Nigerian ed-tech startup Edves has raised a US$575,000 seed funding round to help it improve its product and bring more schools online. Formed in 2016, Edves is an academic portal that automates operations in schools and colleges from admission to transcript generation. The platform reduces teacher and administrator workload and gives them opportunities to mark attendance and…
General Motors is rolling out Ultifi, a new end-to-end software platform in vehicles starting in 2023 that executives say will usher in a sweeping set of capabilities, including giving drivers access to in-car subscription and using over-the-air updates to offer new apps and services. The software platform can be used to give owners greater access…
Google announced today it will be applying AI advancements, including a new technology called Multitask Unified Model (MUM) to improve Google Search. At the company’s Search On event, the company demonstrated new features, including those that leverage MUM, to better connect web searchers to the content they’re looking for, while also making web search feel more natural and intuitive….
TikTok is expanding its investment in e-commerce. Earlier this year, the video platform began piloting TikTok Shopping in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, in partnership with Shopify. The deal allowed Shopify merchants with a TikTok For Business account to add a Shopping tab to their TikTok profiles and sync their product catalogs to the app to create…
Nigeria’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) website has gone live, signaling that the eNaira digital currency will be launched on October 1. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sent local banks a paper last month that detailed the architecture of its soon-to-be-launched virtual currency, as well as details on the duties given to participants in the currency…
Tiktok announced in a blog post that it now has more than one billion monthly active users throughout the world, making it the only non-Facebook or Google-owned social networking app to do so. Despite an attempt by former President Donald Trump’s government last year to shut down Tiktok in the United States, the app’s popularity…
Vodacom, one of SA’s leading network providers, has announced a partnership with mobile payments cybersecurity company, Evina, in a major step forward in mobile user safety. According to a statement from Vodacom, mobile users in Africa’s most advanced economy will now join the ranks of the tens of millions of consumers globally that are protected…
Andela helps companies build remote engineering teams by providing them with access to the best software engineers in the world. Launched in Africa in 2014, the network today represents engineers from more than 80 countries and six continents. Through Andela, thousands of engineers have been placed with leading technology companies including Github, Cloudflare and ViacomCBS. “Andela has always…
Open banking is a system where banks allow or authorize third parties, such as financial technology or fintech companies, to access their clients’ financial data to build applications or services. Anchored on providing better customer experiences, open banking in Africa has stirred a lot of interest, including banking apps with detailed analytics of finances, the…
The third edition of the Cyberchain Conference, which is a two-day event, will kick off on the 19th of November at the Lagos Oriental Hotel. With the theme for this year unveiled, the conference will revolve around “Enabling The Digital Economy.” The Cyberchain convener, Jude Ozinegbe, made it clear during a media parley that the…
Gokada, the Nigeria-based last mile delivery, logistics and transportation startup, has launched in Ibadan following consolidated growth in Lagos. Founded in 2018 as a ride-hailing app, Gokada has evolved to become a leading food delivery, parcel delivery, and last-mile e-commerce fulfillment solution. The startup secured US$5.3 million in Series A funding in 2019, but was then hit by Lagos state’s…
Senegalese delivery startup Yobante Express, an online marketplace that connects local couriers with local commerce to optimise domestic, cross-border and last mile delivery, has raised a US$1.2 million bridge funding round as it looks to build on its impressive growth. Founded in November 2018, Yobante Express is a web and mobile platform that uses gig economy, independent…
Cairo-based startup Pravica, a communication platform using blockchain technology to empower user privacy and security, has secured an undisclosed investment for a Swiss VC firm to help it scale operations. Founded in 2019 by Mohamed Abdou, Pravica utilises blockchain to empower user privacy and security in the communication industry, specifically messaging apps, where enormous amounts of data…
Flat6Labs, a regional seed and early-stage VC firm, has announced the second close of its Tunisia-based Anava Seed Fund (ASF), taking the total size of the fund up to US$10 million from US$3 million. The Anava Seed Fund was launched in 2017 in partnership with the Tunisian American Enterprise Fund, BIAT Bank and Meninx Holding,…
Two of Africa’s biggest startup stories of 2021 involve the billion-dollar valuations accorded to OPay, and Wave. Propelled by Chinese and American venture capital, each rose rapidly to own large shares of the financial services sector in Nigeria and Senegal respectively, primarily because of their sprawling mobile money operations. But Opay and Wave are just two among many companies…
Once the world’s leading producer of palm oil, Nigeria has seen an output decline over the last three decades. The country is the fifth largest producer of palm oil in the world, the main ones currently being Malaysia and Indonesia. CNN learns that a host of challenges are to blame for Nigeria’s palm oil production shortcomings,…
International development funding to Africa has a “colonial” approach that favors Western organizations at the expense of local civil society organizations (CSOs), a new independent report funded by the Vodafone Foundation says. Most donor resources go to intermediary non-governmental organizations (NGOs) based in the northern hemisphere, the report says, describing the system as one that is…
The University of Cape Town (UCT) online school has been recognized for its revolutionary educational innovations, having been named one of the 12 Top Innovators in The WorldClass Education Challenge at the World Economic Forum’s Sustainable Development Impact Summit 2021. The World Class Education Challenge debuted in May of this year on the World Economic…
For any Startup or business, it is necessary to keep in mind that no business plan or strategy is foolproof. For this reason, business schools that teach entrepreneurship teach that startups should aim to fail fast forward frequently and frugally. The key is to accept that some form of failure is inevitable but, the way…
Netflix has announced the acquisition of video game developer Night School Studio, as well as the release of five mobile gaming games in key European markets, as it seeks to diversify revenue sources amid increasing competition in the streaming arena. The company’s initial gaming studio acquisition, Night School Studio, is most known for its debut…
In June, Visa reported that the top market contributors for e-commerce in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) over the last three years were South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya with Ghana also showing growth having replaced Kenya in the top three contributors in 2020. “The three leading markets in SSA are starting to mature, providing the region with an established…
Frogfoot, a licensed open-access infrastructure provider, has announced its acquisition of the Link Africa Western Cape FTTH (Fibre to the Home) network. The deal comes a few months after MetroFibre Networx purchased Link Africa’s FTTH network in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. Frogfoot says in a statement that the deal will aid in solidifying the company’s position in…
Nigerian mobility startup Moove, which provides revenue-based vehicle financing to help individuals across Africa own their own vehicles, has expanded to Cape Town and is gearing up for further pan-African growth. Founded by British-born Nigerians Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, who have successfully built three other businesses in Africa over the last eight years through…
Paratus Group has announced that its brand-new data centre will open in Lusaka, Zambia on 1 October 2021. The new data centre in the East African country will offer colocation services – 24/7 connections for local and multinational businesses, together with a sophisticated range of digital and aligned services. Colocation Customers are given the option…
Nigerian cryptocurrency exchange Yellow Card has raised US$15 million in Series A funding to ramp up hiring and continue its expansion across the continent. Launched in 2018, Yellow Card makes it easy for anyone, anywhere in Africa, to buy cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT Stablecoin using cash, mobile money, card, or bank transfer. The company now…
We’ve heard a lot about the role of technology in pandemic education, and for good reason: Digital solutions enabled school communities to maintain learning through uncertainty and interruption none of us could have imagined. However, the triumphs of edtech have been paired with critical challenges. Since the pandemic closed schools in March 2020, school districts…
Night School Studio, the independent game developer known for narrative-driven titles like “Oxenfree,” announced today it has been acquired by Netflix. This makes it the first games studio the streaming giant has purchased. In Netflix’s announcement, Mike Verdu, vice president of game development, wrote Night School’s “commitment to artistic excellence and proven track record make…
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Wall Street Journal : Facebook has come under increasing fire in recent days for its effect on young users and its efforts to create products for them. Inside the company, teams of employees have for years been laying plans to attract preteens that go beyond what is publicly known, spurred…
African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has launched the pan-African payment and settlement system (PAPSS), a financial market infrastructure, to enable cross-border payments in local currencies across different markets in the continent. The Afreximbank, in a statement made available on its website on Tuesday, September 28, said PAPSS will underpin the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade…
Exactly three days before the official launch of Nigeria’s digital currency called eNaira, the Central Bank of Nigeria opens the website. Before now, CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, had announced that the eNaira would be launched officially on Independence day, October 1st, 2021. According to the CBN, the digital currency is a legal tender just like…