Zanifu raises $11.2M to scale its inventory financing offering in Kenya

Zanifu, a Kenyan fintech providing inventory financing to micro, small and medium-sized businesses, has raised $11.2 million in debt-equity funding in a pre-Series A round led by Beyond Capital Ventures and Variant Investments. Founders Factory Africa, AAIC Investment, Google Black Founders Fund and existing investor Launch Africa also participated...

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A tale of two payments companies

Welcome back to The Interchange, where we take a look at the hottest fintech news of the previous week. There was plenty going on as usual — with fintech investors sounding off, payments companies seeing big stock moves and much more. One other note, you can find Mary Ann on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast,...

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TechCrunch+ Roundup: Reaching $1M ARR, tech job market rundown, women-led VC firms

A recent PitchBook study that surveyed founders from top accelerators found that they are generally interested in just three things: Learning how to operate a startup Networking with potential customers Getting warm intros to VCs But now that so many venture capital firms provide these services — along with marketing boot camps, personal...

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401(k) hardship withdrawals are rising in 2023, reports find

After falling sharply last year, retirement account balances are bouncing back in 2023 — but there are still signs of trouble.Helped in part by improved market conditions, retirement account balances increased in the first half of the year. However, the share of participants who tapped hardship withdrawals rose, according...

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How to leverage 0% capital gains with tax-gain harvesting

dowell | Moment | Getty ImagesIf you're sitting on profitable assets, there's a lesser-known tax-gain harvesting strategy, which can help rebalance your portfolio or trim future taxes.While tax-loss harvesting can be popular during a stock market downturn, tax-gain harvesting — or strategically selling appreciated brokerage account assets — can...

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