AfriTECH

NCC, NITDA, GBB, Zoho, others support #AfriTECH2021

ByTechTrends

Africa Tech Alliance Forum 2021 (#AfriTECH) has received support from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), African ICT Foundation (AfictF) and InnovationBed.Africa. The Forum sponsored by Zoho (Platinum sponsor), Rack Centre, CloudFlex Computing Limited Digital Encode, Galaxy Backbone Limited, Notion Technologies, NewWave Ecosystems Limited (Konn3ct.com) and Zinochrome International Nigeria Limited, also enjoys…

Facebook Messenger

Facebook Messenger, Instagram Get Cross-App Group Chat Feature, Group Typing Indicators, More

ByTechTrends

Facebook has announced a set of new features to enhance integration between Instagram and Messenger. The new features include cross-app group communication, new group typing indicators, and polls on Instagram DMs (direct messages). The cross-app group feature chat allows people to start group chats between their Instagram and Messenger contacts, while with the group typing…

Crypto, Digital Currency

South Africans Are “Extremely Bullish” About Crypto – Luno

ByTechTrends

Cryptocurrency buying and selling platform Luno has conducted a survey of over 1000 of its customers in South Africa in August 2021, along with customers in the UK, Malaysia and Indonesia. Luno found that 82% of South Africans who hold cryptocurrency on its platform expect the bitcoin price to rise significantly, some believe as high as…

Unicorn

Africa’s 5 Unicorn Startups – Which Has the Highest Valuation?

ByTechTrends

Recently, global engineering talent outsourcer Andela reached the highly exalted status as a unicorn startup – a startup with a valuation of $1-billion or more. Andela joins an exceedingly exclusive group as one of Africa’s 5 startup unicorns currently operating. The first startup in Africa to achieve a ten-figure valuation was Jumia. The Nigerian-founded company is…

Andela

Nigeria’s Andela Achieves $1.5-Billion Valuation in Latest Series E Round

ByTechTrends

Andela, a global engineering talent outsourcing company launched in Nigeria in 2014 has secured a $200-million investment during a Series E funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, the venture capital arm of Japanese mega-corp SoftBank. This latest funding round brings Andela’s total valuation to $1.5-billion, officially making it Africa’s fifth unicorn startup. According…

Verto

Nigerian B2B payments platform Verto raises $10m Series A round

ByTechTrends

Nigerian startup Verto, a B2B payments platform that provides a fast, simple, and reliable way for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to make payments to their suppliers in over 200 countries across 39 currencies, has raised a US$10 million Series A round to boost its geographical expansion. Launched in 2018 by co-founders Ola Oyetayo and…

Pravica

Egyptian blockchain platform Pravica raises investment to drive decentralised identity

ByTechTrends

Cairo based Pravica, a communication platform using Blockchain technology to empower user privacy and security through decentralised identity, has announced an investment (amount undisclosed) from CV VC (Crypto Valley Venture Capital). CV VC is a leading blockchain venture capitalist and incubator of global tech disruptors who are driving the fourth industrial revolution. Commenting on the investment and…

Sun Exchange

SA’s Sun Exchange secures $2.5m funding to boost scaling efforts

ByTechTrends

South African startup Sun Exchange, a peer-to-peer solar leasing platform, has raised a further US$2.5 million in funding by way of a convertible note investment from an existing investor to help it scale more quickly. Launched in 2015, Sun Exchange enables anyone, anywhere in the world, to buy remotely-located solar cells that power schools, businesses and other…

https://disrupt-africa.com/2021/10/01/sa-startups-invited-to-apply-for-mlab-accelerator-programme/

SA startups invited to apply for mLab accelerator programme

ByTechTrends

mLab Southern Africa has opened applications for its StartUp Accelerator, offering selected companies access to mentorship, business clinics and grant seed funding. The mLab StartUp Accelerator 2021 is open to startups based in Gauteng, Limpopo and the Northern Cape, and will provide 15 businesses with a range of support mechanisms for a period of six months. It…

Edves

Nigerian ed-tech startup Edves raises $575k to bring more schools online

ByTechTrends

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
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General Motors’ new software platform Ultifi is coming to vehicles starting in 2023

ByTechTrends

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…

AI

Google is redesigning Search using AI technologies and new features

ByTechTrends

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

TikTok Shopping expands with more partnerships, LIVE Shopping, new ads and more

ByTechTrends

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…

eNaira

The Central Bank of Nigeria Launches eNaira Website

ByTechTrends

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

TikTok now has over one billion monthly active users worldwide.

ByTechTrends

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

Vodacom SA Partners Cybersecurity Firm Evina to Fight Mobile Fraud

ByTechTrends

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

Andela Announces $200M Investment Led by SoftBank

ByTechTrends

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

Open banking in Africa after COVID-19

ByTechTrends

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…

Cyberchain Conference

Cyberchain Conference: Hackathon Competition Registration Is On

ByTechTrends

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

Nigeria’s Gokada expands into Ibadan, moves towards resuming ride-hailing

ByTechTrends

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…

Yobante Express

Senegalese logistics startup Yobante Express raises $1.2m seed round

ByTechTrends

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…

Pravica

Egyptian blockchain startup Pravica raises funding to scale operations

ByTechTrends

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

Flat6Labs announces 2nd close of Tunisia seed fund at $10m

ByTechTrends

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,…

mobile money

How mobile money grew in sub-Saharan Africa in the last 10 years

ByTechTrends

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…

Releaf ’s Ikenna Nzewi
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AgriTech: Releaf ’s Ikenna Nzewi, others feature as CNN explores Nigeria’s palm oil industry

ByTechTrends

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,…

African nonprofits

African nonprofits want to “decolonize” donor funding

ByTechTrends

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…

World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum has named the University of Cape Town Online School a global Top Innovator

ByTechTrends

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…

Startup
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Tips To Keep Your Startup Afloat In The First Year

ByTechTrends

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

Netflix acquires its own video game studio and launches mobile games

ByTechTrends

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…