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…
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…
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…
Applications are now available for the second cohort of the AUDA-NEPAD Home Grown Solutions Accelerator, which aims to provide hands-on, highly personalized support to developing and mature-stage African healthcare enterprises in order to help them improve and flourish. The African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group and Villgro Africa, is behind…
It is common knowledge that women are underrepresented in the worldwide technology sector. While more women are beginning to create tech professions in a male-dominated field, women still do not receive the same level of visibility as their male counterparts due to this underrepresentation. Being the Public Relations Officer of Zenithchain, a blockchain business requires…
In 2019, a few months after the African Continental Free Trade Deal (AfCFTA) was signed, CcHUB hosted some African tech and creative industry professionals in Kigali, Rwanda, to discuss how the newly signed agreement could benefit the tech and creative ecosystem. Tola Onayemi, a young lawyer from Nigeria, was among the 80 participants from 30…
Oracle, the world’s largest database management firm, launched its first cloud region (a cluster of data centers) in Africa last week, joining other global giants such as Microsoft and Amazon that already operate data centers on the African continent. The opening of the data center in South Africa marks Oracle’s 37th cloud area globally, with…
Utopia and the World Economic Forum’s new Centre for Urban Transformation have launched a worldwide Urban Innovation Challenge to engage an ecosystem of 800 innovative urban entrepreneurs, investors, and mayors from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Entrepreneurs who are working on real-world urban tech solutions that help to make the world a better place, enable…
The issue of women’s under-representation in technology is one that will continue to haunt the industry and provide meat for debate. And it isn’t only an African issue; women all across the world are trying to keep up with their male counterparts. According to Statista, just 9.8 percent of start-up founders in West Africa were…
The Energy Entrepreneurs Growth Fund will receive up to US$ 13 million in funding from FinDev Canada and its 2X Canada facility, according to an announcement made by FinDev Canada and its 2X Canada facility (EEGF). The Electricity Entrepreneurs Growth Fund provides catalytic capital and technical assistance to early and growth-stage entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa…
The marketing communications sector has historically been sluggish to react to major technical advances, from the inception of the modern internet to the shift to mobile, social, and cloud in Web 2.0. With the introduction of Metaverse and other new blockchain concepts and solutions that are Web 3.0 compatible, companies and agencies that fail to…
Applications are now available for the Norrsken Impact Accelerator in Stockholm, Sweden, which provides assistance, mentorship, and US$125,000 in investment to selected early-stage entrepreneurs from around the world. Norrsken, founded in 2016 by Niklas Adalberth, one of the founders of Swedish finance unicorn Klarna, promises to assist entrepreneurs address the world’s toughest challenges. Its ecosystem…
Born out of a need to bridge the digital skill gap in Africa, Women in Agile (WiA) Africa is transforming the continent through adaptation and continuous improvement. Speaking at a press conference in Ikeja, Lagos on Thursday, Mercy George-Igbafe, the convener of the WiA Africa Conference 2022 and the founder of Learntor stressed that many…
Netflix, the world’s largest movie streaming service, has premiered Binti as Tanzania’s first Netflix feature. Black Unicorn, a production firm founded by two sisters, Angela and Alinda Ruhinda, produced the film. Binti, directed by Seko Shamte, took home the award for Best Feature at the Zanzibar International Film Festival. It’s a sweet victory that follows…
Y Combinator, a well-known Silicon Valley incubator, has raised its normal deal size to US$500,000. The Y Combinator program, which helped launch firms such as Airbnb, Coinbase, and Dropbox, among others, is increasingly choosing African digital entrepreneurs to participate in its program. Its alumni list includes names like Flutterwave, Paystack, and Kobo360 (not to mention…
The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), through Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, CCIE, chairman of the Technical Committee Nigeria-Twitter Engagement and director-general of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has announced that President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, has approved the lifting of the suspension of Twitter operations in Nigeria, which will take effect at 12am tonight, January…
Sophos, a global pioneer in next-generation cybersecurity, today introduced the Sophos Switch Series, which includes a variety of network access layer switches for connecting, powering, and controlling device access within a Local Area Network (LAN). The new product expands Sophos’ secure access portfolio, which already includes Sophos Firewall and Sophos Wireless. “Sophos Switch seamlessly integrates…
TwentyTen Daily is celebrating its first anniversary, a milestone marked by many exciting moments with its own fair share of highs and lows. Over the past one year, with its team made up of journalists, data visualization experts and media innovators. It has extensively published in-depth data driven stories and reports under a wide range…
Standard Chartered Plc has begun plans to close approximately half of its locations in Nigeria as part of a campaign to focus only on digital banking. The corporation, which had 25 physical branches across Nigeria at the time, had begun efforts to reduce the number of physical locations to 13, five of which would be…
South African startups are invited to apply for the uYilo Electric Mobility Programme, which offers up to ZAR1 million (US$64,000) in funding for projects in the energy storage, vehicle systems, charging infrastructure, and connected car sectors. The national uYilo Electric Mobility Programme, an initiative of the Technology Innovation Agency, a public entity of the Department…
Orange Ventures has opened applications for its “Seed Challenge – Fintech Egypt,” which will award EUR500,000 (US$570,000) in funding to one company. Orange Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of telecoms firm Orange Group, opened its Orange Digital Centre in Cairo in December and has now launched its fintech seed competition. Seed-stage fintech companies, primarily…
John Pinette, the head of communications at Facebook parent Meta Platforms, is leaving the company, the social media company announced late Friday. A Meta spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed statement that Chris Norton, vice president of international communications, will fill the role on an interim basis. “Meta has lost John Pinette. We are grateful…
Nigeria has taken another step toward enacting its landmark Nigeria Startup Bill (NSB), which will further deepen the country’s technology ecosystem and enable a sector on the verge of exponential growth. President Muhammadu Buhari has worked with the Presidency and leaders in the Nigerian technology industry on the bill, which has now been approved by…
While eCommerce has grown in Africa over the years, online shopping on the continent remains significantly lower than the global average. Only around 35% of Africans shop online. This simply demonstrates that many Africans (approximately 65 percent) continue to rely on retailers and small shop owners for their daily household needs such as groceries, utilities,…
Ethiopia’s beU Delivery and Nigeria’s IdentityPass are among the 40 startups confirmed as participants in the W22 batch of the renowned Silicon Valley-based accelerator Y Combinator. 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,…
Flat6Labs, a Cairo-based accelerator and investor, has partnered with ESLSCA University to launch a new innovation and entrepreneurship incubation program that will enable undergraduate students to develop viable and sustainable businesses upon graduation. Flat6Labs, founded in 2011 and headquartered in Cairo, is a seed and early-stage venture capital firm with multiple offices throughout the MENA…
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) ordered a thorough investigation into Apple on Friday for alleged unfair business practices in its App Store. It was claimed that Apple engages in anti-competitive restraints and dominant practices in markets for the distribution of applications (apps) to users, as well as the processing of payments for digital content…