Applications are now available for the second cohort of the AUDA-NEPAD Home Grown Solutions Accelerator, which aims to provide hands-on, highly personalized support to developing and mature-stage African healthcare enterprises in order to help them improve and flourish. The African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group and Villgro Africa, is behind…
It is common knowledge that women are underrepresented in the worldwide technology sector. While more women are beginning to create tech professions in a male-dominated field, women still do not receive the same level of visibility as their male counterparts due to this underrepresentation. Being the Public Relations Officer of Zenithchain, a blockchain business requires…
In 2019, a few months after the African Continental Free Trade Deal (AfCFTA) was signed, CcHUB hosted some African tech and creative industry professionals in Kigali, Rwanda, to discuss how the newly signed agreement could benefit the tech and creative ecosystem. Tola Onayemi, a young lawyer from Nigeria, was among the 80 participants from 30…
Uber, the ride-hailing business, has announced the addition of an UberMoto motorbike component to its product offering in Nigeria. The new service, which will launch in Ibadan, is a two-wheeled low-cost alternative and smart mobility option for city dwellers who want to navigate traffic more swiftly and efficiently. Uber Country Manager, Tope Akinwumi, noted in…
The rise of digital banking and e-commerce, fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, creates an ideal environment for fraudsters and money launderers to perpetrate crimes anonymously. Clive Gungudoo, MoData’s Director of Financial Crimes and Risk Management, presents five key measures that organizations must use to protect their digital customer experience. Clive Gungudoo’s interest is educating and…
BitCo Telecoms, one of South Africa’s major Telecommunications and Internet Service Providers, announces fiscal and market share growth for 2021, as well as plans to expand its national last mile carrier-grade network and geographic coverage to outlying areas and towns in 2022 and beyond. In 2021, BitCo had a great year of company growth, with…
WhatsApp is rumored to be working on a new area called “Community Home,” which will list all groups associated with a specific community and assist users in managing their groups. The modification has not yet been made public. It has, however, been recommended via a new WhatsApp for Android beta version. For the last few…
Oracle, the world’s largest database management firm, launched its first cloud region (a cluster of data centers) in Africa last week, joining other global giants such as Microsoft and Amazon that already operate data centers on the African continent. The opening of the data center in South Africa marks Oracle’s 37th cloud area globally, with…
Orderin, a South African business-to-business (B2B) delivery-as-a-service (DaaS) startup, has raised ZAR71 million (US$4.7 million) in pre-Series B funding to help it scale its infrastructure and improve its last-mile delivery service. Orderin, which was founded in 2013, is one of South Africa’s major on-demand delivery services, providing delivery services for companies such as McDonald’s and…
Apple has been investing heavily in Apple TV+, its own streaming platform that features original movies and TV shows. While Apple TV+ market share increased in 2021, the platform remains well behind its competitors in the United States, with only a 5% market share. According to a JustWatch data obtained by 9to5Mac, Apple TV+ market…
Google Docs is my favorite application. It enables me to swiftly draft documents or make changes to existing ones on the fly, whether I’m on my smartphone or a computer – all you need is a browser and a keyboard. However, Docs has always felt a little short in non-core capabilities, especially when compared to…
The internet of things (IoT) is growing in popularity, with forecasts indicating that around 50 billion IoT devices would be in use worldwide by 2050. This is due to the fact that today’s time-pressed consumers are already turning to technology for more convenience and efficiency in both their personal lives and their home environments. As…
The role of software outsourcing organizations is rapidly evolving from “contract software engineers” to strategic business partners. It has been recognized that offshore software development companies occupy crucial places in today’s corporate business models. Due to the increasing adoption of technologies, there will be a strong demand for blockchain, big data and IoT software developers,…
Many experts lost their jobs after the Covid-19 epidemic struck in 2020. Others reduced their working hours or began working remotely, giving them more opportunity to pursue numerous revenue streams. These factors contributed to a significant increase in the number of startup and small business launches, many of which are still surviving as we approach…
Egyptian fintech Fawry has announced plans to raise 800 million Egyptian rupees (US$51 million) in growth capital through a rights issue to existing shareholders, with the proceeds to fund a new chapter of expansion in both consumer and financial services intended to be used for consumers as well as merchants. Founded in 2008, Fawry is…
WhatsApp is reportedly working to add some new features and functionality. One of the upcoming updates is said to bring additional security to the instant messaging app, while the other will improve the customization of the voice call interface in the app. The former will reportedly add two-step verification to the desktop client in the…
Zanifu, a Kenyan fintech providing micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) access to working capital through short-term equity financing, has raised $1 million in seed funding. The round included the participation of Launch Africa Ventures, Sayani Investments, Saviu Ventures and several angel investors from Kenya and Nigeria, bringing the startup’s total funding to $1.2 million….
The boundaries of user experience are expanding rapidly. As we move beyond screens into an era dominated by artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and voice-based interaction, UX designers face a profound challenge: how do you design for a world that doesn’t follow traditional UI rules? Take AI-powered applications, for instance. These systems don’t just respond to…
ExpandCart, an e-commerce platform for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), has announced the completion of a new $2.7 million fundraising round. The investment was led by Betatron Venture Group, a Hong Kong-based venture capital firm, and included Egypt’s Sawari Ventures and Kuwait’s Agility Ventures. ExpandCart is the Middle East and North Africa’s largest…
Utopia and the World Economic Forum’s new Centre for Urban Transformation have launched a worldwide Urban Innovation Challenge to engage an ecosystem of 800 innovative urban entrepreneurs, investors, and mayors from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Entrepreneurs who are working on real-world urban tech solutions that help to make the world a better place, enable…
Frain Technologies, a Nigerian developer-tooling business, has raised US$473,000 in pre-seed capital to further invest in its existing products and develop new ones. Frain began in February 2021, when co-founder and CEO Subomi Oluwalana left his job as a backend developer at Nigerian fintech Tangerine Life to establish APIs for the fintech industry. For several…
PAPS, a Senegalese startup, has acquired a pre-Series A fundraising round of US$4.5 million from local and international investors to help it develop its tech-enabled logistics solution across the Francophone African area. PAPS, which debuted in September 2016, provides end-to-end logistics solutions for companies with both physical and online operations. Its technology enables organizations of…
P2vest Technology Limited reported that their peer-to-peer lending application, P2Vest, has reached 100,000 customers who have access to rapid loans. This accomplishment highlights the organization’s contribution in improving the way individuals obtain credit and lend money by connecting borrowers and lenders. Over the last 15 months, the leading peer-to-peer lending network has employed technology to…
Applications are now open for the 2022 edition of Pitch Live, which will take place at the fourth Africa Startup Summit next month in Nairobi. The Africa Startup Summit is part of the fourth annual Africa Tech Summit, which will take place live and in person on February 23-24 in Nairobi, Kenya. The two-day conference…
WhatsApp for iOS may soon allow users to transfer their chat history from an Android device to an iPhone. At the moment, iPhone WhatsApp users may only migrate their talks from an existing iPhone handset and cannot move their chat history from an Android device. Last year, the instant messaging software allowed users of certain…
In 2021, the mobile sector in Sub-Saharan Africa showed extraordinary resilience against the effects of Covid-19 and sustained rapid expansion. Digital solutions have been essential in assisting communities and organizations in transitioning to a mobile-first strategy to address the majority of the continent’s daily concerns, with fintech applications leading this increase. According to the Mobile…
When it comes to selecting the ideal AI project for their firm, business owners frequently rely on having the correct ingredients and knowing how to blend them. Almost every working AI system today operates according to some set of rules that are encoded in the system and effectively hold everything together. The ability of their…
Chari, a Moroccan B2B e-commerce and fintech business, has raised a bridge round of funding valued at US$100 million. Chari, which was founded in 2020 by husband and wife pair Ismael and Sophia Belkhayat, allows traditional local store operators in Morocco to order and have things delivered. It collaborates with more than half of the…
IFC and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) announced a new call for applications for IFC ScaleX, a new program aimed at bridging the financing gap that women entrepreneurs continue to encounter, particularly in emerging countries, through supporting accelerators. IFC ScaleX is a performance-based project for which IFC has partnered with Village Capital to launch….
A new pan-African payment system eliminates historical complexities, such as the cost of cross-border payments, boosts operational efficiencies, and paves the way for more stable and stronger African currencies, all of which are expected to boost intra-Africa commerce. Following the formal debut of a new payment system in Africa, a Kenyan client can now pay…