All about Tech.
Bloomberg News reported on Thursday that Apple is pushing to launch its electric car as early as 2025 and refocusing the project on full self-driving capabilities, citing people familiar with the matter. Following the report, the iPhone maker’s stock rose nearly 3% to a new high. According to the report, Apple’s ideal car would lack…
Google Meet has introduced new immersive backgrounds and styles, allowing Web users to change their backgrounds while on a video call. The platform has introduced two new animated backdrops, Cafe and Condo, to help users represent their current time zone and climate. Both interiors will have multiple iterations, including rain, sun, and snow, as well…
Telecom26 today announced that longtime end users of SystemOne have chosen it to provide connectivity to new clinics across Angola and Nigeria. The two companies have previously worked together in Ghana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and SystemOne has used the Telecom26 network to test more than 1.3 million blood samples for tuberculosis, HIV and COVID. These…
Ozow, the South African payment gateway, raised $ 48 million in a Series B funding round to expand the availability of payment solutions. The financial environment has been led by Chinese internet giant Tencent and includes other investors such as Endeavor Catalyst and Endeavor Harvest Fund. Tencent, a major investor, donated $ 20 million, accounting…
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued a statement regarding its observation on eNaira, the new digital currency of Nigeria’s central bank (CBDC). The IMF, in the statement, said: “The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) officially launched the ‘eNaira’, a central bank digital currency (CBDC), on October 25, 2021. This is the second CBDC fully…
Tyro, an Egyptian startup educational technology platform that connects students with qualified instructors through individual and group sessions, is acquiring Nafham, a social startup that offers free, crowd-sourced educational content, under a share swap agreement. Tyro is an online tutoring platform that connects students with the best professional instructors, and currently operates in Egypt, the…
Google Meet has been updated to support up to 500 participants in Premium Workspace video conferencing services. The company has updated the service, which has grown in popularity with the rise of teleworking during the COVID-19 epidemic, so that users using more expensive applications can have conversations with more participants. The new limit is still…
Tunisian startup iCompass is using artificial intelligence to help companies across Africa and the Middle East communicate with their customers in their own languages. Founded in 2019 by Ahmed Nouisser and Hatem Haddad, iCompass specialises in natural language processing (NLP) products using the latest deep learning and reinforcement learning technologies to develop speech transcription services, automatic voice…
Ever wished you had your own personal bank assistant on speed dial? Well look no further. The banking experience has just got that much easier with African Bank’s new Chat Banking service on WhatsApp. Sbusiso Kumalo, chief marketing officer at African Bank The platform has been designed with simplicity in mind and customers can chat…
“How will Africans protect our culture in unexplored places?” This was one of the questions David Alabo, a Ghana-based artist with Moroccan heritage, was thinking about when he created “One Africa Three Futures”. Alabo, an afro-surrealist, used 3D and virtual reality (VR) to help his audience at the recently concluded Art X Lagos to see and interact with…
Global losses from payment fraud have tripled from $9.84 billion in 2011 to $32.39 billion in 2020, according to Deutsche Bank’s 2021 report on the future of payments. And financial professionals are saying COVID-19 hasn’t helped matters, with 65% believing that the global pandemic is to blame for some of the accelerated rate in fraud…
Facebook announced today that it’s rolling out new shopping features: Shops in Groups, product recommendations and a test of Live Shopping for Creators. Shops in Groups enables admins of Facebook groups to set up an online store on their associated Facebook Page. It’s up to the admins where this money goes — in the case…
Digital media in Africa is growing fast: traditional media organisations are finding their way to the internet while digital-only media organisations are taking firm root. More Africans are online, they are spending more time on the internet and relying more on digital media more than ever. According to the Social Flagship Report April 2021, created…
Satya Siba Nayak, 15, uses a debit card to pay for YouTube Premium and Netflix, to download apps from Google Play, and to pay for things when he’s out with friends. Signing up for an app called FamPay enabled Nayak to have his own card for making offline and online payments. “My dad doesn’t live…
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has alerted Nigerians to a new malware specifically attacking Android devices. NCC explained that the malware, named ‘AbstractEmu’, can gain access to smartphones, take complete control of infected smartphones and silently modify device settings while simultaneously taking steps to evade detection. According to the Commission, this discovery was announced recently…
Present in Africa for more than 100 years, Allianz, one of the world’s leading insurers and asset managers is entering a new phase in its expansion on the continent with the launch of Allianz Technology’s activities in Africa. Indeed, Allianz Technology Africa (AZTA) has started its operations on the continent through the reconversion of an operational…
Google Trends publishes the top google searches for every day of the week and covers 4 African countries in which it sees the most activity, namely Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. The top search trends from along the week provide an interesting insight into the minds of each country, what captivated users the most,…
The increase in cyberthreats recorded by internet security group Kaspersky in the first half of this year in Kenya amounted to 32.8 million. Compared to similarly prominently targeted countries in the African region the recorded number was on par with South Africa accounting for 31.5 million, and near double the number recorded in Nigeria at…
Moove, an African mobility fintech, has signed an exclusive partnership with Lori Systems, the leading e-logistics company in Africa. The partnership marks Moove’s first foray into the logistics industry, building on rapid growth over the last 15 months in car financing, as it leverages its revenue-based financing model to bridge the financing gap across one of…
International clean-tech startup incubator The Hatchery has launched its new Africa office in Cape Town, South Africa, aiming to discover and support cutting-edge entrepreneurs in areas such as smart utility metering, solar energy, and mobile financial platforms. Also based out of Oslo and Detroit, The Hatchery is an international clean-tech incubator that is invested in technologies that…
If you’re a fan of action thrillers, you’ve probably seen security operatives working with hi-tech gadgets like smart glasses and smartwatches (looking at you, James Bond). In case you’re wondering if those are real or if they’ll ever be commonplace in Africa, we are taking a closer look at a Nigerian-founded company building hi-tech gadgets…
Africa-focused early-stage investor DFS Lab has invested in 19 African tech startups so far in 2021, making it one of the most active firms on the continent and taking its total portfolio size to 22. Founded in 2017, DFS Lab helps founders leading next generation digital commerce businesses in Africa build solid foundations, and matches them with…
Egyptian ed-tech startup OTO Courses has raised US$400,000 in cash and in-kind services from EdVentures to further develop its product to reach more users. Founded in 2015 by Ahmed Badr and Tarek Nour El-Din, OTO Courses has developed an online learning platform that offers general and specialised English language courses for individuals or businesses. Teachers are carefully…
Electric cars and shared mobility concepts are starting to disrupt Africa’s taxi industry. Just a few years after cab-hailing apps upended the market and made city transportation cheaper and safer, they’re now about to get greener. Last month, Nopea Ride, Kenya’s electric taxi fleet service, opened a new electric vehicle (EV) charging hub at Village Market…
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, earlier in February, outlawed crypto trading and prohibited banks and other financial institutions from facilitating related payments. This prohibition comes several months after the Apex bank initially warned Nigerians about the dangers of dealing in cryptocurrencies, stating that they were not legal tender and that investors were unprotected. In the…
An innovative local software development partnership between 4Sight Holdings and Bidvest Advisory Services has created 4MIA powered by ALICE TM, a first-of-its-kind AI-powered automated digital transformation advisor. Developed on the ALICE TM platform, the intelligent predictive solution Monitors, Investigates and Advises (MIA) business and technology executives on critical aspects related to their digital transformation roadmaps….
Every day, more people enter the labour market than the number of jobs being created, research has it that job seekers are applying for more than 20 jobs per day. The era of covid has hastened the growth of digital companies and at the same time modifying the employment space for youths. The job space…
The increase in cyberthreats recorded by global internet security firm Kaspersky in the first half of this year across South Africa amounted to 31.5 million. “Threats can be categorised as criminal (80% of attacks), targeted (19.9%), and advanced (0.01%). The advanced grouping is significantly more sophisticated and feature increased investment from attack groups. Unfortunately, both…
El Salvador made Bitcoin legal tender not too long ago but the country’s Bitcoin Trust has already gained millions in profit, and the country’s President Nayib Bukele has now stated that the profits will be directed towards building 20 schools. The update was confirmed via the press secretary of the presidential office via Twitter. Bukele,…
Discord is already the de facto home for NFT communities, but the company could be planning to deepen those connections in a big way. On Monday, Discord founder and CEO Jason Citron tweeted a screenshot depicting Discord integrated with popular crypto wallet service MetaMask and WalletConnect, an open protocol that many mobile crypto wallets are…