Tala, a fintech company, announced that it has raised USD 145 million in a Series E funding round led by Upstart and with participation from Stellar Development Foundation. Tala’s total capital now stands at over USD 350 million, thanks to new investors including Kindred Ventures and The J. Safra Group, as well as current investors…
Every October for the last four decades, Breast Cancer Awareness Month has helped to raise visibility of the most prevalent cancer on Earth — one that takes almost three-quarters of a million lives every year. Despite recorded cases stretching back to ancient Egypt, breast cancer was considered an “unspeakable” condition for millennia. Women were expected…
The United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, and PwC Nigeria recently signed a ground-breaking Memorandum of Understanding, (MOU), to collaborate on strategic initiatives centred on facilitating skills transfer, knowledge and competencies. The first of its kind collaboration in Africa is aimed at catalysing development and policy dialogues that connect and link the private and public sectors with the start-up…
Cairo-based startup Talabeyah, which runs a food and grocery B2B e-commerce and distribution platform, has raised US$1.1 million in funding from a group of angel investors to help boost its strong early growth. Founded by Karim Nassef, Amr Abbas, Khaled Hussein and Adel Hodroj in July 2020, Talabeyah provides a tailored simple solution for retailers, allowing them…
Techpoint Africa currently operates in a hybrid co-living and remote work environment. About half of the team live on the same premises, and once every month, we take a trip to the market to stock up on food items. Almost without fail, we discover that the prices of foodstuffs have increased since our last visit. Often,…
In a drive to discover emerging filmmaking talents, Netflix and UNESCO have partnered to launch a creative short film competition. Focused on a common goal, Netflix and UNESCO believe in the importance of promoting diverse local stories and bringing them to the world. Through this competition, both organisations seek to ensure the African tradition is…
Don’t you hate it when your keyboard skills are superior to the power of your computer monitor? Being a keyboard warrior – in the gaming world and daily work life – is no easy feat, especially if your monitor is outdated and can’t keep up with your activity level. Throw in dull graphics and delayed…
Google Trends publishes the top searches for every day of the week and covers 4 African countries in which it sees the most activity, namely Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. The top search trends from along the week provide an interesting insight into the minds of each country, what captivated users the most and what…
Hardware season is heading for a dramatic finale next week, with three events from three major companies, three days in a row. Apple, Google and Samsung (in that order) are all hosting big events next week, getting their last big announcements (hopefully) out of the way ahead of the upcoming holiday season. That means your friendly…
The NFT market is still defying reason, but then again that’s kind of its thing. But one thing I’m especially unsure about lately as I see JPGs continue to sell for millions of dollars is… does any of this actually matter? I’ve spent a lot of time over the last year grappling with the NFT…
Throughout my career as an entrepreneur and investor, I have had the opportunity to work with business leaders of all calibers — and varying degrees of success. After time, I was able to discern the distinct traits that separated those who could build great companies from those who would be limited in what they could accomplish. For…
Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa top 20 other African countries under the enforceability of standard master agreements pillar in the latest African Financial Markets Index presented by Absa, a leading financial services provider. The insight was delivered during the presentation of its Absa-OMFIF Financial Markets Index on Wednesday, October 13, 2021. The top financial services provider also…
Africa.com undertook a rigorous research project to identify the women who run the largest, most complex businesses on the African continent. The result of this extensive research undertaking is The Africa.com Definitive List of Women CEOs. SAP’s Cathy Smith, MD Sub-Saharan Africa, made the list of 50 women CEOs leading corporate Africa. The list was compiled…
The 6th Orange Digital Center in Africa and the Middle East, which is committed to digital development and innovation and aims to teach young people in digital technology and improve their employability, was inaugurated by Orange Cameroon and the German Development Cooperation. The highest political and administrative authorities from Cameroon, Representatives of Germany and France in Cameroon,…
The UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Nigeria, Helen Grant and Nigeria’s Minister of Industry Trade and Investment, Mr. Adeniyi Adebayo, Friday, held virtually the sixth (6th) meeting of the United Kingdom-Nigeria Economic Development Forum (EDF). The meeting was joined by Her Majesty’s Acting Trade Commissioner for Africa, Alastair Long, the Comptroller General of the Nigeria…
Nigerian retail-tech startup Alerzo has acquired fintech company Shago Payments as it looks to build on already impressive growth that saw its annualised September transaction volume exceed US$155 million. Founded in 2019, the Ibadan-based Alerzo is an all-in-one technology and services platform that transforms how Nigeria’s informal retail stores operate. Retailers can order stock, have it delivered…
In emerging economies, where spending billions to build public transit infrastructure can be out of reach, startups are using technology to meet the mobility needs of a rising urban middle class. Swvl, Treepz, Jatri, SafeBoda, Urbvan, Chalo and Buser are just a few of the startups that have popped up in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America in recent years, all with…
Tilting Point, a leading free-to-play games publisher, and Carry1st, a leading publisher of mobile games in Africa, have partnered to bring the award winning game, SpongeBob: Krusty Cook-Off, to the entire African continent. Africa tops the charts in terms of continents with the most significant download growth, with 4 of the top 6 countries showing fastest download growth globally (Egypt, Nigeria,…
In 2016, a coalition of 34 Kenyan Uber drivers filed a suit against Uber Kenya after, the coalition claimed, the company had violated an online contract. According to the contract in question, the drivers were expected to transport customers at a minimum of $0.54 per kilometre, with a minimum fare of $2.71, with Uber Kenya making 25%…
Google Search is undergoing a change that will allow users to continuously scroll results on mobile devices. With the latest update, Google Search on mobile will automatically list out more results when users scroll to the bottom of a results page. The new feature released by the search giant will eliminate the need to click…
According to data published by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance in the United Kingdom, the United States has surpassed China as the world’s top bitcoin mining country. Bitcoin is created or “mined” by high-powered computers located in data centers all over the world competing to solve complicated mathematical riddles in a process that consumes…
In 2016, 34 plaintiffs filed a suit against Uber Kenya Limited. Their claim? Uber’s group of companies had violated an online contract signed by drivers in Kenya. According to court documents, the contract stipulated that the plaintiffs would transport Uber’s Kenya customer base at a minimum of $0.54 per kilometre, with a minimum fare of $2.71. Under…
Sparkle, a mobile-first digital bank that provides financial, lifestyle and business support services to Nigerians across the globe, has raised an oversubscribed seed round of $3.1m from an all-Nigerian group of investors including Leadway Assurance, Trium Networks and a number of Nigerian HNIs. This follows a previous friends and family pre-Seed round totalling $2m [N857m], bringing Sparkle’s…
According to Facebook vice president of global affairs Nick Clegg, Instagram will adopt new methods to steer kids away from hazardous content and encourage them to “take a break” from the platform. Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, testified before Congress on the company’s internal research that found Instagram to be hazardous, particularly for teen…
WhatsApp is beginning to roll out a new feature that will provide its two billion users the option to encrypt their chat history backup in iCloud or Google Drive, patching a major loophole that has been exploited by governments to obtain and review private communication between individuals. WhatsApp has long encrypted chats between users on its app. But users…
Flutterwave Inc., a Nigerian payments firm, is seeking fresh funding at a valuation of $3 billion or more, a figure that would roughly triple its last valuation, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The startup, which has offices in Lagos, Nigeria and San Francisco, recently held discussions with potential investors, the people said….
African blockchain company Bitmama has closed a $350,000 pre-Seed round, led by Flori Ventures, with participation from Nigeria-based investment fund Emergence Capital, Fedha Capital, and a host of VCs and angel investors. The Bitmama pre-seed round will be used to grow its operational presence, expand its team, and penetrate new markets across the continent, while rapidly scaling crypto and payment…
American technology giant Microsoft announced today that it will pull its professional social network LinkedIn from the Chinese market later this year. Microsoft purchased LinkedIn for more than $26 billion back in 2016. The news comes amidst a flurry of regulatory changes in the Asian nation, as well as rising tensions between the company and the country. Two…
Twitter says it’s going to test a new ad format and placement on its platform. On Wednesday, Twitter Revenue Product Lead Bruce Falck said Twitter would begin showing ads on mobile devices inside conversation threads after the first, third and eighth replies. While the company stopped short of confirming the change would be permanent, it did say…
South African school management and communication startup d6 has raised an undisclosed funding round from a group of local VC companies, and is now targeting global growth. Founded in 2017, d6 has developed ed-tech solutions consisting of a comprehensive communication and payment facilitation solution between a school, parents and learners, and a fully integrated cloud-based school administration,…