🏍️ Chowdeck secures $9M for expansion

Today’s Menu ☕️

🏍️ Chowdeck secures $9M Series A to accelerate expansion across Nigeria and Ghana
🪢 Teraco expands JB4 hyperscale facility, becoming Africa’s largest standalone data centre
📱 Savor’s Carbon-Based Butter: The Cow-Free, Crop-Free Future of Dairy?
🤖 Old Mutual to launch new retail bank in South Africa, targeting mass market segment

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FOOD DELIVERY

Chowdeck secures $9M Series A to accelerate expansion across Nigeria and Ghana

Chowdeck, a Y Combinator-backed on-demand delivery startup, has raised $9 million in Series A funding to expand across West Africa, focusing on Nigeria and Ghana. The round, led by Novastar Ventures with participation from Y Combinator, AAIC Investment, Rebel Fund, GFR Fund, Kaleo, and HoaQ, will boost Chowdeck’s presence in key cities, enhance logistics, and broaden offerings to groceries, pharmaceuticals, and traditional goods.

Founded on a hyper-local approach, Chowdeck disrupted Nigeria’s fast-food-focused delivery market by offering popular local dishes. With over 1.5 million users and 20,000+ riders in 11 cities, it fulfills 97% of orders within 30 minutes and aims to reduce this to under 20 minutes.

Its Ghana launch achieved 1,300 deliveries in three months, aided by hiring former Bolt Food Ghana lead, Henry Whyte. In 2024, meal value deliveries grew sixfold year-on-year, with 2025 already surpassing last year’s total. The acquisition of Mira, an order and inventory platform, will support faster, more reliable service as Chowdeck targets further growth in a competitive African tech landscape.……continue reading

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 💽 INFRASTRUCTURE

Teraco expands JB4 hyperscale facility, becoming Africa’s largest standalone data centre

Teraco, Africa’s leading data centre operator, has completed the expansion of its JB4 hyperscale facility in Johannesburg, making it the continent’s largest standalone data centre. Funded by a $680 million capital raise led by Absa in February 2023, the upgrade boosts JB4’s critical IT power to 50 MW and expands the site to 80,000 square meters with 14 data halls, including six new 5 MW halls for hyperscale and AI workloads.

Sustainability features include a zero-water, closed-loop cooling system and AI-driven optimization for energy efficiency. Johannesburg’s strong fibre networks, proximity to major submarine cables, and dense enterprise base make it an ideal hub for such infrastructure.

The expansion raises Teraco’s total IT load across all campuses to over 189 MW, supporting Africa’s cloud adoption, fintech growth, and AI demand. With JB4’s scale and strategic location, Teraco is well-positioned to meet the continent’s growing need for advanced, scalable, and sustainable digital infrastructure........…continue reading

🩺 FOODTECH

Savor’s Carbon-Based Butter: The Cow-Free, Crop-Free Future of Dairy?

Imagine making butter without cows, crops, or palm oil. Savor, a food innovation company in Batavia, Illinois, is doing just that — creating butter from carbon. By capturing carbon dioxide from the air, extracting hydrogen from water, and combining them through heating and oxidation, Savor replicates the fat molecules found in dairy and plant oils, without the environmental cost of traditional agriculture.

The result looks, tastes, and cooks like regular butter, with just a few ingredients: lab-made fat, water, lecithin, and natural flavors. Importantly, there’s no palm oil, a major cause of deforestation. Fat and oil production accounts for about 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but Savor’s process produces zero emissions, uses a thousand times less land, and greatly reduces resource use.

Currently supplying restaurants and bakeries, Savor plans to launch chocolates made with its butter in 2025 and hit store shelves by 2027. Backed by Bill Gates, this innovation could help reshape how we produce food — if consumers embrace it. Would you try it?......…continue reading

🏦 BANKING

Old Mutual to launch new retail bank in South Africa, targeting mass market segment

Old Mutual is set to launch a new retail bank in South Africa, provisionally named OM Bank, in Q4 2025 — nearly a decade after divesting its majority stake in Nedbank. Operating in the mass market segment, it will compete with Capitec, African Bank, and Tyme Bank, expanding beyond Old Mutual’s micro-lending business.

Backed by R2.8 billion in infrastructure investment and a retail banking license granted in March 2024, OM Bank will adopt a digital-first, cloud-based platform offering integrated debit, credit, overdraft, and savings products. Led by CEO Clarence Nethengwe and board chair Nomkhita Nqweni, the bank will leverage Old Mutual’s brand trust, customer base, and distribution network.

Initial annual losses of R1.1–R1.3 billion are expected, with profitability targeted by 2028. The move marks Old Mutual’s return to banking after unbundling most of its Nedbank stake between 2018 and 2021, reducing it to 3.9%. Analysts view the launch as a growth opportunity in a sector with strong mass market potential.......…continue reading

 OTHER STORIES

• I Tested ChatGPT-5, and Here’s What Sets It Apart From Earlier Versions…..continue reading

• Naspers Wins Conditional EU Approval for Just Eat Takeaway.com Acquisition……..continue reading

• Truecaller Reaches 100M Active Users in Middle East, Africa…..continue reading

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