Even before the pandemic, businesses had begun to put in place elements to manage distributed employees, such as corporate remote desktop or virtual private networking (VPN) capabilities. This, however, was not done on the scale or at the rate required to manage the disruption caused by COVID-19. Companies were suddenly confronted with an influx of…
Moove, Africa’s Mobility Fintech and Uber’s only car supply partner in Africa, has secured a $10 million financing facility backed by NBK Capital Partners and Mezzanine Fund II, just two months after opening its first office in East Africa. Moove is NBK Capital Partners’ first African investment, demonstrating the potential for a mobility platform like…
Instagram Reels are currently a lot of fun for a lot of users, but the 60-second limit can be an issue for some. We do have some good news for those who want more: Instagram is planning to increase video length so that it can finally compete with TikTok. According to Alessandro Paluzzi, an Instagram…
Whatever way you look at it, whatever figures you believe, whatever methodologies you use, one thing is certain: 2021 was the best year ever for tech startup funding in Africa, with more startups raising more money from more investors than in any previous year. According to our data here at Disrupt Africa, not only was…
Following their selection as winners of the Techne Corporate Innovation Programme, four Egyptian startups have been awarded a total of US$40,000 in cash prizes. Techne, a network of initiatives that supports tech and tech-enabled startup ecosystems throughout the Mediterranean region, launched its Corporate Innovation Programme in November, enrolling over 300 startups across four tracks: CleanTech,…
There has never been a more exciting time to be in the African startup scene. According to a recent BCG report, the number of local startups that received funding increased by 46 percent between 2015 and 2020, a growth rate six times faster than the global average. The very nature of the startups in our…
In recent years, the emphasis on tech talent development in Africa has shifted from entry-level to senior talent development. In addition, the local education system’s inability to provide competent engineering talent has created a gap in the market for entry-level talent. AltSchool Africa recognizes this and has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding to that…
BlackBerry announced on Monday that it will sell its legacy patents, primarily related to mobile devices, messaging, and wireless networking, to a special purpose vehicle formed to acquire the company’s patent assets for $600 million. BlackBerry stated that the transaction with Catapult IP Innovations will have no effect on customers’ use of its products or…
Instagram stories and direct messages will now feature 3D avatars, thanks to Meta. It has also updated its Facebook and Messenger avatars. The update includes new facial shapes as well as assistive devices such as wheelchairs for people with disabilities. The update is now available in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, as well as…
Co-Creation Hub (CcHub), a Lagos-based hub, accelerator, and investor that has recently expanded across Africa, has chosen three Namibian startups to participate in the Seedr accelerator it is running in collaboration with local partner Startup Namibia. CcHub has been on an expansion spree in recent years (see here), and now claims to be Africa’s “largest…
Many organizations are seeking ways to offer their products and services to customers in an efficient way in order to save time, ease the processing of the orders and provide the highest quality of delivery as at the expected time. One major opportunity that most start-ups are not taking advantage of is the availability of data in…
Magalix, an Egyptian-American cloud security startup, has been acquired by Weaveworks Limited, a GitOps firm with offices in London and San Francisco. Magalix, founded in 2017 by Egyptian-American entrepreneurs Ahmed F. Mohamed and Ahmed Badran and headquartered in the United States with its R&D engineering team in Egypt, created a platform that allows organizations to…
Stitch, a South African API fintech startup, is hosting a “startup showcase” in collaboration with Paystack and Disrupt Africa to provide an opportunity for early-stage fintechs from across the continent to share their solutions with local and global investors and access support. The Stitch API, which is currently available in South Africa and Nigeria, enables…
This year, the world is a very different place than it was a few years ago. Much has changed, not only in terms of available technologies, but also in terms of how businesses use technology and how they must adapt to a fully remote or hybrid working environment. This has altered how data is used,…
Over the course of a record-breaking 2021, investment into the African tech startup ecosystem nearly tripled, with total funding passing the US$2 billion mark for the first time. This is according to the seventh edition of the annual African Tech Startups Funding Report, which was released by startup news and research portal Disrupt Africa as…
Niklas Adalberth’s Norrsken Foundation has made headlines again, just two months after launching its Norrsken House in Kigali, Rwanda, with plans to house thousands of entrepreneurs by next year. This time, the foundation has joined forces with thirty unicorn founders as well as a couple of seasoned venture capital and private equity investors to launch…
By 2024, the Egyptian social e-commerce market will be worth more than $14.8 billion. The market opportunity can be attributed to the increase in online social sellers in the country, with over 1.25 million of them assisting lesser-known brands in selling and distributing their goods through various networks. Brimore, a market leader in the country…
Six more African startups have been confirmed as participants in the renowned Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator accelerator’s W22 batch, bringing the total to ten. Between now and March, the W22 batch of the Y Combinator program, which has played a role in the early days of companies such as Airbnb, Coinbase, and Dropbox, will take…
The Sandbox, Animoca Brands’ metaverse subsidiary, has committed a $50 million fund to venture capital firm Brinc as part of a new program seeking to invest in and mentor startups building beyond the platform’s Open Metaverse. Mentorship, education, and development support for startups will be a major component of the accelerator, as will access to…
NALA, a Tanzanian cross-border payments firm, has raised $10 million in seed funding. Amplo, Accel $ Bessemer Partners, and DFS Lab led the round. Angel investors included the Head of Google Payments, Peeyush Ranjan, and the Co-Founder and CTO of Monzo, Jonas Templestein, among others. This round follows an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding raised…
TLcom Capital, the Africa-focused venture capital firm known for its investments in Andela and Twiga, is raising $150 million for its second fund, which will invest in early- and late-stage companies. According to a statement shared with TechCrunch, the firm has reached its first close of $70 million. It’s nearly the same as what TLcom…
If you’re new to the world of blockchain and crypto asset management, the term “smart contracts” may sound a little complicated. But, if “smart contracts” are the foundation upon which Defi will work or will invariably work, it only makes sense for everyone to understand what they are. Understanding the origins of smart contracts is…
Sote, a Kenyan supply chain company, has raised a US$4 million seed extension round in order to expand its offering into the fintech space. Sote, which was founded in 2018, will launch its licensed tech-enabled customs clearance and forwarding service in 2020. The platform offers a real-time dashboard that provides manufacturers, retailers, and distributors with…
Even in 2022, there are plenty of people out there attempting to take advantage of countless online retailers. The main issue here is that they are frequently small independent eCommerce merchants rather than large retailers who can potentially afford the loss caused by these scammers. Here are a few of the most common scams that…
Bentley, a German-owned luxury car brand, announced Wednesday that its first all-electric vehicle will be ready by 2025, as part of a major investment in becoming a carbon-zero company. Bentley said in a statement that its first battery-powered electric vehicle will be developed and built at its factory in Crewe, northwest England. The carmaker, which…
YouTube today announced the names of African creators who have been chosen to join a global cohort of 135 from around the world in the company’s flagship #YouTubeBlackVoicesFund initiative. The fund is primarily interested in investing in Black creators from around the world who are telling new and authentic stories. While the creators from Kenya,…
Fetola, a business growth specialist, has opened applications for its Circular Economy Accelerator (CEA), which aims to provide mentoring and skills development to South African entrepreneurs looking to scale their businesses in the circular economy. Sixty-five entrepreneurs will be selected to participate in the 18-month incubator programme, which is designed to meet the needs of…
Nigeria became the first African country to adopt a digital currency, the eNaira, in October 2021. Three months later, only 10% of digital currency transactions have been peer-to-peer transactions. This was revealed by Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, at the first MPC meeting of 2022. According to a Nairametrics report, the…
Opibus, a mobility startup, has introduced the first all-electric bus in Kenya, as well as the first electric bus designed in Africa. Opibus, which was founded in 2017, is the leading provider of locally designed and manufactured electric vehicles. Its vision is to develop dependable and cost-effective products for the pan-African mass market. Late last…
OZÉ, a Ghanaian fintech startup that offers MSMEs digital recordkeeping tools with embedded finance products, has raised a US$3 million pre-Series A funding round to expand the platform’s capabilities and increase access to affordable finance. OZÉ, which was released in beta in 2018, is a mobile app that assists small businesses in recording their sales,…