Observability and site reliability engineering (SRE) have become essential elements of modern infrastructure in software engineering because customers expect faultless digital experiences and organizations are under extreme pressure to maintain uptime. In a world where even short outages can result in large financial losses, these paradigms offer comprehensive ways to guarantee dependability, and operational excellence…
WhatsApp Polls, the newest group communication feature from the Meta-owned company, is now available to users on both Android and iOS. Polls and “Communities,” a feature that enables users to have many groups under a single roof to organize group talks, were recently added to the messaging app. In addition, WhatsApp had doubled the participant…
The Kenyan fintech firm Finplus Group has claimed that after five years of operation, its platform has processed transactions worth over US$1 billion. Finplus, a company founded in 2017 by Kageni Wilson and Bernard Banta, offers fully-managed software to assist financial service providers in running their businesses effectively and expanding in any market. With modular…
Making US$20k Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) with 1 full-time employee and two part-time co-founders: CEO working from overseas! Running a small software development company, we had our ‘breakthrough’ moment in 2019 when high-profile global bank awarded us a US$150k project. I needed to grow the team in order to meet the tight delivery timelines. With…
DeveloPPP Ventures, a startup program sponsored by the German government, has announced a grant of €100,000 for startups in Kenya and Tanzania to help them grow their impact-driven businesses. A project of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), develoPPP Ventures is carried out by DEG Impulse and sponsored by Seedstars, a…
The internet super highway isn’t a one-way street. While everyone’s focus is usually on their download speed, there are countless reasons why influencers, content creators, and gamers shouldn’t treat upload speeds as an afterthought. “A recent Vuma 2021 Core End-User Research Study revealed that only 17% of respondents upgraded their fibre internet speed because they have large upload requirements….
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele has issued a statement concerning the institution’s policy to introduce redesigned naira notes by the 15th of December 2022. This he said is as a result of continuous rise in the inability of banks to control the circulation of Nigeria’s naira notes, which poses as incompetence on the…
Critical stakeholders that attended this year’s Nigerian Peering and Interconnection Forum (ngPIF) have highlighted some insights and practical knowledge, which they believe will advance the economics of network interconnectivity in Nigeria. Conversations at the 2-day event, held on October 25th – 26th and which saw an attendance pool of over 400 infrastructure providers, connectivity stakeholders, content providers,…
The recent partnership between the National Senior Secondary School Education Commission (NSSEC) with one of Africa’s Leading EdTech Not for Profit; Coderina Education and Technology Foundation, is set to unlock Nigeria’s human capital development by enabling teachers to prepare students for the Fourth Industrial revolution (4IR). This partnership is a huge step toward fulfilling the…
ESET received much accolades from guests and honourees at the Africa Tech Alliance Forum (AfriTECH 2.0) Awards as the company was conferred with CyberSecurity Company of the Year Award. The awards ceremony was part of activities lined up for AfriTECH 2.0 held in Lagos – Nigeria, on November 09, 2022 2 under the theme: ‘Sustainability and…
The Africa Tech Alliance Forum (AfriTECH) has conferred special honours on Professor Isa Ibrahim Ali (Pantami), Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, the Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). Other special honourees at the award ceremony held during AfriTECH 2.0 are; Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, Director General, National Information Technology…
In order to launch the commercial delivery of locally produced electric buses and charging infrastructure, the Kenyan firm BasiGo has acquired US$6.6 million in new seed funding. In November of last year, Disrupt Africa announced that BasiGo had begun operations in Nairobi after securing KES100 million (US$900,000) in finance earlier in the year. The firm…
The sixth edition of Africa IT Summit London (ATS), which takes place on November 24 at the London Stock Exchange, will bring together African tech leaders, corporations, and investors. Leading industry figures from the annual Summit will share their perspectives, including those from the London Stock Exchange, DLA Piper, Alerzo, Deimos, Niji Oni & Co.,…
A $225 million venture financing platform has been developed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to support early-stage businesses in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Pakistan. In order to “develop them into scalable companies that can attract mainstream equity and debt finance,” the IFC, a member of the World Bank, will invest in…
As part of an exclusive multi-year agreement, Cristiano Ronaldo’s first NFT collection will be made available on Friday, November 18, by Binance, the world’s foremost blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider. A global marketing effort involving Ronaldo will support the launch and introduce his followers to Web3 through the realm of NFTs. He Yi, co-founder…
Immediate past Chief Executive Officer, CWG PLC, and Founder, Ixzdorelabs, an innovation hub and consultancy focused company, Mr. James Agada, has listed some factors that could lead to the premature death of a Startup. Agada, who spoke to the theme: Sustainability and the company of the future, at Africa Tech Alliance Forum (AfriTECH 2.0) held in…
The second iteration of the Startup Wise Guys accelerator, which provides selected B2B SaaS firms with access to EUR65,000 (US$67,000) in funding and a rigorous five-month mentorship program, has chosen nine startups to participate. Startup Wise Guys, an organization that was founded in Tallinn, Estonia in 2012, also oversees cybersecurity programs out of Cosenza and…
In order to advance digital identification across the continent of Africa, uqudo, a digital identity firm that makes customer onboarding safe, effective, and affordable, has worked with various organizations in the region. 50% of the 1.3 billion people in Africa, according to the World Bank and the Africa Development Bank, are smartphone users. The projected…
OneWeb has announced that it has entered into a relationship with Airtel Africa. Through this collaborative partnership, OneWeb will be able to reach government and enterprise clients throughout large swaths of the continent with its high-speed, low-latency LEO connection services. The partnership will concentrate on providing enterprise and civil government customers with satellite communications services…
The GSMA Innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and Adaptation, which aims to speed up the testing, adoption, and scalability of digital innovations that enable the world’s most vulnerable populations to adapt to, anticipate, and absorb the negative impacts of climate change, has announced the recipients of grants, including eight African startups. The GSMA Innovation Fund…
The Plug & Play, iCubed Capital, WZ Capital, and the Jozi Angels Network participated in the pre-seed round of funding for the South African telehealth platform Contro. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation also provided grant funding from the i3 fund. Contro was founded in June 2021 and presently provides six services, including once-off STI,…
Eden Care, a Rwandan insurtech firm that provides businesses and their employees with inexpensive, individualized, and accessible health coverage, has acquired pre-seed capital to support its growth across East Africa. The two biggest reinsurers in Africa, Zep Re and Africa Re, support Eden Care, a licensed provider of digital health insurance. The start-up gives companies…
A US$600,000 pre-seed fundraising round has been completed by Nigerian startup CutStruct Technology to help with the growth and scalability of its B2B construction procurement application LiveVend. CutStruct, a company founded by John Oamen and Tayo Odunsi, has created LiveVend, a platform for construction procurement that enables buyers like contractors and real estate developers to…
With the aid of Buffet Investments, KLT, and the Shoprite Group as the lead investors, Omnisient, a provider of consumer privacy-protecting data collaboration platforms in emerging markets, has raised a $3.5 million round of expansion financing. The expansion round was oversubscribed, and more investors joined original investors Investec and Nedbank, as well as follow-on investors…
Credit cards are hard to come by in Egypt. Only 4.8 million credit cards, or less than 5% of Egypt’s 104 million people, are available to be used to service that population, according to the Central Bank of Egypt. Due to wage reductions, an increase in unemployment and underemployment, and a general slowdown in the…
Following yesterday’s declaration by President William Ruto that the government is working on a plan to produce mobile phones that will cost less than Ksh. 5,000 in the next year, Kenya will begin manufacturing affordable smartphones. The president was speaking in Nairobi at the annual general meeting of the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and…
Spotify has started an initiative that it claims would encourage “solution-driven” conversation about the issues the African music business is facing. The session, dubbed Spotify Talks Africa, will include experts chosen from across the industry, according to the streamer. It is thought that the effort would involve artists, producers, artist management, and staff members from…
Applications for the 2023 cohort of the Anzisha Prize, a renowned venture-building program that supports young African entrepreneurs between the ages of 15 and 22, are now available. African entrepreneurs under the age of 22 who are starting enterprises and giving their peers job opportunities are urged to apply. Following that, 30 fellows will be…
The Katapult Africa Accelerator Programme, which gives entrepreneurs access to US$150,000 in investment and other support, has chosen nine startups from across the continent. A number of African entrepreneurs have received funding from the Norwegian-based Katapult Accelerator, which has also spun out projects including Katapult Ocean and a program devoted to addressing climate change. The…
Leading international edtech startup Snapplify is making significant investments in West Africa as part of its commitment to expanding access to digital education. Hundreds of educational institutions in the area have already registered with the company since its 2012 establishment in South Africa. Wesley Lynch, CEO of Snapplify, stated that “schools and tertiary institutions are…