PlentyWaka, a Nigeran bus hailing and mobility service, has plenty going on for it these days.

After just securing some funding to expand its services beyond Lagos into other commercial hubs in the country, they have secured yet another US$1.2 million that enables them grow and expand even further. The evidence of that growth is already showing in the company’s latest acquisition of Stabus, a Ghanaian start-up in the same industry.

With this acquisition, PlentyWaka begins to make its move outside of the Nigerian market as it seeks to become a bus hailing service to be reckoned with in the whole of West Africa and even Africa at large.

Since launch, the PlentyWaka service has been based on helping passengers book bus fares online and in real time like they would buy air fares. Over the past year alone, the company has enjoyed considerable growth in the area of funding and also, getting people to use and commit to its services.

Thus, it makes sense that they capitalise on that current visibility to even reach more people while curating better solutions to help the existing market base.

The latest funding round is led by Xchange, a Toronto-based fund, which is geared towards helping the Nigerian start-up scale, and do so fast.

Back in 2020, Chikaodi Ukaiwe founded Showlove as a social media platform for Nigerians who wanted to gift things to their family, friends and loved ones. Today, the company has closed a US$300,000 pre seed funding to back its motion and expand its services even better in the country.

The idea of the platform is to have a place where users can socially share their wants and needs with either a select crop of family and friends – or with the general public. To better the gifting appeal, vendor and SMEs are also linked to the platform. Thus, it becomes easier for the giver of such gifts to find the best place to get the gift and send to their contact.

You may also be interested in the Best Valentine’s Day Gifts Ideas.

With the beta launching in December 2020, Showlove trialled purchasing vouchers that can work with online and offline retailers all over the country. These vouchers can then be redeemed by whoever got them at the chosen store, allowing them to buy what they wanted from such a vendor.

Check out the Best Valentine’s Day Deals.

Launching to the general public now, Showlove is also happy to announce that they have closed such a funding that has allowed them enjoy the kind of growth which they have on their sides now.

As of now, the app will also allow followers, friends and family contribute towards the actualisation of someone’s wishlist. This takes the pressure off just one person trying o get a gift for someone on the platform.

We have high hopes for this one and we can’t wait to see how its success plays out.

Also, see Thoughtful Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas

Moove is one of those mobility platforms with a highly unique take on the vehicle and logistics market – and that has seen them net another $23 million in Series A funding to expand their services even better.

The start-up has its own credit analysis and financing system with which it uses to determine what car loans certain individuals are qualified for. Once a user chose to buy their vehicle via Moove, the start-up finances up to 95% of the purchase within a week of buying the car.

The loan repayments, which can be spread over 24 – 48 months, is designed such that the buyers can use a percentage of their weekly revenue to cover the loans. Thus, the platform keys into mobility services like Uber to allow users work off their car loans over an extended period while also earning on it.

As of the time of this writing, Moove has established itself as the preferred supplier of Uber vehicles in the Sub-Saharan Africa. Founded by two Britain-born Nigerians who have started a handful of other successful businesses in the past, this new funding will help the platform to increase its services and offerings even better.

According to the founders, this new funding will help to move into other African market, democratising vehicle ownership and improving mobility across the continent at the same time.

Kuda bank is one of the leading fintech platforms in the Nigerian space and the company continues to see multiple expansions with different fundraisers.

Just a few months ago, the company had a series A funding exercise where it netted about $25 million. Right now, the fintech has completed another series B funding which sees it goo home with no less than $55 million.

The new fundraising was completed at a $500 million valuation for the fintech brand, meaning it just has to double its current position to become a unicorn like Flutterwave.

Leading this investment round was Valar Ventures, one of the firms owned in part by Peter Thiel – a former founding member of PayPal. Co-leading the funding round was also Target Group which was already part of the fintech’s funding.

According to the CEO of the fintech, this new funding round is aimed at expanding the services of the company beyond the shores of Nigeria such that they can provide the same digital banking services to every African on the planet.

That is surely a lofty goal that will take some serious money and effort to reach. At this pace, though, nothing is impossible for the fast-growing fintech.

Jeel, an edutainment platform, was founded in 2019 with a goal to bring valuable education to children via entertainment. Since its inception by Ahmed Sobaih, the company has worked tirelessly to provide such content to kids between the ages of 3 and 9.

As of the time of this writing, this Egypt/ Saudi Arabian-based start-up has secured a seed funding of US$1.2 million to further expand its market and take its services to even more children.

The funding is supposed to help the company expand its team so that it has more hands to work on new products and projects for the kids. It is also expected that some of the money will be put towards the acquisition of better high-quality animation series, songs, videos and other content promoted on its platform.

Jeel has excelled in leveraging interesting models such as gaming, music, movies and videos to teach kids morals, ethics and everything they need to grow into better adolescents. Achieving this milestone is a stamp on the fact that what they are doing is in the right direction – and they will only get better from here.