An innovation incubation centre funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) has been launched at the Pan African University Institute for Basic Sciences, Technology and Innovation (PAUSTI) at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Nairobi, aimed at promoting innovation development, market linkages, and technology transfer. The PAUSTI Incubation Centre of Excellence has been set up…
At the National Conference of Startups “Algeria Disrupt 2020,” the Algerian Startup Financing Fund was officially launched. The fund, which has raised $7.2 million in its first year, will focus on the country’s most innovative startups. Yacine El Mahdi Walid, Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister, remarked on the sidelines of the occasion that the…
Credit startup, Payhippo has announced a $3 million seed funding raise. This brings the fintech startup’s total raise to $4 million in just four months. It raised $1m pre-seed for its large scale expansion in July. The round was led by influential African fintech founders and financial leaders Ham Serunjogi and Maijid Moujaled, co-founders Chipper Cash. Other investors include…
Microsoft SwiftKey keyboard app is getting a new Cloud Clipboard feature that allows users to copy and paste texts between Android and Windows. Microsoft has updated the SwiftKey Keyboard with version 7.9.0.5. Once the latest version is installed, users will be able to copy text to their Android smartphone or tablet clipboard and paste it…
ShipBlu, an Egypt-based e-commerce startup backed by Y Combinator, has raised a $2.4 million seed round headed by Nama Ventures, with participation from 1984 Ventures, Orange Ventures, Starling Ventures, and other VCs and angel investors. ShipBlu is designed to provide a one-of-a-kind e-commerce shipping experience. ShipBlu uses its fleets to deliver shipments on schedule, thanks…
After Facebook changed its name to Meta to reflect its engagement with the metaverse, Microsoft too is gearing up to launch its own version, which is likely to focus on the corporate world. Speaking about the metaverse, a space where digital avatars of people interact at work and play, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella tweeted that…
Just days after rebranding itself, Facebook announced plans to delete a trove of the most worrisome data that the world’s biggest social network collected on more than a billion individuals. In a blog post Tuesday, Facebook’s newly named parent company Meta explained that it would close shop on its facial recognition systems and delete a massive collection…
Microsoft is bringing back Google Wave, the doomed real-time messaging and collaboration platform Google launched in 2009 and prematurely shuttered in 2010. Maybe we should’ve seen this coming. Back in 2019, Microsoft announced the Fluid Framework (not to be confused with the Fluent design system). The idea here was nothing short of trying to re-invent the nature of business documents…
The Femtech Accelerator Program, launched by Organon and Flat6Labs, aims to help female-founded digital health start-ups in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) flourish by assisting them in developing products, determining market fit, and improving business models. Organon, a global healthcare company with the mission of making every woman’s day better and healthier, has…
The Information Security Society of Africa-Nigeria (ISSAN) has expressed worry about Nigeria’s leading role in online fraud in Africa. ISSAN, which claimed that some $2 trillion was at risk, said all efforts must be harnessed to correct the menace. The President of ISSAN, Dr. David Isiavwe, who disclosed this at a webinar, organised by the…
Airtel Africa and UNICEF have announced a new five-year pan-African partnership to help accelerate the roll-out of digital learning through connecting schools to the internet and ensuring free access to learning platforms across 13 countries. Airtel Africa, a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services in Africa, is the first African private sector partner…
Telkom Kenya Limited, the Helios Investment Partners and Government of Kenya joint venture, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Ericsson, the telecommunications company, and NEC XON, the systems integrator, to add 2,000 wireless sites onto Telkom Kenya’s network by 2023. The approximately $100-million nationwide rollout is part of Telkom Kenya’s long-term network expansion…
Standard Bank, Africa’s largest bank by assets, has partnered with Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company, to enhance digital payments across Africa. Flutterwave and Standard Bank are collaborating to build e-commerce, card issuing, payments, collections, USSD, lending, and buy-now-pay-later capabilities for customers in Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Mauritius, Cote D’Ivoire and Malawi. The integration will help customers…
Nigerian startup AmplifiHub has developed an online platform that empowers music producers, arrangers and songwriters in Africa to connect with more customers and make more money. Founded in 2019, AmplifiHub provides musicians with revenue generating opportunities like owning an online beat store, connects them with potential customers via a chat feature, and helps them collaborate with creative…
Online giant Google and Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani opened advance orders in India on Monday for an entry-level smartphone billed as the world’s most affordable, joining the race to tap into the booming budget market. Ambani’s conglomerate Reliance Industries announced in July last year that it would partner with Google to launch the 4G…
Applications are open for the Yunus Environment Hub’s GrowUp incubation programme, which is seeking solutions for sustainable food systems in East Africa. The Yunus Environment Hub (YEH) is the global social business network that creates solutions for the environmental crisis. Co-founded and led by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus, the YEH supports and develops social…
Five tech-enabled Kenyan startups have been selected for the second edition of the NINJA Accelerator, embarking on a 12-week programme that concludes with a demo day in January. Powered by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in partnership with Double Feather Partners, Deloitte Tohmatsu and GrowthAfrica, the NINJA Accelerator helps startups address specific issues in order to help…
From October 12 to 28, more than 500 high school students from underserved communities of Agege, Alimosho and Ifako-Ijaiye in Lagos Education District 1, participated in a series of STEM workshops sponsored by the U.S. Consulate General in Lagos. During the workshops, the students learned how to build, program, and fly drones, computer coding, solar panel assembly,…
HP Inc. Monday released its latest HP Wolf Security report: Out of Sight & Out of Mind, a comprehensive global study highlighting how the rise of hybrid work is changing user behavior and creating new cybersecurity challenges for IT departments. The research shows that a growing number of users are buying and connecting unsanctioned devices outside of…
AfriLabs, in collaboration with African Business Angels Network (ABAN), has officially launched Catalytic Africa, a co-matching fund designed for African startups, at the AfriLabs Annual Gathering held on Thursday, October 28th, 2021. Catalytic Africa is an investment tool that aims to increase the pool of capital available to promising African growth-stage entrepreneurs, support the startup…
eNaira is more or less like a digital version of the physical Naira. It is a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and will exchange 1:1 to the physical Naira. The eNaira was launched by Nigeria’s President flanked by the VP and CBN Governor on October 25, 2021…
Kenya-based electric mobility startup Opibus has raised US$7.5 million in equity and grant funding to help it scale its operations in electric motorcycle and bus manufacturing. Founded in 2017, Opibus is the leading provider of electric vehicles designed and manufactured locally. Its vision is to create reliable and cost effective products designed for the pan-African mass market….
Mastercard has partnered with MoneyFellows, the digitized ROSCA (Rotating Saving and Credit Association) system, to offer MoneyFellows customers a range of new digital solutions and services that will help drive the expansion of Egypt’s digital economy. MoneyFellows has taken the traditional ROSCA model, or “Game’eya” as referred to by Egyptians, into the digital age by offering…
Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s message about Instagram’s impact on teenage girls was unequivocal: Facebook’s studies found that 13% of British teens said Instagram prompted thoughts of suicide, and 17% of teen girls say Instagram makes eating disorders worse. These statistics, however, are only one part of the bigger picture when it comes to the general safety of…
Years ago, Americans spent most of their disposable income on food but consistent investment in retail infrastructure has changed that. Now, they only spend 6% of their household income on food and beverages. Africa still battles with this and it is not hard to see why. The continent’s retail markets are highly fragmented and mostly made up of small…
SHAREit Lite is a flagship application to enable Nigerians to transfer files very efficiently and fast, without mobile data. Propelled by its mission to make digital content equally accessible by everyone, as the transmission-oriented utility app, it aims to smoothen the process of near distance peer-to-peer file transfer for Nigerian users. A study by Data…
The Kigali-based non-profit Norrsken has partnered the Novartis Foundation to build and launch what it says will be the leading hub and accelerator for e-health startups in East Africa. Founded by Niklas Adalberth, one of the founders of Swedish fintech unicorn Klarna, in 2016, Norrsken aims to help entrepreneurs solve the world’s greatest challenges. Disrupt Africa reported in 2019 the…
Rwanda-based electric motorcycle company Ampersand has secured a US$9 million loan facility from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to expand its operations in Rwanda and Kenya. Launched commercially in May 2019, Ampersand assembles and finances electric motorcycles that cost less to buy and operate, and perform better than the five million petrol motorcycle taxis in…
The Federal Government has approved the extension of the deadline for National Identity Number (NIN)-Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) data verification to “the end of the year 2021”. This is according to a recent statement by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) . This is coming just 3 months after the last extension and barely a day to the expiration of…
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has raised significant concerns about a plan to use spectrum for 5G wireless networks on aviation safety and is planning to issue a formal warning about the issue, according to sources and a letter seen by Reuters. The aviation industry has voiced alarm about the plan to use C-Band spectrum…