On Monday, Terra Industries, the Nigerian defence-tech startup, announced its third raise of the year, closing what has become the largest and most covered seed round in Africa’s tech ecosystem. With $18 million raised, the two-year-old company is now the seventh most-funded startup in Africa in 2026, after closing its seed round at $52 million.

Why this matters: Raising that much this early signals strong investor confidence in Africa’s biggest defence-tech startup, particularly in a funding market that has seen companies like GoLemon and Gigbanc shut down. It also sets a high bar, because money raised at this scale eventually has to return to investors through an exit.

Talk of exits is premature, given that Terra has just closed its seed round, but the scale of the raise makes the question relevant. With significant capital on hand, the company now has the responsibility that comes with it.

Terra says it will use the money to open a London office. With this level of funding, the company is well positioned to hire experienced people who can open doors in international markets. That may be especially useful in a sector dominated by billion-dollar incumbents, where credibility and the right introductions often determine who gets a hearing.

The startup also plans to expand its manufacturing capacity, deploy its products across the Global South, and hire engineering, operations, and business development staff.

Several factors distinguish Terra. It builds both hardware and software. It already protects critical commercial and government assets across West Africa. It also allows African governments to use a system in which security data stays inside the country, an argument that won Terra its first Nigerian federal contract and gives it an edge over international competition.

EBRD and IFC want a stake in Egypt’s Banque du Caire

Egypt is preparing to sell part of Banque du Caire, one of its oldest and largest state-backed financial institutions, to public investors, and investor interest is already building.

Two international development institutions, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), want in. Both investors are eyeing a combined 10% stake in the state-owned bank when it lists on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) in November 2026. The stake could be split roughly down the middle, with EBRD taking up to 5% and IFC taking the rest, according to local publication EnterpriseAM.

The EBRD is a multilateral bank that invests in emerging economies to help develop financial markets, while the IFC is the World Bank Group arm that finances private-sector projects in developing countries.

The move is part of Egypt’s wider effort to privatise more of its economy by bringing in private and foreign investors as the state reduces its stakes in public institutions. The government’s goal is to raise money, attract foreign currency, deepen the local stock market, and expand the role of private investors in companies that have traditionally been state-controlled.

Egypt has pursued that strategy by selling stakes in existing companies and listing others on the Egyptian Exchange. In 2021, it sold a 51% stake in Arab Investment Bank, the first time it privatised a bank in more than a decade. In October 2024, it listed United Bank, which was heavily state-owned, by selling a stake to public investors. More recently, in April 2026, Egypt temporarily listed six state-owned companies on its stock exchange to broaden the market and attract investor interest. The country is looking to raise between $3 billion and $4 billion from initial public offerings (IPOs) and stake sales by the end of 2026.

The government had been considering selling up to 49% of Banque du Caire as of April, but the latest plan puts the IPO in November. The banks running the deal may have asked for extra time to widen the pool of investors before returning to market. Under the new plan, the investor roadshow is expected to restart in September or October, with the listing completed in November.

For Banque du Caire, an IPO would provide fresh capital and a broader shareholder base. The potential participation of EBRD and IFC could also make the offering easier to sell to other investors who may be weighing whether they want exposure to an Egyptian state-owned bank.

e-finance buys 8% of Wilzy after acquiring Tamweely

Days after acquiring Egyptian micro-lender Tamweely, e-finance, the Egyptian-listed fintech company with a market capitalisation of EGP 86.5 billion ($1.7 billion), has bought an 8% stake in Wilzy, a digital wealth management platform.

Ibrahim Sarhan, chairman of e-finance, confirmed the EGP 100 million ($2 million) investment in Wilzy, which rebranded from Act Holding in 2025 to target retail investors. The move follows e-finance’s full acquisition of Tamweely for up to EGP 4.8 billion ($95 million) on August 13, a deal expected to close by the end of the year pending regulatory approval.

By taking a stake in Wilzy, e-finance is moving beyond payment infrastructure and micro-lending to target retail investment. Egypt’s wealth management sector is attracting increased interest as digital adoption grows, and e-finance appears to be positioning itself for the backend that supports retail investing access.

The EGP 100 million ($2 million) investment for an 8% stake implies a valuation of about EGP 1.25 billion ($25 million) for Wilzy. For e-finance, which is 25.7% owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the investment is a relatively low-cost entry into a high-growth market, following its much larger capital deployment into micro-lending.

The company is building a closed-loop financial ecosystem. It already powers the infrastructure for government payments. It now owns the lender that funds small businesses, Tamweely, and a platform where those business owners can invest their profits, Wilzy. Until the Egyptian market is fully digitised, large infrastructure players are likely to keep acquiring the strongest pieces of the fintech stack.

Nigerians are going back to ATMs

The biggest story in Nigeria’s point-of-sale (PoS) economy was the 2023 cash crunch, when millions of Nigerians rediscovered mobile money. Since then, PoS has remained central to how people access cash. But even strong trends cool off.

In Q1 2026, PoS transaction volume fell 19.9% year on year to 2.92 billion, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Transaction value also declined 16.4% to ₦59.3 trillion ($43.7 billion).

The platform making a comeback is the automated teller machine (ATM). After years of losing ground to handheld PoS terminals, ATMs recorded 438.6 million transactions worth ₦26.3 trillion ($19.4 billion) in the same period. That value was up more than 60% year on year. While the total number of transactions remained far below PoS activity, the figures point to strong ATM adoption in Q1.

For years, unreliable ATMs and empty cash machines pushed Nigerians toward PoS agents, who charge fees for every withdrawal. New CBN rules are now shifting that balance.

The regulator has ordered banks to deploy at least one ATM for every 7,500 cards issued and introduced tighter restrictions on PoS agents, including a ₦1.2 million ($885) daily transaction limit. Banks are being pushed to rebuild infrastructure that had deteriorated, while agents are facing reduced flexibility.

The scale of the shift is significant. Nigerians processed about $215 million every day through ATMs in Q1 2026. There are still only 13 ATMs per 100,000 adults, compared with one PoS terminal for every 28 people, but the value per transaction at ATMs is rising as banks become more reliable places to withdraw cash.

PoS agents still have a strong presence on corner streets and a distribution advantage, but if the ATM revival continues, the balance could shift again. As the CBN pushes for a more regulated, bank-led infrastructure, access to cash is becoming a contest between fintech agility and traditional banking scale, with banks also competing more directly in the space.

CRYPTO TRACKER

The World Wide Web3

Source:

Coin Name

Current Value

Day

Month

• 1.13%

– 0.78%

– 0.29%

• 1.42%

– 3.80%

– 7.81%

• 0.41%

– 0.32%

• Data as of 06.35 AM WAT, August 18, 2026.

Opportunities

Creative Economy Accelerator Programme. The programme is open to African startups building in music, film and media, design, and creative tech. Selected startups will receive between $20,000 and $50,000 in funding and support. Apply here by August 28.

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Written by: Muktar Oladunmade, Yemi Kareem, and Zia Yusuf

Edited by: Emmanuel Nwosu & Ganiu Oloruntade

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