Written by Luis Monzon Facebook is collaborating with Nigerian companies Big Cabal Media and Comic Republic to launch the #NoFalseNewsZone educational campaign aimed at helping individuals identify fake news and educate them on how to minimise the spread of false information across Nigeria’s internet and otherwise. “We are super excited to be working with Big Cabal Media and Comic…
Written by Manish Singh, Zack Whittaker WhatsApp said on Friday it will give its two billion users the option to encrypt their chat backups to the cloud, taking a significant step to put a lid on one of the tricky ways private communication between individuals on the app can be compromised. The Facebook-owned service has end-to-end encrypted…
Plentywaka, the Toronto-headquartered shared mobility startup which provides hassle-free shared rides on-demand, is making a significant shift in its business today as it announced that it has changed its name to Treepz. The name change which is effective as of now presents an opportunity to align the company name with its Pan-African expansion plan. It…
Written by TOM JACKSON Nigerian auto-tech startup Autochek has expanded to Kenya and Uganda after acquiring the Cheki platforms for each of those countries from ROAM Africa. Autochek aims to build digital solutions that will enhance and enable a seamless and safe automotive commerce experience across Africa, starting with Nigeria and Ghana. It plans to use…
Written by Sarah Perez Twitter today is introducing a new feature that will allow accounts to self-identify as bots by adding a label to their profile. This feature is designed to help people better differentiate between automated accounts — like bots that retweet the news, public service announcements or other updates — from those operated…
Written by Tage Kene-Okafor We like to buy things online ranging from e-commerce stores to subscription-based sites. However, no one enjoys the hassle when you have to always re-log into different sites and stores. I mean, shopping can be a whole lot more fun if a fast logging and checkout system existed across all your favorite online…
The Stories realize the vision that Snap’s Spectacles dreamed Written by Lucas Matney Facebook’s first pair of smart glasses doesn’t feel like much of a Facebook product. You won’t find the Facebook logo emblazoned on them or even its name in small print by the serial code. They aren’t “Facebook Stories” or “Ray-Ban’s Facebook Stories” or…
Written by Victoria Fakiya Emeka was eight years old when he dropped out of primary school. He couldn’t read and write at the time, and his environment was not conducive for learning. “When I was in primary school, I used to think I wasn’t cut out for school. And the fact that I was living…
Written by Yinka Okeowo Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, director general of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has referred Digital Media as one of the key enablers of Digital Economy, according to him, awareness is fundamental for the growth and development of any nation. Abdullahi said this while playing host to Colonel Aliyu Yusuf, the commandant of the…
Written by Yinka Okeowo Female representation in senior management and executive roles in companies around the world remains low, however in South Africa it is stagnant. Worse still, women make up a mere 10% of CEOs at the world’s biggest tech firms, so one can only imagine how low the number is in South Africa. This is…
Written by Michael Ajifowoke Owning a personal vehicle is of economic importance. Next to housing, transportation is often the second largest expenditure for the majority of urban households anywhere in the world. But insufficient purchasing power among middle-class Nigerians coupled with limited or no access to vehicle financing puts cars out of reach for over…
Written by Luis Monzon The way we communicate socially has changed, thanks to social media and mobile technology. For many, this has also translated to changes in the way we communicate professionally this digital world. Digital has removed the typical boundaries associated with geography and time zones, and people expect to be able to use…
Written by Natasha Mascarenhas When you’re in the mood for a pep talk, who better to turn to than a well-networked, optimistic mentor who is naturally in your corner? That friendly shoulder is the role that “Masters of Scale” wants to play. Inspired by LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock partner Reid Hoffman’s hit podcast, the new…
Written by TOM JACKSON Manufacturing tech leader Guidewheel, which began life as Safi in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, is targeting faster expansion in the United States (US) after raising Series A funding. Disrupt Africa reported in July Guidewheel, which was based out of Nairobi as Safi from 2018-2020, had closed a US$8 million Series A funding round. A…
Written by TOM JACKSON The Financial Times has partnered with Seedstars to host the first FTxSDG Challenge, aimed at empowering promising, impact-driven startups and entrepreneurs with learning and funding opportunities. The event will bring together early-stage startups from emerging markets and individual entrepreneurs to take part in the FTxSDG Challenge competition, with a focus on…
Written by Tage Kene-Okafor In Nigeria, there are more than 40 million micro-businesses underserved in some form or another regarding banking services. Although some of these businesses have registered bank accounts, gaps exist in how banks use the data available to serve the needs of each business. With banks, presenting a series of transactions as statements is all these…
Written by Taylor Hatmaker Twitter is exploring ways to build a more visually immersive experience with its latest test, which brings edge-to-edge tweets to the app on iOS. Full-width images and videos track for the direction the company has shown some interest in going lately. Twitter introduced bigger images with improved cropping controls for its…
Written by TOM JACKSON Kenya-based energy leasing company Solarise Africa has secured EUR5 million (US$5.9 million) in debt financing from Swedish impact investment platform Trine to help it sustain its growth across the continent. Founded by Patrik Huber, Jan Albert Valk and Sakkie van Wijk, Solarise Africa is an energy leasing company for solar and other energy…
Written by Sarah Perez Microsoft today is introducing its own personalized news reading experience called Microsoft Start, available as both a website and mobile app, in addition to being integrated with other Microsoft products, including Windows 10 and 11 and its Microsoft Edge web browser. The feed will combine content from news publishers, but in a way…
Written by Kate Park PayPal Holdings, the U.S. fintech company, announced an acquisition of Paidy, a Japanese buy now, pay later (BNPL) service platform, for approximately $2.7 billion (300 billion yen), mostly in cash, to enhance its business in Japan. The transaction completion, including the regulatory approval, is expected in the fourth quarter of 2021. After the acquisition,…
Written By Luis Monzon Zip Australia has announced its intention to fully acquire South African buy now pay later (BNPL) fintech Payflex as part of its global expansion plans. With a presence in twelve markets across five continents, Zip plans to grow its South African business and expand into other African markets with sizable underbanked, digitally savvy…
Written by TOM JACKSON Egyptian fintech startup MNT-Halan has secured a US$120 million investment by major global and regional growth investors to further develop its product and expand internationally. Having begun life as a ride-hailing app for two- and three-wheeler vehicles back in 2018, MNT-Halan has morphed into a super app of sorts, and in the process…
Written by Luis Monzon UK-based mobile tech firm Africell announced yesterday that it was ending its operations in Uganda, where it has been unable to supersede its competitors in the country, namely local units of massive telecom firms such as South Africa’s MTN and India’s Airtel. “Africell … will end operations in Uganda on 7…
Written by Luis Monzon Samsung has announced that its newly launched Galaxy Z series is now available for pre-order in South Africa. The highly anticipated device series includes the foldable smartphones Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G. The South Korean tech juggernaut is also adding in some pre-order bonuses for its South…
Written By George Dascalu Microsoft Power Apps Suite’s default permissions are flawed In an unexpected data leak, more than 38 million records from 47 organizations using Microsoft’s gateway platform Power Apps were accidentally published online, according to The Hacker News. The unfortunate incident resulted in the leakage of sensitive information on servers of corporations such as Microsoft,…
Written by Michael Ajifowoke Within four years, Wave has gone from a spinoff from Asia and Africa-focused cheap remittance company, Sendwave, to a mobile money service provider worth $1.7 billion; the latest unicorn startup in Africa and the first in the French-speaking region. The billion-dollar valuation comes after it raised $200 million in a Series A round…
My co-founders and I launched Bridge Network earlier this year. We have a combined 12 years of experience working with some form of Blockchain and I dare say that we’re the right combination of experience and grit to make a case for Bridge network and its impact on the Blockchain economy. Bridge Network is a…
Written by TOM JACKSON Morocco-based startup Lacaisse, which offers a digital solution for the management of physical points of sale (POS), has raised an undisclosed amount of funding to help it scale. Founded in 2016 by Said Belkhayat and Rim Benboubker, Lacaisse has established a base of more than 250 points of sale in the Casablanca catering…
By Luis Monzon The mobile money service of Kenya’s largest telco has officially reached 50-million active users across Africa, according to an announcement by Safaricom. M-PESA is now, by the sheer size of its active user base, the most popular mobile money platform on the continent and the largest financial technology in Africa, according to TechWeez. The…
Endeavor Nigeria has unveiled the inaugural cohort of entrepreneurs for its new 10-week Endeavor ScaleUp Program that aims to support Nigeria’s most promising, high-impact business leaders. Leveraging Endeavor’s extensive global network, participating entrepreneurs will have access to mentorship, fundraising support, partnerships and a strong peer network of high impact entrepreneurs who have built and run successful…