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…
NALA, a Tanzanian cross-border payments firm, has raised $10 million in seed funding. Amplo, Accel $ Bessemer Partners, and DFS Lab led the round. Angel investors included the Head of Google Payments, Peeyush Ranjan, and the Co-Founder and CTO of Monzo, Jonas Templestein, among others. This round follows an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding raised…
TLcom Capital, the Africa-focused venture capital firm known for its investments in Andela and Twiga, is raising $150 million for its second fund, which will invest in early- and late-stage companies. According to a statement shared with TechCrunch, the firm has reached its first close of $70 million. It’s nearly the same as what TLcom…
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…
Sote, a Kenyan supply chain company, has raised a US$4 million seed extension round in order to expand its offering into the fintech space. Sote, which was founded in 2018, will launch its licensed tech-enabled customs clearance and forwarding service in 2020. The platform offers a real-time dashboard that provides manufacturers, retailers, and distributors with…
Even in 2022, there are plenty of people out there attempting to take advantage of countless online retailers. The main issue here is that they are frequently small independent eCommerce merchants rather than large retailers who can potentially afford the loss caused by these scammers. Here are a few of the most common scams that…
Bentley, a German-owned luxury car brand, announced Wednesday that its first all-electric vehicle will be ready by 2025, as part of a major investment in becoming a carbon-zero company. Bentley said in a statement that its first battery-powered electric vehicle will be developed and built at its factory in Crewe, northwest England. The carmaker, which…
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…
Opibus, a mobility startup, has introduced the first all-electric bus in Kenya, as well as the first electric bus designed in Africa. Opibus, which was founded in 2017, is the leading provider of locally designed and manufactured electric vehicles. Its vision is to develop dependable and cost-effective products for the pan-African mass market. Late last…
OZÉ, a Ghanaian fintech startup that offers MSMEs digital recordkeeping tools with embedded finance products, has raised a US$3 million pre-Series A funding round to expand the platform’s capabilities and increase access to affordable finance. OZÉ, which was released in beta in 2018, is a mobile app that assists small businesses in recording their sales,…
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…
CompariSure, a South African business, has raised ZAR15 million (US$980,000) in pre-Series A funding to help it extend the use of its chatbot technology. CompariSure, founded in 2017 by Jonathan Elcock and Matt Kloos, has created a conversational commerce platform that enables businesses to have customized conversations with users at an unlimited scale, powered by…
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….
There’s a global race to develop the world’s largest, most powerful computers, and Meta (AKA Facebook) is ready to join the fray with the “AI Research SuperCluster,” or RSC. When fully operational, it might be one of the top ten fastest supercomputers in the world, used for the huge number-crunching required for language and computer…
Chimera Capital, an Abu Dhabi-based investment firm, announced the closing of its second venture capital (VC) fund, totaling $10 billion, with the goal of identifying multi-million dollar opportunities in “growth-stage” businesses. The $10 billion funds are managed in collaboration with Alpha Wave Global, formerly Falcon Edge Capital, a major alternative asset manager in the United…
Floatpays, a South African on-demand payment platform, has raised just under $4 million in an oversubscribed seed fundraising round to help it expand across Africa. Floatpays is a digital platform that offers on-demand access to pay, seamless savings functionality, and financial education to enhance employee financial wellness. It was founded in 2019 and is a…
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…
MNT-Halan, an Egyptian fintech startup, has launched a buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) function to its digital ecosystem, which also includes business loans, payments, consumer finance, bill payments, e-commerce, and delivery. The service is powered by Neuron, the company’s proprietary technology. MNT-Halan began as a ride-hailing service for two- and three-wheeler vehicles in 2018, and has since evolved…
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…
Uber, the ride-hailing business, has announced the addition of an UberMoto motorbike component to its product offering in Nigeria. The new service, which will launch in Ibadan, is a two-wheeled low-cost alternative and smart mobility option for city dwellers who want to navigate traffic more swiftly and efficiently. Uber Country Manager, Tope Akinwumi, noted in…
The rise of digital banking and e-commerce, fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, creates an ideal environment for fraudsters and money launderers to perpetrate crimes anonymously. Clive Gungudoo, MoData’s Director of Financial Crimes and Risk Management, presents five key measures that organizations must use to protect their digital customer experience. Clive Gungudoo’s interest is educating and…
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…
WhatsApp is rumored to be working on a new area called “Community Home,” which will list all groups associated with a specific community and assist users in managing their groups. The modification has not yet been made public. It has, however, been recommended via a new WhatsApp for Android beta version. For the last few…
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…
Orderin, a South African business-to-business (B2B) delivery-as-a-service (DaaS) startup, has raised ZAR71 million (US$4.7 million) in pre-Series B funding to help it scale its infrastructure and improve its last-mile delivery service. Orderin, which was founded in 2013, is one of South Africa’s major on-demand delivery services, providing delivery services for companies such as McDonald’s and…