African mobility fintech Moove has reached unicorn status with a $250 million funding round that values the company at $2.1 billion. The round was led by Mubadala and Toyota's growth fund, marking a major milestone for the startup that began by helping Uber drivers purchase vehicles in Lagos, Nigeria. Moove joins a small group of African-founded companies to cross the $1 billion valuation threshold, alongside firms such as Flutterwave and OPay.

Moove Reaches Unicorn Status With $250 Million Raise

Among African venture capitalists, Moove was widely regarded as the startup most likely to achieve unicorn status before the end of 2026. The startup had been approaching the threshold as an open secret, though the eventual $2.1 billion valuation exceeded expectations.

Founded in 2020, Moove identified that ride-hailing drivers could not afford to purchase vehicles outright. The company introduced a drive-to-own model: Moove purchased vehicles, and drivers paid them off through earnings generated on ride-hailing platforms such as Uber, eventually taking full ownership after completing payments.

The company later expanded beyond vehicle financing. In 2024, Moove partnered with Alphabet-owned Waymo to manage fleets of robotaxis—fully autonomous vehicles equipped with AI sensors and cameras that transport passengers without a human driver. To support this expansion, Moove raised $1.2 billion in debt financing in 2025 and acquired Brazilian mobility startup Kovi, strengthening its operational presence in Latin America. Toyota's participation connects Moove to a major global automaker at a time when vehicle manufacturers are increasingly investing in mobility-as-a-service models and autonomous fleet infrastructure.

Moove stated that the new capital will be used to expand its autonomous vehicle business, build dedicated service hubs for self-driving cars, and grow operations across the United States, Europe, and Asia. The company also plans to more than triple the size of its autonomous vehicle team by year-end.

Central to the next phase is infrastructure. Moove intends to build "nests"—facilities where autonomous vehicles can be cleaned, charged, inspected, and serviced before returning to the road, functioning as pit stops for robotaxis. The autonomous vehicle market in the Middle East and Africa is projected to grow to $18.35 billion by 2034 as AI and electric vehicle technologies advance. The shift from financing ride-hailing cars in Lagos to managing autonomous fleets on three continents represents one of the most ambitious operational pivots by an African startup.

Cloud9 Acquires Chpter in All-Stock Deal

Cloud9 has acquired Chpter, the WhatsApp and Instagram commerce startup that Cloud9's founders previously operated, in an all-stock deal whose financial terms were not disclosed.

The acquisition marks Cloud9's second in three months, following its purchase of ticketing platform M-Tickets in May 2025. The bank is building distribution through acquisitions rather than organic growth, financing both deals with equity rather than cash. The approach comes as African startups navigate a tighter funding environment, making consolidation an increasingly common route for young companies seeking scale.

Chpter's approximately 4,500 business customers are migrating to Cloud9's Business Banking app as the standalone Chpter platform shuts down. Some Chpter staff are joining Cloud9, though former Chpter executives Mark Kiarie and Kevin Kuria—who led day-to-day operations after co-founders Tesh Mbaabu and Mesongo Sibuti departed—are not.

Chpter had raised $1.2 million in pre-seed funding in September 2024 to expand into Nigeria, Ghana, and Egypt. That expansion did not materialize, and the company went quiet after its founders left in 2025 to launch Cloud9. The acquisition effectively brings the original team back to the business they built.

Cloud9 CEO Tesh Mbaabu said the deal accelerates the bank's path to profitability but declined to provide a timeline. "Our focus remains disciplined growth and sound unit economics, rather than making short-term profitability promises," he said. Two stock-funded acquisitions within three months suggest Cloud9, which is less than a year old, is prioritizing footprint expansion over cash conservation. The integration of Chpter's merchant base into a banking app reflects a broader pattern among African fintechs of consolidating commerce, payments, and banking into unified platforms.

MTN Secures Shareholder Approval to Acquire Remaining IHS Towers Shares

MTN Group, Africa's largest telecom operator, has secured shareholder approval to acquire the remaining shares in IHS Towers, clearing the path to take the tower company private.

At an Extraordinary General Meeting on Tuesday, IHS shareholders overwhelmingly approved a merger that will make the company a wholly owned subsidiary of MTN. Once the deal clears final regulatory hurdles, IHS—one of the world's largest independent tower operators—will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The transaction began with an offer of $8.50 per share in February.

MTN and IHS shareholders had spent years negotiating governance and voting rights. MTN owned approximately 26% of IHS but sought greater control over operations. By taking IHS private, MTN ends the governance dispute and transitions from a minority shareholder in a public company to full owner of the infrastructure powering its mobile networks across Africa—a strategic shift from renting tower space to owning the assets outright. The move aligns with a broader global pattern in which telecom operators are reassessing their reliance on independent tower companies and bringing infrastructure in-house to control costs and deployment timelines.

The deal values the remaining stake at approximately $2.2 billion, bringing the total transaction value to roughly $6.2 billion. The $8.50 per share offer represented a significant premium over a stock that had declined 75% since its NYSE IPO in 2021. For MTN, the transaction secures more than 40,000 towers that underpin its Ambition 2030 strategy.

The acquisition also positions MTN to capitalize on surging demand for digital infrastructure across Africa, driven by AI and data growth. By bringing IHS in-house, MTN can optimize costs and accelerate its 5G and AI deployments without needing shareholder consensus.

Cybercrime Cost Africa $484 Million in 2025 as SIM Swap Attacks Surged

Cybercrime losses across Africa surged to $484 million in 2025, according to the African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2026 published by INTERPOL. The figure equates to approximately $920 stolen every minute across the continent.

In Kenya, the report documented a 327% increase in SIM swap fraud, with more than 123,000 fraudulent SIM cards issued in 2025—an average of 337 per day. Attackers used social engineering rather than complex malware to hijack phone numbers and drain mobile wallets, siphoning an estimated KES 491.6 million ($3.8 million) from Kenyan users. Africa is the world's largest mobile money market by transaction value, and services such as M-Pesa, MTN Mobile Money, and Airtel Money process billions of dollars annually—making a compromised phone number a direct gateway to a victim's financial accounts.

In a SIM swap attack, a criminal tricks a telecom provider into porting a victim's phone number to a new SIM card under the attacker's control. Once they hold the number, attackers can intercept one-time passwords (OTPs) to reset banking and mobile money credentials, effectively committing identity theft.

INTERPOL found that 55% of cybercrime cases in 2025 involved AI, with deepfake incidents increasing sevenfold across the continent. Kenya ranks second in Africa for cyber vulnerabilities at 11.9%, behind South Africa at 43.6%. While South Africa accounts for 92% of ransomware detections, Kenya represents just 1%, indicating that Kenyan cybercriminals favor identity fraud over extortion.

Coordinated law enforcement operations, including Sentinel and Serengeti 2.0, have resulted in over 900 arrests and the recovery of millions in illicit proceeds. However, INTERPOL noted that the absence of a unified regional response remains a significant gap, and identity fraud will continue to be among the easiest crimes to scale on the continent until telecom operators, banks, and regulators coordinate across borders.

Opportunities

The Creative Economy Accelerator Programme is accepting applications from African startups in music, film and media, design, and creative tech. Selected startups will receive between $20,000 and $50,000 in funding and support. The application deadline is August 28.

Written by Emmanuel Nwosu and Zia Yusuf. Edited by Emmanuel Nwosu and Ganiu Oloruntade.