France-backed initiative to fund 200 African startups by 2025: French government-backed initiative Digital Africa will turn to a forprofit model to provide EUR 70 mn worth of seed and series A funding to 200 African startups by 2025, Bloomberg reports. The initiative is looking at ticket sizes of between EUR 20k-200k for each startup in locations “ranging from Ivory Coast to Tunisia,” according to a white paper seen by Bloomberg.

Other things we’re keeping an eye on this morning:

• SMART POLICY- Hassan Allam Holding agreed to a USD 1 mn ins. policy against cyberattacks with US cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.
• A subsidiary of Al Khor General Maintenance & Contracting plans to invest EUR 100 mn in a medical city in the new administrative capital.
• CIB customers can now use (pdf) the Via Drive Thru app to place orders within Via’s vendor network and receive their orders from their cars.
• The National Authority for Military Production, El Maasara for Engineering Industries and Italy’s Landi Renzo are setting up a JV to manufacture components to convert vehicles to run on natural gas.
• IHS Egypt — a joint venture between IHS Towers and the government’s digitization arm — will spend EGP 5 bn installing 5k telecom towers over the next three years.