African startups are making significant progress. In this context, the digital economy platform FollowICT highlights the top startup news across Africa over the past week.
– Pre-seed investment programme Madica puts $600k into 3 new startups
Madica, a structured investment programme for pre-seed African startups, has expanded its portfolio by announcing new investments in three tech-enabled startups – Kilimo Fresh, Hakimu, and Biovana.
Launched in 2022, Madica is an Africa-focused pre-seed investment programme empowering underrepresented and underfunded mission-driven founders on the continent. The sector-agnostic platform, affiliated with Flourish Ventures, aims to empower entrepreneurs by providing funding and democratizing access to world-class company-building support.
Madica had previously backed 10 startups, including four in February of last year and another two in November, and it has now taken that to 13 with investments in Kilimo Fresh, Hakimu, and Biovana.
Tanzania’s Kilimo Fresh, co-founded by Baraka Chijenga and Justice Mangu, connects smallholder farmers to reliable urban markets by aggregating, processing, and distributing fresh produce through a technology-enabled supply chain, aiming to reduce food waste.
Kenya’s Hakimu, co-founded by Rawan Dareer, Ahmed Ahmed and Ahmed Elbashir is building a pan-African legal infrastructure leveraging the power of AI, while Nigeria’s Biovana, co-founded by Estelle Dogbo and Dr. Jumi Popoola, is a data harmonisation and certification platform focused on unlocking African health datasets for global pharmaceutical, AI, and clinical research applications.
Each company has secured up to US$200,000 in funding and will take part in Madica’s 18-month programme, which includes a tailored curriculum, hands-on mentorship, executive coaching, and two fully-funded immersion trips to key technology ecosystems, both locally and internationally. The startups will also gain access to Madica’s global investor network, helping position them for growth and long-term success.
– South Africa-founded Refiant AI raises $5 million to build leaner AI models
Refiant AI, a South Africa-founded startup that uses algorithms to compress artificial intelligence (AI) models, has closed a $5 million seed round to build its platform, grow its team and support enterprise partnerships.
VoLo Earth Ventures, a California climate technology fund, led the round, backing what it considers a more efficient approach to developing smarter and leaner AI models.
Founded in 2025 by Viroshan Naicker, Siddharth Gutta, and Mathew Haswell, Refiant AI is building tools that restructure and compress AI models by reducing computational weight and retraining them to maintain performance, so that they can run efficiently on smaller or local machines.
– Nigerian energy startup PowerLabs secures pre-seed funding round
Nigerian energy and climate-tech startup PowerLabs has secured an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding to accelerate the rollout of its flagship AI-enabled energy orchestration platform across commercial and industrial enterprises.
PowerLabs builds, designs and deploys intelligent and personalised energy consumer applications, devices and services that help customers access electricity at the lowest costs with zero downtime and emissions.
The startup’s pre-seed funding round was led by Breega, with participation from Catalyst Fund, Mercy Corps Ventures, and Kaleo Ventures. It will be used to accelerate the rollout of Pai Enterprise, the company’s flagship AI-enabled energy orchestration platform, across commercial and industrial enterprises in Nigeria, and lay the foundation for expansion into key West African markets
– Endeavor South Africa Secures $13.6 Million Fund Backed by FirstRand, Standard Bank and Allan Gray to Scale Tech Startups
Endeavor South Africa has secured R230 million (approximately $13.6 million) for its third Harvest Fund aimed at supporting fast-growing technology companies in the country.
The fund brings together capital from both institutional investors and experienced entrepreneurs, with a shared focus on helping high-growth businesses expand and compete at scale.
Harvest Fund III operates as a co-investment vehicle, meaning it invests alongside established lead investors rather than acting alone.
