Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) captivated the world’s attention in 2021, when images, tweets, and even music began selling for millions of dollars on the Internet. The idea of selling easily accessible content to anyone on the Internet for millions of dollars seemed far-fetched at the time, but the concept of fungibility and virtual ownership has since…
DFS Lab and the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) have opened applications for the second Blockchain Bootcamp for African startups, with prizes of up to US$20,000 in Stellar Lumens (XLM) awarded to the most promising solutions. The bootcamp is a virtual three-day design sprint that allows participating companies to answer critical business questions with hands-on technical…
Instagram is now offering auto-generated captions for videos in users’ feeds. On Tuesday, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri stated that the captions feature has been “a long time coming.” All adults in Ukraine and Russia can now use the photo-sharing app for encrypted one-on-one chats. This is part of a series of steps taken by Meta,…
VALR, a South African cryptocurrency exchange, has raised a US$50 million Series B funding round, valuing the company at US$240 million. The proceeds will be used to expand across the continent. VALR, which debuted in 2019, is a digital asset platform that allows customers to buy, sell, store, and transfer Bitcoin and 60 other cryptocurrencies…
Econet and Ericsson have announced a partnership to launch 5G in Harare, Zimbabwe, which will improve capacity and user experience through faster network speeds and responsive time. This newly formed collaboration is in line with Ericsson’s #AfricaInMotion movement, which aims to empower a connected and sustainable Africa. Ericsson will provide Econet with its most recent…
Ikonia, a digital platform based in Kyiv and Gothenburg, has announced that it will sell 43,287,512 NFTs, one for each Ukrainian citizen. The ‘Stand With Ukraine‘ launch of the NFT sale raises funds for charities in the embattled country. More than 43 million NFT editions will be sold for $10 each; so far, more than…
FreshSource, an Egyptian startup that claims to be reinventing the agricultural supply chain, has closed a seven-figure US dollar seed funding round as it seeks to become the region’s largest fresh food distributor. FreshSource, founded in 2019 by Farah and Omar Emara, is a B2B agri-supply chain platform that uses technology to transform the way…
Forbes has announced that its first-ever Under 30 Summit Africa will take place in Botswana from April 24-29, bringing together 600 participants for mentorship, networking, and important conversations about sustainability, innovation, and entrepreneurship. The six-day event, hosted in collaboration with the Botswana President’s Initiative, will bring together Botswana’s business leaders, government officials, venture capitalists, and…
MTN, Africa’s largest telco, has joined the metaverse by purchasing 144 plots of land in Africarare, Africa’s first Virtual Reality metaverse featuring digital land. The price paid for the land is unknown, but it has a total area of 12x12m. According to the company’s website and social media handles, this is the case. The new…
Kemisola Bolarinwa dreamed of becoming an innovator as a young girl. Her favorite secondary school subjects were math, physics, and chemistry. Her STEM interests prompted her to join the Junior Engineers, Technicians, and Scientists (JETS) club at her secondary school, St. Helen’s Unity Secondary School, Ondo. The JETS club was founded to introduce students to…
Dubai, UAE – February 28, 2022: Asia Innovations Group’s (AIG) flagship app Uplive has been ranked as the world’s fastest-growing social app by third-party analytical platforms AppAnnie and Sensor Tower. The global rankings, which come hot on the heels of the app’s unveiling of its first-ever Television Commercial for the Middle East region, which aired…
28 February 2022 – Today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, a new white paper titled “Towards A Flourishing Digital Economy for All – A Spotlight On Africa” was published – and discussed for the first time by a panel including senior executives from Vodacom, SafariCom, Smart Africa and the World Bank. The paper was commissioned…
28th February 2022 – (Cairo, Egypt) OPay Egypt, the leading fintech and electronic payments company, has announced the opening of its first “OPay” store in Egypt in the Downtown area in the 5th Settlement, to offer all the company’s services and products for individuals and corporates. The move comes as part of OPay’s expansion plan in the…
Boxconn, a Ghanaian logistics startup, has already launched operations in Nigeria and Botswana and plans further expansion after facilitating thousands of deliveries. Boxconn, a logistics software platform that allows businesses and individuals to deliver on-demand, was founded in January 2021 by a team formed during the MEST Africa program in Accra. It provides a white-label…
Companies are using data to make more informed business decisions now more than ever before in a world of increased competition and ever-changing customer expectations. This data-driven approach has permeated almost every industry, with financial services being a forerunner. The value of data and analytics is derived from their ability to solve real-world problems through…
The Hatchery, an international clean-tech startup incubator based in Cape Town, has announced a strategic ZAR5 million (US$330,000) partnership with Valinor, a Norwegian clean-tech investment firm focused on sustainable solutions that promote economic growth. Disrupt Africa reported in November on the launch of The Hatchery, an international clean-tech incubator based in Cape Town that invests…
The long-awaited electoral amendment bill has finally been signed into law by the government, bringing hope and excitement to everyone, including the tech ecosystem, in the country. The recently signed Electoral Amendment Bill of 2022 amends the Electoral Act of 2010 and is intended to help Nigeria improve its electoral process in comparison to previous…
PerchPeek, a relocation platform, has raised $11 million in Series A funding to address this employee relocation issue – and make it easier for companies to grant employee relocation requests. Stage 2 Capital and AlbionVC co-led the funding round. PerchPeek claims to have a step-by-step app that assists employees relocating to 47 countries worldwide –…
Silvertree Holdings has completed the full acquisition of South African meal kit delivery company UCOOK for US$12.3 million. Silvertree Holdings had previously invested in the startup, which has now been acquired entirely, with co-founders David Torr, Christopher Verster-Cohen, and Katherine Barry exiting and Silvertree’s Peter Allerstorfer and colleagues taking over the executive reins. In the…
Viva Translate, a technology startup, announced $4 million in funding and the release of a new AI context-aware translation software. Viva Translate is an artificial intelligence software that translates emails and other written communications between Spanish and English in real time. The software works as a Chrome browser extension to provide automatic and instant translation….
Cisco, a multinational technology corporation headquartered in the United States, has announced the appointment of Smangele Nkosi as General Manager of its South African operations. According to Cisco, Nkosi’s focus as general manager is on leveraging the company’s technology leadership to support the country’s innovation, prosperity, and social inclusion. Her role will entail working closely…
Volta Trucks, a Swedish electric vehicle startup that believes it can build better urban delivery vehicles and other trucks that are safer and have a lower carbon footprint than their gas-guzzling, more clumsy, existing counterparts, has closed a large round of funding to help it get through the final mile of development before its Volta…
What exactly is User-Generated Content? User-generated content is any content created by your users that expresses their feelings about your brand. Customers, clients, and even employees can be among your users. UGC refers to all of the content created by these users about your brand and its product or service. UGC can be found everywhere…
Africa and Asia are the birthplaces of mobile money, and the transition to digital wallets is well underway in countries with high smartphone penetration. According to a recent report, African and Asian consumers are increasingly accepting digital payments. This is the conclusion of a white paper published by TerraPay in collaboration with IBS, highlighting trends…
Njoku Emmanuel dropped out of school to focus on coding after his father confiscated his laptop for “coding too much” and failing to face his studies. After three years, he has established himself as one of the best blockchain engineers of his generation, traveled the world, and now runs his own startup, Lazerpay, a cryptocurrency…
While analyzing the threat landscape of African countries, Kaspersky experts observed a steady decline in mobile device attacks in the region, as cybercriminals concentrated their efforts to focus on more complicated, dangerous, and profitable threats. These and other findings are included in Kaspersky’s report, Mobile Threats in 2021. Overall, South African users faced 38% fewer…
Meta Platforms, the company that owns Facebook, has established a special operations center to monitor the conflict in Ukraine, and it has launched a feature that allows users in the country to lock their social media profiles for security, a company official said in a series of tweets on Thursday. Twitter posted tips on Wednesday…
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Meta, has announced new artificial intelligence projects, believing that AI is “the key to unlocking the Metaverse.” Zuckerberg believes that the mobile internet’s future will be the metaverse, a futuristic concept of virtual spaces in which users can work, socialize, and play. In a livestreamed demonstration, he demonstrated the AI…
The Stanford Africa Business Forum has opened applications for the New Venture Pitch Competition, which will give early-stage ventures the opportunity to pitch on stage at the April event. The Stanford Africa Business Forum, which will take place both in-person and virtually on April 16, will look at how African innovations in various sectors can…
China has issued a new ban on raising funds through “virtual currency,” declaring the practice illegal. In China, anyone who uses cryptocurrency to raise funds for a cause will face a prison sentence. The severity of the punishment will be determined by the amount of capital one has amassed through the use of virtual assets,…