Kudi, an African payment network, has rebranded as Nomba. This was announced in a press release as part of the company’s transition from a single payment platform to an omnichannel payment platform. Payment collections, trade finance, company reporting, and multiple location administration are among the new business capabilities produced by the new omni-channel payment platform,…
According to filings filed with the SEC, Elon Musk, who recently purchased a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter, has made an offer to buy the firm altogether for $54.20 per share in cash in a hostile takeover worth around $43 billion. Musk stated in the filing that if his offer is rejected, he will most…
The Central Bank of Nigeria granted MTN the permission to operate Mobile Money (MoMo). Since its inception in 2019, MTN Nigeria’s Mobile Money (MoMo) service has attracted over 9 million subscribers. According to TechCabal, the license means MTN Nigeria would be able to provide practically all the services provided by traditional commercial banks, except for…
Elon Musk, Twitter’s largest shareholder, has decided not to join the company’s board of directors, according to CEO Parag Agrawal. Musk, who calls himself a free-speech absolutist and has been critical of Twitter, disclosed a 9.1% interest in the social media network on April 4 and said he intends to make big improvements. His appointment…
ImaliPay, a $3 million seed fundraising round has been finalized for a Pan-African fintech start-up that focuses on boosting the gig economy through its one-stop-shop financial services platform. ImaliPay was founded in late 2020 in Nigeria after Tatenda Furusa (Co-founder) noticed problems with e-ride hailing drivers’ access to working capital and emergency savings in Nairobi. Upon…
Didi Chixung, the Chinese ride-hailing behemoth, has announced the closure of its operations in South Africa (SA), a year after it first opened its doors on the continent. A Didi representative in South Africa confirmed the closure to TechCrunch but did not elaborate on the reasons for the shutdown. “We have made the tough choice…
Circle, founded in 2020 by Nancy Kamal and Essam Maged and sponsored by 500 Global, makes it easy for real estate developers and property owners to interact with tenants. Milango, on the other hand, was founded by Amr Mostafa in 2021 and provides business clients with a suite of community management solutions to help them…
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…
Flutterwave, a Nigerian fintech unicorn, has unveiled new product offerings and features for individuals, business owners, and developers just two days after raising $250 million in Series D funding. This announcement was made on the company’s official social media accounts. Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola stated in a video announcement that Flutterwave is opening up a…
MTN, the mobile telecommunications company, has begun a rebranding effort. As part of the rebranding effort, the telco unveiled a new logo ahead of an official event scheduled for February 2022. Furthermore, the company stated that it is transitioning from a telecommunications company to a technology company. The new logo, which will replace MTN’s corporate…
According to a person familiar with the matter, Apple acquired AI Music, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to generate tailor-made music, adding technology that could be used across its slate of audio offerings. In recent weeks, AI Music, a London-based company founded in 2016, was purchased. Prior to the acquisition, the company had about…
Apple made history on Monday when it became the first company to have a market value of $3 trillion. During Monday’s intraday trading, Apple briefly reached a market value of $3 trillion before resuming its decline. When the company’s stock price reached $182.86, it was the first to do so. Apple has a $2.99 trillion…
Networks Unlimited, a subsidiary of Exclusive Networks, has continued its end-of-year tradition of assisting the students and parents of Nokuphila School in Tembisa, Midrand. According to Managing Director Anton Jacobsz, the school is a beneficiary of the non-profit educational organization The Love Trust, which is Networks Unlimited’s 53 percent broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) partner….
Alphabet’s Google announced on Wednesday that it will give an additional bonus to its employees worldwide this year, postponing its return-to-office plan. A company spokesperson told Reuters that Google will give all employees, including the company’s extended workforce and interns, a one-time cash bonus of $1,600 or equivalent value in their country this month. The…
Amazon has announced the closure of Alexa.com, its website ranking tool that has been in operation for the past 25 years. The service, which offered a paid subscription with SEO research and analysis tools, will discontinue providing website statistics and rankings next year. According to Amazon, after Alexa Internet is decommissioned, the service’s API will…
According to The Information, Apple CEO Tim Cook signed an agreement with Chinese officials worth approximately $275 billion to avert threats that would have hampered the company’s devices and services in the country. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. The five-year agreement was reached during Cook’s visits to China…
On Monday, Alibaba announced a reorganization of its international and domestic e-commerce businesses, as well as the appointment of a new chief financial officer. The changes come as Alibaba faces multiple headwinds, including increased competition, a slowing economy, and regulatory scrutiny. In order to become more agile and accelerate growth, Alibaba announced the formation of…
Treepz (formerly Plentywaka), a Nigeria-based Mobility-as-a-Service platform, has acquired Ugabus, a Ugandan bus company that aggregates inter-city bus operators. While the terms of the deal were not disclosed, Treepz CEO and co-founder Onyeka Akumah told TechCrunch that the acquisition was funded with a recent $1.5 million raise that served as an extension to a previous…
Facebook announced on Thursday that it is conducting a test that will give users a smidgeon more control over what they see on the platform. The test will be available for English-speaking users on Facebook’s app. It incorporates three sub-menus into Facebook’s menu for controlling what appears in the News Feed: friends and family, groups…
Nokia said on Wednesday that it plans to launch a cloud-based software subscription service aimed at telecommunications companies to provide analytics, security and data management software. Many tech companies have been moving toward a subscription model from licensing in advance to building a predictable, recurring business. While part of Nokias’ software portfolio will be offered…
Airtel Africa, a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services, with a presence in 14 countries across Africa, today announces that its subsidiary Airtel Mobile Commerce Nigeria has been granted approval in principle by the Central Bank of Nigeria to operate as a super agent in Nigeria. The super agent licence is distinct from the Payment…
The Centre has defended in the Delhi High Court the legal validity of its new IT rule requiring messaging apps, such as WhatsApp, to “trace” the first originator of the information, saying that the law empowers it to expect such entities to create safe cyberspace and counter illegal content either themselves or by assisting the…
Microsoft has published a new advisory warning of a security bypass vulnerability affecting Surface Pro 3 convertible laptops that could be exploited by an adversary to introduce malicious devices within enterprise networks and defeat the device attestation mechanism. Tracked as CVE-2021-42299 (CVSS score: 5.6), the issue has been codenamed “TPM Carte Blanche” by Google software engineer Chris…
Hardware season is heading for a dramatic finale next week, with three events from three major companies, three days in a row. Apple, Google and Samsung (in that order) are all hosting big events next week, getting their last big announcements (hopefully) out of the way ahead of the upcoming holiday season. That means your friendly…
In 2016, 34 plaintiffs filed a suit against Uber Kenya Limited. Their claim? Uber’s group of companies had violated an online contract signed by drivers in Kenya. According to court documents, the contract stipulated that the plaintiffs would transport Uber’s Kenya customer base at a minimum of $0.54 per kilometre, with a minimum fare of $2.71. Under…
WhatsApp is beginning to roll out a new feature that will provide its two billion users the option to encrypt their chat history backup in iCloud or Google Drive, patching a major loophole that has been exploited by governments to obtain and review private communication between individuals. WhatsApp has long encrypted chats between users on its app. But users…
American technology giant Microsoft announced today that it will pull its professional social network LinkedIn from the Chinese market later this year. Microsoft purchased LinkedIn for more than $26 billion back in 2016. The news comes amidst a flurry of regulatory changes in the Asian nation, as well as rising tensions between the company and the country. Two…
Twitter says it’s going to test a new ad format and placement on its platform. On Wednesday, Twitter Revenue Product Lead Bruce Falck said Twitter would begin showing ads on mobile devices inside conversation threads after the first, third and eighth replies. While the company stopped short of confirming the change would be permanent, it did say…
You have heard about Rent Small Small, right? Well, the Nigerian property technology startup that is reorganising the home rental market has been accepted to join the Techstars Toronto Accelerator Programme starting this October. Rent Small Small is just celebrating its third year anniversary. Techstars is an operational investment company that helps founders and early-stage entrepreneurs scale their…
Tech giant Microsoft has announced that it has expanded its Azure Availability Zones, making them generally available in the Johannesburg data centre region (SA North) of South Africa. Azure Availability Zones form an important building block of comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery strategy by ensuring resiliency and availability of business-critical applications and data through modernised…