US President Donald Trump has dropped a bombshell by lifting the ban on US sales to Chinese tech powerhouse Huawei. He made this announcement after he and China’s President Xi Jinping agreed to a cease fire at the 2019 G20 Summit in Japan. Trump is quoted as saying, “US companies can sell their…
Author: Charity Mbaka
Google has announced plans to build Equiano: another of its undersea cables connecting Portugal and South Africa. It will eventually also connect Nigeria, hence the name Equiano, after an enslaved Nigerian writer who bought his own freedom. Equiano is Google’s 3rd private cable after Dunant which connects Europe and the…
After 30 years and several legendary designs at Apple, the firm’s Chief Design Officer Jony Ive has announced his plans to leave to establish his own design company. Apple will be one of Ive’s design firm’s initial clientele, working closely on a range of projects with Apple. An official explanation…
Airtel Kenya lost US$ 6.7 million through its mobile money platform, in what is being termed as one of the biggest insider theft cases yet. Airtel Africa, Airtel Kenya’s parent firm, said, “In 2018, incidents of cash control frauds were identified in the Airtel Money operations in Kenya, which involved circumvention…
Kenyans over the course of a few days took advantage in a glitch Safaricom’s data billing system to award themselves several gigabytes in data. The telco has a platinum data offering, in which a user benefits from tens of gigabytes in data that are valid for long periods, as long…
Apple has bought troubled self-driving startup drive.ai. For years, Apple has been speculated to be working on an electric, autonomous vehicle project, code name Project Titan. Apple has never made a public statement regarding the project but the purchase of drive.ai signals the firm’s dream for a self-driving vehicle still…
Chinese tech giant, Huawei, has been navigating murky waters since the US ban on its products in May. In light of this, the firm’s US-based research and development arm, Futurewei Technologies, has gradually been reducing its contact with its parent company since the US blacklisted Huawei. According to a Reuters’…
The final 10 startups to pitch at the 2019 Seedstars Kenya competition have been announced. They are: digital financial marketplace Pezesha, blockchain-based farm management solution Shamba Records, diagnostics solution Ilara Health, point of sale financing company Julla, agri-tech startup Lentera, emergency response service Nurse-In-Hand, blockchain-based payments solution Pesabase, cargo-hailing application Smatbeba LTD, employee payments solution WorkPay and micro-retail management platform Tanda. The competition will take place on June 28th, after which…
5 year old workplace collaboration software company Slack, is going public by means of direct Listing as opposed to the popular route taken by other companies, the Initial Public Offering (IPO). Its shares were projected to go for $26 at the New York Stock Exchange, targeting a valuation of roughly…
Estonian ride-hailing firm Bolt (previously Taxify), has expanded into additional towns across Kenya namely; Thika, Kisumu and Kakamega. The move serves to step up the competition against its rivals in the country, mainly Little and Uber, who have already been operating in these regions. The firm established its operations in…
This past May Microsoft booted Huawei laptops out of its online store following the US ban on trade with the Chinese Tech Giant. However, the Chinese Tech Giant’s laptops have silently been reintroduced to the platform overnight. A Microsoft Spokesman said in a press statement, “We have been evaluating and will…
Google News Initiative (GNI) Innovation Challenge is now accepting submissions from news organisations in Africa, the Middle East and Turkey. Eligible projects should address reader engagement and explore new business models in the form of subscriptions, membership programs and any others. Eligibility also extends to traditional publishers, news startups and associations…
Workz Group, the first manufacturer of 5G SIMs in the Middle East and Africa, has announced a long-term partnership with a manufacturer of mobile IoT modules to produce close to 50 million embedded SIMs (eSIMs) by 2024. This deal will enable Workz Group to provide secure data generation, management and personalisation for…
Safaricom has just rolled out a new feature for subscribers with airtime challenges. Subscribers can now transfer charges to the recipient under the new feature named reverse calls. The service can be activated by adding a ‘#’ (hashtag) before the recipient’s phone number. The recipient will in turn see the call…
Huawei has been having a rough year so far, and some of its woes are trickling onto the camps of some of its partners. The company’s US-based chip suppliers, Intel, Xilinx Inc and Qualcomm have seen their revenues plunge as Huawei phone sales take a hit. As such, the companies have…
The GSMA Innovation Fund for Digitisation of Agricultural Value Chains is calling for African agri-tech startups to apply for funds to support their agri-tech solutions. The fund aims to scale digital solutions for the agricultural last mile and improve smallholders’ financial inclusion, livelihood and climate resilience. All agri-tech startups are encouraged…
The third edition of Startupbootcamp AfriTech is set to take place this year in Cape Town. 22 tech startups from 10 countries have been selected to participate in the accelerator. The top 22 were selected from a pool of 1804 applications, and will attend the finals in Cape Town on…
Travel startups Cloud9xp and HeartBeat Ventures have merged and will work together under the Cloud9xp banner. The move will enable the companies to scale faster and be able to provide better customer service and offer a wider array of products to customers. Cloud9xp is an online marketplace, booking service and distributor…
Mr Brian Wamatu, Safaricom’s Head of Regional Expansion, alongside Mr Simon Kinuthia, Senior Manager in charge of Network Systems Audit, were arraigned in a Nairobi Court on Monday for attempting to extort the firm of KES 300 million. The two Safaricom employees allegedly stole private information on a subscriber from the…
Estonian taxi firm Bolt, which went by Taxify until earlier this year, has re-launched its service in London. It’s initial attempt at offering its service in London in 2017 was stymied by a license denial. The London ride-hailing space is choke-full of players, among them Uber and the local black…