Leadership comes with a lot of responsibilities and sometimes sacrifice. As a result-oriented leader, you must be always willing to take responsibility for everything that happens within your department. Since I started leading a team of over twenty (20) developers at my current employment, I can tell for sure that there are a couple of…
TikTok, a video streaming platform, has added new features to assist users to control their screen time, including a new and easily available in-app dashboard tool that shows users the social app’s usage statistics. This isn’t the first time the social media platform has attempted to boost its members’ digital well-being by assisting them with…
Chari, a Moroccan B2B e-commerce and finance firm, said today that it has purchased a 100% share in Diago, an Ivorian app that connects local stores with FMCG makers and importers. AF Legal and RBB International firms, representing Chari, and Houda Law Firm, representing the Ivorian startup, handled the all-stock transaction. This transaction comes just…
GOMYCODE, a Tunisian edtech business, has raised $8 million in a series A round of funding. AfricInvest, through its Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund (CAIF), and Proparco, a French-based development financing institution, co-led the deal, with existing investor Wamda Capital joining as a follow-on. After raising a seed of $850,000 in October 2020, this new round…
Kenya’s information and communication technology ministry has released a coding curriculum for school children. The newest trend in schools is coding. In other parts of the world, it is taught at a lower level, and Kenya appears to be following suit. To that end, we’ve heard that Kenyan children will soon be able to take…
Franc, a South African financial app, has secured ZAR8 million (US$522,000) in a seed extension round and unveiled a B2B solution that allows partner organizations to quickly and easily deploy savings and investment products. Franc was founded in 2017 by Sebastian Patel and Thomas Brennan, who were upset by the complexity and high barrier to…
Virridy, a company dedicated to enhancing natural resource management through technology, has raised $5.5 million in Series A funding to speed the development and deployment of its satellite-connected sensors for water, energy, and agricultural resource management. Existing investors FHI 360, Cleo Capital, Reverent Rock, Save Earth, and VertueLab also participated in the round, which was…
Bosch’s venture arm just unveiled its fifth fund, claiming it’s looking for firms that have the “potential to improve quality of life while conserving natural resources.” The new $295 million fund increases the stakes from Bosch VC’s previous fund by $53 million, but the German firm’s global focus on deep tech remains largely unchanged. That…
According to new research released by Endeavor Nigeria, the country’s premier network of high-impact entrepreneurs, Africa’s digital ecosystem is poised for exponential growth, fueled by strong market fundamentals and the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic. “The Inflection Point: Africa’s Digital Economy Is Poised To Take Off,” a report by Endeavor, reviewed key events in Africa’s…
As part of UNCDF’s Digital Futures project, the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) announced today that it is collaborating with IBM to bridge the digital skills gap by providing digital learning to children and women. IBM’s SkillsBuild project, which provides digital and workforce skills training to students and job seekers, will aid in the implementation…
Centum Investment Company Plc has agreed to sell its entire equity stake in Sidian Bank Limited (‘Sidian’) to Access Bank Plc for KES4.3 billion. Centum owns 83.4 percent of Sidian’s issued shares, both directly and indirectly through Bakki Holdco Limited, its wholly-owned subsidiary. Sidian is planned to be merged with Access Bank’s Kenyan unit in…
The 13 startups from East and West Africa selected to participate in the Scaleup Accelerator Programme have been revealed by GreenHouse Capital and Microsoft. Microsoft and GreenHouse Labs teamed up earlier this year to develop a pre-Series A accelerator program for entrepreneurs aiming to expand into new markets. The six-week program attempts to connect startups…
Talently, an edtech startup, has raised $3 million in seed funding from 500 Startups Latam, Alaya Capital, Salkantay Ventures, Newtype Ventures, Potencia Ventures, Latin Leap, and others. Talently is a firm that develops tech talent and links it with global organizations through an online job marketplace. Since the epidemic began, the company has grown 50…
(8 June 2022, Johannesburg) The Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), an entity of the Department of Science and Innovation, and the SAB Foundation have announced a partnership to promote social entrepreneurship development in South Africa. The SAB Foundation describes social entrepreneurship as business solutions to social problems. The partnership will see TIA and SAB Foundation co-investing…
The British Council and Microsoft have established an e-learning program to help young entrepreneurs shape their futures and take control of their livelihoods. #BossupInAfrica, a program for young people aged 18 to 25, was created in 2021 to assist them scale up their talents. The curriculum is divided into three modules, each featuring a variety…
DisrupTech Ventures sponsored a $1 million pre-Seed investment round for Egypt-based insurtech Nice Deer. The cash will be used to extend the company’s offerings, such as providing health insurance options for small businesses. Nice Deer was created in early 2022 and is based in Egypt. Its goal is to close the gap between health-care providers,…
OXFORD June 8, 2022 – Sophos, a global leader in next-generation cybersecurity, today released the “Active Adversary Playbook 2022,” detailing attacker behaviors that Sophos’ Rapid Response team saw in the wild in 2021. The findings show a 36% increase in dwell time, with a median intruder dwell time of 15 days in 2021 versus 11 days…
The Norrsken Impact Accelerator, a well-known early-stage accelerator, has picked nine African startups from eight countries to participate in its second round. The accelerator is one of the Norrsken Foundation’s programs. Niklas Adalberth, co-founder of Swedish fintech unicorn Klarna, founded the organization in 2016 to assist entrepreneurs around the world in addressing some of the…
Africa Data Centres, a subsidiary of Cassava Technologies Group, a pan-African technology conglomerate, is constructing a 30-megawatt data center in Accra, Ghana. With facilities in Nigeria, Togo, and now Ghana, the new facility will pave the way for the company’s hyper-scale partners to expand digital services and solutions to more nations in West Africa, making…
Dstny, a Belgian corporate communications provider, has acquired Egyptian startup Tactful AI, which provides a cutting-edge intelligent customer experience platform. Tactful is a unified customer experience platform that provides businesses with a single dashboard through which to manage, engage, augment, and understand customers’ experiences across numerous touch points. It was founded by Mohamed Elmasry, Mohammad…
PayFast, a South African internet payment gateway, has partnered with Heavy Chef’s entrepreneur education non-profit, the Heavy Chef Foundation, to offer a 12-week development program. The new program aims to equip budding entrepreneurs with the knowledge and skills they need to launch their own e-commerce businesses. More than 42% of growing South African entrepreneurs, according…
Paul Edwards, the former CEO of MTN Group, has raised a series-A round of capital for his new fintech business VantagePay. According to TechCentral, Crossfin Holdings, a Blue Garnet Ventures affiliate, has purchased a “significant share” in the company for an unknown value. VantagePay, formerly Vantage Africa Limited, was founded in 2018 with the mission…
Sendy, a Nairobi-based software firm that develops fulfillment solutions for e-commerce and consumer brands, has teamed up with Google to launch the “Google Hustle Academy program,” which aims to boost Africa’s small and medium companies. The boot camp program is expected to deliver expert training on business strategy and development, digital marketing, and financial planning…
Indicina, which is focused on developing API-driven credit infrastructure for Africa, raised $3 million in a Seed round to help the company maintain its commitment to the credit value chain. Greycroft and RV Ventures also participated in this round, which was led by Target Global. Ricardo Schaefer, a Partner at Target Global, will also be…
Rentoza, a South African subscription-based online electronics and appliance retailer, has raised ZAR20 million (US$1.3 million) in capital from Khulisani Ventures, the Mineworkers Investment Company’s early-stage investment firm (MIC). Last July, Johannesburg-based MIC announced the creation of MIC Khulisani Ventures, a ZAR150 million (US$10 million) early-stage investment entity aimed at black-owned, high-growth enterprises in South…
LAGOS, 1 June 2022 — ShopEX, a multi-channel retail business based in Nigeria and exclusive distributors of some of the world’s most successful ‘As Seen On TV’ products has raised a pre seed funding of $400,000 from Cape Town venture capital firm, HAVAÍC. The investment forms part of a US$635,000 convertible notes round alongside existing angel investors,…
Kendi Ntwiga has been named Global Head of Misrepresentation of Meta owners of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp after her departure from Microsoft Kenya, where she served as Country Leader. Her appointment began in May, and she will be stationed in Ireland. Kendi will strive to push for operational processes to scale Meta’s enforcement of community…
HyperPay, a fintech business based in Saudi Arabia, has raised $36.7 million in a fundraising round led by Mastercard, with Amwal Capital Partners and AB Ventures as investors. HyperPay, founded by Muhannad Ebwini, provides a wide range of products and services to merchants in addition to payment processing, including risk and fraud management, monitoring, instalment…
Instagram, which is owned by Meta, is having difficulties sleeping, so it’s borrowing a page from TikTok and increasing the duration limit for Reels. TikTok’s duration limit was recently increased, with new options ranging from 60 seconds to 5 minutes and 10 minutes. Instagram is following after and will soon allow users to publish Reels…
Through its early-stage tech investment company Naspers Foundry, Naspers has led a $2.5 million investment in LifeCheq, a fintech platform that enables financial advisers to provide quality, complete financial advice. Since its debut in 2018, LifeCheq has provided financial planning and help to over 45,000 people in South Africa. LifeCheq’s AI-powered platform can help financial…