Much like his on-screen character, Robert Downey Jr., famous for playing genius billionaire philanthropist Tony Stark(Iron Man), has announced his plans to save the planet with the aid of robotics and Artificial Intelligence. Speaking at Amazon’s Machine Learning, Automation, Robotics, and Space(MARS) conference in Las Vegas, the actor announced The…
Author: Charity Mbaka
Seedstars World Competition has kicked of its seventh edition since it first held the startup competition in Africa, with applications open for its Kenyan leg of the event. The competition will select winners from competing startups across the world, who will then convene in Switzerland for the 2020 Seedstars Summit…
The Cyber Security team at Kenya’s ICT ministry were on Monday treated to an unpleasant surprise when a hacker group identifying itself as the Kurd Electronic Team: W4r10k, took over several state websites, defacing them and disabling most functionality. The websites hacked include the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) website, National…
Applications for the pan-African Innov8Agric Challenge are open in a bid to promote innovative solutions in the agri-tech space. This initiative has been spearheaded by Crenov8 Consulting, the management consulting firm hosting the 3rd annual Meet The Farmers Conference (MTFC) in Dubai in November. The challenge is open to any early…
It has been less than a week since US banned Huawei from operating in the country, as well as from participating in business activities with American companies. As such several companies among them Google and Microsoft, have stop providing their services to Huawei. This has stirred up a storm for…
Lenovo has announced the appointment of Shashank Sharma as the new executive director and general manager for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META) regions. The move has been taken in a bid to expand its business and push more Lenovo products into the region. Mr Shashank Sharma boasts 23…
Safaricom and its parent company Vodacom are entering into negotiations with British firm Vodafone to purchase exclusive rights to M-Pesa for an estimated $13 million. In a statement to Reuters, Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore said this purchase would help the companies save the vast sums currently paid to Vodafone as…
Kenya-based telco giant, Safaricom, has for the umpteenth time extended its CEO’s contract by a year. This extension is said to be compensation for Bob Collymore’s 2017 medical leave taken to battle Leukemia. The CEO will now leave the telco in 2020. Speaking to the media at a local event,…
Less than 2 a fortnight ago South-AFrican regtech startup Intergreatme set out on a crowdfunding mission, aiming at raising USD 1.7 million. The startup has met it’s goal and then some, raising USD 2 million in just six days since they opened crowdfunding on Uprise.Africa. Intergreatme is a mobile and…
South African agritech startup Aerobotics has claimed the top spot of the President Macron Africa Tech Award at Vivatech 2019; the pitch contest was held on May 17th in Paris. The startup’s solutions focus on tree crop and pest disease monitoring processes by leveraging aerial data and artificial intelligence (AI). The hotly…
Africa’s Amazon is what Jumia has been labelled by the American media since its IPO at the New York Stock Exchange. The IPO went well, opening at $45, briefly rising 75% before plummeting to new lows witnessed today. This plunge came after Citron Research released a report in which it…
With Kenya’s Vision 2030 and President Kenyatta’s Big Four Agenda squarely in sight, Kenya’s Communications Authority (CA), alongside the Kenyan government has released its blueprint for a digital economy, which details the state’s plans to grow economically and increase its contribution to the African economy at large. This economic growth…
China-based e-commerce giant Alibaba has opened its doors to vendors based in countries outside China on its Aliexpress platform. This however only applies to a select few other countries among them; Russia, Italy, Spain and Turkey. Vendors, often small and medium-sized businesses, in the newly on-boarded countries will have their…
Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has issued a stern warning to local online traders to pay their taxes. In the announcement, made on its official website, KRA says, “KRA has noted that some taxpayers engage in online business and they do not file returns or pay taxes on the transactions. KRA would…
Are you African? Do you fall between the ages of 17 and 35? Are you running a business centered around clean sustainable energy? If you fall into this category, you are invited to apply to the global Greenpreneurs challenge, which tasks participants to develop sustainable businesses into clean energy solutions.…
Google parent company Alphabet Inc has announced the exit of former Google CEO Erick Schmidt from the company’s board, in which he served in the capacity of chairman. Schmidt is expected to step down from the board in June alongside former Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene who had joined the board…
Telcos operating in Kenya have been given a fresh reason to sweat as a bill has renewed attempts to separate their mobile money business from their other operations. The parliamentary bill seeks to create legislation that would see telcos separate their core business from ALL other ventures, on top of…
Kenya-based telco Safaricom and the Equity Group have announced a partnership to promote financial inclusion: this will be done through a new financial product which will explore regional synergies and facilitate easier cash exchange between between their agents and customers. The agreement will see the companies tap into the capabilities…
Kenya’s parliament has approved a draft Data Protection Bill in light of mass rejection of the government’s plan to create a central digital database, National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS), locally known as Huduma Namba. In a tweet, the State Hse revealed that Parliament had approved the Bill; this is…
Uganda-based e-health startup Neopenda has closed a US$1.04 million seed funding round to manufacture and commercialize its product, expand its team and pilot in other markets. Neopenda was founded by Columbia University alumni Sona Shah and Teresa Cauvel, both of whom are biomedical engineers. The startup’s main goal is to…