WhatsApp is working on providing additional premium capabilities to business accounts through a subscription plan. More features that WhatsApp is covertly developing will be included in the premium package. One of the new features is the ability to support a greater number of linked devices on a single business account. The Multi-device feature currently supports…
Zenda, a business based in the United Arab Emirates, has received $9.4 million in seed funding to help improve school tuition payment and management. By changing the way parents and guardians pay school fees, as well as how educational institutions conduct fee collection, the company wants to have an impact on the educational sector. Zenda…
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is the sole owner and operator of Twitter at the time of writing this article. The richest individual on the planet now owns the most popular social networking platform. Musk paid $54.20 per share for the company. This is, after all, the same price as his initial…
In light of recent developments and the resulting circumstance posed by the pandemic in 2020, many schools and institutions are planning to switch, and some have already switched, to online learning, teaching, conferencing, and meetings, resulting in an increase in users of conference platforms such as Zoom, and Google meet. More concerns should be raised…
The FBI has issued a warning about the BlackCat ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS), which it claims has victimized at least 60 entities worldwide as of March 2022, since its discovery last November. The ransomware, also known as ALPHV and Noberus, is notable for being the first malware written in the Rust programming language, which is known to…
Gravity Sketch, a London-based startup, has taken that concept into 3D, leveraging tools such as virtual reality headsets to let designers and others dive into and better visualize a product’s design as it’s being made; and the startup is now announcing a $33 million funding round to take its own business to the next dimension….
ArK Kapital, based in Stockholm, has secured a €150 million senior secured debt facility from Pollen Street Capital after raising €165 million in March to provide long-term alternative financing options. Through AI-powered financial forecasts and non-dilutive funding, the company will be able to assist startups in growing smarter. ArK Kapital, which was founded by six-time…
Syarpa, a Nigerian fintech startup, has raised US$500,000 in pre-seed funding to help it expand across Europe and Africa. Syarpa, which has over 2,000 users and has facilitated transactions worth over US$4 million since its launch, enables users to carry out both international money transfers and crypto exchanges by providing fiat and crypto payment solutions….
Tofino Capital has announced the first close of its $10 million funding round, with a goal of completing the round in nine months. Tofino Capital, founded by Eliot Pence and Aubrey Hruby, invests in early-stage companies in venture scalable markets that are underserved or underfunded by venture capital. Among the companies in its portfolio are…
Recur Technologies PTE, a Singapore-based financing platform, announced a $30 million equity and debt fundraising round from a group of Indian investors. Recur Club Technologies, the financial technology startup’s Delhi-based subsidiary, operates in India. InfoEdge Ventures, the investment arm of Info Edge (India), and Village Global have each invested $2 million in the parent company’s…
Unicorn Group, an investment firm, has launched its fourth entrepreneur incubation program, which is open to startups from a variety of countries for the first time. Unicorn Group is a pan-African investment firm that seeks out innovative ideas, startups, and early-stage companies in Africa’s technology and technology-enabled sectors that have the potential to become unicorns….
The idea of networking contributes to the growth and relevance of a startup. We are often familiar with the saying “no man is an island”. Running your business on a solo mode might retain the focus or vision of the business, it can also make progress speedily but it shuts the owner from the real experiences of other…
Trace and the Mastercard Foundation have collaborated to launch Trace Academia, a free, interactive, mobile-based learning application designed to help 26 million young Africans gain market-relevant skills. The Trace Academia App is available on Android and iOS and has been tested successfully in four African countries. Users can access courses in either English or French,…
The Africa’s Business Heroes (ABH) prize competition has announced a new Community Lead and ScaleUp Program to provide ABH applicants and finalists with more enhanced mentoring and networking opportunities. Now in its fourth year, applications for the ABH grant are now open in both French and English, and the competition has already attracted talented entrepreneurs…
A month after its first African landing in Togo, Google’s Equiano mega subsea cable has arrived in Lagos, Nigeria. The cable system’s second African landing will be in the Lekki Peninsula area of Lagos. The announcement was made in a tweet today, April 21, 2022, and comes just in time for the system’s highly anticipated…
In the daily rush for digital gold, more people are attempting to make money from cryptocurrencies. As a result of the insatiable demand for cryptocurrency, the number of criminals and con artists has also increased. The world appears to have gone ‘crypto-crazy.’ The popularity of digital currencies such as bitcoin, Monero, Ethereum, and even Dogecoin…
Time is the one commodity we don’t have a lot of in our fast-paced lives. And, as the pandemic has demonstrated, when we do have free time, we prefer to spend it with family and friends rather than on time-consuming and often onerous tasks such as banking, saving, or filling out forms. So, here are…
Paymob, an Egyptian digital payments company, has expanded its operations into Pakistan, with the goal of providing online, POS, and “Tap on Phone” payment options to Pakistani merchants. Paymob is an infrastructure technology enabler that provides payment solutions to empower digital financial service providers through mobile wallet technology. It was founded in 2015 by Islam Shawky,…
African startups raised approximately $5 billion in 2021, nearly tripling the amount raised in 2020. While the ecosystem has received more funding, technical talent has not grown at the same rate. According to the Africa Developer Ecosystem Report, the number of professional software developers in Africa will increase by 3.8 percent to 716,000 engineers by…
IFC, a World Bank Group member, will invest $15 million in Algebra Ventures’ second fund, which will support the growth of approximately 20 technology startups in Egypt and across Africa. Algebra Ventures II, with a target size of $90 million, will focus on women-led businesses and those serving rural communities, and will provide access to…
Neural Labs, a Kenyan startup, uses AI-enabled medical imaging to aid in the real-time diagnosis of various respiratory, heart, and breast diseases and pathologies. Neural Labs was founded in January 2021 by Tom Kinyanjui and Paul Mwaura Ndirangu, two machine learning engineers, with the goal of reducing Africa’s disease burden and hospital workloads while improving…
Injini, a Cape Town-based ed-tech non-profit, is launching a think tank to provide market research to entrepreneurs in the space and to advocate for educational reform. According to Injini, which was co-founded by the Cape Innovation & Technology Initiative (CiTi) and has run a number of accelerator programs for ed-tech startups in Africa, the Injini…
Shift EV, an Egyptian electric mobility startup, has raised an undisclosed Series A funding round to help it onboard more clients and expand operations into other Middle East and North Africa (MENA) markets. Shift EV, founded in 2020 by Aly El Tayeb and Amr Helmy, converts existing gasoline-powered vehicles to electric ones using in-house designed…
The “Women’s Investment Club” (WIC) Senegal and Ecobank have signed a collaboration contract worth one billion CFA francs (USD1,600,000) to support female entrepreneurship in Senegal. Ecobank’s Managing Director, Sahid Yallou, and Evelyne Dioh Simpa, Executive Director of WIC Capital Senegal, officially presented the symbolic cheque. “This one-billion-franc financial partnership is a key component of the…
Mrs. Ujama Akpata and Mrs. Kikelomo Fola-Ogunniya, founders of Jand2Gidi, held a media conference on Wednesday, April 13th. Ms. Nancy Ogbue, Event Host MC, moderated the event and introduced Jand2Gidi, praising them for their consistency over the years. She also mentioned that with Jand2Gidi, the usual frustrations associated with sending deliveries are becoming a thing…
According to reports, the University of Johannesburg (UJ) intends to begin issuing degrees and certificates with blockchain security features to prevent fraud. According to Broad Media, the certificates will aid in the prevention of counterfeiting and the false representation of qualifications. UJ was among the first universities to begin providing digital certificates to students in…
Google has announced the opening of its first product development center in Africa, which will be located in Nairobi. The new product development center will assist in the development of transformative products and services for people in Africa and around the world, and it will hire visionary engineers, product managers, UX designers, and researchers to…
Leatherback, a cross-border payments network based in the United Kingdom, has received a $10 million Pre-Seed fundraising round from Zedcrest Capital, a major pan-African principal investment group. The funding will allow the growing Fintech company to focus on critical activities, including hiring strategic roles, elevation in its marketing and branding strategy, and traction and visibility…
FibreOne Broadband, Nigeria’s broadband and fiber-to-the-home provider, reports a nearly 300 percent increase in customer base. Residential customers increased by 77%, while small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) increased by 23% during the same time period. FiberOne Broadband, which was founded in 2017, connects people in their homes and businesses, allowing them to enjoy a whole…
ETAP, an insurtech startup that makes it easier to buy and claim insurance, has raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding to expand its team and drive the adoption of much-needed car insurance throughout Africa. Starting in Nigeria, the new funding will help ETAP’s game-changing app, which allows drivers to buy insurance in 90 seconds, complete…