Hi {{first_name}},
Earlier this month, we hosted the Africa-UK Innovation Bridge in London. The conversations did not end when everyone went home.
Since then, we have been running a Bridge insights series on LinkedIn, one post per speaker, pulling out the sharpest lessons from each session. A few to start with: Omotoso Dolapo, Kelechi Iwuagwu, Benjamin Dada, and Emmanuel Adegboye. There is plenty more where those came from, so follow along on our LinkedIn for the rest.
We have also been running our newsletter referral program, and it rewards you for recommending this newsletter to people you know would love it. We’re offering discounts on your membership fee depending on your number of referrals, all the way up to a free membership. More on how it works further down.
On today's edition, we have three live deals on Borderless, an Accrue spotlight, news we love, and a few reads worth your time. Let's get into it.
We currently have a few opportunities open on Borderless. Log in to your dashboard to explore them.
MyStocks Africa
Industry: Capital Markets Infrastructure
MyStocks Africa, co-founded by Kebaya Mwamba and Eric Jackson, is building cross-border investment infrastructure for African capital markets, starting with access to listed securities and expanding to broader market rails, including private instruments, secondaries, and structured exits. The company's near-term wedge is reducing the friction that makes investing in Africa difficult today: fragmented regulation, banking barriers, local account requirements, and limited cross-border interoperability. Closes June 30.InfraRed
Industry: Document Intelligence & Verification
InfraRed, founded by Allen Akinkunle and Ore Eni-Ibukun, is building a document intelligence and verification platform that enables individuals and companies to collect, validate, and extract structured data from documents quickly and securely. The platform combines AI-powered extraction, fraud detection, and automated workflows into a single layer. Founded by a team with deep experience across EY, KPMG, and Zopa Bank, InfraRed already has paying customers across Nigeria and Australia, with early enterprise interest from digital lenders and fintechs. If you have ever dealt with manual document processing in financial services, you know how painful it is. InfraRed is fixing that. Closes June 30.DÒDÒ
Industry: Premium Spirits / Consumer
DÒDÒ is positioning to own the premium spirits category for the African diaspora, a customer segment that is large, culturally influential, underserved, and willing to pay. Founded by Tola Alade, they are a diaspora-native brand and the only plantain-infused premium rum globally, with no directly comparable products in existence. If you're paying attention to how the diaspora spends, this is a category worth watching. Closes June 30.
Why Join HoaQ?
Our newsletter gives you the highlights, but a HoaQ membership gives you exclusive access to the rooms where the most value happens. Members get early access to vetted startup deals, physical hangouts with fellow investors and founders, a private community of over 1,200 professionals and operators across 35+ countries.
HoaQ Referral Program
A quick reminder for anyone who missed it. If you know anyone looking to begin their angel investment journey, our bi-weekly newsletter is a great entry point. Because of this, HoaQ is offering an opportunity to earn discounts on our membership fees through our newsletter referral program.
Here's how it works: share your referral link, and when people sign up to HoaQ's newsletter through it, you unlock rewards at every milestone.
5 successful referrals → 25% off your next HoaQ membership fee
10 successful referrals → 50% off your next HoaQ membership fee
20 successful referrals → Your next membership fee is on us (100% off)
The community grows through thoughtful invitations like yours. If you know people who should be here, now there's another reason to bring them in.
Portfolio Spotlight
This edition we're spotlighting Accrue, the cross-border money app built for how Africans and the diaspora actually move money. Two things stand out.
First, Cashramp, its flagship product, is a human agent network that works like mobile money on stablecoin rails: you hand cash to a verified agent, it becomes stablecoins, and another agent on the other side pays out in local currency, often in under five minutes across 11 countries. No crypto knowledge required.
Second, Accrue pairs that with the everyday essentials the diaspora needs: USD accounts in your name, virtual dollar cards for online spend, and dollar savings that earn daily. Trusted by more than 350,000 people and backed by investors like Alliance, Lattice, and Maven 11, Accrue raised a $1.58 million seed last year and is pushing deeper into Francophone West Africa. See how Accrue works.
News We Love
We're proud to share some recent wins from our portfolio and the wider community:
Adesuwa Omoruyi, co-founder of Accrue, made Forbes Africa's 2026 Under 30 list. It is a well-earned nod to the team behind a portfolio company that is one of the most used cross-border money apps on the continent, and to how far African fintech talent is travelling. Read here.
Borderless, the infrastructure we use to run our investment collective, turned one this month. In a single year, the platform has gone from idea to home for 24 collectives co-investing in African companies, including the deals in this very newsletter. Explore Borderless.
Bamboo is bringing IPOs to its platform, giving everyday investors a paperwork-free way to join NGX public offers from their phones, with the long-awaited Dangote Refinery listing expected later this year. If you follow African capital markets, this is one to watch. Join the IPO waitlist.
What Members are Reading and Listening to
Nigerian retail investors traded $2.07 billion through mobile apps in just five months, a striking sign of how fast app-based investing is reshaping the market. Read here.
Stabyl came out of stealth with $2.7 million to build FX infrastructure for Africa, taking aim at one of the hardest problems in cross-border payments. Read here.
Africa's telcos are embracing Starlink instead of fighting it, and TechCabal breaks down what that shift means for connectivity and the businesses built on it. Read here.
Upcoming Events
Termii Elevate 5.0
July 11, 2026 | The Zone Tech Park, Lagos
Termii, a HoaQ portfolio company, returns with the fifth edition of its flagship communications tech conference. If you build products that depend on reaching customers reliably, this is a strong room to be in. Learn more here.
Moonshot by TechCabal
October 28 to 29, 2026 | National Theatre, Lagos
Africa's fastest-growing tech conference is back, drawing founders, investors, operators, and policymakers from around the world (over 6,000 attended in 2025). One to start planning for if you want to be where the ecosystem gathers.
Learn more here.
Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter all the way to the end.
Till next time,
Wisdom from HoaQ.
Remember: investing in startups carries inherent risks. We encourage you to conduct your own due diligence before committing capital.
