All about Business.
The co-investment fund Catalytic Africa, established in 2019 by the African Business Angels Network (ABAN) and AfriLabs, has concluded a successful pilot and will now launch full operations. The partnership between AfriLabs, a pan-African network of technology and innovation centres, and ABAN aims to increase the pool of capital available to promising African growth-stage entrepreneurs, support the startup…
Tesla’s market valuation hit and then surpassed the $1 trillion mark Monday, a milestone reached by the company 11 years after it became a publicly traded company. It also puts Tesla in select company with Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google, all of which have market caps above $1 trillion. Tesla met the $1 trillion market…
Mastercard has appointed Gabriel Swanepoel as the new Country Manager for Mastercard in South Africa. This serves as a promotion from his current role as the VP of Business Integration for Mastercard, Southern Africa. As country manager, Swanepoel is responsible for further driving the company’s strategic vision, innovation and growth agenda, and building on its…
After two years of operation, DHL Africa is shutting down its pan-African online retail platform, e-Shop, at the end of the month. “We are no longer accepting orders and this service will be closed effective October 30th, 2021. All orders in process will be shipped or refunded. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused,” a…
APO Group, a leading Pan-African communications consultancy has announced a multi-year strategic partnership with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), providing the public broadcaster with sports content from the whole of Africa and bringing sporting stories from the rest of the continent to South African audiences – much of it for the first time. SABC…
Nigeria on Monday became the first African nation to launch a digital currency – the eNaira – a move its leaders said will expand access to banking, enable more remittances and even grow the economy by billions of dollars. Africa’s most populous nation joins the Bahamas, the first to launch a general purpose central bank…
There are a number of reasons a business needs investments, these investments could be in the pre-seed, Series A or B and regardless of whatever stage the business is operating, the major reason for seeking investor’s funding is usually for expansion purposes. This expansion could be in the line of products or the need to serve more…
According to sources, PayPal has made an offer to buy digital pinboard site Pinterest for $45 billion. It would be the largest social media acquisition ever, topping Microsoft’s $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn in 2016. According to one of the sources, PayPal has offered $70 per share, largely in stock, for Pinterest. According to the…
The African Development Bank has signed a grant agreement for $500,000 with Y’ello Digital Financial Services (YDFS), a fintech subsidiary of MTN Nigeria, to be used for a study into economic, religious, and social factors hampering access to finance for women in northern Nigeria. According to a statement, the research, which includes a feasibility study,…
Kepple Africa Ventures participated in Wapi Pay’s $2.2 million pre-seed fundraising round in August. On Tuesday, the Japanese venture capital firm announced it was cutting all ties with the Kenyan fintech startup co-founded by Paul Ndichu and his twin brother, Edward. That decision followed the circulation of a video on social media, which showed two men engaged…
In March 2020, as the coronavirus swept through cities and triggered lockdowns in many countries, Toyin Akintayo asked himself, “What can give small businesses an edge against bigger ones?” Why small businesses? For Akintayo, the idea to work with Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) stems from his two decades of running small businesses. Although most of them…
Google has announced the launch of TaskMate in Kenya – a crowdsourcing app that allows people to use smartphones to do tasks and get paid. The app taps the growing gig economy and is finally ready to be launched in beta in the East African country after being tested in Kenya for over a year….
Autochek, the automotive technology company that aims to facilitate auto finance across Africa, has officially widened its operations to Kenya as part of its pan-African expansion. To lead its Kenya operations, Autochek has appointed Bilhah Muriithi as the Country Manager. Having recently acquired automotive marketplaces Cheki Kenya and Cheki Uganda from ROAM Africa (Ringier One Africa Media),…
Since its release in 2017, over 40,000 organizations have chosen Zoho One as their operating system. In 2021, Zoho One witnessed a 60% y-y customer growth with average number of apps used by businesses rising to 21 Zoho Corporation, a leading global technology company, today introduced five new apps, three new services and seven major…
GE Healthcare and medical group AFRIPHARMA has announced the opening of the Afri-Egypt Health Services Center, a first of its kind medical and diagnostic centre in Uganda. The Center is located in Jinja and is expected to serve over 60,000 people from the region, allowing for improved accessibility in the surrounding communities. The facility is…
Nigerian fintech startup Baxi, one of the country’s leading super-agent networks, has been acquired by the pan-African payments company MFS Africa to enable the latter’s expansion into Nigeria. Founded in 2014 by Degbola Abudu and Folu Majekodunmi, Baxi provides a cash-in/cash-out offering as well as value-added services – account opening, money transfer, bill payment and more –…
Rideshare group Bolt has announced its food delivery service Bolt Food has launched in Johannesburg. The service will provide the city’s residents with access to food deliveries from more than 300 restaurants and fast food outlets. Bolt Food has been available in Cape Town since April 2020, where 800 restaurants have been added to the…
Green businesses in Uganda are invited to apply for an accelerator programme that offers free finance-focused workshops and discounted loans to help them scale up. The Ugandan Green Enterprise Finance Accelerator (UGEFA) is looking to help high-potential small and medium-sized enterprises that specialise in eco-tourism, clean energy, sustainable transport, waste management and green manufacturing. During…
Liquid Intelligent Technologies, a leading pan-African telecommunications technology group has announced the launch of its shortest terrestrial fibre route between the East to the West coasts of Africa, connecting Mombasa, Kenya to Muanda, DRC. With the completion of this route, Liquid establishes a new global internet transit route between Asia and the USA through Africa,…
Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are altering our perceptions of art, and financiers are paying attention. NFTs have risen to prominence in the cryptocurrency industry in recent years. Artists have taken use of the technology’s ability to generate real-world scarcity for digital goods using cryptographically unique tokens. NFT markets like Nifty Gateway and OpenSea marketplace have experienced record trading volumes…
Sales are a determinant of whether a business would survive or not. The life blood of every business is embedded in the day-to-day activities that can generate consistent cash flow. Some organizations get caught up in trying to do many things are at time which makes their progression towards activities that contributes to their down line flawed and…
What is it about information systems that makes them so important in the modern world? Why are companies spending so much money on information systems and technology? Information systems are critical to running a firm on a daily basis and accomplishing long-term strategic goals. However, without significant investments in IT, entire sectors of the economy…
Sendbox, the Nigeria-based e-commerce fulfillment platform for merchants in Africa, has today announced the completion of a $1.8 million seed round from investors including 4DX Ventures, Enza Capital, FJLabs and Golden Palm Investments. With participation from Flexport and YC Combinator as part of its 2021 winter cohort, Sendbox’s total investment raised has now reached $2 million following a pre-seed round from Microtraction and 4DX Ventures in…
Nigerians without access to internet-enabled phones would also be able to utilize the eNaira currency. This was revealed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, in a document titled “Design paper for the eNaira”. The CBN, through this document, stated that the eNaira solution will take into consideration all Nigerians, irrespective of the device type they…
Techpoint Africa currently operates in a hybrid co-living and remote work environment. About half of the team live on the same premises, and once every month, we take a trip to the market to stock up on food items. Almost without fail, we discover that the prices of foodstuffs have increased since our last visit. Often,…
The NFT market is still defying reason, but then again that’s kind of its thing. But one thing I’m especially unsure about lately as I see JPGs continue to sell for millions of dollars is… does any of this actually matter? I’ve spent a lot of time over the last year grappling with the NFT…
Throughout my career as an entrepreneur and investor, I have had the opportunity to work with business leaders of all calibers — and varying degrees of success. After time, I was able to discern the distinct traits that separated those who could build great companies from those who would be limited in what they could accomplish. For…
Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa top 20 other African countries under the enforceability of standard master agreements pillar in the latest African Financial Markets Index presented by Absa, a leading financial services provider. The insight was delivered during the presentation of its Absa-OMFIF Financial Markets Index on Wednesday, October 13, 2021. The top financial services provider also…
The UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Nigeria, Helen Grant and Nigeria’s Minister of Industry Trade and Investment, Mr. Adeniyi Adebayo, Friday, held virtually the sixth (6th) meeting of the United Kingdom-Nigeria Economic Development Forum (EDF). The meeting was joined by Her Majesty’s Acting Trade Commissioner for Africa, Alastair Long, the Comptroller General of the Nigeria…
Nigerian retail-tech startup Alerzo has acquired fintech company Shago Payments as it looks to build on already impressive growth that saw its annualised September transaction volume exceed US$155 million. Founded in 2019, the Ibadan-based Alerzo is an all-in-one technology and services platform that transforms how Nigeria’s informal retail stores operate. Retailers can order stock, have it delivered…