👨🏿‍🚀 Daily – Starlink sets up shop in Lagos |

After playing the status game and dominating home turf, Zenith Bank, Nigeria’s second-largest lender by assets—and the bank Nigerians unofficially call ‘the bank of the rich’—is ready to bring the competition to Silicon Savannah. 

The bank is in advanced talks to acquire a Kenyan tier-2 lender, giving it a regulatory foothold in East Africa and expanding its rivalry with fellow FUGAZ members: GTBank, Access Bank, and UBA.

Unlike Access Bank, which has grown through a rapid-fire M&A strategy, Zenith has historically moved with restraint. Its international footprint includes the UK, UAE, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Gambia, a representative office in China, and most recently, a branch in Paris targeting Francophone Africa. A Kenyan acquisition would be its first expansion into East Africa and its first market entry by acquiring another bank.

Why now? Kenya’s new banking law requires all banks to raise their minimum capital from $21 million in 2025 to $77 million by 2029. Smaller banks, especially tier-2s, are under pressure to merge, recapitalise, or sell to avoid a bank run. This presents an opportunity for Zenith. With a ₦614.65 billion ($402 million) capital base following its oversubscribed rights issue in January, the bank has the financial strength to move quickly.

Porter’s Five Forces explains the logic: Kenya’s strict regulations make it hard for new banks to enter the market. Buying an existing bank gives Zenith a first-mover advantage among recap-hungry banks also looking to enter Kenya. Its strong balance sheet—being the most profitable bank in Nigeria—helps it to convince regulators, depositors, and insurers that it can operate in a terrain like Kenya.

Zenith isn’t trying to go global. It is picking its fights. Executives from Zenith will visit Nairobi in three months to finalise the acquisition deal.

Stanbic Bank Kenya’s new side hustle is investing in startups, and it’s doing it boldly. 

The bank wants in on the startup game and is looking to raise $100 million to invest in startups across East Africa.

Through its Catalytic Fund, Stanbic says it’s eyeing sectors that rarely get a seat at the venture capital table, like agritech, healthtech, manufacturing, and the creative economy.. 

Still, what’s the game plan? By shifting its focus to younger, riskier ventures, Stanbic Kenya is hoping to widen the pipeline and bring in the 80% of businesses that usually get left out. If you ask me, I think they’re trying to build loyalty early by betting on founders that might become big players tomorrow.

Stanbic’s strategy stands out because most commercial banks simply avoid startup investing altogether. These banks prefer safer bets, like SME loans with lower risks. Take South Africa’s Absa Bank, which secured a $150 million facility to support women and youth-led SMEs. Stanbic Kenya is going further, choosing to take on the real startup risk that other banks shy away from.

If they pull this off, they could rewrite the rules on how African banks engage startups.

Starlink has resumed direct shipments of residential kits in Nigeria after a 7-month pause, and it’s doing so in style. 

The Satellite ISP just opened a walk-in centre in Victoria Island. It’s the ISP’s way of saying: We’re here. For real.

But why did they pause direct shipments? It was a power move. After the regulator blocked Starlink’s attempt to raise prices of its product offerings by 97%, the satellite ISP responded by halting new residential kit orders entirely, a strategic pause to force the regulator’s hand.

ICYMI: Starlink did the same thing in Malawi after a similar price hike was blocked by the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA).

What does this new centre mean? Starlink’s physical space boosts the brand’s legitimacy and improves customer support. It signals long-term commitment to the market—important in earning regulatory goodwill. The centre will enable hardware servicing and partner engagement. It can also double as a community hub for events, education, and deepening local connections beyond just internet access.

But here’s the twist: despite being Nigeria’s second-largest ISP, Starlink lost 6,000 subscribers over six months. Still, they’re not slowing down. With a physical office in Kenya already, and licenses across places like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique, Starlink is clearly laying bricks for something bigger.

Starlink is staking territory. Despite regulatory pushback and subscriber losses, they’re not backing down.

This week, Better Auth, an Ethiopian startup, secured $5M in seed funding to expand its authentication framework. The round was led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA), with participation from Y Combinator, Chapter One, P1 Ventures, among others. (Jul 1)

Here are the other deals for the week:

• Algerian HR-tech Talenteo raised an undisclosed six-figure round of funding. (June 30)
• Ghanaian startup Liquify, a digital invoice finance platform, raised an oversubscribed $1.5 million seed round of funding led by Future Africa with participation from Launch Africa, 54 Collective, Digital Africa and Equitable Ventures, alongside several strategic angel investors. (July 2) 

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more funding announcements. Before you go, what are the strategic exits reshaping Africa’s fintech future? Read here.