All about Business.
Greycroft and Tiger Global, two American venture capital firms, led a $15 million Series A funding round for Nigerian investment platform Bamboo, which allows Nigerians to buy and sell US equities in real time via their mobile computers or phones. Motley Fool Ventures, Saison Capital, Chrysalis Capital, and Y-Michael Combinator’s Seibel all participated in the…
Lami, an insurance technology company, has announced the acquisition of Bluewave Insurance Agency, a Nairobi-based insurtech firm, for an undisclosed sum, allowing it to reach Africa’s underserved population and fill the existing insurance gap. Lami will continue its goal of democratizing insurance goods and services for low-income Africans by providing users with accessible and affordable…
According to Bloomberg News, Ford Motor is planning an additional $20 billion investment in the development of electric vehicles. According to the report, which cited people familiar with the plan, the $10 billion to $20 billion investment will be spread out over the next five to ten years and will include converting its current factories…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Many people around the world have had a difficult time as a result of the global pandemic. It’s been a difficult time for individuals involved in art, entertainment, and sports, with the closing of galleries and other public display places and venues. However, a new pioneering concept emerging from Africa has the potential to transform…
The development of Covid-19 and the desire to be safe has forced many businesses to operate in silos, which has hampered effective communication. Most firms now rely primarily on communication technologies to bring together a big number of people who are physically separated. In fact, applications such as Zoom are a major focus. However, as…
Microsoft and FedEx made more information about the second phase of their multiyear relationship, which they first announced in 2020, public today. On January 24, the pair announced that they are collaborating to establish a cross-platform “logistics as a service” offering for retailers, merchants, and brands by combining FedEx network analytics with Microsoft Dynamics 365….
Workers are quitting employment at an alarming rate, resulting in a talent shortage that has corporations around the world scrambling. According to a recent Citrix poll, 40% of 1,000 knowledge professionals in the United States have left or are considering leaving at least one job in the last year. The event has been called “The…
BitCo Telecoms, one of South Africa’s major Telecommunications and Internet Service Providers, announces fiscal and market share growth for 2021, as well as plans to expand its national last mile carrier-grade network and geographic coverage to outlying areas and towns in 2022 and beyond. In 2021, BitCo had a great year of company growth, with…
Apple has been investing heavily in Apple TV+, its own streaming platform that features original movies and TV shows. While Apple TV+ market share increased in 2021, the platform remains well behind its competitors in the United States, with only a 5% market share. According to a JustWatch data obtained by 9to5Mac, Apple TV+ market…
Many experts lost their jobs after the Covid-19 epidemic struck in 2020. Others reduced their working hours or began working remotely, giving them more opportunity to pursue numerous revenue streams. These factors contributed to a significant increase in the number of startup and small business launches, many of which are still surviving as we approach…
P2vest Technology Limited reported that their peer-to-peer lending application, P2Vest, has reached 100,000 customers who have access to rapid loans. This accomplishment highlights the organization’s contribution in improving the way individuals obtain credit and lend money by connecting borrowers and lenders. Over the last 15 months, the leading peer-to-peer lending network has employed technology to…
Chari, a Moroccan B2B e-commerce and fintech business, has raised a bridge round of funding valued at US$100 million. Chari, which was founded in 2020 by husband and wife pair Ismael and Sophia Belkhayat, allows traditional local store operators in Morocco to order and have things delivered. It collaborates with more than half of the…
IFC and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) announced a new call for applications for IFC ScaleX, a new program aimed at bridging the financing gap that women entrepreneurs continue to encounter, particularly in emerging countries, through supporting accelerators. IFC ScaleX is a performance-based project for which IFC has partnered with Village Capital to launch….
A new pan-African payment system eliminates historical complexities, such as the cost of cross-border payments, boosts operational efficiencies, and paves the way for more stable and stronger African currencies, all of which are expected to boost intra-Africa commerce. Following the formal debut of a new payment system in Africa, a Kenyan client can now pay…
The subscription economy has come of age. The notion is gaining traction in the United States and Europe for a wide range of services. Subscription models, such as Netflix for TV, Spotify for music, Adobe Creative Cloud for design services, and Ring for home security, have steadily woven themselves into our daily lives and enterprises…
Fintech platforms are increasingly looking for new ways to serve their clients, one of which underlines the motivation for the BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) model that many have begun to use. This unique credit offering model has grown in popularity in recent years, owing to the rapid gratification and delayed payment that it offers…
With digital transformation accelerating faster than ever in the corporate landscape, most organizations now use a combination of business tools to conduct their operations across sales, marketing, finance, HR, and so on. All of these tools, more often than not, have a reporting module that shows department-specific data records and statements. However, isolated data such…
According to GlobalData, COVID-19 had a significant impact on online travel agencies (OTAs), with the OTA market value decreasing by a staggering 60.4 percent year on year (YoY) in 2020. According to the major data and analytics firm, this strain has exacerbated OTA’s previous fears about Google’s rising market position, and how the internet giant’s…
While the complete figures for 2021 aren’t in yet, eCommerce sales in 2020 were 32.4 percent more than the previous year. More than ever before, shoppers are expressing a desire to move their purchases online. This isn’t simply a global phenomenon; over 22 million South Africans click “add to cart” at least once a month….
Traditional media has long been the foundation of marketing and advertising campaigns. However, in a post-Covid-19 world where people have comfortably accustomed to a mobile-first, digital consumption model, the consequence of this transformation for this business is already obvious. This sector’s commercial business model has also been disrupted. Today, the digital first strategy provides companies…
Most business owners want to invest in their company in order for it to expand. In the early days, you may see exponential growth; people are learning about your company for the first time, they’re having positive first impressions, and the novelty of your brand is still fresh enough to help it spread. This is…
For as long as I can remember, the world of fashion has been my playground. When I went to Nigeria from London six years ago, I noticed that there was no stability in the African fashion industry’s production. The facilities were subpar, the garment quality was far from ideal, and the personnel lacked both education…
According to CM.com, many businesses are still responding to changes in the business environment brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The global crisis prompted many businesses to reconsider how they communicate with their customers and repackage product and service offerings for the new landscape – one defined by digital transformation. This evolution is reflected in…
Today, many employees who are leaving their jobs are venturing into entrepreneurship. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the number of applications for new businesses is higher than ever. Felena Hanson, founder and CEO of coworking space Hera Hub, has seen a 50 percent increase in the number of first-time entrepreneurs using her…