FintechCo & Massmart: Inside SA’s Big B2B Plays
The Africa B2B Tech Report, Africa-Middle East B2B tech news & insights for 23 July 2026.
Welcome to issue 78 of the Africa B2B Tech Report Daily. We bring you a daily digest of the news that matters to The Business of African Tech.
The Africa B2B Tech Report is published by BigFive Digital, an African tech media and events firm that produces the annual BigFive Summit in Cape Town. The report is produced and edited by Charles Laughlin, BigFive Digital’s Co-founder & Chief Content Officer. Charles is a globally experienced tech journalist, podcaster, & conference producer.
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Massmart taps Criteo to join South African retail media fight
In a move designed to catch up with rivals in retail media, Walmart-owned Massmart has formed a strategic retail media partnership with the global commerce intelligence platform Criteo.
Utilizing Criteo’s Commerce Yield platform, Massmart will launch natively integrated Sponsored Product Ads and Onsite Display Ads across its digital properties—starting with its flagship e-commerce marketplace, Makro.co.za. The partnership allows brands and marketplace sellers to leverage first-party data for closed-loop targeting.
Retail media is surging globally, but in South Africa, it is rapidly transforming into a major digital advertising battleground.
For example, local grocery giants Shoprite (via Rainmaker Media) and Pick n Pay already operate sophisticated first-party ad networks to capture shifting digital spend. Massmart’s partnership with Criteo tells us that Massmart (and by extension Walmart) understands that it must have a competitive, sophisticated retail media offering.
Pepkor merges Flash and Shop2Shop to forge $1.2B fintech
South African retail giant Pepkor is merging its Flash business with B2B trade enablement platform Shop2Shop, according to Business\Tech. The consolidation creates a new entity called FintechCo that is valued at R21.3 billion ($1.17 billion).
Pepkor will anchor a 57.1% majority stake by injecting R1.57 billion in cash and contributing 100% of its Flash shares, valued at R10.6 billion.
By marrying Flash’s massive digital value-added services (VAS) footprint with Shop2Shop’s merchant payments infrastructure, FintechCo creates an entity that targets South Africa’s vast, underserved informal market.
Pepkor reportedly plans a medium-term separate public listing for the entity.
Is Brazilian fintech Jota’s $30M Series A a blueprint for Africa?
Brazil-based fintech startup Jota has raised $30 million in a Series A funding round, ArabFounders reports. The round is led by Haun Ventures, valuing the company at $185 million.
Jota, founded by Davi Holanda, integrates an AI-driven digital assistant directly into WhatsApp, enabling entrepreneurs and MSMEs to manage business bank accounts, bookkeeping, and QR payments entirely through voice notes, images, or text.
Jota, which currently serves more than 300,000 users, will use the funds to launch autonomous contextual lending and scale its mobile point-of-sale utility, FalaTap.
This chat-first, AI-native framework could serve as a blueprint for Africa, where WhatsApp is already the default digital gateway for millions of informal merchants and small businesses.
By layering autonomous AI assistants over existing chat interfaces, platforms can instantly bridge the digital inclusion gap without forcing merchants to adopt complex, data-heavy enterprise software.
Some African startups are already building along this conversational path.
Marketplaces and informal trade enablers like Wasoko, Sukhiba, and conversational AI platforms like Proto have aggressively leveraged WhatsApp infrastructure to handle B2B inventory orders, customer service, and digital payments. Jem has built its HR tech platform largely on WhatsApp, and Loop uses WhatsApp as the foundation for its mobility fintech solution for South African minibus taxis.
Here is our quick daily roundup of the African tech and business stories we think you should be aware of, but probably didn’t have the time to read. [Original sources included.]
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Morocco’s ORA Technologies completes fully local $10M Series A
Moroccan super app ORA Technologies has extended its Series A funding round to $10 million following an additional $2 million inflow. Notably, the entire round was financed by domestic investors, led by Azur Innovation Fund, providing ORA with local capital insulation to scale its KOUL food delivery and ORA Cash digital wallet platforms.
Wamda
Fawry secures $10.8M MSMEDA facility to deepen digital lending
Egyptian fintech Fawry has secured a $10.8 million (EGP 550M) financing facility from Egypt’s Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA). Disbursed via its subsidiary Fawry MSME Finance, the capital splits into $5.9 million for micro-businesses and $4.9 million for SMEs. The facility uses data-driven credit tools to bypass traditional banking friction and accelerate informal business formalization.
ArabFounders
Safaricom executive Michael Mutiga named Stanbic Bank Kenya CEO
Stanbic Bank Kenya and South Sudan has appointed Safaricom’s Chief Strategy Officer, Michael Mutiga, as its new Chief Executive Officer effective August 1, 2026. Mutiga’s transition highlights a broader wave of executive reshuffles at Safaricom following Vodacom’s majority acquisition completion.
TechCabal
SA pushes for ‘economic justice’ for African TikTok creators
South Africa’s Department of Communications and Digital Technologies is intensifying pressure on TikTok to expand its lucrative Creator Rewards Programme to the continent. Communications Minister Solly Malatsi labeled the geographic exclusion “economic injustice,” advocating for fair platform-funded remuneration as a matter of official digital inclusion policy.