Breaking News Today – Tuesday 25 August 2026

African Start-up News Headlines:

• CardinalStone Capital Advisers (CCA), the West Africa-focused private equity fund manager that provides growth capital to promising small and medium-sized businesses. has announced the first close of its second fund, CCA Growth Fund II (CCAGF II), at $76 million.The new fund is set to build on the strategy and results of CCA’s first fund, CCA Growth Fund I. It will provide growth capital to high-potential small and medium-sized businesses and help them expand into larger regional companies.
• South African AI data analysis startup – Dataseka has launched several AI data analysis products aimed at the financial adviser, wealth management and researcher market. The company aims to put the ability to understand a business squarely in the hands of the people running it. Founded in 2026, Dataseka combines deep AI driven data, analysis and decision-making into a single dashboard through three core capabilities via its Seeka, an AI co-worker for data. Dataseka’s goal is to help businesses anticipate changes and see what is happening sooner, understand why and be able to make more informed decisions for their business.
• South African-founded AI startup Verascient has raised $1.2m (about R19.2m) in its first funding round as it looks to expand its engineering team and grow its enterprise AI offering. The company was founded by South Africans Keagan Stokoe and Emile Ferreira. Verascientworks with businesses to organise information spread across documents, systems and employees and use that information to build AI-supported workflows and agents. The funding round was led by Founder Collective, with participation from Andrena Ventures, Cambridge Enterprise, Summit Ventures and several angel investors.
  

Business News Today 

Bitcoin Rally Continues with Crypto Markets Following

Bitcoin has surged in the last week hitting a more than 3-month high this morning above the $80 000 mark. The market signature crypto, has surged by over 23% in the last week and has seen a 3-day rally, the likes of which was last seen in 2023. Other crypto majors have followed with Solana up over 31%, Ether up 30% and Binance up by 18.5% in the last week. Investors are looking at a possible extended rally, which could mark a turning point for bitcoin, whose price has been stuck in a depressed market for some time now, and ahead of a seasonally bullish period for the coin.

The fourth quarter of the year is Bitcoin’s strongest quarter on average (common analyst figures range from ~55% to as high as 85%+ average returns depending on the start date used, e.g. since 2013 or 2015), with October (“Uptober”) and November typically the strongest individual months of trading.

Botswana Increases Uranium Prospecting

Botswana has granted three new uranium prospecting licences to Orano Mining, adding to the 15 licences already held by the French state-owned company, as the southern African country seeks to diversify its economy beyond diamonds. The three new licences, issued yesterday, cover blocks in the central Kalahari Desert, each measuring roughly 970 hectares.They are specifically for uranium and pitchblende prospecting and are valid for a period of three years and will expire in March 2029.

Uranium is primarily used as fuel for nuclear power plants, and Botswana has significant uranium deposits and exploration projects, but does not currently have any operating uranium mines. Neighbouring Namibia is the third largest uranium producer by output globally. Orano registered a local subsidiary in Botswana on 10 April 2026, shortly after Botswana President Duma Boko met French President Emmanuel Macron and Orano executives in Paris on 8 April 2026.

Frogfoot, Vox and Hypa Now Valued at R14.4bn After New Funding Raise

New funding for the South African based telecommunications group, sets the value of the group at R14.4bn. The capital injection will allow Frogfoot to quadruple its annual home connection rate to 360,000 over the next 12 months, with a focus on underserved and lower-income township communities. The expansion is expected to create more than 5,000 direct jobs in local communities. The transaction gives the companies a combined after-debt equity value of R8.4bn and includes the subscription for new shares in Frogfoot and Vox, including its wholly owned subsidiary Hypa, by multiple investors. 

The largest shareholder grouping is the DNI Consortium, comprising DNI 4PL Contracts, JSE-listed Sabvest Capital, Masimong Group Holdings and Draper Gain International. Frogfoot is South Africa’s fourth-largest fibre network operator, providing fibre-to-the-home, fibre-to-the-business and fibre-to-the-tower infrastructure.

Breaking Business and Market News Shorts:  

• The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) has registered 124 new commercial renewable energy generation facilities during Q1 of the 2026/27 financial year. The solar and wind facilities have a combined capacity of 804MW, with an investment value estimated at R20.18 billion.
• Brent crude prices, steadied above $92 per barrel today after declining in the previous trading session. The US has intensified economic pressure on Iran and its trading partners, with China reportedly not exempt from the measures. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced plans to isolate Iran through sanctions targeting countries that continue doing business with the Islamic Republic,
• MTN Group reported a 21.3% increase in half-year adjusted profit yesterday, largely driven by subscriber growth that accelerated in the second quarter, and double-digit growth in service revenue. The telecoms group has 317 million customers in 19 markets. Adjusted headline earnings per share (Heps) rose to 793c in the six months ended 30 June, up from 654c a year earlier.
• Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index lifted 0.4% to above 65,700 today, reversing earlier losses as select technology and artificial intelligence-related stocks rebounded from the previous session’s decline. Investors also braced for chip giant Nvidia’s earnings report later this week for fresh clues on the strength of AI-related demand. 
• China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.5% to 3,863 today, while the Shenzhen Component dropped 1.2% to 13,622, with both benchmarks sinking to their lowest levels in nearly a month as a broad selloff in technology stocks weighed on sentiment across Asian markets. investors will look to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee meeting, which runs from August 25 to August 28, for potential policy signals aimed at supporting growth amid slowing economic momentum.
  

Markets by Numbers 

Currency markets indicate the US dollar marginally stronger today. The Greenback is trading against the Euro at 1.16551 while trading against the Pound at 1.36236 The Yen is currently trading at 159.32 to the dollar. The rand (ZAR), is currently trading around the 16.02 mark against the US dollar this morning.

Commodities:  

• Gold futures are -0.13% lower this morning, but rebounding, and currently trading at around $4645.07 per ounce.  
• Copper prices are marginally down this morning , with prices currently around $6.5966 per pound
• Silver futures are down around -1% today, and currently trading at around $68.192 per ounce.
• Platinum futures are around -1% softer this morning, and currently trading at $1869.20 while Palladium is down -1.06% today, and currently trading around $1349.00 per ounce.
• Lithium prices have seen -2% slump today, and currently at CNY157 000
• Brent crude oil prices are trending lower today, and currently trading around $92.01 with WTI trading lower at $84.96 currently
• Cocoa futures are down over -1% today, and currently trading at $5945 per ton. 
• Coffee futures are up marginally today, and currently trading at around $3.4182 per pound

Crypto Currencies: 

• Bitcoin prices are up by over 2.1% today, currently trading at around $80615 per coin.
• Ether prices are trending 1% Higher this morning, and currently trading around $2507.02

(All prices as quoted at approximately 07H25 Central African Time)