Stitch, a South African API fintech startup, has raised a Series A funding round of US$21 million to expand its team, launch new product offerings, and enter new markets across the continent. The Stitch API enables developers to quickly connect apps to financial accounts, allowing their users to share transaction histories and balances, confirm their…
A Nigerian rights group has asked the High Court to compel the government to publish an agreement with Twitter that resulted in the social media company’s services being restored last month after a six-month ban. Last June, Nigeria suspended Twitter after the US company removed a post by President Muhammadu Buhari threatening to punish regional…
Remedial Health has received a $1 million pre-seed investment to digitize pharmacies and reduce the supply of counterfeit and substandard pharmaceutical products, beginning in Nigeria and expanding to the rest of Africa. Global Ventures and Ventures Platform led the round, with participation from Ingressive Capital, Voltron Capital, Opeyemi Awoyemi’s (Jobberman co-founder) Angel Syndicate Fund, and…
Google honors Valentine’s Day with an interactive 3D Doodle featuring two hamsters expressing affection for each other. Users must solve the puzzle in order for the hamsters in the Doodle to clear their path for the meeting. The interactive Google Doodle can be shared online with your loved ones to commemorate Valentine’s Day 2022. It…
Finance options and transactions are undergoing a massive transformation all over the world. Payments, lending, asset, and wealth management are all being reshaped by digital technologies as individuals and organizations adopt more effective digital solutions to solve problems in virtually every aspect of life. Nigeria’s financial landscape has not lagged. According to a McKinsey report…
Payment structure narratives are changing as a result of technological advancements. Naturally, this convenience increases the risk of payment fraud. Each new payment method carries its own set of risks. Evina, a mobile anti-fraud specialist, examined the prevalence and evolution of this threat in 2021, with a focus on the African continent and the Middle…
Malawi’s government and the African Development Fund (ADF) have agreed to a $14.2 million grant to improve infrastructure and create a more efficient and transparent digital payment system. The Bank Group’s concessional financing window, ADF, will provide funding for the December-approved Support for Digitalization, Financial Inclusion, and Competitiveness (DFIC) project. “The DFIC project is aligned…
South Africa has asked a court to fine Huawei Technologies’ local unit for violating hiring rules and to order the company to change its practices, the labor department announced on Friday. According to the department, approximately 90 percent of the company’s employees were foreign nationals, in violation of “employment equity” regulations that impose a 40…
Financial management no longer entails poring over blotchy ledgers. Even the tried-and-true spreadsheet has become obsolete. Instead, there are a plethora of useful tools and apps that can manage the majority of your company’s finances with the click of a button – and in some cases, automatically – without you having to do anything. Competition…
WhatsApp has begun to roll out a new voice call interface. The most recent rollout is only available to a limited number of Android beta testers. Waveforms for group voice calls are also stored on the device. In addition to the updated voice call interface in the new beta release, WhatsApp has been spotted working…
Twitter said on Friday that it had fixed a software bug in its microblogging website that had caused service disruptions for thousands of its users. Twitter had previously stated on its status page that it was experiencing an increase in the number of application programming interface errors, which are a set of protocols for developing…
Nawah Scientific, an Egyptian life sciences and biotech startup, has received funding from the Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund (CASF) as part of its ongoing Series A round. Nawah Scientific, which was founded in 2015, is an online platform that receives experiment requests, collects samples, conducts tests, and digitally returns results. Its goal is to allow…
Mdundo, an Africa-focused music streaming service, is counting on more collaborations with telcos across the continent to increase its earnings and user base. Last year, the company signed agreements with MTN and Airtel in Nigeria, as well as Vodacom in Tanzania, which appear to be paying off, as its user base nearly doubled as it…
YouTube is getting ready to jump on the Web3 bandwagon, incorporating elements like non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse into its platform, which is reportedly used by over two billion people worldwide. Web3, which will be largely supported by blockchain technology, is regarded as the Internet of the future, bringing with it cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and…
LAGOS, Nigeria, February 10th, 2022 – Today, Acronis, the global leader in cyber protection announced the availability of a new Acronis Cyber Cloud Data Center in Lagos, Nigeria. The new data center, one of the 111 new data centers being deployed by the company, gives service provider partners access to a full range of cyber protection…
Kenya’s central bank has asked the public to share their thoughts on the possibility of adopting a digital currency by May 20th, just one day after it was revealed that Zambia is also testing its viability. Nigeria was the first African country to launch its central bank digital currency (CBDC), dubbed the eNaira, in October…
Binance, a major cryptocurrency exchange, will invest $200 million in Forbes, the media company announced on Thursday, as it prepares to go public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Binance’s investment will replace half of the $400 million in private placement commitments already announced by Forbes and SPAC company Magnum Opus Acquisition Limited. Forbes…
YouTube and TikTok, according to a recent study published by mobile marketing company URL Genius, track users’ personal data more than any other social media app. However, while YouTube collects your personal data primarily for the purpose of serving you more relevant ads, TikTok allows third-party trackers to collect your data – “and from there,…
A few months into the coronavirus pandemic, in April 2020, a team of four African-origin students in Sweden—including The Gambia-born Lamin Darboe, who had recently moved to Stockholm to pursue a master’s degree—participated in a climate action challenge organized by the Norrsken Foundation and Stockholm Innovation & Growth (Sting). Though the team, which also included…
Mr. Green Africa, a Kenyan plastics recycling pioneer, has received a significant investment from impact investors and key industry stakeholders in order to scale its business model across the continent. Mr. Green Africa is a circular recycling company that has created a technology-driven plastics collection model that allows waste to be collected at the point…
Google announced today that the newly launched Hustle Academy will provide free training to 5,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs in Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa. Google Hustle Academy is a bootcamp-style training program designed to assist entrepreneurs and small business owners in positioning their companies for investment opportunities and developing viable business…
In yet another ambitious move to improve the aesthetics of Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the government of Lagos, has rolled out 1000 new cars to kick-start Lagos Ride, a government-backed ride-hailing service. The new Lagride in Lagos State, 1000 more to join soon. The goal is 5000 taxis. This is commendable ? pic.twitter.com/wHEISunKP9 — OTUNBA ?? (@ManLikeIcey) February 8, 2022 Some…
In 2018, two Nigerian siblings, Olugbenga Abejirin and Mayowa Abejirin, who have technical skills in programming and software development, with the former having over a decade of entrepreneurship experience, seized an opportunity to build and deploy smart classrooms in some Nigerian schools. The project was successful in its early stages until the pandemic struck in…
AVEVA, a global leader in industrial software that drives digital transformation and sustainability, has announced its participation in the Egypt Petroleum Show (EGYPS) 2022, which will be held from February 14-16, 2022 at the Egypt International Exhibition in Cairo. AVEVA will demonstrate its broad portfolio of cutting-edge solutions in Value Chain Optimization and PEMS (Predictive…
Mecho Autotech, a Nigerian vehicle repair and maintenance startup, has raised $2.15 million in seed funding to expand its capacities and acquire more customers. Olusegun Owoade and Ayoola Akinkunmi founded Mecho Autotech in 2021 to provide repair and maintenance services to businesses and consumers through in-house and third-party service capacity that has passed rigorous assessments….
SendChamp, a Nigerian startup, provides communication APIs and customer relationship management tools to developers and businesses, allowing them to reach their customers through various messaging channels. SendChamp was founded by Goodness Kayode and Damilola Olotu with the goal of improving customer relations for both technical and non-technical business owners. The APIs provided by the startup…
Visa has announced its Everywhere Initiative (VEI) program, which is a global open innovation program that will allow fintech and payment startups to showcase their innovative products and solutions. The overall prize money is $100,000, with second and third place winners receiving $20,000 and $10,000, respectively. One winner from each region will be chosen to…
Docklands Ventures has acquired South African startup ParkUpp, a marketplace that connects owners of parking spaces with companies and individuals in need of parking. ParkUpp was founded in 2016 with the goal of improving the parking experience for shopping malls. After realizing that the market was too small, the company pivots in 2018 and launches…
Google has announced the expansion of its two-step verification (2SV) process for log-ins to improve account security after its newly introduced two-step verification initiative saw a 50% drop in account breaches for 150 million Gmail and 2 million YouTube creators accounts under the 2SV initiative. The 2SV introduces the use of mobile phones to confirm…
Bitcoin has been on a steady bull run since February 4, but there appears to be a price ceiling for now, as bears were able to lower the price of Bitcoin further down, around $43,500, after reaching a weekly high of $45,500 early on February 8. The price of the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency has…