👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – Zedcrest acquires Leatherback

Howdy.

Moonshot Conversations is back on August 7. In partnership with Grey Business, the next session explores what it really takes for startups to expand across Africa. Our Senior Reporter Muktar Oladunmade will speak with Grey CEO and co-founder Idorenyin Obong on navigating fragmented regulations, cross-border payments, product localisation, and the trade-offs between rapid growth and long-term sustainability. Join the conversation at 11:00 a.m. WAT. Register here.

Become smarter about tech and commerce in Francophone Africa, and the policies shaping them. Read our newsletter here first or subscribe below.

• Zedcrest acquires Leatherback
• Kenyan courts shut out unlicenced lenders
• Africa wants localised AI models
• Vodacom’s mobile money boom
• World Wide Web 3
• Opportunities

M&A

Zedcrest acquires Nigerian fintech Leatherback

Five years after backing cross-border payments startup Leatherback, Nigerian financial services group Zedcrest has decided it no longer wants to be just an investor. It now owns the company.

What happened? On Monday, Zedcrest acquired Leatherback for an undisclosed amount, noting that it plans to revive the startup’s cross-border payments ambitions, saying the opportunity remains “significantly underpenetrated.” According to the company, Leatherback will continue to operate independently under its own brand, team, and product suite, separating it from Zedcrest’s deeper traditional finance and wealth management focus.

Why did Zedcrest acquire Leatherback? Some investors wait for exits; others actively engineer them. Like in the case of OmniRetail and Traction Apps in 2024, investors saw an opportunity to bring payments infrastructure, licences, merchant relationships, and distribution under one roof instead of waiting for another buyer. With Leatherback, Zedcrest appears to have reached a similar conclusion: the fintech was becoming more valuable as part of its broader financial services ecosystem than as a standalone portfolio investment. The acquisition gives Zedcrest something it didn’t fully own before: infrastructure for collecting, holding, converting, and moving money across borders.

It makes a lot of sense when you consider how Zedcrest has set up its businesses. The group lends money (through Zedvance Finance), manages investments, and advises businesses on raising capital. Now, it also owns the technology that lets those businesses collect, hold, convert, and send money across borders. That gives Zedcrest control over the customer experience and another revenue stream every time money moves.

Explain like I’m new here: To those unfamiliar, this love story was years in the making—albeit with some turbulent bumps. When Leatherback raised $10 million in a pre-seed round in 2021 (significant at the time, and notably, when it was simply a cross-border fintech then), Zedcrest led that round. But after a few years marred by operational setbacks and a leadership reshuffle, the company has set its sights on a fintech infrastructure play for businesses across several markets. Some of those businesses could already be sitting in Zedcrest’s orbit, allowing it to cross-sell Leatherback’s services and providing a distribution moat.

What Leatherback stands to gain. Expanding into new countries means regulatory compliance, new licences, new banking partners, and hiring compliance teams. That’s expensive. Being backed by a larger financial institution means Leatherback can spend less time worrying about money and focus on its business.

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

Fintech

Kenyan court tells unlicenced lenders: no licence, no lawsuit

There’s now a forgotten era when Kenyan digital lenders operated like ships without rudders. Back then, any “operator” could simply raise a few Shillings for loan-sharking, set up shop, lend at predatory rates, and harass borrowers to collect what they’re owed.

Slowly, that era faded. In 2022, digital lending licences became mandatory, with the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) approving 252 firms to operate in the space, as of July 2026. Taking it a step further,

 Kenya has delivered another warning to unlicenced lenders.

What happened? A Kenyan court has ruled that unlicenced digital lenders cannot sue debtors for failing to repay their debts—legal speak for: no licence, no help getting your money back.

Explain like I’m new here: Before 2022, digital lenders existed in something of a regulatory grey area. That changed after years of complaints about excessive interest rates, abusive debt collection tactics and misuse of borrowers’ personal data. Kenyan Parliament amended the law in 2021, giving the CBK the power to regulate digital lenders. Since licencing began in 2022, the CBK has been publishing updated lists of licenced digital credit providers and gaining the power to suspend or revoke licences and inspect lenders that fail to comply with its rules. 

Fast-forward to this month. Two lenders, Tri-State Capital and Mombo iCapital, took borrowers to court over unpaid loans. Normally, debt recovery is straightforward. If someone doesn’t repay a loan, the lender goes to court. But in these cases, the lenders couldn’t prove the CBK licenced themso the court threw out both suits before it even considered whether the borrowers actually owed the money. 

Why should you care? Kenya’s digital lending market has over 800 operators; most still operate “illegally” or outside the licencing framework. Now, imagine who this ruling hurts. It changes the balance of power. It tells unlicenced lenders that if borrowers stop paying, the courts may not help them recover the money. That doesn’t erase the debt or make loans free. It simply means lenders operating outside the law could find themselves with very few legal options to enforce repayment. 

The problem with that is, without adequate protection measures in place, we could see a rise in unethical debt collection again.

Transaction Guard lets you set single, daily, or monthly transaction limits. Whenever a transaction exceeds your chosen limit, facial verification is required before it can be completed, helping to prevent unauthorised transfers. With PalmPay, you stay in control. Learn more.

Emerging Tech

Africa wants AI that speaks its languages

African communications ministers and industry leaders have adopted the Abuja Ministerial Declaration on Meaningful Connectivity and launched ATLAS Umoja AI, a pan-African initiative to build artificial intelligence systems that work in African languages. 

The declaration was adopted at the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) conference in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, on July 24. The initiative brings together Nigeria, Kenya, Togo, Namibia and Benin, alongside the GSMA, Awarri, Zindi, Pawa AI and Mozisha. It builds on Nigeria’s N-ATLAS project, an open-source large language model launched at the United Nations’ General Assembly in September 2025.

Explain like I’m new here: ATLAS Umoja AI, coined from the Swahili word for ”unity”, aims to pool regional datasets and research to develop AI that understands and operates in African languages. Africa is home to more than 2,000 languages, accounting for over 30% of the world’s total, yet fewer than 2% receive meaningful support from current AI models. 

Most foreign AI tools, including ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, are trained primarily on English and other high-resource languages. If you speak Yoruba, Wolof, or Amharic, the experience is patchy at best. ATLAS Umoja is trying to change that by creating datasets, models, and tools built specifically for African languages. The idea is that AI should work in the languages people actually speak, not just the ones that dominate the Internet.

The bigger picture: This is not the first attempt. In October 2025, six of Africa’s largest mobile operators—Airtel, Axian Telecom, Ethio Telecom, MTN, Orange, and Vodacom—launched a separate initiative under the GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications Association) to build African language AI models. At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona 2026, developers demonstrated the first open Swahili reasoning model. ATLAS Umoja adds government backing and funding to what was previously an industry-led effort.

Zoom out: The race to build AI for African languages is becoming a race for who shapes how billions interact with technology. If African governments and companies do not build these models, foreign tech giants will, on their own terms, with their own data.

Zoho is built for Nigerian businesses with local pricing that makes sense. No dollar stress. No conversion chaos. Just tools for Sales, Finance, Marketing, HR, Support and more—all in one place. Learn more.

Fintech

Vodacom’s mobile money business hit $548 billion

Vodacom, a telecom group that operates in eight African markets and serves over 237 million customers, processed nearly $548 billion in mobile money transactions over the past year, a signal that its future lies beyond phone calls and data bundles.

In a trading update for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, the company said its mobile money platforms—including Safaricom’s M-PESA, which it now controls after increasing its stake to 55%—processed $547.9 billion in the twelve months to June 30. Financial services now contribute more than 22% of Group service revenue, up from 13% before the Safaricom transaction.

What happened? In June, Vodacom acquired 20% additional stake in Safaricom, lifting its shareholding to 55% and giving it controlling ownership of East Africa’s largest telecom operator. The deal gave Vodacom a bigger share of Safaricom’s businesses, including M-PESA, used by over 40 million Kenyans. That gave the South African telecom firm a deeper hold on one of Africa’s most consequential telecoms; for its reward, it saw bigger revenue upsides.

Explain like I’m new here: Vodacom started as a South African mobile operator selling airtime and data. Over the past decade, it has built M-PESA—originally a Safaricom product—into a financial services empire spanning Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mozambique, Lesotho, and Egypt. M-PESA lets people send money, pay bills, save, borrow, and now make contactless payments—all from a mobile wallet. 

The bigger picture: Vodacom is upgrading its long-term targets. It raised its Vision 2030 revenue ambition from more than R200 billion ($12 billion) to more than R300 billion ($18 billion), and its financial services customer target from 120 million to 130 million. The higher targets reflect confidence that financial services, not traditional telecom, will drive future growth. While South Africa remains its largest market, growth is coming from Egypt—where financial services revenue surged 73%—and from its international businesses, which grew14% in service revenue.

Zoom out: Vodacom is no longer a telecom company with a fintech side hustle. It is becoming a financial services company that still runs mobile networks. The question is whether regulators across Africa, who oversee telecom and banking under different rules, are ready for a company that operates in both.

The theme for this year’s Naira Life Conference by Zikoko is “All About Wealth.”
Join 2,000+ in Lagos on August 22 for a day of practical money conversations and workshops designed to move you from simply earning an income to building lasting wealth. Get 15% off early bird tickets.

CRYPTO TRACKER

The World Wide Web3

Source:

Coin Name

Current Value

Day

Month

– 2.87%

+ 6.28%

– 3.76%

+ 20.55%

+ 65.12%

+ 44.61%

– 3.98%

+ 4.47%

* Data as of 06.35 AM WAT, July 28, 2026.

Opportunities

• Building an off-grid energy solution? All On is offering up to $1 million in blended finance through its Off-Grid Challenge 2026 to support innovative energy access projects. Applications close July 31, 2026. Apply here.
• Founders Fund Africa, the investment platform backed by Chocolate City Music Group, has opened applications for its 2026 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. Applications close on August 28. Apply here.

• Follow the Money: African venture capital is backing fewer founders than ever
• Ask an Investor: Why British International Investment is betting bigger on Sierra Leone’s ecosystem
• In China, people are renting out their faces to AI
• Why China is giving away its best AI models

Written by: Opeyemi Kareem and Zia Yusuf

Edited by: Emmanuel Nwosu & Ganiu Oloruntade

Sign up for our insightful newsletters on the business and economy of tech in Africa.

• The Next Wave: futuristic analysis of the business of tech in Africa.
• Francophone Weekly by TechCabal: insider insights and analysis of Francophone’s tech ecosystem

P:S If you’re often missing TC Daily in your inbox, check your Promotions folder and move any edition of TC Daily from “Promotions” to your “Main” or “Primary” folder and TC Daily will always come to you.