A South African venture capital firm called Futuregrowth has announced intentions to launch the Futuregrowth High Growth Development Equity Fund (HGDEF), which will concentrate on funding firms with a significant positive impact on development. Futuregrowth is a leading developmental investor and South Africa’s eighth-largest asset management organization with more than 50 fund products, more than…
The Unmention tool, which Twitter has launched, will give users more control over their mentions on the social networking platform. You can now use the functionality to keep yourself out of talks that you don’t want to take part in. The function is now available across all platforms and gadgets. Starting earlier this month, Twitter…
A pre-seed funding round for CreditChek, a Nigerian lender, raised $240,000 under the leadership of Atom Capital, with contributions from Aidi Ventures, Ham Serunjogi of Chippercash, Olumide Ogunsanwo of Adamantium Fund, Damola Adegboyega of Assembly Investors, Isaac Ewaleifoh of Launch Africa Ventures, and Ogundiran Kayode. The company said that with the help of this money,…
Endeavor has closed Endeavor Catalyst Fund IV, a $292 million venture capital fund, and it still intends to invest in the businesses throughout the world that are run by Endeavor Entrepreneurs. Endeavor Catalyst Fund IV was the company’s largest fund to date when it closed, exceeding its original $200 million to $250 million goal. Additionally,…
In order to extend its drone delivery services abroad and increase manufacturing of the Wingcopter 198, the most effective eVTOL delivery drone in the world, Wingcopter, a German manufacturer and service provider, has raised $42 million. German investors Salvia and XAI technologies joined the board as new shareholders, as well as the German retailer REWE…
Persistent has provided cash to the Ghanaian e-mobility business SolarTaxi in order to expand its product line. SolarTaxi is an electric two-wheel (e-2Ws) and four-wheel (e-4Ws) vehicle manufacturer and distributor that Jorge Appiah founded in 2018. These cars are used for delivery and transportation services. The company also has operations in Kumasi, Takoradi, and Tamale….
Wave Mobile Money, which operates in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire to cut costs and increase services in the area, has received money from the IFC, a division of the World Bank, to promote financial inclusion and assist economic growth in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire. With the support of financing from IFC and other lenders, Wave…
For an unknown sum, South African data analytics, consulting, and software platform Principa is being purchased by Mauritius-based technology investment holding company Hyperclear from Apex Partners Holdings. In order to finance its acquisition plans, which are concentrated on businesses with Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) of up to R250 million, Hyperclear recently…
The third edition of The Future is Female Programme, a PR and communications mentorship program devoted to the business development needs of African tech female innovators, has been released by New York-based public relations (PR) firm C. Moore Media. The Future is Female Program seeks to offer the insights, knowledge, and abilities in PR and…
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and the richest man in the world, announced on Friday that he was canceling his $44 billion bid to acquire Twitter because the social media business had broken numerous merger agreement clauses. Bret Taylor, the chairman of Twitter, said on the microblogging site that the board intended to file…
LAGOS, 11 July 2022 — Response Architects, operators of ShopEX, has teamed up with Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, under an exclusive agreement to launch an African livestream shopping platform, Penda, in major markets including Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. Leveraging on the successful launch of ShopEX’s teleshopping model, Penda…
The race to roll out e-cash on the continent has heated up with Ghana becoming the latest African nation to start evaluating the sustainability of its central bank-backed digital currency, the eCedi. After Nigeria introduced the eNaira in October 2021, only South Africa and Ghana remain in the pilot stage of the process. A contactless…
Paymee, a fintech firm that provides an online payment gateway, has completed a six-figure fundraising round with P1 Ventures as the lead investor. The business will use the money to expand its enterprise offering and quicken the pace of product development. The start-up specializes on digitizing payment processes and providing card-based online payment acceptance solutions….
The second Afri-Plastics Challenge, which promotes eco-friendly ways to lessen our reliance on plastic trash, has announced its ten finalists. Thanks to financing from the Government of Canada, the Afri-Plastics Challenge, run by London-based innovation specialists Challenge Works, is combating the epidemic of plastic pollution in Sub-Saharan Africa. Each finalist will receive GBP75,000 (US$90,000) to…
To expand the reach of its auto-financing services in Francophone Africa, Nigeria-based auto-tech business Autochek has announced the acquisition of CoinAfrique, the top platform for classified ads in that continent. In order to improve and enable a seamless and secure automotive commerce experience throughout Africa, Autochek intends to develop digital solutions. By developing a single…
Kenya Power, a government-owned provider of energy, announced in March that it would begin offering fixed internet. As of the right moment, it has declared that its service would debut in June 2023. Business Daily reports that over the past few months, the state-owned electricity business has conducted pilot tests by offering the services to…
Every screen is going digital! This was demonstrated at the Eskimi CMO Masterclass on Wednesday, July 6, 2022 in Lagos (Nigeria); speakers, panelists, and participants unanimously agreed that brands in Nigeria must focus on the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) while embracing programmatic solutions to achieve their marketing goals. Eskimi is Nigeria’s largest programmatic platform;…
Binance, the world’s leading blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider, is commemorating its fifth anniversary by waiving trading fees across a wide range of bitcoin spot trading pairs. From July 8, users will be able to trade fee-free on thirteen stablecoins and fiat combinations, including BTC/USDT, BTC/BUSD, BTC/USDC, BTC/EUR, BTC/TRY, and more, according to a…
Over the past few years, African countries have made great progress in improving traditional education outcomes. Today, the report has it that educational enrollment has reached 80%, and in most countries of the continent, basic education is free and guaranteed by the government. Albeit this development, modern-day incidents has reintroduced existing insubstantialities in Africa’s educational…
Apple has unveiled a new security mechanism designed to protect high-risk customers from cyberattacks such as malware. Lockdown Mode will soon be available on all iPhones, iPads, and Macs produced by the company with the next operating system. The option limits call from unknown users and disable certain functions. It comes after spyware was discovered…
Visa, the global leader in digital payments, is collaborating with Flocash FT, a fintech platform, to promote digital capabilities for African SMEs via digital payments, supplier solutions, and access to financial services. Flocash, which began operations in Kenya in 2013, is a leading provider of payment technology and processing services to consumers, businesses, and financial…
Grand Africa Initiative-GAIN and the Development Bank of Nigeria Plc (DBN) have announced a collaboration to train two hundred young Nigerian Women in an entrepreneurship course titled “GAIN Entrepreneurship Masterclass for Women (Nigeria)”, starting in July 2022. The course is designed to equip selected young women entrepreneurs from across the country with entrepreneurial knowledge and skills…
On Friday, July 8th, 2022, Eko Innovation Center, Eko Carbon, and Commodity will be collaborating with Generation Unlimited 9Ja to gather together Nigerian innovators for the first climate mitigation hackathon tagged EkoClimathon 1.0. Eko Innovation Centre is one of the leading tech hubs in Nigeria, curating events like Art of Technology Lagos, and The Lagos…
Aiponics, a Zambian Agritech startup, has announced the launch of Hrvst, a digital marketplace to provide customers and restaurants with easier access to local farm produce. Aiponics’ vision for Hrvst is to connect farmers and consumers in Africa, making it easy for them to obtain fresh farm produce without the use of a middleman. “With…
Following a successful pilot phase, AFEX, Nigeria’s commodities exchange and commodities market platform, has announced its expansion into Kenya. AFEX Fair Trade Limited (AFTL) has launched a $1 million loan program as part of the expansion to provide farmers with access to seed and fertilizer for their crops, thereby mitigating rising commodity prices. Under the…
Xend Finance, a Nigerian startup, has reached 100,000 users and announced expansions into Ghana and Kenya. Xend Finance, which participated in the Google Launchpad Africa accelerator and the Binance Incubation Programme in 2019, has created a platform that allows anyone to save and invest in stable currencies. The Xend Finance platform also enables users to…
The Innovate UK KTN Global Alliance Africa Global Alliance Innovation Exchange (iX) challenge is assisting a large agri-based manufacturing company in Kenya in identifying innovative solutions to two significant and immediate challenges that they face. Global Alliance Innovation Exchange is a KTN program of Innovate UK that was created to assist UK and international organizations…
The list of 100 technology startups chosen for the 2022 Technology Pioneers cohort has been released by the World Economic Forum (WEF). These six firms are from four nations in Africa: Nigeria (one), Kenya (three), Rwanda (one), and Cameroon (1). This year, Cameroon and Rwanda are added to the list for the first time. The…
The first UK office of Kora, an African payment infrastructure that provides payment API for payment collections and disbursements as well as cross-border transfers, has opened. Through the West Midlands Growth Company, an organization in charge of driving regional investment promotion and economic growth for the West Midlands and the UK, Kora collaborated with the…
In order to expand its service offerings throughout Kenya and East Africa, the Kenyan startup Duhqa, a B2B platform for retail distribution of consumer goods in FMCG, Cold Chain, and Pharmaceuticals, has closed a US$2 million Seed round. Participating in the investment round were CrosssFund, Roselake Ventures, and Mo Angels. Additionally, it included current investors…