The Alexandria Angels Network, along with members of MED Angels and AUC Angels, Cubit Ventures, Challenge Fund, EdVentures, Falak Startups, and Cairo Angels, led a $1.2 million Series A fundraising round for Egypt-based edtech Sprints. “The organization has successfully given 20,000 learning sessions in the last two years.” Sprints’ co-founder and CEO, Ayman Bazraa, stated,…
The EatSafe Innovation Challenge, organized by Feed the Future in collaboration with the SUN Business Network (SBN) and the Innovative Food System Portal, is searching for businesses, students, researchers, and other innovators in Nigeria and Ethiopia who are concerned about food safety. The EatSafe Innovation Challenge invites innovators to offer their thoughts on how existing…
Nigeria’s first marketing and media hackathon, dubbed MarkHack 1.0, has been established by Eko Innovation Centre, a growth and development hub for startups and entrepreneurs in Nigeria. The luncheon, which took place at D’Podium Event Centre in Lagos, was attended by innovators, entrepreneurs, policymakers, marketers, and media professionals, as well as many more from across…
In response to teacher and administrative requests, Zoom has introduced additional functionality for its Education users. Virtual Background and Blur for Chromebooks, Anywhere Polls, and Breakout Room upgrades are among the new Zoom chat and meeting capabilities. According to the firm, the new features are aimed to encourage students to complete homework projects and are…
V8 Capital Partners has given ShapShap, a Nigerian on-demand delivery firm, a seed extension investment to help it expand its capabilities and penetrate new markets. The fresh funds will be used to improve the startup’s last-mile delivery capabilities for businesses and individuals in Nigeria, with ambitions to expand to other African countries in the near…
Elon Musk, Twitter’s largest shareholder, has decided not to join the company’s board of directors, according to CEO Parag Agrawal. Musk, who calls himself a free-speech absolutist and has been critical of Twitter, disclosed a 9.1% interest in the social media network on April 4 and said he intends to make big improvements. His appointment…
ImaliPay, a $3 million seed fundraising round has been finalized for a Pan-African fintech start-up that focuses on boosting the gig economy through its one-stop-shop financial services platform. ImaliPay was founded in late 2020 in Nigeria after Tatenda Furusa (Co-founder) noticed problems with e-ride hailing drivers’ access to working capital and emergency savings in Nairobi. Upon…
Didi Chixung, the Chinese ride-hailing behemoth, has announced the closure of its operations in South Africa (SA), a year after it first opened its doors on the continent. A Didi representative in South Africa confirmed the closure to TechCrunch but did not elaborate on the reasons for the shutdown. “We have made the tough choice…
Lemonade Finance, founded in 2020 by Ridwan Olalere and Rian Cochran and a participant in Y Combinator’s W21 batch last year, allows Africans living abroad to send and receive money from their home nations in a cost-effective, timely, and efficient manner. Its software lets users keep their balances in the currencies that are important to…
Emoji, the most popular way to express ourselves on social media, has made its way to Google Workspace, allowing users to react to any content on Google Docs by simply using a symbol rather than writing a comment or remark on it. Google announced in a Google Workspace update that the feature now supports all…
Phew! The battle is over. Google’s Play Protect program will now automatically remove unused permissions from Android applications that you haven’t used in a while, according to a new update accompanied by an email. To get the full experience, you had to go into each app’s permissions and turn off the camera, microphone, storage, contacts,…
ImaliPay, a fintech startup that bills itself as a one-stop shop for financial services, recently received a loan and equity investment of $3 million. In 2020, the fintech received a $800,000 pre-seed investment. Tatenda Furusa and Oluwasanmi Akinmusire founded it in late 2020 after Furusa witnessed the difficulties ride-hailing drivers faced in obtaining working capital…
Locstat, a Cape Town-based advanced analytics business, has raised capital as it prepares for expansion. Locstat is a graph-based AI and event processing solution for continuous analysis and visualisation of real-time and static data from a variety of sources, which was founded in 2016. The startup’s AI technology analyzes the link between data points and…
Meta is said to be planning to add a virtual currency called “Zuck Bucks” to its apps in order to reward content creators and run other financial services such as loans. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Meta, recently abandoned a digital currency project called “Diem” after regulators halted its development. The project, which…
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has invited female entrepreneurs from its 15 member countries to apply for the second edition of the ShEquity accelerator program. The ShEquity Business Accelerator (SHEBA) is a 16-week program that provides venture development and technical assistance to African female entrepreneurs in the ECOWAS area who want to…
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has penalized three companies for failing to comply with cryptocurrency transaction ban restrictions. The CBN imposed a prohibition on all cryptocurrency transactions and a regulation policy on all commercial lenders in February 2021. This decision was reached after the CBN determined that these transactions posed a risk to the…
Visa, a global leader in digital payments, announced the opening of a new Innovation Studio in Nairobi, Kenya, today. Its first dedicated innovation site in Sub-Saharan Africa is the studio (SSA). This facility will service the Sub-Saharan Africa area, according to a news release, and will join Visa‘s network of innovation centers, which have been…
WafR, an application that allows retail brands to broadcast smart promotions to grocers to improve their market share on the traditional channel, has raised $278K from UM6P Ventures, Plug and Play, and numerous other Moroccan and foreign business angels, following an initial round of funding of $372K. The Moroccan startup now has a valuation of…
Kena Health is a new health app located in South Africa that allows users to interact with a nurse, doctor, or mental health expert directly from their phone. Kena Health is an app that connects users to a team of certified healthcare practitioners for guidance, diagnosis, prescriptions, sick notes, and, if necessary, referrals to a…
The term “Bootstrapping” is derived from the phrase “to hoist oneself up”. It is a method of starting one’s own business utilizing one’s own resources. A bootstrapped startup is a business that began and grew without the help of outside investors. Bootstrapping a business does not imply that the company will not seek outside funding. In fact,…
We are ready for Markhack 1.0! Register to attend the launch event on Friday, 8th April Register here
ZirooPay, based in Lagos and Helsinki, has raised $11.4 million in a Series A round led by Zrosk Investment Management, a Lagos-based venture capital firm. Investors that have already invested With involvement from other private and institutional funds such as Fedha Capital and Exotix Advisory, Inventure and other private and institutional funds such as Fedha…
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, is already wielding authority at Twitter after acquiring a $2.9 billion stake in the firm, making him the company’s largest shareholder. He asked his 80 million Twitter followers if they wanted an edit button in a tweet. Twitter’s current CEO, Parag Agrawal, joined in and quoted his poll, stating,…
According to a 2021 research by web service provider Yahoo, the worldwide fintech sector is worth close to USD 7300 billion and is expected to increase at a rate of 26.87 percent year. The rapid growth of fintechs has been attributed to a rise in the popularity of digital payments, greater investments in technology-based solutions,…
SmartWage, an HR and communications technology business based in South Africa, has acquired US$2 million in a preliminary fundraising round that was oversubscribed to support its ambition of transforming Africa’s workforce through digital inclusion, particularly for frontline workers. SmartWage, which was founded in 2019, began by allowing businesses to provide their employees fast access to…
Threats to cybersecurity are at an all-time high. With more companies adopting hybrid work models, it’s more important than ever to educate employees on the many cybersecurity dangers that come with working remotely. Employees who work from home offer a bigger security risk than those who operate in an office in a hybrid work environment….
PayMint, an Egyptian fintech firm, has received a seven-figure US dollar seed investment to help it expand in its local market. PayMint, a financial technology company founded by Mohamed Yahya and Mohamed Rabie in 2019, offers SMEs salary payments, working capital finance, and supplier payments. The seed round, which was led by AUR Fintech, a…
Sycamore, a Nigerian peer-to-peer (P2P) lending firm, has raised an undisclosed seed round to extend its operations. Sycamore, which was founded in 2019 by Babatunde Akin-Moses, Onyinye Okonji, and Mayowa Adeosun, employs unique risk assessment tools to award business loans the same day via its website and freshly announced mobile app. The company has already…
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc (TSLA.O), has purchased a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter for roughly $3 billion, making him the company’s largest stakeholder. The action comes after he tweeted that he was “seriously considering” creating a new social media platform and questioned Twitter’s commitment to free expression. Musk holds 73.5 million Twitter…
MTN SA has announced an increase in investments to modernize current network infrastructure and deploy new network infrastructure in Limpopo and Mpumalanga, South Africa. The initiative, according to the firm, will benefit ultra-rural areas like Mtititi and Ga Marishane the most. MTN’s “Modernisation of Network South Africa project” (MONZA), as well as improved rural reach,…