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.
– MAX Secures USD 8 M Debt Funding To Scale Electric Mobility In Africa
Metro Africa Xpress (MAX), an African electric mobility platform that evolved from a now-discontinued bike-hailing operation in Nigeria, has secured USD 8 M in debt funding from Netherlands-based impact investor Triple Jump to scale its clean transport operations.
Founded in 2015 by Adetayo Bamiduro and Chinedu Azodoh, MAX provides electric vehicles, battery-swapping infrastructure, and Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) financing for commercial drivers.
Operating across Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon, the company is building an integrated ecosystem combining EVs, IoT-enabled fleet management, and embedded finance. The new funding will support fleet expansion, battery swap rollout, and platform development.
– Cauridor Raises $2M from Proparco to Fix Africa’s Remittance Last Mile
Guinea-founded fintech Cauridor has secured a $2 million equity investment from Proparco, the private sector arm of the French Development Agency, as it works to scale payment infrastructure connecting global money transfer operators to Africa’s fragmented last-mile networks.
The investment was announced on the sidelines of the Africa Forward Summit, co-organised by France and Kenya in Nairobi, and forms part of Cauridor’s ongoing Series A round, which also includes participation from Flourish Ventures and LoftyInc Capital. The latest funding brings the company’s total capital raised to $13 million, with Cauridor targeting a full Series A close before the end of 2026.
– 216 Capital invests in Startup EYST, the InsurTech accelerating instant claims settlement in insurance
In an insurance sector undergoing full digital transformation, where customer experience, reimbursement speed, and fraud prevention are becoming major strategic challenges, EYST Technology, co-founded by Tunisian entrepreneur Marwen Amamou, is redefining the standards of claims settlement. In this context, 216 Capital announces its entry into the capital of EYST Technology through a six-figure investment to support the startup’s technological acceleration and international expansion.
Founded in 2022, EYST Technology develops a SaaS platform enabling insurers to modernize claims settlement through the issuance of virtual bank cards instantly credited with the reimbursement amount.
This technology allows policyholders to immediately cover their expenses without having to pay upfront, transforming a model traditionally based on deferred reimbursement into an immediate, seamless, and integrated payment experience.
– Nigeria-Based Classifieds Platform Jiji Acquires Bangladesh’s Bikroy in First Expansion Outside Africa
Nigeria-based classifieds marketplace Jiji has acquired Bangladesh’s largest online classifieds platform, Bikroy, marking the company’s first acquisition outside Africa and a major step in its international expansion strategy.
The Lagos-headquartered company declined to disclose the transaction value, though CEO Anton Volianskyi said the acquisition was financed using internal resources and support from existing shareholders.
The deal comes just 13 months after Jiji entered Bangladesh by launching its own competing marketplace, making the South Asian country the company’s first market outside Africa. At the time, Jiji positioned the move as a long-term challenge to regional incumbents including Bikroy, Daraz, and Ajkerdeal.
– France’s Digital Africa Launches $58M Seed Fund to Back Overlooked African Tech Markets
Digital Africa has launched the Digital Africa Seed Fund (DASF), a pan-African seed-stage vehicle targeting €30–50 million, announced at the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi on 12 May 2026. The fund will deploy tickets of between €300,000 and €2 million into roughly 30 technology startups across approximately 20 countries, with a stated preference for markets that remain structurally underserved by private venture capital.
The launch came on the margins of the summit’s closing session, at which French President Emmanuel Macron announced what his office described as €23 billion in investment commitments for Africa. The DASF sits within that broader framing , though its mechanics are more specific, and its investment thesis more grounded than summit-stage announcements typically suggest.
Digital Africa is a pan-African programme backed by Proparco, the private sector arm of Agence Française de Développement (AFD), alongside the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the European Union. Its prior investment activity has been conducted through Fuzé, a pre-seed instrument that has backed more than 70 startups across 16 African countries , running at close to 30 investments per year. The organisation claims it mobilises more than €4 of additional capital for every €1 it deploys, a leverage ratio that suggests reasonable co-investor traction relative to its ticket sizes.
