for the fourth edition of its 12-week Africa Fintech Accelerator, part of its $1 billion financial inclusion pledge by 2027. The cohort includes five from Kenya, four from Nigeria, two each from Egypt, Morocco, and Zimbabwe, and others from Uganda, Mauritius, DR Congo, Ghana, Botswana, Ivory Coast, and South Africa. The virtual programme will end with an in-person demo day. Applications for the fifth cohort close on August 15.
Doorcas Africa launches AI-powered farming tools
Nigerian agri-tech startup Doorcas Africa has launched an AI-powered WhatsApp chat and new webpage to help farmers access services more easily. Founded in 2023, the platform connects livestock owners with veterinary providers and supports disease reporting to reduce livestock mortality. Doorcas has over 1,000 users and recently secured grants, including $5,500 from the University of Cape Town, €6,000 from Start Global, and hardware funding from the World Health Innovation Fellowship.
Flat6Labs launches F6 Group, $90m seed-stage investment arm
Egypt-based accelerator Flat6Labs has restructured to form F6 Group, combining its renowned startup accelerator with a new seed-stage investment firm, F6 Ventures. Led by Dina el-Shenoufy and Ramez El-Serafy, F6 Ventures launches with six funds totaling over $90 million AUM and a portfolio of 300+ companies. A key focus is the Africa Seed Fund, targeting $85 million with a $100 million cap.
Peach Payments partners with MoneyBadger for crypto payments
South African payment services provider Peach Payments has teamed up with crypto payments firm MoneyBadger to let merchants accept bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies across Kenya, Mauritius, and South Africa. The partnership expands consumer choice by enabling payments via most crypto wallets, marking Peach Payments’ first crypto integration.
Ozow launches PayShap Request for South African merchants
South African payments platform Ozow has rolled out PayShap Request, a real-time payment feature, to its merchant network. Founded in 2014 by Thomas Pays, Mitchan Adams, and Lyle Eckstein, Ozow aims to streamline SME payments and raised $48 million in Series B funding in 2021. The feature is already live with its first merchant, with more activations underway.
MTN offers $65k grants to African startups in 12-week cloud accelerator
MTN has launched a 12-week Cloud Accelerator Programme for African growth-stage startups, offering $65,000 grants, technical integration, and access to MTN’s infrastructure. The programme targets fintech, health-tech, ed-tech, agri-tech, and more, providing API access, mentorship, cloud credits, sales support, and investor introductions. Applications close August 15.
Major Funding Rounds (August 4-10, 2025)
Wuilt – E-commerce Enablement / Free Web Builder (Egypt)
- Amount raised: US $2 million funding round
- Lead investors: Flat6Labs, MTF VC; participation from Hub71, JIMCO, Purity Tech, and angel investors
Founded in 2019, Wuilt enables individuals and businesses to build websites and e-stores without coding. After a US $535K seed in 2020, the startup pivoted in April 2025 to offer its platform free in Egypt, boosting adoption to 20,000+ merchants. The new funding will drive expansion to the UAE (Q4 2025), GCC, and Turkey (Q1 2026), and support AI feature development for merchant growth.
TurnStay – Travel-focused Fintech (South Africa)
- Amount raised: US $2 million seed
- Lead investors: First Circle Capital, with TLCom Capital, Enza Capital, Incisive Ventures, CVVC, and Equitable Ventures
TurnStay, founded by Slide Financial co-founder Alon Stern and Quicket co-founder James Hedley, helps African travel and tourism operators cut payment costs by up to 70% via a merchant-of-record model, payment orchestration, and stablecoin settlements. The startup processed over ZAR250M since its $300K pre-seed in July 2024. The $2M seed round will drive African market expansion and boost its fintech infrastructure.
Flood – SuperApp-as-a-Service (South Africa)
- Amount raised: US$2.5 million seed
Founded by André de Wet, Flood is a mobile-first digital commerce platform enabling telcos, banks, enterprises, and SMEs in emerging markets to build marketplace models for products, services, payments, and logistics. Operating in South Africa, India, and the Maldives, it has onboarded 8,000 merchants in three months in one market. The $2.5M seed round will accelerate market entry, expand telco and banking partnerships, and scale onboarding of offline merchants.
Trends to watch (what the week’s deals tell us)
- Investor appetite for pragmatic infrastructure — Payments orchestration (TurnStay) and commerce infra (Flood) continue to attract early-stage capital. Investors are backing startups that reduce costs and friction for offline or vertical merchants rather than pure consumer plays.
- South Africa remains an active origin for VC deals this week — two of the top disclosed raises came from SA startups. Lagos and Nairobi still matter, but Cape Town / Johannesburg continue to spawn finance and fintech infrastructure plays.
- SME enablement & builder tools are back on the map — Wuilt’s raise underlines investor interest in simple, high-leverage tools that digitalise SMEs (sites, payments, listings). Egypt and North Africa act as bridge markets for MENA-Africa investor flows.
- Product expansion from incumbents remains deeply to build defensible moats.
- Capital is selective, not absent — macro headlines suggest a more cautious funding environment (Partech / The Big Deal commentary). That means founders should expect sharper diligence and to demonstrate unit economics and revenue traction.
What this means for the ecosystem
- For founders: focus on unit economics, revenue traction and vertical specialisation. Investors are favouring infrastructure and pragmatic tools that reduce costs and improve margins for businesses (travel, merchant commerce, SME tooling).
- For investors: seed-stage allocations remain attractive for infrastructure plays that can scale with partnerships (telcos, banks, travel operators). Expect careful diligence and insistence on clear monetization paths.
- For the ecosystem: the steady stream of small-to-mid seed rounds suggests a market that’s maturing — capital is available for meaningful product-market fits, but large checks will follow only when scale and defensibility are proven.
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