Touted as the first screenwriting tool created by African screenwriters for African screenwriters, Albantsho offers a robust platform that will enable screenwriters to churn out polished stories that meet standard formatting requirements.

“The creative aspect of screenwriting can be very mentally demanding, but that doesn’t mean professionals can afford to focus on that alone and shun widely accepted formatting standards. So it can be tricky to balance ticking creative boxes alongside properly formatting each story element,” said Julie Ako, who founded the startup with Nikita Mokgware in 2020.

While there are existing formatting tools, they are either considerably pricey, with some going for as much as $200 (one-time purchase), or relatively complex.

This often precludes beginner and intermediate screenwriters from accessing the best tools to write, edit, and manage their scripts.

Albantsho looks to change this with its intuitive block-based script editor which is currently available for free.

The argument for the value of Albantsho’s platform is based on the increased global interest in African stories, which will, in turn, trigger more demand for them.

African stories are seeing a wider appeal on the continent and beyond, with Nollywood productions, especially, enjoying greater success in recent times.

The 2023 Nollywood $1 million blockbuster, The Black Book, racked up 5.6 million views on Netflix barely 48 hours after it launched on September 22 and was among the top 10 titles in 69 countries by the second week of its launch. Earlier in the year, Jadesola Osiberu’s Gangs of Lagos was also one of the top ten most streamed non-English Language titles on Amazon Prime.

This growing global appeal of African films, coupled with their potential to deliver quick and impressive returns on investment, is also transforming the industry into an attractive investable asset class.

For instance, funding for The Black Book came from a long list of tech founders, including Flutterwave’s Olugbenga Agboola, Piggyvest’s Odun Eweniyi, and Paystack’s Ezra Olubi.

Venture capitalists also pitched in, including  of Voltron Capital, Subomi Plumptre of Volition Capital, and others.

Olumide Soyombo, who has also invested in other African films such as Gangs of Lagos and Brotherhood, cited the potential for returns demonstrated by Nollywood movies based on his experience.

“[ROI] varies from project to project, but it is better than keeping your money in a fixed deposit. We have seen 50% returns, 2x returns, and 3x returns,” he said.

Soyombo is not the only one noticing the potential in Africa’s filmmaking industry. Volition Capital, which also invested in The Black Book, recently launched a $20 million fund for creative projects, and Capital Film Productions, a movie financing firm that backed Gangs of Lagos and Brotherhood, has rolled out a ₦500 million fund for Nollywood movies.

The heightened audience and investor interest in African stories will inspire more filmmakers to produce more movies. In such a situation, the need for more readily available, compelling, and diverse scripts becomes crucial, and that’s precisely where Albantsho plays a pivotal role.

By providing simpler and more accessible tools, Albantsho aims to empower screenwriters to craft more stories and hone their voices.

This, in turn, will meet the growing demand from producers eager to bring such narratives to life, attract investors looking to fund such projects, and cater to a global audience keen on consuming more African stories.

As part of its mission to promote African storytelling, Albantsho also looks to introduce a script marketplace that will enable screenwriters to monetise their craft and producers to acquire quality scripts.

Tagged StoryBase, the feature scheduled for launch in Q1 of 2024, will allow screenwriters to put their ready scripts up for sale and allow producers to bid or collaborate on them.

“The goal is to democratize access to lucrative offers for screenwriters and give producers a go-to platform for the best Africa-focused stories,” notes Julie.

In the near future, the platform will also integrate a community feature that will enable writers to easily collaborate, share, and receive feedback and, as a result, create richer stories.

As earlier noted, screenwriters who sign up on Albantsho can now access the available features for free, including The Scriptwriter.

“We are big on building a thriving community of African screenwriters and filmmakers. We will make money, for sure. But we’ve been patient all this while, and we’ll continue to be as we prioritize the needs of our users for now,” said Julie.

“Once certain things are in place, we’ll roll out paid plans, but even then, some features will still be available free of charge,” added the screewriter-cum-founder.

This is not the first time Albantsho is offering free services. Over the last two years, the startup has organized iDraft, a free annual 8-week screenwriting workshop where budding screenwriters interact with industry experts. As part of the program, participants are required to complete scripts using the tips garnered, and Albantsho helps find buyers for the best ones.

“We’ve established a decent track record of bringing value to Africa’s filmmakers. The launch of the Albantsho screenwriting suite is how we plan to extend that record,” Julie offered.

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The seed round, which will also enable the startup improve its technology to enhance efficiency, as well as hire more talent and increase its marketing spend, was led by pan-African investor Ventures Platform with participation from Voltron Capital, Acasia Ventures and other angel investors. 

Seun Alley, with experience in the banking sector, founded Fez Delivery in 2020 to connect businesses and markets without issues of mistrust and inefficiencies. The company was built with the goal to be the first choice for customers, employees and investors worldwide, with a growth, focus on its profitable core logistics business and accelerating digital transformation in the sector. 

Fez Delivery offers hassle-free business practices, corporate participation and training activities, leveraging APIs and dashboards to enable its business clients have a seamless experience. The logistics company affirms to have over 17,000 customers using its platform, with 70% being individuals, and 30% made up of a combination of SMEs and startups.

Last year, FEZ for fintechs was launched by the company in a bid to provide debit cards and POS terminals to customers and agents in Nigeria. To further meet the demand, Fez Delivery developed a SaaS platform to onboard and verify two-wheeler logistics platforms of about five-10 fleet sizes. These third-party partners receive revenue from Fez Delivery as individuals get charged per delivery (distance/size of items) and businesses pay a flat-fee subscription (based on a set range of deliveries).

The Techstars Toronto-backed asserts to have completed 200,000 trips last year and grew revenue by 20% month-on-month. Flutterwave, Kuda Bank, Moniepoint, OPay, Red Bull and Famasi Africa are some of its clients.

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The round also included participation from Future Africa, Ventures Platform, Microtraction, Boleh Venture, Voltron Capital, Wuri Ventures, Afropreneur, and angel investments from African tech ecosystem leaders Shola Akinlade (Paystack), Odunayo Eweniyi (Piggyvest), Adia Sowho (MTN Nigeria), Akin Oyebode, and Seni Sulyman.

This raise will help accelerate the company’s plans to build a plug-and-play company incorporation technology, broaden its trademark registration technology stack, bolster its existing team of world-class talent and develop more research-led solutions.

Norebase is building Africa’s company and trademark platform that simplifies the start and scale processes for businesses in the continent and beyond.

Additionally, Norebase has launched Norebase Incorporation API, an API service enabling other companies to provide incorporation services to their own customers via their websites. By integrating with Norebase API, any company can provide its customer with a simple form, and the information filled on that form is automatically transmitted to Norebase to register a business on behalf of that customer. After incorporation, the business registration documents are also transmitted back through the API.

Norebase API enables businesses such as banks, credit bureaus, payment processors, vendors and any company who interact with registered businesses to eliminate any drop-off point in their product process, and eliminate the need to wait for customers to leave their website/app to register a business before using the service. Companies can provide this additional service to their customers without incurring additional operational costs. Norebase’s Incorporation API is currently available for incorporating business in Nigeria, USA and Kenya with additional markets being added overtime.

Launched in September 2021, Norebase is laser-focused on building a two-pronged platform that offers African and non-African businesses access to the African continent as one big market while creating a channel where African founders can access the international markets (such as the USA).

Using Norebase, established companies can expand to new locations while new businesses can be incorporated in any African country of their choice in just a few minutes. In addition, Norebase’s platform provides a single point for startup founders and entrepreneurs to register a company, get a bank account, get a virtual mailing address and even register a trademark and handle IP registration in any African country.

Commenting on Norebase’s growth ambitions, Tola Onayemi, CEO at Norebase, says, “Norebase is building a future where starting a business or expanding a business in any African country is as simple as clicking a single button, and we are deliberately building the single digital infrastructure and technology tools that will power trade across the continent.

Africa’s startup space is rightly attracting the global business world’s attention as a region with enormous potential, and we are thrilled to connect new and existing businesses with the means with which they can scale their business in and beyond Africa more seamlessly. The rapid acceleration of innovation across Africa and the growing attractiveness of new markets requires the know-how of a smoother cross-border expansion experience, and our team is the best at this.”

Norebase is also focused on ensuring the Intellectual Property of startups in Africa and international companies expanding to the continent are securely protected as they scale and navigate multiple territories.

The company has helped founders incorporate companies in Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Cote D’Ivoire, Togo, Tanzania, Egypt, Mauritius, and Burkina Faso etc. It also recently started offering incorporation services in the U.S. The company has delivered 100% month-on-month growth in transaction volumes for the last six months, with a 40% M-o-M growth in revenue during the same period.

Norebase is powering the growth ambition of several innovative companies so that innovators can focus entirely on their core business. This is reflected in Norebase’s clients like Brass, Nestcoin, Patricia, Edenlife, GetEquity, Orda, Kloudcommerce, Send.ng, Workpay, Sudo Africa etc

Tola Onayemi continued, “We are delighted to be joined by a stellar roster of experienced and strategic investors, whose expertise will play a key role as we scale the Norebase goal of being partners for set-up, compliance, regulatory needs for both cross-border expansions and local markets. Given our global and Africa-wide ambitions, we consciously ensured our investors came from across Africa and the world .”

Rena Yoneyama of Samurai Incubate added, “It is truly impressive how Norebase is designing a future where every business and individual can experience Africa as one market. Their team comprises some of the best minds on the continent, helping simplify the complications of launching in any African market, and we are excited to be part of their growth journey.”

The Norebase team is leveraging a stack of technology to drive their cause: “Unlocking an era of Africa-wide prosperity by enabling anyone to do business easily in any African market”. Africa’s combined GDP currently stands at $3 trillion and is projected to reach $29 trillion by 2050. With investment into the African tech startup space passing the $2Billion mark and projected to break records in 2022, Norebase is well-positioned to support entrepreneurs, founders, and businesses to start and scale across borders seamlessly and reach Africa’s 1.2 billion people.

The post Norebase Secures Pre-Seed $1M Raise appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

Earnipay was launched last month after being in beta since September 2021. The startup plans to offer its on-demand salary solution to 200,000 employees by the end of 2022 and will leverage the seed funding to target large enterprises, shifting its focus regionally.

The round was led by early-stage venture capital firm Canaan and included investors such as XYZ Ventures, Village Global, Musha Ventures, Voltron Capital, Ventures Platform and Paystack CEO Shola Akinlade.

Earnipay is building an earned wage access platform and integrates with companies’ existing payroll or HRM systems to offer its services to employees, who can then track and withdraw their accrued salaries via the app.

Employees’ salaries are prorated daily and companies can set limits for the percentage of salaries employees can withdraw each month. For instance, if an employee earns ₦300,000 monthly, they can get ₦10,000 daily (for 30 days) or ₦15,000 (if the employer sets the system to count only workdays; 20 in this case).

Earnipay makes these payments on behalf of the company, especially those whose cash flow may be affected should they finance the earned wage payments themselves. At the end of each month, these companies reimburse Earnipay. But for others who can afford to, Earnipay sets up a reconciliation account on top of employees’ salary accounts with scheduled automatic reimbursements.

The startup’s revenues come from charging employees a fee for accessing a part of their salary early. For withdrawals between ₦2,000($4) and ₦10,000 ($20), Earnipay collects a ₦250 ($0.5) fee. For ₦10,000 to ₦50,000 ($100) withdrawals, the charge increases to ₦500 ($1).

Since operating in beta, Earnipay has served over 20 businesses, outsourcing firms and HR solution providers in Nigeria. Some of its clients include Eden Life and Thrive Agric, whose thousands of employees have used the app to access their salary over 1,000 times, said the company.

The post Earnipay Raises $4 million to Make Salary Payments Seamless for Employers, Employees appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

Remedial Health is on a mission to build tech-enabled, pharmacy-centred healthcare networks across the continent. The funds, as well as its participation in Y Combinator, will accelerate the fruition of its goal. 

“We are not only making it easier for neighbourhood pharmacies and PPMVs (patent and proprietary medicine vendors) to access affordable and authentic medicines from leading manufacturers. We are also rolling out our PMR (patient medical records) platform that will make them more efficient and profitable, and give them access to consolidated data on customers to support the delivery of better healthcare services across the continent,” Remedial Health wrote.

Transforming Africa’s pharmaceutical sector with technology solutions

In Africa’s $45 billion pharmaceutical industry — projected to reach $70 billion by 2030, PPMVs are responsible for 80 percent of sales. They are basically businesses without a trained pharmacist that sell pharmaceutical products on a retail basis for-profit and they provide the main source of medicines for many common illnesses. 

However, they have to navigate an opaque supply chain and a fragmented marketplace to access the stock they need for their stores which can make them very unprofitable. 

This also means manufacturers have limited visibility into their performance, leading to inefficient decision making on forecasting, production and distribution.

Remedial Health has created a digital procurement platform that makes it possible for store owners to source all the medicines, consumables and small medical devices for their practice via a mobile app or mobile responsive web store at open-air medicine market prices and have them delivered within 24 hours. All products are vetted before distribution to verify their authenticity.

The startup’s proprietary Patient Medication Records and Inventory Control (PMR) software, Remedial Rx also enables these store owners to build and access a consolidated database of customer information that will drive the delivery of improved healthcare services across the continent. 

“With our platform, it will be easier to make informed decisions on which products are best suited to a customer based on their medical history. It will also enable us to provide consolidated, real-time data on market behaviour to manufacturers for increased profitability and better decision-making across the value chain.”

Remedial Health’s PMR platform helps pharmacies and PPMVs manage their inventory and day-to-day operations so that they can focus on patient care. 

The healthtech has also incorporated a Buy-Now-Pay-Later service which means store owners can stock up and maximise the sales opportunities available to them. They only pay after the stock has been dispensed to customers.

Pharmacies and PPMVs have been the frontline of healthcare in Africa for many years and Remedial Health is innovating for them and connecting them more effectively to manufacturers, ensuring that their data is reflected more accurately in decision making across the pharmaceutical value chain.

“We are starting in Nigeria but this is just the beginning. We are just getting started on our mission to drive the digitisation of Africa’s pharmaceutical sector.”

Appreciating its investors, Remedial Health wrote: “We want to thank our investors Global Ventures and Ventures Platform, as well as Ingressive Capital, Voltron Capital, Flutterwave’s Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, Victor Asemota, Opeyemi Awoyemi’s (Jobberman co-founder) Angel Syndicate Fund and other investors that participated in this round.”

“We are also looking forward to the support and network of partners that Y Combinator will expose us to, and the impact it will have on our business.”

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