Raba Partnership leads $ 2.1 million seed round for African fintech startup Thepeer – TechCrunch

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Is it already Wednesday? The calendar tells me that it is. (Fun fact: My apartment is so full of date-wise smart screens that it’s a struggle not to stumble across them.) Time flies when the Daily Crunch team gives you – me – TechCrunch’s record newsletter. As always, there is plenty of reason to cover, but I have done my best to secure Haje and Christine have nothing to worry about while enjoying much needed time away from everyday life. Rest, folks. You deserve it.

African fintechs are experiencing stratospheric growth – last year the number of startups in the category increased 17.3% to 573, from 491 in 2019, according to the local publication Disrupt Africa. An exciting new player is Thepeer, which operates infrastructure for mainly fintech companies, from small to medium-sized. Tage writes that the company sees success one year after the establishment, with an average monthly transaction growth of 161%. It’s impressive no matter how you cut it.

On an unrelated (but equally important) note, if you have not obtained tickets to TechCrunch’s summer party, you should really consider it. We do not bite – at least not without justification. – Kyle

TechCrunch Top 3

• Not for the wise – or the wise: MindGeek, the parent company of porn streaming giant Pornhub, has seen less catastrophic days. Devin writes that the CEO and COO – Feras Antoon and David Tassillo, respectively – withdrew abruptly about a week after a New Yorker report on the company’s less than fantastic moderation policy. Everything is speculation at this time, but financial uncertainty may have played a role. As profitable as adult movies tend to be, MindGeek carried the bulk of a payment processor crusade against pornography platforms 2 years ago, with processors, including Mastercard, suspending payments for the company’s brands.
• Shortness is (not) the soul of wit: Do you remember when Twitter, limited by the limitations of SMS, limited its bad users to 140 characters? I do. But I’m old. New tweeters (twitterers?) May never know that tweets were once an exercise in self-editing, thanks to Twitter’s new feature – Twitter Notes – which would support the publication of long-form content on the platform. Sarah has the story.
• Better get out of here: Mary’s reporting on Better.com’s problems has been unparalleled, and this week she published another big scoop: A large part of the mortgage lender’s senior management has resigned, including SVP and VP of sales. Their departure follows the departure to EVP for customer experience, SVP for capital markets and growth and a trio of high-level PR people. In the face of a delayed listing and continued poor publicity, including a lawsuit, a turnaround operation for Better.com looks increasingly remote.

Startups and VC

The economic downturn is hitting some industries harder than others, but one that seems immune – at least for now – is app development. App appetite has not quenched, and none of them seem to have a demand for low-code platforms and APIs that make building them faster and easier. Appsmith, a low-code platform for building business apps, received $ 41 million this week. Meanwhile, Courier raised $ 35 million to build an app alert service.

The hardware industry has been less forgiving lately. Example: Nothing, the new company from OnePlus founder Carl Pei, announced that it will not bring its first phone – the phone (1) – to the United States. , as US operators are notoriously hostile to unfavorable brands – especially in a low market. But it’s unfortunate nonetheless.

Elsewhere in start-up countries:

• Boxing on the go: Liteboxer debuted an ultra-portable, subscription-based training laptop that guides the user through the training sessions, possibly connected to music from a preloaded catalog. For those with small apartments in particular, it can be a gift from heaven, writes Brian.
• Warmer than a warming planet: “Climate tech” may not be new, but it is definitely hot – which is not surprising in light of serious predictions about the climate crisis. To underscore the state of affairs, Kiko Ventures appeared this week with a $ 450 million (375 million pound) fund to invest in climate technology and “regenerative” technologies, Mike reports.
• The accent, I can not place it: A fascinating startup called Sanas has built AI that can change a person’s accent. Supported by Google, the company has announced $ 32 million in financing and claims to have a number of customers, including insurance giant Assurant and BPO leviathan Alorica. Som pr Ingridthe technology sounds a bit robotic and emotionless, but it’s apparently on purpose – Sanas designed it with customer centers in mind.
• Let me handle this data for you: As proof that there is money in data management, Ataccama today secured a $ 150 million infusion from Bain Capital Tech Opportunities. As I wrote in my letter, Ataccama’s success reflects the explosion in recent years of tools that allow companies to connect, transform, analyze and serve data from all kinds of sources.
• Avoidant soft landings at SoftBank: The bad news at SoftBank got worse this week. On the heels of the company’s disappointing results, the French businessman Michel Combes – who was appointed CEO of SoftBank Group International in January – left the company, Connie reports. Troubled waters lie ahead SoftBank plans to slow down in new investments.
• Charging against M&A: In a fascinating piece, Rebecca writes about consolidation in the electric car charging market, which has seen a supply of cash in recent years amid enthusiasm – and government funding – for the technology. On the horizon is a wave of startups that want to commercialize and scale so-called DC Fast chargers.
• Boring but profitable: Let this be a lesson for HR technology says: Investors will still have a part of the action. Personio, a startup from Munich, Germany that looks like a workday and ServiceNow focused on small and medium-sized businesses, this week completed a $ 200 million round valued at $ 8.5 billion. Ingrid has the story.

3 tips for biotechnology startups seeking non-dilutive capital to cope with the downturn

Photo credit: Martin Poole (opens in new window) / Getty Images

This is a particularly difficult time for the start-up of life sciences. Even if their technology changes the world, it will still take years before it hits the market.

Most biotechnology entrepreneurs who want to raise money in this environment assume that diluting capital is their only option, but it is short-term, writes James Coates, rector of health and human performance at Decisive Point.

“In a downturn, non-dilutive subsidies or government contracts should be seen as more appealing than ever because they provide a runway without dilution and create big headlines.”

(TechCrunch + is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams move forward. You can register here.)

Big Tech Inc.

Did you think the NFT trend was over and done with? Hah. Far from. Signaling acute interest from Big Tech, eBay this week acquired the Manchester-based NFT marketplace KnownOrigin, Aisha reports. Shopify, meanwhile, launched Tokengated commerce, a feature the company describes as a way to “reward true fans and VIPs, by giving NFT holders exclusive access to products, benefits and experiences” by linking crypto wallets to Shopify online stores , Ingrid write.

In other buzzword news, the meta-verse – the hazy mix of virtual and augmented reality – can be interoperable if certain technology giants get their way. This week, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Unity and others formed the Metaverse Standards Forum, which seeks to make it easier for developers to build across platforms. But there are also some glaring absences, like Amanda notes, including companies such as Niantic, Apple, Roblox and Snapchat – which also build consumer products “metaverse”.

Has all this talk about digital experiences made you long for something tangible? Give Ikea’s new tools a whirl. Lauren, who talks about his experience with it, describes it as a way to visualize your own living room with furniture on your smartphone instead of traveling to an Ikea store. You will miss the Swedish meatballs, but convenience can only make up for it.

• Hot tub hack machine: Carly writes how a security researcher found vulnerabilities in Jacuzzi’s SmartTub interface that allowed access to the personal information of all whirlpool owners. How cruel is that?
• Mac attack: Brian reviewed Apple’s M2-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro. The verdict? No spoilers, but the silicon is one of the few highlights in a largely incremental update.
• We do not have the votes: In the face of a number of lawsuits and investigations into sexual harassment, Activision Blizzard has rejected an attempt by employees to get a seat on the company’s board to represent the voice of employees. Disappointingly, only 5% of shareholders voted in favor, Amanda writes, while the majority re-elected the controversial CEO Bobby Kotick to the board.
• Lawsuits abound: A former black employee at Tesla’s assembly plant in Fremont has denied a $ 15 million payment from the carmaker in a lawsuit alleging racial abuse by employees, Rebecca reports. It is the latest legal announcement involving the company after two former employees filed a lawsuit alleging that the carmaker did not give 60 days notice in advance required by federal law during the final round of layoffs.
• Nuclear glow: NASA has the moon in mind – and nuclear fission. This week, the agency announced that it is entering into a contract with three suppliers to deliver concept designs for nuclear energy systems designed for use on the moon. Exciting stuff, given the potential. Read Darrellhis report for the overview.