👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – A unicorn Moove

Good morning.

African startups and growth-stage companies are increasingly looking beyond their home markets. But few conversations focus on what that expansion really costs.

Beyond entering new markets lies a different challenge: fragmented payment systems, foreign exchange (FX) volatility, settlement delays, and infrastructure that wasn’t built for businesses to operate across borders.

So what separates companies that scale globally from those that stall at the border?

Join us for the next edition of Moonshot Conversations with Idorenyin Obong, chief executive officer and co-founder of Grey; Chijoke Dozie, co-founder & director at Carbon; Ruth Iselema, founder of Changera; and Adebiyi Aromolaran, VP of Operations at MENAT Global. Moderated by Muktar Oladunmade, Senior Reporter and Desk Lead at TechCabal, the conversation will unpack the infrastructure decisions, operational lessons, and financial strategies behind building businesses that are global by design. 

The conversation is happening on August 7 at 11:00 a.m. WAT. Register here.

Let’s dive in.

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• Moove becomes a unicorn
• Cloud9 acquires Chpter
• MTN gets the keys to IHS’ house
• SIM swap fraud in Kenya
• World Wide Web 3
• Opportunities

companies

Moove reaches unicorn status with $250 million raise

If you asked any African VC which startup was most likely to reach unicorn status before the end of 2026, most would have picked Moove. And, no, it’s not because they are clairvoyant. Rather, it was an open secret that the startup was nearing unicorn status. 

The only thing that might have caused a surprise was the eventual $2.1 billion valuation. 

Moove built its reputation first by helping Uber drivers buy cars in Lagos, Nigeria, and now by preparing for a future where nobody is driving them at all, which may explain why investors like Mubadala and Toyota’s growth fund led its $250 million round.

Explain like I’m new here: When Moove launched in 2020, it saw that ride-hailing drivers couldn’t afford to buy a car. So, it started a drive-to-own model. Moove bought the vehicles, while drivers paid them off through their earnings on ride-hailing platforms like Uber, and eventually they owned the cars after paying in full. But somewhere along the way, Moove realised its future lay beyond vehicle financing. 

It did something about that: In 2024, the company partnered with Alphabet-owned Waymo to manage fleets of robotaxis, which are fully autonomous vehicles that use AI sensors and cameras to transport passengers without a human behind the wheel. To support that expansion, Moove raised $1.2 billion in debt financing in 2025. It also acquired Brazilian mobility startup Kovi in 2025, giving it a stronger operational footprint in Latin America.

What’s next for Moove? Moove says it will use the money to expand its autonomous vehicle business, build dedicated service hubs for self-driving cars, and grow across the United States, Europe, and Asia. It also plans to more than triple the size of its autonomous vehicle team by the end of the year.

The next phase is all about infrastructure. Moove plans to build “nests” where autonomous vehicles can be cleaned, charged, inspected, and serviced before returning to the road, as pit stops for robotaxis. It’s a bold bet that reflects where the mobility industry is headed. The autonomous vehicle market in the Middle East and Africa is projected to grow to $18.35 billion by 2034 as AI and electric vehicles (EVs) advance, and Moove’s partnership with companies like Waymo positions it to help build that future. 

Fincra now issues dedicated GHS virtual accounts to enable businesses to collect payments. See how Fincra GHS virtual accounts work.

companies

Cloud9 acquires Chpter, the startup its founders used to run

Cloud9 has acquired Chpter, the WhatsApp and Instagram commerce startup its founders ran before launching their own bank, in an all-stock deal it won’t put a number on.

Why it matters: It’s Cloud9’s second acquisition in three months, after buying ticketing platform M-Tickets in May. The bank is building distribution through deals, not disclosures, and paying for both with stock instead of cash.

Driving the news: Chpter’s roughly 4,500 businesses are moving to Cloud9’s Business Banking app as the standalone Chpter platform shuts down. Some staff are joining too, though former Chpter executives Mark Kiarie and Kevin Kuria, who led the company’s day-to-day operations after co-founders Tesh Mbaabu and Mesongo Sibuti departed, are not among them.

Between the lines: Chpter raised $1.2 million in pre-seed funding in September 2024 to expand into Nigeria, Ghana, and Egypt. That expansion never really happened, and the company went quiet once its founders left in 2025 to start Cloud9. They’re now buying back the business they built.

What they’re saying: Cloud9 chief executive officer Tesh Mbaabu says the deal accelerates the bank’s path to profitability, though he won’t commit to a timeline. “Our focus remains disciplined growth and sound unit economics, rather than making short-term profitability promises,” he said.

Zoom out: Two stock-funded acquisitions in three months suggest Cloud9 is prioritising footprint over cash burn, before it’s even a year old.

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Telecoms

MTN secures shareholder approval to acquire remaining shares in IHS Towers

Imagine spending years arguing with your housemates about who gets to hold the remote, only to decide the best solution is to just buy the whole house and move them out. That is essentially what MTN Group, Africa’s largest telecom operator, has done with IHS Towers, the tower company it is in the process of acquiring. 

The telecom giant hassecured shareholder approval to acquire the remaining shares in IHS, clearing the way to take the tower company private.

What happened? At an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on Tuesday, IHS shareholdersoverwhelmingly approved a merger that will make the company a wholly owned subsidiary of MTN. Once the deal clears the final regulatory hurdles, IHS—one of the world’s largest independent tower operators—will bedelisted from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). It marks the end of a multi-billion-dollar journey that began with an offer of$8.50 per share back in February.

Explain like I’m new here: For the past few years, shareholders of MTN and IHS have been negotiating the fine print over governance and voting rights. MTN owned about 26% of the company but felt it didn’t have enough say in how things were run. By taking IHS private, MTN is ending that governance tug-of-war for good. Instead of being a minority shareholder in a public company, it will now have total control over the infrastructure that powers its mobile networks across Africa. It’s a strategic pivot from renting space on towers to owning the real estate itself.

The maths of the move: The deal is a heavy-hitter, valuing the remaining stake at roughly $2.2 billion and bringing the total transaction value closer to $6.2 billion. For IHS shareholders, the $8.50 offer price was a significant premium over a stock that hadslumped 75% since its initial public offering (IPO) on the NYSE in 2021. For MTN, the maths is about the long game: securing over 40,000 towers that underpin its Ambition 2030 strategy.

Why now? The timing isn’t just about ending a feud; it’s about the AI and data explosion. As demand for digital infrastructure surges across Africa, towers are becoming more valuable than ever. By bringing IHS in-house, MTN canoptimise its costs and accelerate its 5G and AI deployments without having to consult other shareholders. It’s a full-stack move that ensures MTN owns the pipes, not just the water flowing through them.

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Cybercrime

Cybercrime cost Africa $484 million in 2025 as SIM swap attacks surged

Picture a burglar who doesn’t bother picking your lock because they’ve already convinced your landlord to hand over the spare key. That is the reality of Africa’s shifting cybercrime landscape, where criminals are increasingly targeting who you are rather than what you own.

What happened? In its latest report, theAfrican Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2026, the US INTERPOL said cybercrime losses across the continent surged to$484 million in 2025. In Kenya, the standout trend is a massive327% surge in SIM swap fraud, with over 123,000 fraudulent SIM cards issued last year alone. Instead of complex malware, attackers are using social engineering to hijack phone numbers and empty mobile wallets, siphoning off an estimated KES 491.6 million ($3.8 million) from Kenyan users.

Explain like I’m new here: Cybercrime is becoming less about hacking the system and more about hacking the human. In a SIM swap, a criminal tricks a telecom provider into porting your number to a new SIM card they control. Once they have your number, they have the keys to your digital life—intercepting one-time passwords (OTPs) to reset your bank and mobile money credentials. It’s identity theft for the mobile-first era.

The maths of the menace: If you break down the $484 million in continental losses, that’s roughly $920 being stolen every single minute across Africa. In Kenya, the 123,000 fraudulent SIM cards mean that, on average, 337 new identity-theft tools were minted every day in 2025.

Why now? Artificial intelligence is supercharging the threat. INTERPOL found that55% of cybercrime cases in 2025 involved AI, with deepfake incidents jumping sevenfold across the continent. While Kenya is a leader in digital adoption, it is also ranked second in Africa for cyber vulnerabilities (11.9%), trailing only South Africa (43.6%). Interestingly, while South Africa is the king of ransomware (accounting for 92% of detections), Kenya accounts for just 1%, suggesting that Nairobi’s criminals prefer the quick hit of identity fraud over the long game of extortion.

Zoom out: The good news is that the good guys are fighting back. Coordinated operations likeSentinel and Serengeti 2.0 have led to over 900 arrests and the recovery of millions in illicit proceeds. But as INTERPOL noted, the lack of a unified regional response remains a glaring hole. Until telecom operators, banks, and regulators coordinate across borders, identity fraud will remain one of the easiest crimes to scale on the continent. 

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CRYPTO TRACKER

The World Wide Web3

Source:

Coin Name

Current Value

Day

Month

– 1.06%

+ 0.41%

– 1.09%

+ 5.62%

+ 23.91%

– 4.96%

– 0.91%

– 12.44%

* Data as of 06.40 AM WAT, August 5, 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.

• The surveillance system that helped Nigeria curb piracy wants to fight banditry
• Omowonuola Akintola wants Africa to build its geospatial future
• Here’s what a ₦1 million crypto trade could cost under Nigeria’s new tax rules

Written by: Emmanuel Nwosu and Zia Yusuf

Edited by: Emmanuel Nwosu & Ganiu Oloruntade

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