ILLA, an Egyptian Logistics startup, has raised a $2 million investment round to boost its growth in the market and diversify its offering to the FMCG value chain. The round was co-led by Watheeq Financial Services and Golden Palm Investments. It also saw participation from Loftyinc Capital Management, Kepple Africa…
Author: AdeO
Board appoints interim CEO Kepple Africa Ventures, the Japanese Venture Capital firm, has announced that it will revoke its investment in Kenyan fintech startup Wapi Pay. The VC firm was one of the investors in Wapi Pay’s recent $2,2 million funding. This comes after reports emerged that Wapi Pay founders,…
Netflix will earn about $900 million in value from its hugely popular show Squid Game according to internal documents seen by Bloomberg. This was revealed days after Squid Game became the biggest ever series at launch’ with 111 million viewers. The documents also revealed that Squid Game cost $21.4 million to…
Piggyvest, one of Nigeria’s leading fintech savings platforms, has been trending on social media after news emerged that it reportedly lost N2 billion to a fraudulent investment scheme called Imagine Lenders. The managers of the firm Bamise Samson Ajetunmobi and his wife, Elizabeth, have both been declared wanted. This news…
Alerzo, a Nigerian retail-tech startup, has announced the acquisition of fintech company Shago Payments to provide new digital services to its 150,000-plus informal retailers. The B2B eCommerce retail firm was launched in 2019 in Ibadan with a goal to bring the country’s informal retail sector online. Alerzo Founder Adewale Opaleye said he created the company…
French President Emmanuel Macron has made a new US$150 million commitment to support 500 African startups for the net three years as part of redefining the Digital Africa Initiative. This new funding was announced at the New Africa-France Summit. He further affirmed that Digital Africa is now part of Proparco,…
Before today, only your WhatsApp chats were encrypted. This has changed as the messaging giant has begun rolling out the end-to-end encryption for chat backups for users globally on Android and iOS. With this update, if someone chooses to back up their chat history with end-to-end encryption, it will be accessible…
China has continued its crackdown on tech giants. Just as Microsoft has shut down LinkedIn in the country, Apple has taken down a Quran app and a Bible app in the country at the request of Chinese officials, the company confirmed to the BBC. The apps, which are called Quran Majeed…
Sparkle, a mobile-first digital bank that provides financial, lifestyle and business support services to Nigerians across the globe, has raised an oversubscribed seed round of $3.1m from an all-Nigerian group of investors including Leadway Assurance, Trium Networks and a number of Nigerian High Networth Individuals. This follows a previous friends…
Mental health has been in the spotlight recently, with people under strain from the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and top athletes opening up about their mental health struggles during prominent international sporting events. These athletes, including gymnast Simone Biles, tennis player Naomi Osaka and others, who are at the pinnacle of…
Apple has announced that it would hold a hardware event on October 18th tagged Unleashed according to invites it recently sent out. The tech giant is widely expected to launch new MacBooks, a redesigned higher-end Mac Mini, and possibly a pair of third-generation AirPods. The “special” event will stream live…
African unicorns have made big news in recent months, with four startups having recently reached a $1 billion valuation or more this year alone, taking the total up to seven. Two of the new entrants are in fintech, one in edtech, and one in general technology. These and other technology-enabled…
Klasha, a San Francisco-based cross-border technology company, has announced that it has raised $2.4 million in seed funding to build technology infrastructure for cross-border commerce in Africa. The investment round was led by Greycroft with participation from Seedcamp, Berrywood Capital, AVG Basecamp Fund, Practical VC, Plug and Play, First Fund,…
alsoug, the largest digital classifieds and marketplace in Sudan, has announced the close of a $5 million fundraise to establish a national payments network enabling quick, easy and safe transactions for all Sudanese. alsoug, which was founded in 2016 and has nearly two million downloads, lets Sudanese consumers and businesses…
Flutterwave has announced a partnership with Airtel Money to expand the latter’s services to businesses across Eastern Africa. The partnership enables businesses integrating Flutterwave in Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Kenya and Rwanda, to receive payments from Airtel Money customers, as well as make bulk payments into Airtel Money wallets thanks…
Twitter has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell MoPub to AppLovin Corporation, a leading marketing software company, for $1.05 billion in cash. The transaction will enable Twitter to accelerate the development of owned and operated revenue products and drive growth across key areas for the service including performance-based advertising,…
Facebook has announced the winners of the 2021 Facebook Community Accelerator Program, highlighting the 13 Facebook community leaders from Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya who will receive training, mentorship and up to $50,000 USD in funds to invest in an initiative that extends their community’s positive impact. The 13 winners…
Malaria is a major cause of death in Sub-saharan Africa. The UNICEF reports that an estimated 90 percent of malaria deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, with 407,000 deaths in 2016. Malaria preys upon the vulnerable: children under five years of age, the poorest and most marginalized, pregnant women, and their unborn children.…
The gaming industry is thriving this year as firms in the business have raised a whopping $71 billion in the first nine months of 2021, according to a report by investment bank Drake Star Partners. That includes major third-quarter deals such as Netmarble’s $2 billion acquisition of casino game developer SpinX, Tencent’s $1…
Gmail is the most widely used email client and It is absolutely necessary to secure it because it could be hacked. So, how will you keep your account safe? Well, Two Factor Authentication is the answer. Gmail’s 2FA feature will help keep your account safe and secure. If someone tries…